coco loco

on tuesday (october 28) evening, i was supposed to go to the annual high heel drag race in dupont circle. but i had gone last year, and i wasn't really sure that i wanted to be standing in the crowd and in the cold and then not see very much. so, when i found out that it was going to be rainy and possibly showering, i changed my mind about going. i decided to go meet up with my friend, amber, instead. i thought i might still be able to meet up with folks later to see the race, but i didn't. so here is a link to a video of the event instead.

ever since i had this awesome hot chocolate--tasted like pure melted chocolate--at naked chocolate cafe in philly, i'd been wanting to find a similar place. before i left for dc, we looked for some places in dc. on tuesday, meann reminded that i still need to go. so, i asked amber to meet me at co co. sala, a chocolate lounge that just opened in september.

unfortunately, amber had already eaten and i didn't exactly want her to just watch me eat. so i only ordered one appetizer (the place doesn't really serve entrees), along with my dessert. i had the crispy louisiana crabcake served with mango salsa, chipotle tomato glaze, and avocado cilantro emulsion. this was very good.


co co. sala serves 3-course chocolate desserts. i couldn't decide between the italian voyage and aztec experience and, since amber was also deciding between the two, we thought we'd get both and share.

the italian voyage consisted of: panna cotta with chocolate praline soup, 3 flavors of tiramisu: classic / fraise de bois / chocolate, and tuscan ricotta bite and chocolate dipped ameretti. they were all quite good, though i think amber and i both agree that the tiramisu was the best out of the three.




the aztec experience consisted of: churros with dulce de leche dip, hot chocolate soufflé with fiery chocolate center served with coffee ice cream, a piece of chocolate and a kahlua soother, and chocolate-infused horchata and a mexican wedding cookie. hands down, the soufflé was the most delicious part of the meal.




i really enjoyed this restaurant. i wish i could have tried more of the appetizers. and i was too sugared out to even try the hot chocolate. i will definitely have to come here again. i'm glad i opted to hang out with amber and go to co co. sala. it was a lovely ending to my trip.

leaf-peeping

i really wanted to visit dc in october so i could go leaf-peeping. last year, i was able to go to skyline drive and see some autumn leaves, but most of the trees hadn't quite reached peak colors yet. it looked like i was going to see some peak colors during my visit.

while at the university of virginia, there were some wonderfully-colored trees. even though it was a cloudy day, the colors were still vivid. here are some pictures i took on campus:






after a late lunch, we headed over to skyline drive, a prime place for leaf-peeping. it is over a hundred miles long and runs along the crest of the blue ridge mountains in shenandoah national park.


unfortunately, because it was already late on a cloudy day, we didn't have much light left with which to see the autumn splendor. we still got some pretty nice valley shots, though.








i wish i could have actually seen the trees when it's sunny and during daylight hours. but, there was a good thing about being in the park at dusk: the deer were starting to come out of the woods. i tried to get some shots, but i just got some blurry and/or dark ones. see if you can find them. we saw at least 20 of them.



after about half an hour, it was already dark and we couldn't take any more pictures. unfortunately, it took us at least another hour before we could get to the next exit out of the park. i felt bad that lan had to do all that driving. but i am glad that i got to go to skyline drive and see some color and some deer.

dining in downtown charlottesville

after touring the university of virginia campus, we headed over to downtown charlottesville for a late lunch. at the heart of downtown is the historic downtown mall, an outdoor pedestrian mall.


there are lots of restaurants in this area. many were closed, though, because it was that time in between lunch and dinner times. we ended up eating at hamiltons' at first & main. i had the smoked pork tenderloin in a red wine reduction with mascarpone sweet potatoes and mustard greens. lan had the shrimp with grits and the vegetable "blue plate special" (basically a mishmash of tofu, shiitake mushrooms, pumpkin, salad, beans). the food was just okay.




the dessert was much better. i know mine was. i had the pumpkin creme brulee. yum. lan had the passionfruit cheesecake with a macadamia crust.



on the way out of the mall, we saw these figures outside a neighboring restaurant. way to get into the halloween spirit. (or, at least, i think it's for halloween.)



charlottesville seems like an interesting place. i wish we had had time to explore more of downtown and try some more of its restaurants. i definitely would have liked to visit monticello and montpelier, but we just didn't have the time. maybe next time...