Jaleo Crystal City  

[This is post #004 towards #100DaysOfFoodBlogging, our goal to do 100 posts in 100 days as part of The 100 Day Project.]

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to attend a blogger meet-up, I’ve got the dirty secrets right here in this very post. Yup. It’s like General Hospital up in this crazy blogger world. Betrayal, murder, paternity tests…

Okay, aside from maybe stealing someone’s sangria, there wasn’t any soap opera drama.  And kinda hard for there to be any secrets when everything is tweeted or Instagramed the second it happens. Such is life for a blogger.

Anyway, Jessica at The Dining Traveler was kind enough to set up a brunch at Jaleo Crystal City for DC/VA/MD-based bloggers. Most of the attendees have travel blogs, but a few of us food bloggers snuck in and there were even a few fashion-focused folks as well. It was a great mix and I’m happy to have made some new friends in the local blogging community. I’ll get to Jaleo’s phenomenal food in a second, but it goes without saying that the people are what made the event successful. For fear of leaving someone out, I’m not going to attempt to list everyone, so check out the hashtag #DCTravelBlogger on Twitter or Instagram to find the folks who partook in the fun. 

It was great to share stories of gumbo, DC traffic, blog traffic, DC weather, cocktails, food, Tastemade, home ownership, New Orleans, food photography, day jobs that pay the bills, upcoming vacations, California, wine, dog hair, old phones, and #DCFoodPorn. 

Speaking of food porn…

So what’d we eat? I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Speak is probably too weak a word, as the food at Jaleo sang to us at every course. And the service was SPOT-ON. Our sangria glasses were never empty and the staff welcomed the insanity of our selfies, food pics, and blog videos. 

‘Ferran Adrià’ liquid olives – Like a delicious science experiment in your mouf.

We were even lucky enough to get a demonstration on how the liquid olives were made by Head Chef, Domenick Torlucci:

Liquid olives are the bomb @JaleoCC! Flavor bomb! And Chef Domenick taught us how to make them 😉 #DCTravelBlogger pic.twitter.com/tUOUhGywxT — Aparna (@aparnakris) April 11, 2015

Smoked salmon on cristal bread with hardboiled egg, goat cheese and capers.

Yes, we even ate our veggies…because Chef Torlucci and his team made them taste amazing.

Vegetable Paella – Fun Fact: This paella pan was bigger than my Mazda.

Sweet-soaked Spanish toast with caramelized bananas and rum whipped cream.

There might have been a selfie stick involved…

#dctravelblogger brunch avec #selfiestick #travel #food http://t.co/ESGPHZosr7 pic.twitter.com/O7d6rS07tq

— AllOvertheMap.net (@tweetthemap) April 11, 2015

And of course we made good use of said selfie stick…

Such a great time seeing/meeting everyone #DCTravelBlogger… Thanks @DiningTraveler for putting on a great event!!! pic.twitter.com/sjiYfFfTND — Morgan Fykes (@Shmorgan85) April 11, 2015

Being a blogger and living on Twitter and Instagram, it’s easy to forget that there are REAL people behind all the pictures and tweets. It was nice reminder that the pictures and stories we share online are nothing without anyone to share it with. So, Salud! to new friends and future meet-ups.

PS:  Don’t take my word for it. Check out the links below to some of the other bloggers’ experiences at the event. There are a TON of great pics, so prepare your eyes for mucho #foodporn:

• “A Taste of Spain at Jaleo” – Travelaine.com 
• “Stylish Dining” – Miss-Sassy.com
• “Liquid Olives And Sangria: The Ice Breakers Of The Future” – Domestiphopia.net
• “The Lengths I go for Sangria and Cherry Blossoms in Washington  DC” – CasualTravelist.com