Carmine's, Hunt Valley

Every week, we typically go out to dinner before we go grocery shopping.  A lot of times, we eat at Wegmans.  Don't get me wrong, I love Wegmans, but I get a little bit tired of eating there every week.  Luckily, there are a few other options in the Hunt Valley area, we've been broadening our horizons a little bit.

On one of these occasions, we decided to try Carmine's.  This overlapped with a week that I was trying especially hard to eat healthy, so I tried to order a salad with goat cheese.  They were out of it, so I was content on cheating and getting a delicious eggplant parmesan-type entree.  And delicious is right.  I usually don't love eggplant, but everything about this was very good.  The sauce was great, the pasta was great, and the eggplant was cooked perfectly.  G got pizza, and it was also really yummy.  I'm actually surprised that we haven't been back since.  All in all, this was a cute family-friendly restaurant that is perfect for pre-grocery shopping.

Zorba's Cafe and Afterwords Cafe; Dupont Circle, DC

I wish that I had been more interested in food when I was in college.  I lived a metro ride away from some amazing restaurants in DC and some of them I didn't even discover while I was there.  During a recent trip into the city, we decided to try Zorba's Cafe and we were not disappointed.

I love Greek food and I love Dupont Circle so this was a  no-brainer.  We started out with spanikopita and tzatziki.  Both were delicious and amazingly fresh.  The spanikopita was well-balanced and wasn't weighed down with cheese.  Delicious.  For our meals, I got the falafel platter and G got the chicken kabob.  Both of these were really good, as well.  They came with a really delicious hummus and olives, which I love.  Their baklava looked amazing, but I knew that I had my heart set on a different venue for dessert.




Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe has amazing desserts.  I have actually never tried their other foods, but they always look amazing.  The cafe is connected to an awesome book store that you can peruse while you wait for your table (and you will always wait).  This time that we went, I got my favorite: berry crumble with cinnamon ice cream.  It is one of my favorite desserts of all-time, from any restaurant.  The berries are mixed in with nuts and a delicious crumble topping that are all so good.  And the cinnamon ice cream is the best way that you could attempt to make it even better.  Mmmmm.  G got cheesecake this time and it was also very yummy, but I like their pies a lot better.