soapy

Oh dear lord did I have a killer meal at Updupi's.

It all started with my husband and I craving Indian. On a whim I suggsested Upupi instead of our usual Tiffin. It was delicious! Everything we tried was very complex and full of flavor. To start out we had Pakoras, which was plentful (although the breading was a lot heavier than that at Passage to India) and then we also had Spinach Kofta which is spinach gravy which was smooth, creamy and complex with these veggie dumplings, moist little vegetable balls of goodness. We also had channa batura, which was I think channa masala with fried bread. The Chickpeas had so much depth of flavor and we put a little tamarind n the chickpeas for extra flavor.

Huh so she is working on a place up in Forest Glen, and annother in Takoma and also a third in Petworth? or did one of the previous two fall through?

we went to ruan thai. a fun time was had by all.

We had a time crunch so we ended up going to Mia's since that is close to where I work. We had the devil of a time trying to find the stupid big top, the highway was kind of confusing and then I forgot about the shuttle services so we ended up paying 10 for parking. Still worth it, as every cirque show I've seen has my completly enthralled.

Hey guys!

I'm hosting thanksgiving this year so my parents are coming up to visit me from Thurs- Saturday. My dad requested we go out for Thai while he's here as he loves good Thai food.

Any recomendations on where we shoudl go? I'm leaning towards Ruan Thai but I wanted to know what other people's opinions were on places with a little bit more ambiance. I've been to the thai at silver Spring and Nark Kara in Bathesda and thought both of them were all right. Can I get some opinons on Nava Thai and Duangrat's, both in terms of food and ambiance?

Tiffin tends to be my buffet location of choice when I feel th need to eat profuse amounts of indian food but Sunday I decided to hit up Udupi's instead. That place is packed on the weekends. It's funny how Tiffin and Updupi seem to have the most ethnically diverse clientele.

Udupi's buffet is 8.95 on weekdays, 10.95 on weekends. They serve complimentary potato dosas and when you order water they give you a huge carafe, which is welcome. In addition to a full buffet of curries, rice, uthappam, and breads they also offer different snack mixes. Highlights for me were the Chana Masala and the Palak Paneer. Both of which had complex spicing. I could have handled more spice but the flavors were delicious. The Baigan barta was also very good, and had a lot of tomato flavor. My husband liked this sour curry that had okras in it. The service was not so attentive as Tiffins (although tiffin's can be attentive to the point of being overly agressive) and it was a great experience.

I continue to enjoy Mia's pizzas for the pizza which is excellent and the added this special fig, blue cheese and procuitto bruchetta appetizer that is out of this world good. However I've yet to enjoy any of their deserts. I was excited to see Affogoto on the menu but their ice cream was too icy and the expresso tasted burnt and way too bitter to be enjoyed. And their ice box cake, again had this bizarre texture where the ice cream was rock hard, the cookies were tough and gumby and the fruit was tasteless. Feh.

My husband and I are planning to go tomorrow and we were thinking about hitting up Hell Burger instead since it's kind of sort of on the way.

Friday: Tiffins- chicken and spinach, matter paneer (they describe that dish as celestial, and boy are they right!) goat biryani. Delicious.

Saturday: a truly wretched sandwich at A bon pain and then after failing to get into Ray's the Classics, Curry Puffs and Pad Si Ew the Thai place at Silver Spring. Not too shabby really but after being spoiled to to the good stuff over up in Wheaton. Cake Love Cupcake for desert. I got preached the room tempeture gospel and I managed to wait until I snuck it into the movie theater to eat it and it wasn't as dry as their usual fare.

Potato Leek Soup (Julia Child's recipe) and salad with red peppers and poppyseed dressing.

You guys might laugh but I find Whole Foods to be so overwhelming, so many choices and decisiouns to make! I remember the first time I went in there as a college sophmore, thinking it was a conventional storea and I was looking for quesso dip. Heh. I just kind of wandered through the aisles with my jaw on the floor. Even now 4-5 years later I still get that feeling wandering around feeling like there's just too many choices to make. (and then there's the sticker shock at 12 dollar hunks of cheese. yikes)

My husband I were high fiving each other for making a trip there for groceries staples to last us for 2 weeks and only spending 99 dollars or so and then we realized we'd spent 15 of that on cheese. Heh.

Steak on a stake: not bad, not great, kind of chewy, and with some A1 even better - I'd forgotten how much I like A1.

Scotch egg: fan-fugu-tastic.

Chicken chipotle empanada - uh, yeah. Not really.

Brat on rye with sauerkrat - surprisingly good, even after having a very memorable one at Thirsty Bernie's on Thursday night.

Sausage on a stick & cheesy bread - the only positive part of being stuck in the parking lot for over 4 hours. Well, that and the cigar...and some laughs did come out of it...and it did sober me up enough to drive home from Dunn Loring...

Jeez four hours? I was stuck there for 2, with only the Prarie Home companion as a high spot. That was a total clusf-ck, normally getting out isn't so difficult.

