My office is in downtown DC, and I love working downtown. All those things people complain about (tourists, motorcades, metro, etc), I love it all.
The views of the Capitol, Washington Monument, the Lincoln, White House, and the reflecting pond never get old and I smile every time I go by. I go for runs on the mall with a huge smile on my face simply because it’s so pretty.
Yesterday I was yet again reminded of how great it is to work in DC when some colleagues and I went to an event in the Ronald Reagan building called “Winternational: A Global Celebration of the Season.” The event promised “a sampling of global bites,” and we’ll do just about anything for free food.
We entered the atrium, and there were at least 15 booths set up for various embassies from around the world to showcase local artisans and cuisine. The first one we came to was Bahrain and, since I was there for the food, I grabbed a little pastry-ish-looking thing. I chomped down on it, and it was a bit crunchier than I’d expected it to be (don’t worry, there wasn’t a dead bug or something in it).
The next booth we came to was Bangladesh! I was hoping they would be represented since I love Bangladeshi food.
This was when I realized that crunchy Bahrainian pastry had snapped half my retainer off my teeth.
It was also when my colleague told the woman at the booth that I am moving to Bangladesh next year. She got a huge smile on her face and wanted to talk about Dhaka, but all I could think about was my damn retainer. Last week I spent an arm and a leg at the stupid dentist getting the permanent retainer I’d had for 20 years (yes, 20 years) removed and a new one put in.
So I just smiled faintly and pushed my tongue around in my mouth to assess the retainer damage.
I called my dentist and set an appointment for that afternoon to get it glued back on. I figured that I could bite and chew with the other side of my mouth in the meantime. Very few things can stop me from eating.
I don’t know exactly what I ate, but they were both vegetarian and really good! The triangle-shaped one was like a samosa, and I have no idea what the other fritter-like thing is called.
Other notable food offerings included plates of beef rendang (Indonesia booth), lumpia (the Philippines), amazing coffee (Nepal), macarons and decorate-it-yourself gingerbread men.
This is probably an event they do every year, but this was the first year I knew about it. If you are in DC in December of 2015, make sure you check it out! (And don’t bite too hard on crunchy pastries if you have recently had dental work done.)
According to Athena 