A few weeks ago, a dear friend somewhat cryptically asked me what my birthday plans were. She asked if I'd save her a day because she had somewhere to take me. I do love surprises and such advance planning and readily agreed that today would be her day. M picked me up this morning and ferried me down to Union Market, a year-round indoor market in Northeast. What a perfect idea! Rows of food and drink stalls line three main aisles: meat; fish; bread; cheese; wine; pressed juice; Korean; Mediterranean; the still-ubiquitous cupcakes... We decided to eat our way and commenced with a stop at the juice bar, Goshen (I had a fabulous carrot-ginger-lemon concoction), before detouring through a fun housewares store, Salt & Sundry, where I bought the best item: a travel tin of Maldon finishing salt. After I waxed rhapsodic about Maldon, M bought one too. Isn't this charming?!

Then it was on to Rappahannock Oysters Co, yes! the same as that at the farmers market where I bought the clams last Sunday, where we chowed. Raw oysters, red snapper tartare with sorrel juice, crispy chives and some fabulous citrusy business, and a beautiful white gazpacho with cucumber, grapes and Marcona almonds. It was absolutely delicious, and the plating was top-notch. Doesn't this all look incredible? It was.

We also did an olive oil tasting at All Things Olive; there I bought a bottle of Frantoia oil from California. It's got an intense peppery aftertaste that made me cough in such a delightful fashion. I used it atop some mozzarella di bufala tonight for a super-caprese: perfetto! Fresh bread was bought at Lyon Bakery (and seriously enjoyed tonight), Turkish Delight and ful medames at DC Mediterranean and finally we ambled towards M's car.

Can you believe the two days of cool experiences I've just had? Thank you to my wonderful friends.

With today's goodies, I made and we just devoured this magnificent salad plus the ful.