cheezepowder

Someone mentioned this place on Chowhound so I tried it today. I posted a report on the Chowhound thread but thought people here might also be interested or may have tried it already so I've also copied it here. There's one on 12710 Twinbrook Pkwy, Rockville, and 4121 Chatelain Rd #100 in Annandale. I tried the Tofu House (eta: in Rockville) for lunch today and enjoyed my tofu stew. I pictured a restaurant in a strip mall, but it was actually in its own, standalone building (with a parking lot). The sign says Lighthouse Tofu & BBQ, Now Open (although from the date of the comments on the Korean site, it seems to have been open at least since the beginning of this year.) The restaurant inside is bright and spacious with wood tables. Around noon, the place was only about one third to one half full with both Koreans and non-Asians. The waitresses wore Korean dress and were friendly and spoke English. Service was also pretty quick. Menu: They specialize in tofu stew (soon dooboo). The menu is in a plastic stand on each table and lists tofu stews for $7.99 for lunch, $8.99 for dinner. The stew varieties are: 1- mushroom; 2- clam, shrimp, oyster & beef; 3- clam, shrimp, & oyster; 4- kimchee beef; 5- oyster; 6- pork & beef; 7- beef; and 8- vegetable. You can select the spice level for the stew – white, mild, medium, spicy, and spicy spicy. They also have Korean bbq, marinated beef (bool go gee), mixed seafood and vegetable pancake, noodles with small octopus broth and special sauce, noodles with stir fried small squid with spicy sauce, and stir fried small squid vegetable with spicy sauce, ranging in price from $9.99, $12.99 and $15.99. They give you cold barley tea (boreecha) for water. I ordered the pork & beef tofu stew with a spicyness level of “spicy.” The waitress brought over a cart with my dishes. She gave me the stew which was bubbling hot in a stone pot. She also gave me a small dish containing a raw egg still in the shell for me to crack into the stew. Then she had another stone pot with rice, and she scooped rice out of this pot into a stainless steel bowl which she gave me. Then she scooped some excess rice out of the stone pot into another stainless steel bowl (that I presume she took back into the kitchen with her), and she poured barley tea into the stone pot with the rice. She gave me that stone pot with a big plastic spoon. By the end of my meal, the barley tea in the stone pot was very warm, and I could scoop up the soft and browned bits of watery rice from the stone pot. She also gave me five side dishes: (1) bean sprouts, (2) something that looked like chopped raw garlic with chopped raw oysters (?) in red pepper sauce, (3) kimchee in cold orange water/kimchee juice (?) (4) pickled spicy cucumber in thick round slices (seemed slightly sweeter and less garlicy than the kind at A&J), and (5) kimchee – the kind that’s not yet fermented. It was strips of napa cabbage in hot pepper sauce with a touch of fish/seafood flavor (personally I prefer the fermented kind but this was good for what it is.) My stew was chock full of soft and custardy tofu in a spicy broth. The meat bits were more of an accent, the tofu was really the main ingredient. I'm also not sure I got pork and beef, it looked like just beef to me. I stirred my egg into the stew so it kind of blended in. The stew tasted as I expected it should (I say that because I’m Korean American). I have a medium to medium high tolerance for spicy, and I was satisfied with the “spicy” level of the stew (the heat (temperature) of the stew also accentuates the spicyness). To me, it was the level of spicy I would expect if I ordered the stew at a Korean restaurant without specifying the spicyness level, though I don't know how much of a gradient there is between medium and spicy or spicy and spicy spicy. It was pretty inexpensive for a filling lunch, and I even took half my stew home (they have Styrofoam containers, and the waitress helped me scoop the stew into the container). I’d go back again and try the other items on the menu.

I've had an issue twice at the Harris Teeter in Pentagon Row in which there was an advertised special (buy one, get one free), but I was charged for both items. The first time was spaghetti sauce. I didn't feel like standing in the Customer Service line, and I gave them the benefit of the doubt because I bought two different kinds of the same brand so maybe the special didn't apply (although there were "Buy one get one free" signs on multiple varieties on the shelf). The second time was a Morningstar Farms product, and I bought two of the same product. After being rung up and charged for both, I went to the Customer Service desk. The guy was skeptical, and I walked with him to show him the sign on the shelf. He said ok and told me to take two more for free. So I ended up paying for 2 (and getting 2 free) when I intended only to buy one (and getting 1 free). I haven't gone back to that Harris Teeter since.

Senor Frog's is a chain whose branches seem to be located in Spring Break type of places. We had a similar experience at the Senor Frog's in Cancun about 7 years ago -- we thought we were just there for dinner, and the waitress pulled us into a conga line with shots being poured at us along the way. I don't remember much about the food. I'm sure the Spring Breakers must have a ball.

Piola's now open, Going Out Gurus report here.

