Category Archives: Food

Thai at Corner

What does it even mean?? Thai at Corner? It sounds even funnier when you say it out loud. Thai at Corner. The food is great though, and for its convenience, we’re definitely coming back. And I’d definitely want to take others there or recommend it to people who happen to be in the area. Overall better than most of the restaurants around here.

Granted, if it were far, I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to come here. There are a good amount of decent Thai places in this general area that it’s not that necessary to travel far for good pad kee mao. I guess this doesn’t sell this place very well does it? Well, still, I think it’s up there amongst the Thai places in this area.

Their pad kee mao was wonderful with a decent level of spicy to it. Their penang curry was good too, but I’ll admit, not great. Their fried tilapia, excellent! Tom yum soup was a bit on the salty side but still very tasty. This is our new Thai place for sure. Word of warning, it’s a very small place so get there early. We got there at 6 ish and by 7 they were filled and turning people away. It’s just that good!

Don’t trust the USDA

The recent exposure that a cow tested positive for Mad Cow Disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) in California came as not much of a surprise to me. When the beef industry is so powerful they can successfully lobby the USDA to do fewer tests for BSE, the USDA’s mission of protecting the public is compromised. Upton Sinclair would not approve!

Then when the news came out insisting this was an isolated case that was caught by sheer luck, I laughed. Hubris. So what’s a meat eater to do?

Here’s what I’ve been doing:

  • Cutting back my meat consumption.  One can get complete protein with soy and quinoa.  And I love eggs.
  • Buy organic/grass fed/free-range meat
  • Eat less meat when going out – since you don’t know where the meat comes from.

Luke’s Lobster

Even though the weather got cooler this past week, we decided to head out for a food excursion in DC today. It was a bit overcast the whole day which actually made for better walking conditions. Our first stop, Luke’s Lobster. It’s Maine-style lobster rolls which means they serve the seafood cold. It was so amazing! We got a lobster roll and crab roll. They were both so good and the buns were perfectly toasted and buttery. The filling was surprisingly light, not overly mayonaisey.

Luke's Lobster
We both loved them and could’ve easily ordered a second round!

Instead, we decided to continue on our food journey. Next stop, the Eastern Market to seek out its famous Crepe Guy, officially called “Crepes at the Market, Eastern Market.” I think Mitch is the chef and he makes some really tasty crepes. We got apple-ham-muenster and basil-tomato-egg. Thumbs up! He has an interesting and yet clever payment method. 4 glasses for $20s, $10s, $5s, and $1s. You put and take whatever you need to make your payment and tip. It’s good to see that he’s not handling the food and the money at the same time. We were definitely full after this so we strolled about the market. There’s so much to see there, crafts, produce, and tons of food stalls. I only ended up getting a bunch of scallions and a vegetable peeler. It’s just a simple Swiss peeler but the demo really had me convinced. Plus, I’m always looking for our current peeler so I figure it might be handy to have a back up.

The Greene Turtle

In short, I would rather eat at PF Chang’s than here. Few places are worse than PF Chang’s. This is one of them. This was my first time eating at any Greene Turtle and if I can help it, I hope it’s my last. The food was so salt-laden it was barely edible. I tried their crab dip with soft pretzels and turkey bbq club sandwich. I tasted nothing but salt. 3.5 hours after the meal, I still tasted the salt, I think it burned the inside of my mouth and I didn’t even finish half of my sandwich. Granted this place is really more of a sports bar and for that, it’s pretty good. Besides the large screen TVs everywhere, there’s a dedicated smaller TV at every booth and table and they have a $3 beer selection during happy hour. So if you want to watch a game, maybe this place would be okay. For a non sports fan like me, it was awful.

1789

This was a neat restaurant we visited this past weekend. It sits just about on the campus of Georgetown so getting there was half the fun. Except for the spooky part where we almost walked up the exorcist steps to get there. In the end, I was too chicken and we circumvented it by going up a parallel street. Which turned out to be a good thing anyway because when we got to the top, we saw a couple getting their wedding or engagement photos taken at the steps. Goodness knows why. What a creepy heebie jeebies kinda’ spot. I feel like I have to hold a bunch of burning sage while walking by it.

