Hello, friends!
I hope everyone had a great weekend. The highlight of mine was attending my friend Ben’s wedding!
I didn’t get any photos of the bride and groom since I figured I’d leave that to the professionals, but we had a blast celebrating with them. It was great to see my high school girlfriends Jenny and Lara, too!
The music set up for the wedding was really cool – Ben is really musical and so are a lot of his friends, so he actually organized his friends into mini-bands and let them all play at the wedding, in between breaks with a DJ. Matt got up and played guitar for 2 songs – his group brought the house down playing Al Green and Bruno Mars.
Other fun adventures over the weekend included a Saturday morning class at Crossfit Arlington:
We did a partner workout – between the two of you, you had to complete 100 push presses, and at the top of every minute you each had to do 3 burpees. Whew! It was harder than I thought it would be – my arms got tired fast. We finished with a jump rope and abs workout. I was definitely sore yesterday!
And the other highlight was seeing my friend Ashley! She was in town for the weekend so we met up for lunch on Sunday in Eden Center, which is an Asian shopping center in Falls Church (VA) that has over 120 restaurants and stores. We got lunch at Rice Paper, a Vietnamese restaurant.
Appropriately given the name of the restaurant, we both ordered the rice paper wraps. Mine came with grilled shrimp and grilled pork skewers, basil, lettuce, some shredded veggies, and thin vermicelli. I didn’t realize it when we ordered but they actually bring all the ingredients to the tableside and let you put them together yourself – fun! Reminded me of making my Fresh Thai Summer Rolls!
Sorry for the blurry photo – I forgot my camera so I was using my phone. :)
In addition to all the ingredients, they brought the rice paper with a little hot water tub that you dunked it in to soften them, right before stuffing them with ingredients.
Pre-rolling up:
Here is Ashley with a finished roll. Success!
Delicious and fun lunch!
After lunch, we decided that while in Vietnam Eden Center, one should get Bubble Tea.
Have you guys ever had Bubble Tea? The most traditional version is a tea base mixed with fruit or milk, with small chewy tapioca balls (“bubbles”) in the bottom. The straw is wide enough that the tapioca balls make it through! I had Bubble Tea for the first time back in 2003 when I visited Jenny in Taiwan (her family was stationed there for a few years for work). It’s delicious!
I had the coffee bubble tea yesterday. YUM! Sweet but tasty.
Such a fun day – I can’t believe I’d never been to Eden Center before. It’s a really cool place to check out if you’re in the area and you like Asian food! You really feel like you’re in another country.
Time to get back down to work! I have a bunch of AnneTheRD clients lined up today and tomorrow, I’m exhibiting at a health/wellness fair on Wednesday, and then on Thursday we leave for Italy (!!!!) for my grad school BFF Elle’s wedding! So excited! More on that later. :)
Have a great day everyone!
It looks like you went to Song Que Deli for bubble tea which is my favorite place to get it. If you ever go back I highly recommend getting the avocado bubble tea. It’s super creamy and almost tastes like pistachio ice cream!
Glad we hit the best one! I’ll definitely try the avocado bubble tea next time – yum!
Love song que deli! I went there On Saturday to get mango bubble tea.
I AM OBSESSED WITH BUBBLE TEA. Sadly, I don’t get it as much as I would like because there aren’t places close to my house and it’s a little on the expensive side. My friends don’t understand my love for it; they find the tapioca pearls incredibly annoying.
Hm, I’ve never had bubble tea. That sounds like an awesome and totally fun set up for the wedding music!
I am obsessed with Bubble tea too! There is only 1 place in Annapolis that has it that I know of, so I will have to search this place out! And since I love Pho, well I will definitely have to make the trip to try it!
Is Ben the one who has done a guest blog for you a couple of times? I love your “do”
Yep! He did a few photography guest posts for me – he’s a high school friend of mine! The brother of my high school best friend Jenny.
I have never had bubble tea but it def sounds interesting. Looks like a great weekend with even more fun headed your way!
Vietnamese cuisine is one of my favorites when going out to dinner – it is so fresh and light! Have you ever had a vermicelli bowl? It has cold rice noodles, chopped veggies and lettuce, cilantro, a protein of your choice, and a nice light dressing! Similar to the wraps you had, just in a bowl:)
What a cool lunch! Love the navy dress, always a classy pick!
Wow, that dress really brings out the beautiful blue of your eyes. By the way your blog was one of the inspirations I regularly consulted while training for my first half last year.
Aw thanks. :) And I’m honored to hear I inspired! How did the half go?
While I love Vietnamese food, I can’t stand bubble tea. It weirds me out not knowing when one of the balls is going to come up the straw.
Haha yeah the texture is definitely not for everyone! :)
Looks like it was a great wedding!
I love Vietnamese food and the dishes you ate looked yum :)
Bubble tea is awesome! I love trying a new flavor each time I get it.
I LOVE bubble tea! There was a coffee shop at UDEL (where I went to school) that sold it and I was obsessed! I haven’t been able to find it anywhere around me though. :-(
My friends love bubble tea. I am not a fan however, reminds me too much of tapioca! Sounds like you had a great weekend!
Bubble tea sounds like such a funny drink…I like tapioca pudding, so maybe I’d like that, just seems strange drinking it. And the jewel-toned color of that blue dress — WOW! It’s really a GREAT color on you!!
Aw thank you! :)
The food looks so fresh and tasty!
Great looking couple in that first photo! :-)