One of the reasons I chose journalism as my major was because I love meeting new people. Being a passionate person with passionate values and interests, I get fueled and stirred by the passions of other people as well.

That is also precisely why I love blogger meet-ups. I get to meet people who share the same common interest as me (food!), but still have their own individual and different hobbies and dreams.

Today, I met up with two more amazing food bloggers: Rebecca from All Vegged Out and Karena from Run, Eat, Repeat. They live all the way in DC, and Rebecca first let me know about this really cool place called Busboys and Poets that is not just a restaurant but also a bookstore, fair trade market and gathering place for poets. Of course, I grasped at this chance to meet up with the fabulous Rebecca and Karena!

We decided to meet up for a late lunch. I told Rebecca to look out for a “skinny Asian girl who looks lost” but I should have told her to look out for a “skinny Asian girl with eye bags and a green pallor who looks lost”.

I must have been super-tired from my trip to NoCal, because I slept all the way to 12:30 pm!! I awoke in a hurry, grabbed something light to gobble down, then rushed out to the metro. I also stupidly read a book in the metro, and by the end of the hour-long metro ride, I was nauseated and close to hurling into the streets.

So yeah, I definitely was not looking my best when I first met my two dear fellow bloggers! But the sight of their bright faces cheered me up a lot and my nausea abated.  

Okay, can I first give a loud applause to Rebecca for choosing the most fabulous place ever? I just had to take a picture of the indoors, but this just doesn’t do it justice:
The decorations were hip, yet quaint; upscale, yet casual. I don’t know how to describe it, but if you’re ever in DC, you just have to hit by this place!

We took awhile to decide on what we want, because every single thing in the menu sounded so. freaking. good. I wanted to order everything in there! But we finally made our respective choices by the time the waiter came by for the third time.

Rebecca ordered the Grilled Brie Panini:
Brie with spinach, caramelized onion, tomatoes on ciabatta. Side of sweet potato fries.
 Karena ordered the Avocado Panini:
 Avocado with havarti,sprouts,roasted pepper spread on ciabatta. Side of sweet potato fries.
I ordered the Sweet Fuji Apple and Gorgonzola sandwich:
 Sweet Fuji Apple and Gorgonzola with fig spread on walnut raisin bread. Side of seasonal fruits.
I’d ordered the fruit as a side because I was still feeling pretty sick and the thought of greasy fries made me want to puke, but when I tried a bite of Rebecca’s fries, I totally regretted not ordering them myself! They were freaking awesome, with the natural sweetness of the sweet potato, sort of chewy, and not greasy at all. Oh well. This’ll be a good excuse to visit again!
Anyway, my sandwich was…oh my God. I would have broken up into a love ballad if I hadn’t wanted to embarrass Rebecca and Karena, but it was just…just perfect. Words fail on me.
Crusty grilled bread chock-full of crunchy walnuts and plump juicy raisins, smeared with the perfect amount of gorgonzola cheese, paired with that sweetness of the fig spread and the thin-sliced crispy apples…

The best part was when the food arrived, all three of us swiped out our cameras. Yo, what can I say? We’re food bloggers. We take pictures of our food. We’re cool. We’re super amazing. I say people who don’t take pictures of their food are the weirdos! Ha ha!

I won’t bore you with every single detail of our conversation, but I thoroughly enjoyed our time together. The great thing is we don’t just talk about food. I loved getting to know them better, and it’s so nice to get more personal with someone you only know through the World Wide Web.

Rebecca is this really sweet girl who actually has a character of iron-steel inside. her. She left her family to live all by h
erself in DC, just to be able to teach in the nation’s worst education system! And Karena is a really fun, vibrant personality, and I really admired how she is living life to its fullest. She has already run two marathons, and will be running her third one in New York soon. Even if you can’t go personally to cheer her on the sidelines on that big day, please jump over to show her some support!  

Thanks, Rebecca and Karena, for a great afternoon!

By the way, I was so happy to come back home to three packages!

First is a bunch of candies from Nat of Eating to Live, who sent this over all the way from Britain!
And the giveaway I won from Meghan:
And the other giveaway I won from Heather of Girlichef!
I can’t wait to bake!
Dang, how lucky can a girl be? *GRIN*

Well, I’ve got to go take another nap (what is wrong with my body? I never sleep this much!) but tomorrow, I’ll update on Part II of my trip in San Francisco!

Question of the day: Have you had a blogger meet-up yet? What do you like most about it?

Related posts:

1. You Say Dog Food, I Say Woof!
2. Daddy’s Little Girl
3. The Blogger Meet-Up that Almost Wasn’t
4. Finishing off NYC with a bang (and a small rant)
5. New Year’s Self-Reflection: The Final Of The Beginning

Tagged as: apple, cheese, figs, giveaway, nuts, sandwich, sweet potato