Anyway, overall, the food was very good. We ordered a salad and appetizer to share and they kindly split both for us so we were able to both enjoy sort of a three-courser. In the end both of us were stuffed to the gills so portion-wise it worked out nicely too.

Our favorite dish was the foie gras.
Foie Gras (Hudson Valley, NY) grape jam, carrot cake, caramelized pear
It was decadent, like eating a pork belly with just the fatty parts. I mean, it dissolved in our mouths. I relished every little bite, and a half portion was more than enough. I could almost feel my uric acid building up and my big toe about to swell up. But no, that was just my inappropriate footwear. I vainly wore 2 inch heels, which were comfortable for about a half a mile and then not so, the remainder of the mile walk from Rosslyn Metro.

For our entrees, we got rockfish and duck. Of the two, we liked the rockfish better.
Chesapeake Rockfish (Rock Hall, MD) lobster farro, baby carrots and rosé lobster beurre blanc
It came with a grain called farro which we thought was barley. They’re pretty similar and I liked it a lot.

The evening was a fun adventure and I loved that feeling of going out for something special. Food-wise though, for what it offers, there are better places. Kudos for the service. It was fantastic.

Mad Rose Tavern

The weather was so nice out tonight, there was a line for outdoor tables so we were the only ones sitting inside and got pretty good service. It was kind of hard for me to judge on the food tonight because I was HONGRY!! Too hungry to pause for any pictures. We ordered the Lamb Porterhouse (“Char-broiled & served with curried ratatouille, Jasmine rice & mint yogurt sauce” and Divers and Crab (“Pan seared Diver scallops, broiled crab cake, Mango Salsa, wild rice, citrus champagne sauce”). I didn’t notice any mint yogurt sauce in the lamb and the wild rice was replaced with white rice. I’m not usually a fan of sweet and rice but the mango salsa went well with the seafood. The only beef I have with this place is that I came out of it still hungry, even after practically licking the plate clean. For a $20+ entree, I wasn’t expecting that to happen, no matter how hungry I was to begin with. I really needed more food. Usually, after eating, if I just wait a while for it to settle, I feel full, but this time, I just felt like I could eat another entree.

The last year of Girl Scout Cookies

It’s not the last year Girl Scouts are ever selling cookies. It’s just the last year we have an actual Girl Scout in the family, thereby making it that much easier and enticing to get them. Alas, our dear cousin is moving on to bigger and better things. So we splurged on 5 boxes this year. Lemon cookies called Savannah Smiles, Thank U Berry Munch, and Samoas. The Samoas used to be my favorite and they’re still very good, but much sweeter than I remembered them. They are great with coffee though. The Savannah Smiles are my replacements for what were my new favorites, Lemon Chalet Cremes. They still would be my favorites but this year, they stopped selling them. Overall, I don’t think Girl Scout Cookies are that good. I get them for the novelty that they come but once a year and you have to order them and then wait for their arrival. The ritual is part of the draw. For some reason though, they still disappear quickly whenever we open up a box.

R&R Taqueria

For such an obscure little taco shop in a suburban/rural gas station, this place sure does get steady business. Of course, getting on Seitsema’s 2011 Fall Dining Guide as well as the Best Cheap Eats list in Washingtonian Magazine didn’t hurt. We went and got one each of pork belly, al pastor, chorizo, and lamb tacos as well as their lamb soup. It was good sure, but it wasn’t that good that I’d go out of my way for it. The tacos and soup were way too greasy and pork belly was not pork belly but rather, stomach. If I lived in the area, I’d come back. I mean, the food was good, flavors strong. We fought over the last bits of the soup. It’s just not an hour’s worth of driving good.

