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PollyG

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Everything posted by PollyG

  1. PollyG
    Another location is coming to Herndon! https://www.theburn.com/2023/05/10/famed-chef-peter-chang-bringing-casual-chinese-to-herndon-1/ As someone who lives in the NW corner of Fairfax County, I'm awfully pleased. Maybe by the time it opens I'll be willing to eat inside at a restaurant again.
  2. PollyG
    Just got an update about Duck Chang's landlord situation: the lease has been renewed! They ended up raising about 52k via the Go Fund Me. I still hope they got a long term commitment!
  3. PollyG
    BTW, Bob's is no longer cash-only, but they are offering a 10% cash discount.
  4. PollyG
    Happy to report that Bob's has transitioned well to Pandemic restaurant survival. They have a big table up front full of insulated bags keeping hot items hot and a freezer case for frozen XLB. We remembered that they offer large quantities of XLB frozen at a good price so I called on Thursday to see if I could order some for Friday or Saturday pickup. Picked them up yesterday along with a double order of the pan-fried pork dumplings, the pickled wood ear mushrooms, shrimp dumplings, and the pork with dry noodle. We ate the fresh items after a 35 minute drive home to Herndon (other than the one hot pork dumpling I ate in the parking lot as the driver's tax) in my own insulated bag and had some of the XLB for our New Year's lunch today. The XLB survived freezing beautifully; each is separate. Bob's kindly included both sauce and steamer basket paper in the package and they had some ice cubes in a baggie inside the bag with the XLB to help them stay fully frozen. In our case they'd gone right into their own insulated bag with cold packs for the drive, but that's some smart packaging. We had 12 of the XLB today and they were outstanding. We had one round of some XLB from H-mart and they weren't even close in quality.
  5. PollyG
    I came here (not eating out so I've been largely absent from the community for a while) specifically to see if I could spread the word about Duck Chang's situation. I've donated and am hoping that they are getting a long term commitment from the new landlord in exchange for the upgrades that they are going to be making.
  6. PollyG
    I'm thinking about splurging on an exotic fruit of the month type service. Is anyone else getting one of these, and what has your experience been?
  7. PollyG
    I went on Labor day to purchase a mezze feast for lunch on Rosh Hashanah. The bakery side was *really* hopping; the case was missing several of the normal pastries. Their hummus remains the only commercial hummus I really like. The only disappointment was the halal stuffed grape leaves; they were just too dry. If only they were a little closer to home; we found them when we lived in Alexandria's West End, but have since moved out toward Dulles. My Palestinian hairdresser is even further out and agrees that there is nothing closer to us that compares.
  8. PollyG
    Riceberry, located at 22034 Shaw Road #114 in Sterling, is visible from Church Street as you drive West toward Rt. 28. It is a small carry-out only Thai restaurant with a limited set of grocery items, almost all of them Thai ingredients that the owners must feel are not available at area pan-Asian markets. We enjoyed a feast from them over the weekend, concentrating on starters. There is a fair amount of street food on the menu. Everything we tried was good, and that includes the $10 platter of sausages we bought to cook at home tonight. They had two different types of house-prepared sausages to go. There are a number of grab-and-go ready to eat items as well, and they have plenty of desserts. Well worth continued exploration and if you work at AOL in Ashburn, you will likely consider it a lunchtime treasure. We used their web site to order ahead. www.riceberrymarket.com
  9. PollyG
    It was nice to see A&J get some love in the WaPo's food section today. We have made the trek from Herndon to Annandale about once every 2 months during this pandemic (it was more like once or twice a month before) to get our fix. Some dishes, like the tiny wontons in hot sauce, do not travel well. As the weather improves, perhaps we can tailgate closer to the shop. Have folding table, will travel.
  10. PollyG
    And. . .they're closed after a staffer tested positive. Quite sure there is zero causality, of course.
  11. PollyG
    Mokomandy is another COVID-19 casualty. We hadn't been in a while but did enjoy the menu and the excellent beer list. "Mokomandy Has Closed Permanently Due to the Pandemic" by Hunter Edison on northernvirginiamag.com
  12. PollyG
    Padaek is open with limited hours and a pared down menu.
  13. PollyG
    Padaek is open for contact-free take out. We used it for Mother's Day. The menu has been pared down and their hours are a bit more limited. It was the perfect solution for Mother's Day for our family. Excellent food and no one had to do emergency consults with me to prepare it! https://www.padaekdc.com/
  14. PollyG
    H-Mart (Herndon branch): May have had someone to santize carts at the near-door pickup, we grabbed one from the corral and sprayed it down ourselves. They did have decently sized plexiglass shields set up at the cash register to give the cashiers some protection. No marks on the floor to establish distance for shoppers at the checkout, but it wasn't an issue because we arrived shortly prior to closing. It was well stocked except for cleaning supplies, which were sparse. Our experience has been that the Asian markets are less likely to be totally denuded. It's probably a combination of racism and economic reality; many of the people who regularly shop at these markets don't have the financial means to buy several weeks of groceries at once.
  15. PollyG
    Padaek, Thip Thao, and their 2 sister restaurants have stopped offering takeout and shut down for now. Just posted to their FB page. They mentioned gift cards so it appears that they currently expect to reopen. The projections I just read require 3 months of sheltering in place for most of the US including Virginia if we want to avoid hospital overload. https://www.facebook.com/115494498473231/posts/2900118850010768/?sfnsn=mo
  16. PollyG
    I am hoping that one positive item will come out of all of this: we need mandatory sick leave for food workers. Industries that place workers at risk of losing their jobs for being sick should be nowhere near our food supplies. Meanwhile, we are planning on finding ways to support our local restaurants.
  17. PollyG

