leafing through

Dining at Thai House can be described as consistently inconsistent. Some days, the food’s the BEST THAI I’VE HAD IN THESE HERE PARTS!!!, the service is attentive too. Other days, the chef doesn’t show up and you go next door for Greek food instead. Last night was another evening of surprises. The food was wonderful.
We tried curry fried rice noodles for the first time and we couldn’t decide if this was better or the stupendous pad thai.

I would’ve loved their green curry too I’m sure… had it arrived at our table. As it were, the owner/sous chef/busboy/waiter was so swamped with in-house business and carry-out that he delivered our check forgetting about the green curry. 2 hours after we arrived for dinner. Coming here is always a treat for my taste buds but you have to have time and patience to enjoy this place. A family of four came and almost left but the owner told them it was almost ready and to just hang tight. A table of three got wonton soups and decided that was enough for their evening. I love that they’re getting enough business to stay afloat in these tough times, we saw 2 or 3 shuttered businesses in that stripmall, but this barebones business operation is hard on customers. Luckily, their food is just too good to resist.

Yesterday night, we had big plans! Plans to go out to dinner, see a comedy show, stay up late and maybe even meet up with pals. Alas the convivial evening out was not to be. The chinchillas wore us out and we had our convivial evening in. I did taxes (a first try), and made granola (a second try). Then off to sleep where I dreamed about, wouldn’t you know it, food.

This morning we headed off to the Kettler Iceplex to watch the Capitals practice before their game against the NY Rangers. Incidentally, it’s playing right now. The rink looks a lot smaller than on TV and so do the guys. Without all that gear, they’re pretty skinny. It kinda’ gave me a nice feel for what a live game would be like, especially if you had front row seating. You can feel the cool air as they skate by and the puck thuds pretty loudly against the walls. After they finished, you could see Coach Boudreau giving a television interview. He wasn’t actually on the ice coaching, that was left to the assistant coaches.

Then it was off to Raaga for all you can eat Indian food. And believe me, I ate all I could, and then some. Still feeling full. Raaga’s naan is so good. They don’t leave it in the buffet line, rather they bring it out to you as you’re eating. It’s one of the few naan’s I feel like are good enough to eat alone. Crispy on the bottom, chewy on top. All the dishes pictured here were tasty enough to end up on my round two plate.

After that, it was off to go grocery shopping. I can skip one week, but there’s no way I’m going to go 3 weeks without grocery shopping.

Look what I made!! Hamantaschen! They’re little triangular cookies with fillings in them. I made two kinds, almond, and prune. Baking for me is a bit challenging because it’s so labor intensive and requires attention to detail and some amount of precision. You actually have to measure!! I whipped out the measuring cups and spoons for this one. The cookies came out well though. Crumbly and still triangle shaped after baking. They go well with wine. As do many other foods.

We got our GSC’s on Saturday night. By Sunday a box and a half – Gone! I don’t know what happened. It’s like I had a cookie, or six, or whatever, and then wham-o! They disappeared.

Here’s how we’d rate the 3 types we got this time:

1. Lemon Chalet Cremes
2. Thank U Berry Munch
3. Tagalongs

Tagalongs use low quality peanut butter and chocolate. You’d think for $3.50 a box, they could use gourmet organic free range fair trade peanut butter, but no. They use the kind with 20% rat poop in it. It was hard to decide which was better, Lemon Chalets or Berry Munches. The Lemon Chalets have partially hydrogenated oils which make them crumble nicely whereas the Berry Munches don’t have those oils, so they’re a bit dry/crunchier. But the chewy cranberries went perfectly with that hard crunch texture. For someone who dislikes white chocolate (they have white chocolate chips which almost made me not get them but Special K raved and raved about them) these cookies were tasty. That’s an empty box in the photo. The creme in the Lemon Chalets were tangy with lemon flavor and there was a hint of cinnamon. So tasty! Next year, I’ll want both of these again.