Happy Valley

We went to Pennsylvania this past weekend for an overnight visit. It snowed almost the whole time we were there and Saturday night felt like our first truly wintry night. Temperatures dipped down to 18 degrees! For dinner, we dined at an Austrian restaurant called Herwig’s which was very tasty.
2012-02-11_18-46-06_259
Their portions were generous so we had leftovers the next day which was even more delicious. The decor there was very casual, they have you order at the front and then assign you a table. You grab your own drinks. The menu is written on a chalkboard at the front. They decorated the walls with random pieces of art and funny jokes, like a complaint button set on a mousetrap. Afterwards, we went to a local pub and had a local beer. At first, I was miffed about the $2/person cover charge. What is this dinky little yahoo town pub doing charging a cover? They’re lucky people even patron them. It wasn’t exactly a hopping place. Later, on our way out, we saw a musician setting up to perform, so that justified the charge. Unless there’s live music or some service or good that customer’s receive, I’m generally not cool enough to be patronizing places that charge a cover, no matter how paltry. At any rate, we didn’t stick around for the show, and instead, went to Penn State’s Berkey Creamery for some ice cream. Apparently, it’s all the rage there. Yes, even in 18 degree weather, there was a line for ice cream. It was decent ice cream but mostly it was just fun to car-tour the campus a bit and see the people. Penn State is a small town, with a pretty homogeneous population. I can’t see myself living there. Not only because of the 18 degree winters, but because their third highest rated Yelp restaurant was Five Guys. I mean, Herwig’s was good but not that good. For breakfast we went to the Waffle Shop which is their local version of IHOP. Their chocolate chip waffle was stupendous! Didn’t last but 5 minutes max, on the plate.
As for things to do there, I spent about an hour and a half at Wally World buying up face wash, laundry baskets, and cereal. I’ve noticed they’re starting to carry some non-MadeinChina items. The glass mixing bowl was made in the USA. Yay! On our way home, we took the Heritage Route and passed by James Buchanan’s birth place. There were also lots of small towns along the way with bona fide log cabins! The highway would go 65 mph, then slow to 25 mph when we went through the towns. Highway 22 was especially stunning. We drove along hugging the mountains on the left with the Juniata River on the right with more mountains beyond that and a railroad track by the river. This is my kind of traveling! Actually, if we stay in a 5 hour driving radius, there are tons of places to visit.

Super Bowl Dinner

For this year’s Super Bowl Sunday, I made chicken wings using this Buttermilk Roast Chicken recipe I had tried a week or so ago.

I had originally done it using drumsticks as the recipe recommended and it was very simple (which is why I attempted it in the first place) and very tasty. The only thing I changed was, I added cayenne pepper to make it a little bit spicy. Result: I tasted the small kick but the spicy-eaters barely detected it. So Sunday, when I decided to make this again with wings, I decided to really kick up the heat with tons of cayenne pepper and Sriracha!
Buttermilk marinade
Let the chicken marinate in this buttermilk spice mix for a day or so.

Also, veering from the recipe, I coated it with corn starch mixed with Adobo seasoning
Coat with corn starch

and pre-fried the wings before baking them for about a half hour at 400 degrees.
Fried Chicken Wings

They came out crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.
Fried Chicken Wings
A little bit spicier this time, but again, not very spicy overall. I think buttermilk has a way of cooling off the heat. Next time I make this, if I really want it more spicy, I’ll add cayenne to the seasoned corn starch and try the hot sauce we got from the Virgin Islands.
I got tired of frying them and baked about a third of the wings without pre-frying.
Buttermilk Roasted Chicken
They were good too.
We also had a beef chili going in the slow cooker all day. This dish came out really good, like real chili! Maybe because I didn’t make it. I think in the past, I’d been putting in too much crap in my chili. This had beef, tomato paste, salsa, onions, tons of garlic, salt, mushrooms, kidney beans, scallions, three fresh chili peppers in it and a lot of cayenne. That’s it! It was quite spicy but so yummy. And another sign that I didn’t make it, it actually fits in the Crock Pot!
Chili
You know if I had made it, it would’ve grown into a dish big enough to feed us for two weeks. We were going to add tomatoes but Whole Foods forgot to bag our tomatoes at the check out! Boo. I think this is the second time they’ve done this reverse-shoplifting to us.
I can’t say much about the game but the food sure was good.