Booeymonger

I confess: I wanted to try Booeymonger just because I like the name. We were in the Chevy Chase area with rumbly stomachs and the sandwich shop with the catchy name called out to me.

Booeymonger is a local chain of 4 sandwich shops (the original in Georgetown and locations in Ballston, Bethesda, and Chevy Chase). The Chevy Chase location now shares space with a Fro-Zen-Yo self-serve yogurt shop, but we skipped the yogurt in favor of the sandwiches.

With fond memories of my sub from the Italian Store dancing in my head, I ordered Booeymonger's Italian Sub with Italian ham, Genoa salami, mortadella, hot peppers, lettuce, tomato, italian dressing, and provolone cheese on a baguette. While packed with flavor (and perhaps a little too much salt), the ingredients seemed fairly run-of-the-mill. A solid sandwich but nothing I'll be dreaming about.

B fared better with the Manhattan (grilled roast beef, spinach, bacon, house dressing, and cheddar cheese on a baguette). The bread was much tastier when served warm and isn't cheese always better when it's melty?

While I still think the name is more interesting than the sandwiches, it is a decent lunch option if you're shopping til you drop in Chevy Chase.

Second Thoughts from B

Booeymonger is the quintessential work day sandwich shop with a funny name. No more, no less. It is a tad overpriced, somewhat over salted, not particularly imaginative, probably less than healthy, but has a large selection of tasty sandwiches. It is something worth looking forward to when you're on the clock and in need of a quick lunch between the Board meeting ending at noon and the report that is due at 2. It probably even passes for a nice bite to eat while spending the day at the mall. Just don't confuse it with your favorite weekend sandwich shop or deli.

zpizza

On days when I work late, I want dinner to magically appear on the table. Since I don't have a full-time magic dinner genie (B not included), the next best thing is picking up takeout on my walk home from work. Dangerously, there is a Five Guys located on the path home, and some days it takes a lot of willpower to pass up burgers and cajun fries. Recently, Five Guys got a new neighbor when zpizza moved into the old Blimpie's spot at 8th and H NW.

zpizza is a chain founded in Laguna Beach, CA (not far from where I was raised) and claims to be "inspired by California and a healthy way of life." Sounded perfect to me. They use 100% organic wheat flour in the dough and top the pizzas with skim cheese. In the true California spirit, vegan options are also available.

After a particularly long day at work, I called zpizza to order takeout. About 20 minutes later I arrived at the store. The atmosphere was a bit chaotic as the brand new staff was still finding its way around. However, I was served with a smile and updated regularly on the status of my order.

To get a sense of the menu's range, we ordered a rustica pizza. In contrast to the traditional round pizza, the rusticas are served on a free-form crust that is a bit thicker than the standard zpizza pie. More like a flatbread than a pizza. This one was topped with mozzarella, gorgonzola, pear, and fresh thyme. The liberal use of gorgonzola overpowered the delicate pears but all-in-all, this was a tasty pizza.

To test out the standard pizza offerings, we ordered a large half-cheese, half-mushroom and pineapple pizza. I don't think this pizza will win any awards, but the convenience factor makes it likely that we'll order again. The crust is a little too thin for me to fall in love, but it was a definite step up from standard pizza chain delivery fare.

If you're in the neighborhood for lunch and don't want to face the wait for a table at Matchbox, zpizza (located across the street) offers pizza by the slice and sandwiches. If convenience and not fine dining is what you're after, zpizza fits the bill.

Second Thoughts from B

OK, I admit it, for a second there I forgot what we got from zpizza. A lot of that has to do with the fact that this post has been waiting to be posted for quite some time. However, once J mentioned the rusticas, my eyes opened wide and I let out the obligatory "oh yeah!" with a wide smile. It isn't as if the pear/gorgonzola combo is revolutionary but having it as a to-go option on J's walk home should raise our property value a touch.

For those of you not lucky enough to be our neighbors, keep zpizza in mind the next time you're in the Chinatown area and in need of a quick bite. After all, fast food - like real estate - is all about location, location, location and in the case of zpizza, they couldn't have done much better in our book.

Punkin Chunkin

Sometimes there are just no words to adequately describe the stranger things in life. Perhaps that is why an event built around chucking pumpkins is called the Punkin Chunkin. There are just no words...

For 25 years, people from across the country have built remarkably sophisticated devices to heave autumnal gourds a mile through the air. Why? Because they can.

And it has become quite an event... So much so that a couple of weeks ago J and I drove to a remote cornfield in Delaware to take it all in. You, on the other hand, can enjoy the festivities while you're digesting your turkey from the comfort of your couch at 8pm, Thanksgiving night, on the Science Channel.

There were cannons and catapults and trebuchets and giant crossbows and who-knows-whats. It was like Sylvester McMonkey McBean had rolled into town and sold a whole town of Sneetches his latest inventions. But instead of green star-coveting characters from Dr. Seuss' imagination, you had a lot of guys that looked like this:

Who were being watched by a lot more people who were dressed like this:

As we approached through the mud and the masses of punkin-lovin folk, we'd hear play by play and the occasional blast, the first of which almost brought J to her knees. This would be followed by a frantic search of the skies for a thick-walled, white punkin that rapidly disappeared out of sight. Inevitably a distance of around 3000 feet (10 football fields) would be announced and the next contraption was on the clock.

