It’s been a scorcher of a weekend here in Washington, D.C. with temperatures in the high 90s and very little breeze. With that in mind, I tried to beat the heat by staying indoors and pretending the icebergs at the National Building Museum were real and not just made of translucent polycarbonate panels! And yes, there was pastis and rosé involved, of course 😉
Friday night I actually stayed in and finally watched Mustang, which is currently streaming on Netflix. Mustang was nominated for a Best Picture in a Foreign Language at the Oscars this year as France’s entry, though it eventually lost to Son of Saul. I was a little disconcerted at first that it was picked to represent France, given that the film is in Turkish and takes place in a remote Turkish village but now I totally understand why it was our best chance at an Oscar. It’s a beautiful film about patriarchal oppression and the bond between 5 sisters who become prisoners in their own home to prevent them from having any contact with the outside world and especially boys. It has the melancholic feel of The Virgin Suicides and you should definitely watch it when you have a slow night and are in the mood for a good, understated drama.
Saturday morning, I crossed the moat to grab brunch and pedis with my good friends Nicole and Cecile. We’d been talking about checking out Coatroom in Ballston for a while and since my feet really needed a little TLC, it seemed like a good time to go. We also checked out the new location of Cheesetique afterwards and I must say I was rather disappointed by their brunch. I liked the $22 bucket of mimosas, but my lobster mac’n cheese and the rest of the food around the table food was just ok. I still think it’s a great wine and cheese shop, but I probably won’t brunch there again.
That evening, my husband and I waited until the temperatures had cooled down a bit to grill. I had picked up a black bass for him and some sardines for me and had been looking forward to a fishy feast on our rooftop! My husband is still on a pretty strict no-carbs, no-sugar diet so I simply stuffed his bass with slices of limes and cilantro and served it alongside a lime-cilantro-red onions-avocados salad. For me, I made a panzanella salad with bread from A Baked Joint and tomatoes from the farm stand at 5th & K (that corner, by the way, is a pokestop!) to pair with my sardines, which I simply dressed with a little olive oil, and salt and pepper. The husband stuck to water while I had a bottle of 2015 Castelmaure Corbières vin~gris, which I had picked up at Whole Foods at the same time as the fish. At $8.99, it’s a great value pink wine from the Languedoc.
The whole meal was pretty perfect, except I got some weird looks from all our neighbours who were all grilling hamburger meat or steaks… Sometimes I’m pretty French I guess 😉
Finally, on Sunday, I spent a bit of time at the pool. I like to get there pretty early before it gets too crowded and read the newspaper with my legs in the water (this sunday it was more like my full body… it really is that hot!) There happened to be A LOT of kids at the pool. I didn’t realize our building had this many kids, and I didn’t stick around too long and I made my way to the National Building Museum to check out the ICEBERGS exhibit.
And that was pretty much it. My husband and I took a late night stroll around the neighbourghood to catch some pokemon (and to get him to the 10,000 steps he walks daily.) Don’t judge me… I’ve already walked 30K since I downloaded the app, even though I’m pretty sure that’s just how much I regularly walk though…
How was your weekend? How did you beat the heat? Would love to hear in the comments!
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