Penn Quarter Farmers Market

I went to a farmers market on my first full day in Washington D.C. Its awesomeness is that it's a mere block-and-a-half from my apartment! This means I went pretty much every week or at least every other week I was in town.

The Penn Quarter Farmers Market happens in late afternoon on every Thursday. It's small, yet manages to cover every type of ingredient one may want want to buy. Although the list of booths changed a bit week to week, in general there are two general vegetable stands, two more that mainly specialize in fruit, a mushroom specialist, a stand that only sells salad greens of various types, two cheese/yogurt stands (one also sells skin cream and soap), a bakery, a prepared food stand, an empanadas stand, a pasta-and-soup-and-jam stand, a cured food stand (pate, sausages, duck confit, etc.), a fresh meat stand (free range chicken and pork, grass-fed cow and lamb), a gelato stand, two flower shops, and an artisan soap stand.

The fruit stands mainly sell a huge variety of apples--more than I've seen in the bay area, including many I hadn't heard of--as well as an assortment of pears, including multiple Asian varieties. I got in the habit of eating apples and pears every day. Indeed, when the market closed in late December for the winter, I was in such a habit that I stocked up, buying 13 pounds of fruit to last me the following three or four weeks. Over the winter I then began going to the Dupont Circle Farmers Market--which is open year-round--for my fruit and other needs.

In the spring I became a regular visitor to one flower shop, regularly bringing a single flower stem home to brighten up our studio. I really enjoyed this. It cost only a dollar or two (depending on the flower). I'm sad I can't do it anywhere else in the country: no other places I've seen sell individual stems; all sell bouquets for $10-15.

The bakery sells bread and pastries, including scones, muffins, and croissants. Oddly, it sells chocolate, almond, and ham-and-cheese croissants but no plain ones. One day I tried the pain au chocolate and found it decent: buttery but not flaky. I also tried a physically-heavy almond croissant, which was good. Like the pain au chocolate, the dough had the right flavor even if it wasn't flaky, and the almond paste inside added just the right amount of flavor without adding too much sweetness. Later, I tried the almond macaroons, which tasted like the sweet almond-paste that made the croissant so tasty.

On other days I tried a blueberry muffin, a pumpkin-apple-something muffin, a cherry-almond muffin, and a carrot-apple-pineapple-and-some-sort-of-nut muffin. I thought the first three were fairly good but sweeter than I like. The latter was simply good; it was naturally sweet from the carrots but didn't feel like it had extra/excessive added sugar.

I also tried one of the bakery's small cheddar-and-bacon scones which turned out to taste more of cheddar than of bacon. It was more like a crumbly (buttermilk?) biscuit than a scone. Alright, but not really my thing. I enjoyed the currant and macadamia nut scone more. It was more scone-like, though I don't think the nuts went with it. Even later I tried the fig (& something) scone and found it the best yet. The figs, cut in sizable chunks, were good and went well with the crumbly, scone-like dough that had a bit of a toasted flavor (whole grain?).

I bought a loaf of the bakery's extraordinarily expensive tasting bread for a dinner party. A sweet bread, it was densely filled with unidentifiable masses of dried fruits (supposedly cherries and currants) and hazelnuts. I toasted it as recommended and served it as an appetizer. Everyone enjoyed it; it was neat and tasty and festive.

The empanadas stand has surprisingly many flavors: tilapia, crab, chicken, beef, mushroom, etc. The stand is often sold out by the time I arrive. My verdict on the mushroom empanada: the crust was good and buttery and with a dash of salt. It was remarkably thin--thinner than other empanadas I've had--making the filling the focus. Good. The spinach empanada I had on a different visit was similar, with a thin crust and heavy emphasis on the filling. Another time, I had a crawfish-and-mango empanada. It was good, with the definitive taste of shellfish and some sweetness from the mango. The smoked salmon empanada was similarly good. The smoked salmon wasn't like lox but rather like whole salmon, smoked, then flaked. The empanada was full of it. Incidentally, the stand also sells crab cakes, some soups, and, at times, savory scones. I bought a savory scone with prosciutto and some sort of slightly spicy cheese. I liked it quite a bit; not just the ham-and-cheese taste but also its texture. I bought it once or twice again.

At times I bought items from the pricy pasta-and-jam stand. Di Yin and I tried the pulled pork tortellini and duck confit ravioli. Both were good, with the flavor of the main ingredient shining straight through (i.e., they're exactly as described), yet the tastes were somehow unsophisticated and therefore not great. By the way, in case you're wondering what kind of jams a pasta shop like this sells, I wrote down one flavor: strawberry vanilla bean.

In case my comment about apples and pears didn't convince you that Washington D.C.'s farmers markets have some appeal even when compared with California's, I should mention I spotted a vegetable I never saw previously: pole lima beans. I've seen lima beans for sale in California but never the type grown on vines/poles.