Foodie Girls Lunch Brigade - Special Sister Act Edition

We're in DC on vacation this week, sightseeing and sweating a lot*, but mostly visiting my sister.

My sister, aka FG4.
Love that this runs in the family!

Fresh off a tour of the Capital, we walk a few short blocks 
to Eastern Market,  a 136 year old continuously 
operating public market.  FG4 had unearthed 
this place in her pre-visit research.  She done good.  

After a severe fire in 2007, the market's been restored and 
is now populated by a handful of gourmet food vendors, 
including a butcher with an incredible array of artisan 
sausages and prime beef, a fresh pasta stall with about 10 
different flavors of hand-formed ravioli and fresh sauces, a 
woman selling fruit and  flowers, another with rows of cheeses, 
cured meats, and chocolate...the list goes on.  

It has none of the foodie elites of the Ferry Building or the 
toursits of Faneuil Hall.  Instead, it feels just like a great 
neighborhood gathering place for people who like to eat well. 

Our objective, however, was not fixin's for cooking dinner.  
It's VACATION, for heaven's sake.  No, we were headed to 
the one place in the market that serves hot lunch.  Suitably named: 
The Market Lunch.  Due to an unfortunate encounter with a 
wharf full of live crabs and mediocre dinner yesterday, the kids 
recoiled instantly at the thought of anything from the ocean 
coming within shouting distance of their plates, so they headed 
across the street for burgers while we lucky two lined up 
to place our order.

Famous for their breakfasts (fried green tomatoes, blueberry
 buckwheat pancakes, and crab cake benedict) that reputedly 
draw lines out the doors on Saturdays, they are nearly 
as well known for their lunch menu. 

Upon finding out we are newbies, the chipper guy at the
cash register (later identified online as Tom, the owner),  
advises trying the crab cakes and the soft shell crab.  
My sister orders the cod sandwich.  He's slightly offended, 
until I step up and order the crab/crab cake combo.  "That's a lot 
of food," he says.  We know. We don't care.  We live 3000 miles 
away from each other, and this is a special occasion**.  
Throwing in two sweet tea/lemonades and a Diet Coke, 
we move down to wait at the pick up window.

Everybody here is loud.  
When she hands you the red tray, it comes with a brassy, 
"You want tartar sauce or hot sauce with that?" 

The glorious $7 fish sandwich!

With which we DO want tartar sauce.  
Homemade, creamy, tangy, and fantastic.

The cod was melt-in-your mouth delicious.  So fresh that it was 
practically still swimming, flaky but substantial enough to taste 
each piece of mild, creamy fish within the crispy, well-seasoned 
batter.  The bread was yeasty and just chewy enough 
to contain the ingredients and make each bite better than the last.  
This dish was our favorite.  It was also a total steal, price wise.

Oh my goodness!  This plate of food is testament 
to how well the fryer works at The Market Lunch.  
Not cheap at $20, but the quality of the ingredients is amazing. 
The soft shell crab, in the foreground, was just barely dusted 
with cornmeal, crunchy on the outside and sweet and briny inside.  
A great example of why people wait for these to come into 
season every year. And the fries? Seriously decadent. 
Skin on, hand-cut, cooked to perfection.   Wow!

The true test was, of course, the crab cake.  This one was 
very, very good.  Full of sweet lump Dungeness crab,
 still in chunks, and laced with bay seasoning and perhaps a hint 
of curry. One of the best I've had that I didn't make myself. 
Particularly when paired with their "pink sauce": hot sauce 
mixed with mayo and lemon juice. Mmm, mmm!   

The happy sisters, after the feast!

Lest you worry that all we did was eat, here are a few of my other favorite sights from these past few days in the nation's capital.

Giant panda, on the move

Our old house

Public transportation! What a concept...

Decoding a message during our undercover spy mission

Quack!

Touching a piece of the moon

Lending support

Although it has stood on its own for quite a while 

Breathtaking

Seeing the monuments at night is stunning.  
Plus its much, much cooler out, and the crowds have died down.  
Highly recommended!

Freedom, looking a bit shell-shocked by the 
number of 8th graders thronging 
the visitor's lobby at the Capital

On the steps of the Supreme Court, making a mockery of things

Sunset over the Potomac 

* The weather here is truly awful.  I love LA.
** This was such a special occasion that we also had a lot of dessert its honor:

Peanut butter brownie, from Baked & Wired

Pecan Brown Sugar Brownie, Apricot Crumb
 Bar, and Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies, also from 
Baked &Wired.  We did try their cupcakes,
 but their brownies are what we'd go back for. 

The assortment at the good, but not worth waiting 
more than 5 minutes for, Georgetown Cupcakes