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PollyG

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Everything posted by PollyG

  1. You already know the parental restaurant rules that will make you welcome regulars anywhere you go with your youngster. We followed pretty much the same rules with ours. As our daughter got a bit older, we got into the habit of reminding her of the rules before we went into an establishment. The most important one for her to understand is that she needs to stay seated at the table, even if other children are running around. It's a huge safety issue, and must be an absolute nightmare for servers. We hate the idea of "family restaurants" full of ill-behaved children, but sometimes you'll need to compromise because your friends haven't acclimated their own kids to restaurants. For those situations, we found dim sum to be the most reliable meal out. There is almost no down time between entering the restaurant and the arrival of the food, the carts provide constant amusement, and you end up with a three year-old who can order dim sum with confidence from passing carts. The fresh tofu in sweet ginger sauce is likely to be an early hit. Be careful with noodle dishes and cut the noodles into smaller pieces to avoid a choking hazard. My husband also hit upon a dining strategy for his frequent lunchtime pho expeditions with our daughter to our neighborhood Vietnamese place. He would get them to fill a sippy cup half full with straight pho broth, then top it off with ice. Our daughter also enjoyed the lightly pickled daikon and carrot shreds.
  2. Now on my Do Not Buy list--mussels from the Mar company. We picked up a bag at Lotte, and they were, compared to the farmed mussels from PEI and Great American Mussels in Maine, full of heavy beards, had a higher proportion of discards (cracked shells, mostly, only two dead in 2 lb), and the mussels inside were teensy. On the other hand, the clams I hand-selected from Lotte were very good and the lobsters were delicious, extra sweet meat.
  3. We have a couple of local chains that might be worth checking. Home Goods is an interesting source for kitchen and tableware--it is run by the TJ Maxx group. There is no predictability as to what you will find on the shelves, but the pricing is generally very good. World Market (Cost Plus for those of you from California) also has an eclectic selection, at prices that are often beyond fantastic.
  4. I've been getting them at our local Asian markets, the Grand Mart in Sterling in my case. There were more of them 2 months ago than now, but there are still plenty.
  5. The latest Williams Sonoma Catalog, one of the most ridiculous pieces of kitchen pornography I've seen in a while*, has a full page devoted to the pans, curved wooden tongs, etc. to make these. *I think it was this ice pop maker that sent me over the edge on this one.
  6. We tried that today on your recommendation. I wasn't blown away by it, and preferred the current noodle dish on the "specials" menu (lower right side). But it was pretty good and I've certainly never had anything like that before, anywhere.
  7. I can't say that my most recent experience at Hooked, last week, was anything like eyedubya described. We also live fairly close and have been there several times over the past year. My party of 5 received attentive service, and my mom praised the crab cake as being all meat, no filler. The mussels in a Thai curry sauce were really excellent, plump mussels in a sauce that was generously dosed with coconut milk. My father and I both had the fatty salmon belly, which was the only disappointment for us. The flavor was fine, but the chef had inexplicably chosen to score the fish in a diamond pattern, which diluted the velvety texture. My only complaint is that they've removed the caesar salad with tempura lobster chunks from the menu. If we were more flush with funds, we'd be there more often.
  8. And now they are closed. Shame on the new owners who ran this into the ground. The Mike's Mexolina pulled beef and the corn salsa were wonderful and will be much missed by our family.
  9. Thai by Thai is one of Sterling's Thai restaurants, and the only one I know of with a "secret" Thai menu. It has become our Thai restaurant of choice. I couldn't find a thread devoted to it, and it is deserving of one. It's a brightly lit place where you order at the counter and they bring food to your table and has a much nicer vibe than most counter-ordering locations. The menu posted over the service counter doesn't hint at the existence of the special Thai menu, but does have a few street food items, such as the sun-dried beef. They have monthly specials posted on the cash register, which are items they are auditioning as possible additions to the Thai menu. The Thai menu is available upon request and includes English translations. Its content changes with some frequency but includes wonderful fare such as deep fried pork belly strips with Chinese Broccoli, fried pork rib chunks with sticky rice and an incendiary dipping sauce, and a pig organ soup. Be sure to have one of their noodle dishes other than the Pad Thai. Noodles come out with a wonderful smokey touch. The Pad Thai is unexceptional, probably tailored for the tastes of the majority of their lunchtime customers. When we look around at our fellow diners, most have ordered a fried rice dish or the Pad Thai. Our experience has generally been that the person running the deep fryer knows their business--the pork strips in that pork with broccoli are perfectly crisped and maintain that texture for as long as it takes to inhale the dish. Noodle dishes are generously portioned; the other dishes are often less so. Thai by Thai's Sterling location is on Rt. 7 just West of Dranesville Road, across the street from the Shoppers Food Whorehouse and the Burlington Coat Factory, in the same plaza as Grand Mart. They also had a sign announcing the December 19 opening of a second location, this time at 29 and 50, near a mobile phone shop. We're just hoping that the chefs who do such exceptional woking and frying are not headed off for that location.