First full week back to work. As much as work can aggravate me at times, I find the familiarity of coming back to my usual routine to be comforting. Plus, now that we’re nearing March, the Sun’s pretty much up when I’m heading into work (particularly when I’m running late) and it’s still mostly out when I leave the office. Thank goodness for that little bit of blessing, otherwise, coming back from Florida would’ve been even more depressing what with all the ice, slush, and dirty snow piles, which incidentally melted a good amount this weekend in 40-degree weather. I enjoyed the sunny warm climate in Florida so much that pretty much right after coming back I started planning my next vacation. To where else? Cali! I still have French Laundry, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Hog Island to visit.

I’m watching the Olympics right now and ice dancing is so much more pleasant to watch than figure skating. And I think curling must be the only Olympic sport where you can have pregnant women participating (Canadian team). Plus they wear make up and dangly earrings. If I got to choose what sport my kid did, it’d be curling.

I love this rice cooker! When I first moved, my parents gave me a rice cooker which they got as a gift from a newspaper subscription. It was one of those traditional rice cookers with the nonstick inner pot. The kind that can only cook rice, although it did have an inner steamer basket. Overlooking the fact that it was made in the P.R. of China, seeing as how it was free, I tried using it a few times. The first batch of rice came out dry and kinda’ hard. The second batch burned the bottom and patches of it were undercooked. It had no on and off button either. If you plugged it in, it was at least on “warm” mode. And the warm mode burned already cooked rice. To make up for the dryness and burnt bottoms, I added more water, which resulted in mushy rice on top, with still that layer of burnt. To be sure it wasn’t some other reason besides the fact that it was just a crappy rice cooker, I even tried Asian rice purchased from the Asian market! To no avail. So after a batch of mushy rice which was terribly hard to turn into fried rice, I finally gave in and purchased this rice cooker yesterday night (Incidentally, it was my first time out since last Friday afternoon.). This thing can steam eggs, buns, make soup or rice porridge, reheat foods. It is a multifunctional rice cooker, made of stainless steel (no Teflon)! AND, get this: it has an on/off switch.

Snowmageddon or Snowpocalypse, whatever you want to call it, landed. It didn’t exactly deliver two feet of snow (as least where I am), more like one foot, but it was all day from Friday at 10:30 AM to about 5:30 this evening. Trapped at home, tackling the “Maybe-get-to-do list” was the activity du jour. Started with laundry and then headed straight for the chinchillas. I can’t help it! I find myself thinking about them or missing them sometimes when I’m out of the house. Yikes, I’ve become one of those crazy animal people. The Chinchilla-lady!

So the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser pulled through for the wall. Black scuffs from bike tires and other unknowns came off. The Eraser wore out eventually and disintegrated.
Here’s the before:

And the after:

Without the fancy camera magnifying the after, to me, in the normal room lighting, the wall looks much cleaner. More like this:

The Orange Glo however, couldn’t quite get the stains and dirt off the kitchen cabinets so I had to go over it with some ammonia first. Tomorrow – Wash the shower? Cabin fever eating? Whip up some dishes? Pester the chinchillas? Try to take over the world!?

Now on the one hand, I don’t want to write a raving review, set your bar way high, and then you wind up disappointed. That happened to me before at Morimoto’s and Volt. The food was great, my bar was just out of bounds. On the otherhand, this place? Thus far, in my limited experience of fancy dining in this DC metropolitan area, it is at the top. The food is Indian/Indian fusion/Indian wonderful! I am ready to take all my non-Indianfood-loving people to Rasika to change their minds! If you have a vegetarian in the group, this is also a great option to choose.

If you read any review of this place, you will invariably hear about Palak Chaat. Fried crispy baby spinach leaves with yogurt and sweet tamarind and dates chutney. It’s the texture, the flavors of salty sweet. It is as good as everyone says.

