Nea's Grand Day Out
Jun. 29th, 2011 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsI took off yesterday and had a hella time running all over downtown DC.
First up: Where do you go when you absolutely, positively, can't find a book anywhere else? Library of Congress. After a certain amount of flailing and being passed pillar to post ("Yes, you can have that book delivered here to the main reading room, but they actually have it at the Adams building, and it will get to you at least an hour faster there") *and* being busted for illegal pursage (they didn't mind what I took in, only that I tried to take it inside a purse that is big enough to put a book into. Which is how I judge my purses for purchase in the first place...) I finally got my two books.
I wanted to read The Butler's Guide by Alger to see if there were any hidden secrets to butlering I could use to make my life easier. The actual tips and tricks part of the book could be substituted by any modern homekeeping book; the real fun lay in reading Algers' stories of life in service, like the time he got busted by his mistress for being a pinch-hit footman in another household, or how the servants would get theirs back on various fortune hunters by either turning their kid gloves inside out (to make it cumbersome to correct in front of a lady) or even more nastily by half severing threads in either the seat of their pants or the soles of their shoes, arranging a wardrobe malfunction a few days down the line.
The other book I wanted was the 1928 cooking manual Cook and be Cool, which would more accurately be titled "101 Foodstuffs You Can Glue Together with Gelatin." I did write down several recipes and ideas, like fig and almond butter sandwiches or Parisian Sweets:
"Take equal quantities of nut meats, figs, dates, prunes, or raisins, put them through a food chopper. Roll into small balls and roll these in granulated sugar."
There was also an intriguing idea for eggless mayonnaise, with mashed potato in place of the eggs.
At the end of the visit, starting a day-long trend, I bought a book: The History of Sandwiches.
The LoC is close to the Folger, so next it was off to the Shakespeare Theater to look at their exhibit on First Folios and buy a copy of Foliomania, a book about same.
Then I grabbed a cab and raced across town, because I'd promised myself that I could go back to Mourayo, an amazing Greek place just north of Dupont Circle that I discovered with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
suricattus when I stayed that night with her at the Nebulas. She had the best dinner of an excellent lot, IMO, the house specialty of pork with fig, honey, and a touch of soft sweet cheese.
Then I headed back across town for the last museum stop of the day - the What's Cooking, Uncle Sam? exhibit of the Government and American food. Although loosely collected into "farm," "factory," "kitchen," etc., I think a more accurate description would be "History of the passage of the Pure Foods Act," "Rationing," "History of Nutritional Education and PSAs," and "Presidential Dinners." (The last part included a letter from Queen Elizabeth II to Lyndon Johnson, enclosing a recipe for scones she had promised him during a visit to Balmoral. (Yes, I wrote it down!) (Flickr page of many of the posters and artifacts on display.)
I still had time before dinner with M, so I went to the Rotunda and took a look at The Big Three - the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
Then I went shopping, natch, and picked up Our Mother's War: American Women at Home and at the Front During WWII by Yellin and Fruits of victory: The Woman's Land Army of America in the Great War. I also took down the details for American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900, but I didn't buy it - books that thick, I'm trying to get electronically.
And while I did resist the kitch factor of buying the poster of this for my kitchen, I couldn't resist getting the Vitamin Donut mug.
Dinner was at Legal Seafood and was excellent food with excellent service as always there.
And then we saw the simulcast of the Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell Importance of Being Ernest. To tell the truth, I found it a bit overmannered; I'm glad in the long run that I didn't pay NYC prices to see it.
An excellent, if exhausting day out!
First up: Where do you go when you absolutely, positively, can't find a book anywhere else? Library of Congress. After a certain amount of flailing and being passed pillar to post ("Yes, you can have that book delivered here to the main reading room, but they actually have it at the Adams building, and it will get to you at least an hour faster there") *and* being busted for illegal pursage (they didn't mind what I took in, only that I tried to take it inside a purse that is big enough to put a book into. Which is how I judge my purses for purchase in the first place...) I finally got my two books.
I wanted to read The Butler's Guide by Alger to see if there were any hidden secrets to butlering I could use to make my life easier. The actual tips and tricks part of the book could be substituted by any modern homekeeping book; the real fun lay in reading Algers' stories of life in service, like the time he got busted by his mistress for being a pinch-hit footman in another household, or how the servants would get theirs back on various fortune hunters by either turning their kid gloves inside out (to make it cumbersome to correct in front of a lady) or even more nastily by half severing threads in either the seat of their pants or the soles of their shoes, arranging a wardrobe malfunction a few days down the line.
The other book I wanted was the 1928 cooking manual Cook and be Cool, which would more accurately be titled "101 Foodstuffs You Can Glue Together with Gelatin." I did write down several recipes and ideas, like fig and almond butter sandwiches or Parisian Sweets:
"Take equal quantities of nut meats, figs, dates, prunes, or raisins, put them through a food chopper. Roll into small balls and roll these in granulated sugar."
There was also an intriguing idea for eggless mayonnaise, with mashed potato in place of the eggs.
At the end of the visit, starting a day-long trend, I bought a book: The History of Sandwiches.
The LoC is close to the Folger, so next it was off to the Shakespeare Theater to look at their exhibit on First Folios and buy a copy of Foliomania, a book about same.
Then I grabbed a cab and raced across town, because I'd promised myself that I could go back to Mourayo, an amazing Greek place just north of Dupont Circle that I discovered with
suricattus when I stayed that night with her at the Nebulas. She had the best dinner of an excellent lot, IMO, the house specialty of pork with fig, honey, and a touch of soft sweet cheese.Then I headed back across town for the last museum stop of the day - the What's Cooking, Uncle Sam? exhibit of the Government and American food. Although loosely collected into "farm," "factory," "kitchen," etc., I think a more accurate description would be "History of the passage of the Pure Foods Act," "Rationing," "History of Nutritional Education and PSAs," and "Presidential Dinners." (The last part included a letter from Queen Elizabeth II to Lyndon Johnson, enclosing a recipe for scones she had promised him during a visit to Balmoral. (Yes, I wrote it down!) (Flickr page of many of the posters and artifacts on display.)
I still had time before dinner with M, so I went to the Rotunda and took a look at The Big Three - the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
Then I went shopping, natch, and picked up Our Mother's War: American Women at Home and at the Front During WWII by Yellin and Fruits of victory: The Woman's Land Army of America in the Great War. I also took down the details for American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900, but I didn't buy it - books that thick, I'm trying to get electronically.
And while I did resist the kitch factor of buying the poster of this for my kitchen, I couldn't resist getting the Vitamin Donut mug.
Dinner was at Legal Seafood and was excellent food with excellent service as always there.
And then we saw the simulcast of the Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell Importance of Being Ernest. To tell the truth, I found it a bit overmannered; I'm glad in the long run that I didn't pay NYC prices to see it.
An excellent, if exhausting day out!