  10. It was at the base of the tower--not in the tower itself, but after you walk up the long driveway from the bus stop.
  11. We tried the Trader Joe's pre-brined turkey this year and rubbed it with zaatar. It turned out moist and with no salty taste--I was able to make a non-salty gravy with the pan drippings. I think the ones I've brined myself have been a touch tastier, but the lack of hassle of figuring out where I could stuff the brining pot was probably worth it. Other dishes: Kabocha squash bisque with masaman curry and coconut milk. 4 kinds of sweet potatoes: 2 US varieties, 1 Korean, 1 purple yam. The Korean sweet potatoes are yellowish and have a chestnut flavor, while the purple ones are extra sweet. We serve them baked plain with butter and cinnamon available. Spinach salad with mandarin orange, candied pecans, and pomegranate seeds Beet salad with goat cheese Chestnut stuffing Gravy from pan drippings Pumpkin creme brulee Cranberry -orange relish Cooked cranberry sauce I messed up and left the cranberry sorbet in the freezer. Whoops!
  12. We had a very good Korean version in Seoul, which everyone in our 25 person group liked--even the kid who'd been living on rice for a week. The noodles were hand pulled in the front of the shop, and were really of extraordinary texture--silky, but still with some chew. This was at the place at the base of the observation tower in Seoul, with a name that translates to something along the lines of "noodles for the king." We have not found anything comparable in our Annandale forays--I thought the version at the place behind the Popeyes on John Marr was downright nasty. A&J's, with thick noodles and a different saucing, is what comes closest for us. Ironically, the prepackaged JJM from the Korean grocers is also better than what we'd had at the Korean-Chinese place.
  13. Costco's rack of pork is back in the cooler section in the Sterling store. This is the same cut as a rack of lamb, but obviously larger. We got one last year and were sorry to see them disappear. I coated today's purchase in zataar and roasted it at 350 for an hour, yielding porky perfection, an excellent smelling house, and 2.5 meals for my family of 3.
  14. Does anyone have experience with the TJ's pre-brined natural turkeys? I'm thinking of getting my brining the easy way this year, if my read of the ingredients list finds it free of junk. Otherwise, I'm going for a TJ's Empire turkey--the Koshering process is pretty much a brining anyway.
  15. Pretty much all of the Asian markets have these, and they are a LOT cheaper than the jarred ones. We've been using them for several years as both a snack and for our Thanksgiving stuffing. We have used many brands and have never had an issue with quality.
  16. I believe in past years, the Popeyes chain has offered fried turkey, ordered in advance.
  17. I'd try contacting ConAgra (or www.lachoy.com) and asking them if they could tell you which stores in your area stock this product. I recall seeing fewer Chinese-American products in our local Giant over the years.
  18. I can't speak to the size of the regular dinner lobster roll, but the Monday one this past Monday was the normal size for a Maine lobster roll--about the size of a standard hot dog bun. Other than overstuffing it more, which would have made it difficult to eat, I can't see how the dinner portion would be larger. The meat was chopped more finely than I prefer, and had a bit too much mayo, but at least it was tarragon-infused mayo. Our standard is from Reds in Wiscassett, where we could well pay $15 for a roll alone, but the rolls have a lobster's worth of meat in them, in nice big chunks. With the excellent lobster and choice of 3 soups for $15, Passionfish's Monday lunch special is quite the deal. I had the butternut and lobster bisque as my soup. The lobster meat was not overwhelmed by the butternut and its sweetness worked well with the smooth bisque.
  19. I stopped here with a colleague on Sunday, after attending a funeral across the street. My colleague is not the world's most adventurous eater, but she was headed back to the Richmond area and needed something to eat. I had her order the salmon shiroyaki, which my daughter has enjoyed previously, and it was a nice version of that dish. The fish had a salty, crusty exterior to contrast with the fatty salmon flesh. I had a much lighter ume onigiri. Temari is not a destination restaurant, but if you are in the neighborhood and want decent, unpretentious Japanese food, it is a good choice.
  20. I'll second that--it's a haul for us but definitely a good step up from everything else in the area. If memory serves, they have a tatami room that might be reservable for your group. Don't overlook the one page specials sheet. The ika "noodles" are a favorite of mine, but I'm sure it's a texture thing that doesn't work for some people.
  21. My dad uses an old corkscrew to poke two holes in the top at the "eyes" of the coconut, drains the water out, then splits it by taking it outside and using a hammer. When we were in Maui, we were introduced to the machete free "whack it hard on a rock after the water is out" method.
  22. Trader Joes in Reston now has Zico in boxes at $1.49 each. The ingredients list says "100% natural coconut water," but it wasn't quite as delicious as I remembered.
  23. It is probably just as well that this is not an expense account sort of place. I imagine that charges to the Pure Pasty Co. would raise a few auditing eyebrows.
  24. Worse yet, they're implicated in causing a very serious gastric blockage, a phytobeozor. I'd written my dad's warnings about excessive persimmon consumption off as an old wive's tale, but now that we have the internet to find all sorts of disgusting things, it turns out he was right.
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