The six course tasting menu gives you smaller sized versions of four of their entrees. In the non vegetarian tasting menu, there was Bindi Amchoor (okra), Tamatar Rassa (seasonal vegetable dish), Lamb Gucchi Korma, and Chicken Mahkani. The chicken mahkani was flavorful but not too spicy. I loved the okra dish, and the lamb pieces were fork tender. What I like most in all their dishes is the nice balance of spices. They don’t overpower. In fact, when I first walked in, I didn’t smell the typical overpowering Indian curry, rather it was more of an aromatic fragrance.

I also ordered a Chicken Green Masala entree which they recommended for people who like spicy. At first taste, it’s not spicy. Let it roll around your mouth a while longer, chew, and you’ll be blowing your nose and drinking water.

One small pick is the food is very rich. The curries taste of coconut milk and ghee (clarified butter). I mean, I’ve never had ghee straight, but I could taste the buttery deliciousness in the Chicken Makhani. If you feel full, stop, or you will make yourself ill.

Also, I’m not a fan of Indian desserts but I did enjoy the carrot halwa and gulab jamun here. Really, if it weren’t for the tasting menu dessert, I would probably skip it. If I had room for dessert, I’d just order another appetizer.

Since Rasika is rather fancy schmancy, it’s worthwhile to mention the ambiance and service. The decor was pretty. The bathrooms were clean. The service was not your typical DC area hoity toity type. Dylan was knowledgeable, attentive and relaxed/approachable. The dining room is noisy though. Some folks may not like that. I had to lean in to be heard. But I enjoyed it. I like the hustle and bustle and drone of a noisy restaurant. It makes me feel like I’m out amongst people. It’s also good they don’t bother with tablecloths. Hello, waste of water and other resources.
Clam Caldine appetizer. I wish they had a naan basket because I wanted to soak up the sauce. They didn’t. I drank the sauce.

As a first timer there, I would recommend one person ordering the six course tasting menu for everyone to share and however many entrees (or other appetizers) for the rest of the diners. The six courses vs. the four is a difference of additional appetizers, and you want to try as many as you can. That’s where they get creative with the Indian fusion and that’s where they shine. Go!

I had been using Bare Escentuals mineral makeup and Mineral Veil for two or three years now and recently, I discovered it was making my face itchy. Now that I think back, it’s probably been irritating my skin for all the times I’ve been using it but I had chalked it up to acne or bug bites. It wasn’t until yesterday that my mom asked me what was up with the redness and scratching? After some conversational sleuthing about what I’d been putting on my face these past few days, we finally figured out that my makeup is irritating my skin. Not that I ever need a reason to buy makeup but yay, I get to buy new makeup! As it happens I read about a website yesterday, Goodguide.com which provides ratings on consumer products based on how safe they are to your health and the environment. So I’ll be poking around looking for something to try. If you have any recommendations, please tell me!

Three is for 3 out of 5 stars. At least that’s how I would rate it, though you wouldn’t be able to tell, judging by the way I snarfed the food! Here’s why the mediocre rating though. The food was not that good. The menu is mostly full of dishes that are fairly heavy. I wouldn’t mind that so much except it doesn’t give you many options. We stared and stared at the menu for a while. The food is just not special. This coming from someone who hasn’t eaten out in weeks, I mean, it was still a treat and I still enjoyed going out.
The mac and cheese at Boston Market was better.

I wish I could’ve tasted the mushroom more than the overpowering cheese.

I discovered a new flavor of Kashi TLC granola bars when I was at Target the other night.  Dark Mocha Almond.  They’re SOOO good!  They contain these wonderful little dark chocolate chips.  I wasn’t craving chocolate before but now, I feel like opening up the rest of the bars just to pick off the chocolate chips. 

I also got Cherry Dark Chocolate and they also have the dark chocolate chips too.

Just a minute ago, I was taking a bite and a dark chocolate chip fell and rolled to the floor!!  So before losing any more, I stuffed the rest of the bar in my mouth and ANOTHER CHIP fell to the floor!!! 

OK.  That was my traumatic event of the day.