From VegFest to Soul-Food
So last week me and my co-worker Marshea was talking about an event called VegFest happening in D.C. that weekend. I was intrigued, and she was telling me that she had an extra ticket but unfortunately, I had to work that weekend. A few days later a co-worker asked me if she could take work a day for me. Just my luck the day she wanted to work was the day of the VegFest that Marshea was talking about. It was the day before so I had to be fast because if not, I would have given that day of work up for nothing. So as soon as I got home from work, I texted her and told her I would go, I didn’t get a text back, so I was pretty discouraged about my decision. It wasn’t until that morning that she texted back and told me a friend of hers couldn’t come so it was fine if I went. I honestly had mixed feelings about it; I was happy I could go but sad that she wasn’t going to be able to see her friend Azjah. So, then we both decided to meet at noon.
As you know D.C. metro isn’t always reliable, and just to my luck they decided on that day to be doing construction on the tracks on the line I had to take. So, there were delays because the trains had to single track. I was frustrated because I had to rush to get ready because I decided to be lazy and stay in bed. Which is something I can blame no one else but myself for. I had to walk to the train station and let me tell you it was hot that day. Then I made the decision to come out of the house with jeans on; which wasn’t so bad honestly. It was just the fact that after a while my legs started to feel like they were getting squeezed by the material. An upside is that I stopped at 7-Eleven to get a Slurpee which was really refreshing.
The train had a delay of 10 minuets, so I texted Marshae to tell her and just like me she had missed her bus. She had to wait for the next one so in the end both of us were running late. I felt a lot better after she told me that to be honest. Let me tell you a little bit about Marshae, she is a beautiful tall brown-skin woman. Honestly people at our job always get us confused with one another from employees to customers. At times it pretty frustrating but other times it’s funny. She is honest, funny, and just fun to be around. This past weekend we both asked why we haven’t hung out with each other before, and neither of us had an answer.
In the end I still ended up getting to our meeting point before Marshae did. Luckily our job was right by our meeting spot, so I just decided to go wait in there after getting a quick snack. I decided to go get a croissant, let me tell you it was so good. It had the right amount of crunch on the outside and softness on the inside. It had a beautiful brown crisp to it that just made you fall in love at sight. I just can’t seem to remember the name of the place that I bought it from.
About 30 minutes later she calls and says that she is here. The event was being held at Nationals Stadium so in my head I’m thinking that I can’t bring my bag in. I was bummed out because the whole reason was to show off the bag at the event. The crazy thing is when I got in there everyone had big bags like mine. I was pissed, livid even. I definitely could’ve bought my bag in, I wanted to turn around to go back and get it. I got convinced not to, but in the end Marshae bought a tote bag at one of the stands.
Let me tell you about the lines to all of the food stands they were so long it was crazy. One line went from one end of the stadium to half way through it. Me and Marshae ended up waiting 15 minuets in line for a blue raspberry lemonade frozen icy drink and two bottles juices. Those frozen lemonades hit the spot because it was hot outside that day. After we had got in and got our frozen drinks, we found out you didn’t even need a ticket to come to the event so Marshae texted Azjah and told her to come and meet us down here.
As we were walking around the stadium, I noticed that there were so many tall females around me. I was in love, I got so happy I didn’t know how to contain myself. Then I was also mad because I didn’t have my bag with me, and it could have been the perfect marketing for my clothing brand. I can say if it didn’t deal with modeling or sports, I’ve never seen so many beautiful tall women gathered in one place. So, as we made our way to where the vendors were, I was just walking with a look of amazement on my face.
After that we got in line for some dumplings from Mom’s Momo, yet again another 15-20-minute wait. This time I honestly didn’t care because the line wasn’t as long as the others and I was excited to try the vegan dumplings. I got excited just by looking that the cooks make the food. Marshae ended up getting the Chengdu Spicy Peanut Noodles with spicy peanut sauce and green onions. I on the other hand had the Vegan Dumplings filled with tofu, carrots, cabbage, spinach, and mushrooms.
This food was so good especially when you paired the dumplings with the hot sauce that they gave you. The Chengdu Spicy Peanut Noodles were good too, but there was an incident. As Marshae was trying to be kind enough to let me try some of her noodles the entire bowl slipped out her hand and fell on the ground. This was a shocking event because she had barely eaten any of her food. We were both so heartbroken at that moment, so we just decided to go and look for Azjah who had just gotten there.
Once we met up, we had decided to go to Eastern Market to get food over there, the lines were just too long. We had overheard people talking saying that someone said the wait for food was about an hour. Marshae was hungry because she dropped her food and then Azjah was hungry because she just got there. By a democratic decision we decided to go to a restaurant called District Soul Food and Lounge. I was a little excited I haven’t really had any soul food since I’ve been back in the states.
I ended up ordering the crab cake platter with collard greens, mac n’ cheese, and baked beans. Marshae ordered the shrimp and grits, and the fried shrimp platter with fries. Then Azjah ordered the crab fries, which was basically crab meat on fries topped with a secret sauce. The crab cakes were delicious, they had a crunchy outside layer but the meat on the inside was soft and well-seasoned. I am not sure about what sauce they put on top of the crab but paired with the squeezed lemon is amazing. The collard greens had a sweet and salty taste to them, not to say they were nasty. It was pretty tasty to be honest. The mac n’ cheese didn’t come in the square oven cut it would when you make it at home, but I didn’t expect it to. I sometimes don’t trust restaurant mac n’ cheese but I want to give it a try. Let me tell you it was the best gamble I ever made it had the cheesiness I wanted and also had an oven crunch to it as well. The noodles weren’t hard, and they weren’t too soft to the point it was mushy either.
Now when it comes to baked beans, I truly love them. You know the saying “beans, beans, the more you eat the more you toot.” Well that has never been true for me, and I can eat them all the time. So, when I tried then, and they were just the way I wanted they I was so happy. They were sweet but not too sweet to where it’ll give you a bad after taste. I loved them honestly! I did end up trying Marshaes grits and they were delicious, I ended up pairing my crab meat with it and it was even better. I also got to try some of Azjah’s crab meat fries, and they were so good. I am a French fry lover so with the crab meat, and secret sauce on top it was just amazing.
In the end that Sunday was just full of adventure, from VegFest to District Soul Food. That’s quite the flip. To go from eaten vegan dumplings to crab cakes and more. I can say my appetite is something I could never get a grasp on. In the end I had a great day and made a lot of memories with new friends.