Some highlights from my second trip:

Fried Oreos. Oh yeah baby.

falafel- pretty good although I think my falafel standards aren't that high right now. Maybe I should go hit up max's cafe to really confirm what the good stuff should taste like.

Pirate chocolate pie with peanut butter- oh my gawd that stuff is good. Not so good to eat and then go see those super skinny ariel girls doing crazy things on the silks.

pulled pork sandwich with slaw and bbq sauce- I wish the pork was a little more flavoful but it was moist and juicy.

The only truly period food at the faire is the lady doing demonstartion of authentic rennsciance cooking. She has an open fire and a table for a cutting board. It's really cool. Unfortunatly only the cast members may eat her food but you can watch her do it! I think that the Dinner Impossible people did an episode where they tried to make a feast under those conditions.

Try the fried pickles and the sweet potato fries.

Anything in a bread bowl is good.

Mead and ale are best enjoyed out of a goblet or flagon, available from your local potter, wood-, or pewtersmith.

The desserts are great.

Cheesecake on a stick WILL kill you.

See my friends perform in Shakespeare Skum and The O'Danny Girls.

Agreed on the Skum, O'Danny Girls and the cheesecake.

I actually got a leather mug, which is pretty nifty. (they use some special glaze to protect it)

I was at the Maryland Rennfest this past weekend. Despite the rain which turned the faire area into a gigantic mud puddle I still had a great time. It really amazes me what variety and scope of foods they have there in tems of the number of things that can be deep fried and/or put on a stick.

A few highlights were:

Scotch eggs: cold hard-boiled egg removed from its eggshell, wrapped in a sausage meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried. I'm kind of suprised that mcdonald's has yet to steal this concotio it's an ecoomy of size yet it packs a wallop of full fat yumminess.

Fried green "thai" green beans with a coconut peanut dipping sauce- self explanatory. Delicious.

Steak on a Stake: a favorite of my husband's but I always find the steak too chewy.

Deep Fried macaroni and cheese on a stick- need I say more?

spinach pie- in case you thought it might be healthy, they serve it with cheese sauce on the side.

Deep fried twinkies/candy bars- I had them last year. The candy bars were better than the twinkies.

On the drink side of the equation, they serve a range of beers, wine and mead for inexpensive prices. They have unusual wines made from berries, fruit and honey too.

I used to live down in the Norfolk/VA beach area. I'm friends with the former owners of the Jewish Mother (one of whom is Jewish, the other is probably jewish via osmosis) I second No Frills and Baker's crust for good lunch/brunch type places.

My favorite Pizza joint is Primo's down in VA beach, they make a very satisfying new york style pizza pie.

I don't know much about drinking though, sorry!

I went to Dino's last night. They had some problems with the gas so we got a free round of drinks to conpensate for having to wait 30-45 minutes before we could order heated entrees.

I finally tried the burata, it was rich and creamy and delicious. My Chantrelle risotto was also creamy and delicious but the cheese to rice ratio was so high maybe it should be renamed "grana with chantrelle risotto?" The other stars of the night were my husband's big garlic dish, that was excellent and my mother ln law's potatoes with her steak. (okay the steak was good too)

Idea for a burger of the month: burger toped with jalapeno poppers, maybe gourmeyify them as procuitto or bacon wrapped jalapenos that are stuffed with some kind of softy melty cheese.

I take trapeze lessons across the street from Joe Squared. The food there is great but the service was sloooow. I went in there one evening with two other people and while the place was almost empty it took us almost half an hour to get our food.

This is our go-to place for take-out. The chicken, rice and beans, yuca and plantains are almost always excellent. I think this is becoming a micro-chain -- the same folks are opening Don Pollo on Wisconsin in Bethesda (the old Chesapeake Chicken and Rib place), and I believe, the Don Pollo on Veirs Mill in Aspen Hill/Rockville is part of the group.

My coworker is addicted to this place. I like it but I prefer e pollo rico an tiny bit more.

I was there for lunch last weekend and the waiter was a really obnoxious brand of overfriendly.

I've driven past here dozens of times and thought "hmm what's this place like" Having gone there I can complely affirm Spiral Stairs's review, innofensive (their buffet had 4 kinds of chicken, no lamb or goat.) and service was okay.

Mandalay to introduce some friends to the spicy goodness that is burmese food. I tried their gram fritter salad, it was excellent.

And then we saw Tropic Thunder which partially takes place in Myanmar. Weird.

So how are you planning to divide your time between the two places?

Also Jewish brunch food sounds awesome to me! I bet you'd make a mean kugel.

This one is in the patio area outside of the Burger Joint place, and it's every tuesday and sunday from 10-3.

The highlight for me is the crepes! They have sweet ones with some of the usual fillings (strawberry, chocoloate, nutella) but the savory ones are great too. I had one yesterday with spinach, tomatoes, feta and red onions and it was great.