Each one was built for distance; both punkin chunkin distance and transportation. Many of these devices had come thousands of miles to participate. That would explain the next time you're driving down the highway next to a school bus with a cannon growing out of the back...

Does anyone remember Northern Exposure? I remember sharing a couple of laughs with my dad but I don't remember anything about the show itself. With one exception. For some reason the gang from Alaska wanted to launch a cow (I think the cow was saved and substituted with a piano). I have no idea why I remember a piano being heaved through the air by some crazy contraption but I do remember laughing hysterically.

I think that's how I'll remember the Punkin Chunkin. 15 years from now I won't remember anything other than a good time we had as we giggled at the sight of chunkin punkins... and I still won't have any words to describe it.

J Says

Like B, I have no words to describe Punkin Chunkin. However, I'm never at a loss for words when it comes to food. Behold the majesty of the pumpkin funnel cake!

Since we were standing in a freezing corn field for hours, we decided to take breaks to stroll through the food stalls and sample different items. While the funnel cake was my favorite, B loved his crabcake sandwich.

The buttery ear of roasted corn with spicy salt warmed our cold bones.

And the pulled pork sandwich from the BBQ truck didn't disappoint.

I love quirky events and people watching so Punkin Chunkin was my idea of a great time. Only 346 days until the next chunk! Plenty of time for me to practice my Miss Punkin Chunkin wave and the Punkin Chunkin Anthem!

Crumbs Bake Shop

Just what DC needed... another cupcake shop! Crumbs Bake Shop is a New York import that opened its first DC location last Saturday on 11th and F, NW. Since we live in the neighborhood (and J can't turn down cupcakes), we decided to stroll down for a cupcake breakfast on their second day of operation.

What impressed me most was the sheer variety of cupcake offerings. They feature over 50 flavors of cupcakes ranging from the standard vanilla cake with vanilla frosting to the quirky cosmo or peanut butter and jelly.

Another unique thing about Crumbs is the ability to order the cupcakes in different sizes. The adorable one-inch Taste size can be ordered in packs of 12 and would make a perfect party treat. The Classic is your standard supermarket cupcake size while the Signature is better for sharing. If you've always dreamed of eating a cupcake the size of your head, Crumbs offers the Colossal which feeds 6 to 8 people. At that point, I think we've moved solidly into cake territory, but it still has the cute look of a cupcake.

We ordered three Signature size cupcakes to share. My choice was the Cookie Dough. B chose the Raspberry Swirl. For the third, the cashier said that the Good Guy was like "Funfetti gone crazy." There are few things on this planet that I love more than Funfetti, so the choice was easy.

To make for a perfect morning that matched one love with another, we walked home to eat cupcakes and watch Beverly Hills, 90210 reruns on Soapnet. I have to say that while the cupcakes were pretty good, the most memorable part of the experience was watching the West Bev clan tackle race relations (in awesomely terrible outfits) when Vivica A. Fox and family (also in terrible outfits) moved from Inglewood to the Walsh hood. I don't know whether this shows that the cupcakes weren't mind blowing or that this episode was truly a masterpiece. Probably a bit of both.

The cupcakes were fun to try but they haven't torn me away from my sworn devotion to Baked and Wired. The fun cookie dough and Funfetti flavors on top weren't carried through to the cake. For example, the cookie dough cupcake had a nice shot of chocolate ganache in the middle but no cookie flavor to be found once you worked your way past the frosting. I don't know if cookie dough chunks would be possible in a cupcake, but that's what I was hoping for. Overall, it was a bit too much party on top and a bit too little substance underneath. Sort of like Steve Sanders and his curly-topped mullet... Anyway, the wacky flavors and unique sizes will probably draw me back when I'm looking for a last minute item to bring to a party.

If you want to check it out for yourself, Crumbs will be giving away 1,000 free cupcakes on Friday, November 19th!

Second Thoughts from B

I'm no cupcake expert (even though I play one on the interwebs - see our Great Cupcake Taste Test of 2009), but I will say that Crumbs stands out above the masses. Look, every single bake shop, coffee house, ice cream parlor, pet food supplier, fast food joint, car wash, hardware store, dive bar, sushi house, and hair stylist is selling cupcakes these days. OK, I may have made a few of those up, but the point is that there are a lot of options out there.

So how can you possibly differentiate yourself (other than a reality show that is as over-hyped as your product)? I'd like to say that I can detect the subtle difference between a good cupcake and a great one, but the fact of the matter is that they usually fall into one of two categories: eyes-rolling-to-the-back-of-my-head great or "not worth the calories" (read: still good but I'd rather have something else).

J mentioned the variety at Crumbs. Unlike other cupcake makers, any flavor or size combination can be met. Smart move. I'd much rather get a cupcake in my favorite flavor from my second favorite bakery than a flavor I don't like as much from the best bakery in town.

And then we get to value. Putting aside any comparisons to the $1.99 versions at Giant (or those cupcake making hardware stores), these were noticeably larger but not noticeably more expensive than the competition.

So what's the bottom line? We still love Baked and Wired in Georgetown and Hello Cupcake in Dupont, but when there are 47 untasted varieties of pure caloric joy just a couple blocks from our house and next to our favorite Metro station (Metro Center), I think we might have a new favorite destination.