We enjoyed Saravana Palace last night for dinner. It has a casual atmosphere, and there were families with young children/babies. It's all vegetarian, website with menu here. We ordered the assorted appetizer platter -- I liked the samosa and vegetable cutlet the best. I was particularly interested to try an Indo-Chinese dish so I ordered the vegetable manchurian (mixed vegetable fritters in corn flour in spicy manchurian sauce). The deep fried fritters had bits of zucchini, carrot, and possibly other vegetables, and the fritters were lightly crispy on the outside with a mashed potato-like texture on the inside. The sauce had a touch of ginger and generous amounts of chili pepper and chopped onions. I really liked this dish -- I thought the balance of flavors weighed more towards Indian than Chinese. My husband ordered a paneer dish from the Indian portion of the menu that he liked. We also ordered the vegetable biryani which was light on the vegetables and just ok, and the peas paratha (bread). Dinner was inexpensive -- for the appetizer platter, two entrees, biryani, bread, and two soft drinks, the total was a little less than $40 before tip. Service was efficient and friendly. If we lived closer, we'd go back often to try more dishes from the extensive menu.

And, from this link on Metrocurean pointing to the Wash Post Going Out Gurus blog, a GOG was there Monday too.

The batter burgher is what I want to try! Can someone describe it in more detail? Do you eat it with your hands? Does it come with sauces?

My mom fed us Spam when we were little and didn't know any better, so I actually like Spam. Maria's Bakery in Rockville has a few Spam dishes on their menu. I've had their Spam and fried egg sandwich -- good if you like Spam.

I'm queen of the single-purpose gadgets, and I got this for Christmas. It works, though I've only used it once. The husband keeps insisting on putting all my gadgets away, so out of sight, out of mind. But that reminds me, I should pull that out I've been intrigued by that, but it seems like it would be hard to clean the weiner juices from the cooker.

We were just at Il Radicchio a few weeks ago. Our meal wasn't bad, and we had no problems with service. For those unfamiliar, they have all you can eat spaghetti with a variety of sauces that you order separately, which is fun if you can't decide on which sauce you want or like multiple sauces to taste (and like spaghetti). If, like my husband, you're fine with just one sauce then you might consider ordering something else (they have a few other pasta dishes, pizza, and meat dishes though I don't know if they're good). The spaghetti noodles themselves are nothing special and seemed similar to the spaghetti you boil up at home. The spaghetti comes in a large bowl for the table to share with some residual water at the bottom of the bowl which can interfere with the sauce adhering to the spaghetti. So you end up with more of a sauce plus spaghetti dish rather than a dish where the sauce and spaghetti become one. Hence if you just want one sauce, you might want to order something else unless you're a sauce on the side kind of person. I ordered 2 sauces: 1) a gravy boat of carbonara with pancetta which was super creamy, rich, and so bad for you, with chewy bits of pancetta, and 2) a bowl of marinara with clams in the shell. I really liked the carbonara, and I liked being able to switch back and forth with the tomato sauce to cut the richness. The execution though is a little messy. You pile some spaghetti on your plate, add the sauce, and eat. If you have multiple sauces you have a mess on your plate. Asking for more plates might help, I had kind of a pink sauce towards the end.

FYI, according to Willow's menu last night (and at the bottom of our check), Willow is extending RW to Friday, Aug. 25. Willow's RW menu offered a good number of choices, and we enjoyed our meals. I liked our server who was attentive and somewhat formal in manner. There were 4? (can't quite recall) appetizers (including corn chowder and tomato salad), 4 entrees (trout with crab imperial, barley risotto with beats, some sort of beef steak, and lemon fried chicken), and 3 desserts (banana split, flourless chocolate cake, and a peach tart? crisp?). The corn chowder was very good - it was filled with lots of corn and chunks of potato in a creamy soup. The lemon fried chicken had a definite lemon flavor which made it interesting, though I don't think it made the chicken better -- I'm fine with my fried chicken plain. The breading was very crispy and tasty, and the dark meat chicken I ate was moist. There were two good sized pieces of chicken, (the white meat one I took home with me), very creamy mashed potatoes, greens, and a dipping sauce that was kind of like a lemony hollandaise that I didn't really like. The banana split was a half banana, split, with mini scoops of ice cream, whipped cream and strawberry. I keep thinking that I should eat more sundaes (I always just order a scoop of ice cream on a sugar cone) so I was happy to have a banana split. The table next to us ordered off the regular menu, and the one closest to me ordered the scallops (not on the RW week menu). I had to sneak a peek of how many scallops she got (see Willow thread.) She got 4.