    Dean, the Giant near us in Reston (Northpoint) had loose Sumos at $3.99 a pound.  They worked out to more expensive than the box at H-Mart, but selling them loose would let you sample a single one to see whether you think them worth the price.  

     

    1. deangold

      deangold

      Thanks

  18. PollyG
    I don't think the zest is particularly aromatic. Give the season another week or two and they will probably be available loose or in smaller quantities. I assume, perhaps wrongly, that since it is Lunar New Year right now, people are buying them as gifts. Our local H-Mart on Eldon Street in Herndon was down to its last 2 boxes yesterday.
  19. PollyG
    Sumo season, and time to revive some comparison shopping for these pricey but delicious citrus. $16.99 at H-marts in Virginia for a case of 7. No weight on the boxes but it works out to $2.43/fruit.
  20. PollyG
    Can you post a pic of the Zyliss? I have a rotating Benriner shredder for carrots/daikon that I picked up from a Korean grocery quite some time ago. I need to start making my own kimchi again because I'm allergic to shrimp and most commercial preparations have either shrimp or xylitol, which would be toxic to my dogs should they accidentally get any kimchi.
  21. PollyG
    Totally second that. It is the only one that really works for my tastebuds. The recipe book that came with my Cuisinart back in the 80's has my go-to recipe, although I add more garlic and lemon than it specifies.
  22. PollyG
    I try to avoid Costco during the holidays because it can be pretty insane. But I've just found a reason to brave the insanity. Cropwell Bishop Stilton at $10.99/lb.
  23. PollyG
    I also ordered my turkey from Mom's. Too many incidents where the staff at Whole Foods assured me that my pricey turkey is only "air chilled on the surface" when I said it seems awfully solid, only to find that it is frozen all the way to the fricking center when I got it home! We have been smoking our turkeys of late; has anyone tried a combo of smoking and then finishing in an oven to crisp the skin? I realize I might have to oil the skin post-smoking to make that happen. Two contrasts in recipes are on my list this year: A cornbread souffle which relies on Jiffy mix and canned corn. It's been on the table the past few years and is much loved. It does not reheat well. This stunning tart True to my nature, I'm planning on using just the cranberry gelee and leaving the non-seasonal, likely both tasteless and expensive, raspberries off the topping. I'll put the gelee over something more to the family tastes, like cheesecake.
  24. PollyG

    Would you be so kind as to tell Nancy we enjoyed our first pawpaw harvest this Fall?  She did a nativescaping recommendation for us in 2013 which included a pair of the trees.

  25. PollyG
    My son is installed in his new college apartment with a far better stocked kitchen than I had throughout college. He has a microwave, oven, electric stove, blender, stand mixer, crockpot, rice cooker and electric griddle. He is part of the generation who believes that he doesn't need any lessons from Mom because everything is available on the internet. (You'd think all those Pinterest fail photos might have clued him in, but not yet.) I've offered, he's passed. He has a copy of my much loved Chinese Menu Cookbook, which teaches classic techniques bit by bit. He also has Carol Field's Italian Baker; loves to make bread but usually goes with recipes he finds on the internet, with mixed results. I'm looking for another cookbook for him with simple recipes and meticulously edited technique descriptions. I'm thinking Maida Heatter level detail, but for savory dishes. Does anyone have suggestions?
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