We had a good experience tonight at Restaurant Nora for Restaurant Week. The service was attentive and friendly, the portion sizes looked normal-sized (as in, not reduced for RW), and given Restaurant Nora’s usual prices of upper $20/lower $30 for entrees, the RW price for three courses was significantly less than the typical price. With wine and coffee, though, our total with tax, pre-tip, was about $100. For the RW menu, Nora's offered a choice of two appetizers (mixed green salad with Asian pear, pecans, and camembert with balsamic vinaigrette or vichychoise with shrimp), a choice of four entrees (Amish chicken curry with basmati rice; mushroom, corn and vegetable risotto; salmon; and beef), and a choice of two desserts (dark chocolate mousse and plum blackberry crisp with vanilla ice cream). The RW appetizers and entrees were different from the items listed on the “regular” menu, but based on my prior visits and browsing of Nora’s online menu, I would say at least some of the appetizers/entrees were representative of dishes that Nora’s has offered in the past, if not very similar. For instance, I know they often offer a risotto dish. I had the mixed green salad, chicken curry, and plum blackberry crisp. I wasn’t sure that I would like the chicken curry because we go to Indian restaurants quite a bit, and I was skeptical that the chicken curry at Restaurant Nora could be as good. I ordered it anyway, though, because I just had beef the last two nights, I wasn’t in the mood for salmon, and the +1 was ordering the risotto. Surprisingly, I really liked the chicken curry, which was bite-sized pieces of dark and white meat chicken and cashews in a flavorful, very slightly spicy curry sauce. I had the plum blackberry crisp for dessert, which came in a round shallow dish with oatmeal “crisp” pieces scattered on top and a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the middle. The dessert was good, but I like the crisp part better than fruit so would have enjoyed a higher crisp to fruit ratio. I was too full to eat much of the dessert anyway (I’ll confess I actually had a salty oat cookie at Teaism right before dinner . I think this is the fifth time I’ve been to Restaurant Nora in the last ten years. It’s always been fine, but the flavors never made a strong impression on me. The +1 likes the organic emphasis of the restaurant, though, so we’ve gone back on occasions when there wasn’t another restaurant on my list of places to try. Although I think the chicken curry has been my favorite of the dishes I've had there, I would order something else next time. Chicken curry is something I can get at an Indian restaurant (though albeit, likely not all organic) so I’d want to order a dish that’s a bit more different.

Are there any vegetarian main dishes? (I assume the mac and cheese is a side dish).

Is it true that reusing the bread for croutons, etc. is common?It reminds me of when we were eating dinner at a restaurant in Paris. I pulled off a piece of roll and, for some reason, I put the roll back in the basket rather than on my bread plate. When the server was clearing our table, I noticed that he took our bread basket and dumped the leftover rolls in a big bin where another server then came and filled up his bread basket. I felt guilty for having put the roll back in the basket, but I had no idea it was going to be reused.

We were there last month and had the same problem -- soup but no spoon (someone also mentioned this issue earlier in this thread). Once we got the server's attention, though, he offered to reheat the soup (husband declined).

More details here at the sixth question down and here.

I just bought a Corn Zipper this weekend at La Cuisine in Old Town! (So now you know where to buy one locally ). It works, but I have to admit that I need a little more practice.

I made blackberry muffins with blackberries from the farmers market using this Williams Sonoma recipe. They have a strong lemon flavor from the zest and a crunchy lemony sugar top.

We finally cut into the watermelon that I bought last Saturday from Musachio Farm at the Arlington Courthouse farmer's market. It's deep red inside and very sweet and juicy. It's one of those large, seeded, oblong, old-fashioned looking watermelons. I'm not a fan of the seedless round kind that the grocery stores are carrying.

This is along the lines of this thread, but it's a Wash Post article so I guess it goes under Media and News? Anyway, today's Wash Post has an article about Clarendon and David and Rebecca Tax "Entrepreneurs Who Changed Clarendon Find It Has Changed Too Much"

We went to Costa Rica for our honeymoon, and I would agree that it's not a foodie vacation, though very relaxing. We had a great time and would love to go back. The food wasn't bad, just not alot of variety and limited options for places to eat depending on where you're staying (how rural) and if you'll have a car. We ate a lot of our meals at our hotels. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about where we went in Costa Rica.

They accomodate vegetarians very nicely. My vegetarian husband and I had the tasting menu on a Saturday night at Komi a few months ago. I let them know when I made a reservation that he was vegetarian, and we advised our server when we sat down. When the flurry of mezze came out, he was always given a vegetarian option to my meat/fish/etc version. I recall there were vegetarian pasta options, and the meat/fish section doesn't include a veggie option but they do have one if you ask. I'd just let them know when you make the reservation.

I haven't been to Butterfield 9 for Restaurant Week, but passing along this info: They are having a Pre-restaurant week dinner special from August 7th – August 13th and "double restaurant week" for lunch and dinner from August 14th – August 27th. They've posted the menus on their website.

Even with the air conditioning on, the humidity is inescapable. My rolled out butter cookies with royal icing seem to be softer and more breakable than they normally are. To use up some buttermilk and fresh peaches, I also made peach crumb cake (chopped up peach bits scattered on the cake batter before putting on the crumb topping).

He mentioned Eammons at the end of the tour -- if my mind isn't playing tricks on me, he said Eammon's should be open in one or two weeks.