johnb

Last post in this thread was mid-April, and Sept. is past so the rumor mill got it wrong again (LOL). Seriously, any updates? Meanwhile, two other developments in SS. There is a place called Taste of Jerusalem that looks like it will be opening soon; it's in the same block as the World Building, about midway between Crisfield and the new development area (same block as the old Polonia Deli). There is also a new ice cream place open two doors from Crisfield, near Mayorga. I haven't stoppd to take a close look at either. Anybody know anything more?

Just got back from the "Blessing of the Fleet" in St. Clements. A lovely little place and a nice little festival. The Archbishop appeared on que and took up his position on the replica of the Dove, and blessed the various boats which appeared and requested an assist from above for the coming year. This was the 38th year of the festival, which was for the benefit of the local oystermen and their workboats in the early days, but since the commercial fleet has for all practical purposes passed out of existence, the "blessees" now are mostly pleasure boats. But it's a nice tradition, with an appropriate degree of pomp, bright costumes, and so forth. A beautiful and enjoyable day, and a wonderful ride and parade participation with about 15 other Corvettes. Too bad about missing the DR picnic, but....... But getting to the point of all this, the food report. Bottom line is that, based on this festival at least, festivals are an OK way to sample Southern Maryland's bounty but are a long way from foolproof. The concept of the volunteer organization cooking for you still lives, but the professional catering trucks are there as well. Perhaps the saddest part is the ever-increasing purview of the health dept. nazis, who now will not allow a raw, cold oyster to be sold in such a (outdoor, temporary) setting, so only steamed oysters were available. Seems bizarre to me, but the gentleman at the oyster booth claimed lots of locals eat them that way--he was the one who explained to me about the regs., so take it for what it's worth. I tried a half-dozen, and while they were platable, ice cold would have certainly been better. I sampled my first Maryland stuffed ham, in sandwich form, and it was good. I tried both vegetable and cream-style crab soup. The veggie was far superior to yesterday's version at Harris, tho it didn't have much crab AFAICS. I liked it better than the cream version, tho Janet thought the cream was better. I had a half-dozen steamed crabs by myself. They were definitely better than those we had Saturday; three were very good, one was OK, one was not OK, and one was mushy (cooked too long I suppose). Fried clam strips were on offer, and I asked if the clams were local or frozen from the Sysco truck, and the lady had no compunction about telling me they were frozen and from Sysco, literally--so just because it is a seafood town (where they do in fact clam), it doesn't mean that that's what they have at their annual festival. Sad but true. Overall, a mixed bag. My conclusion is, for ChesBay seafood, you can do just as well in a carefully selected local restaurant, such as Narrows, Suicide, or (so it is said) Watermans. There are others too, but unfortunately more bad ones than good ones, so careful selection seems highly advisable. And even then different dishes vary greatly in quality, and probably from day-to-day. Let the eater beware. Fortunately, the good ones are great, and make it all worthwhile.

It was a great fun day---many many thanks for organizing. The conclusion for me is that when it comes to Eastern Shore crab houses, unpredictability is the name of the game. You get some awful thing (the veg. crab soup), followed by something really good (the fried oysters) followed by something sublime (the crab-stuffed rockfish), followed by something ho-hum (the various apps). And it all seems to vary day-by-day. Crab crawls are not for the faint of tongue. Today "Mrs." Johnb and I will be missing the DR picnic to attend the blessing of the fleet at St. Clements with our "hot little convertible sport coupe" club, and I'm sure we will be scarfing up, of all things, some Ches. Bay seafood. So we'll have a report on the relative merits of the festival approach vs. the crab house approach to finding the good stuff.

Did you have the onion rings at Quarry? I keep hearing they are excellent. Both the Half-Moon BBQ and La Bamba are also good places to eat. Both are directly below the (ex?) Napoli, and both are IMO better than any of the formula places that have invaded Silver Spring.

I used to like it because it was owned by a Brazilian family and their Brazilian food was great (I never bothered with the Italian). But they sold about a year (or more??) ago, and I got bad vibes the only time I went in there after that (I didn't stick around to eat). Probably the new owner ran it in to the ground.

If this is a power lunch you seek you might also consider the Occidental. Power lunch central!

Well then, I'll come in my tu-tu. Desmond made it, so that makes it a Tutu tutu. Stop this NOW!

Personally, I just let them know that I want those things and have them send the cart over. I love chicken feet, duck feet, tripe, you name it. You can also park in the bank lot next to Hollywood East on weekends, so parking should not be too much of a problem, tho it is of course crowded. Sorry I missed this one. And I'll be out of town on Oct. 9. Oh well, we'll get to one one of these days.

I make no claim to know much about Mexican food, and would tend to agree that this area is not a hotbed of that cuisine, but the "Hyattville twins," El Tapatio and La Sirenita, should be tried by anyone who is seeking out authentic Mexican. I just had lunch today at LS and the bottom line is there are dishes there worthy of your interest. Same is true of ET. I won't attempt to describe them but Kilman has written reviews of both which can be found in the restaurant finder section of the City Paper web page. He also recently wrote about another one nearby called Taqueria Tres Reyes which sounded good. "Steve" wrote a brief report about our trip to LS and posted on another board--I reproduce it below: <<<Four of us descended upon this Riverdale, MD dive in PG County's Little Mexico area. We had a great time, and everything we ordered was good. I am defintiely tempted go back and explore more, although I do not feel compelled to revisit the items we had this time. We had: "shampoo" soup, with seafood, beef, and spaghetti. (VERY spicy) Posole, a hominy and pork soup (bland at first, but the addition of radish, lettuce and tortillas made it satisfying) Chicken Mole, (big, meaty legs with a rich sauce) Chilaquiles (tortilla chips almost soaked in a red sauce with a bit of white cheese on top.) Chili Relleno (good stuff) Orders of tamarindo and agua de melon to drink produced impressive personal pitchers with ice and a straw. Glass optional. The fact that the rice and beans are well-made and tasty already puts this place ahead of most closer alternatives. As a counterpoint to other postings on La Sirenita, the service was excellent and went beyond the call of duty. Knowing some Spanish (thanks Rebecca) pays off. They even turned down the level of the sound system in our honor. From 10 to at least 8. >>>

I agree with you about Audrey and JNH deserving to be on a "best list." But I still think that this particular list has no relationship (other than a coincidental one) with the quality of the food provided by the listees. Put another way, unless somebody proves me wrong, I wouldn't give it much weight in choosing where to eat Chinese food in City X.

I've seen this list before. Based on a look-through, I doubt seriously the food quality is an important criterion to be placed on it. Among other things, there are too many buffets and other such things, including in this area, to suggest much credibility. I suspect this is one of those "industry association" deals where who you know counts most in determininng whether your place is listed

Any update on the new operation in Silver Spring? It seems to have been off the radar screen lately

It's on the yellow chalkboard on the wall (Chinese only). I think second from the left.

Janet and I tried the new pho place in Silver Spring, in the row of new chain restaurants. It is on the second floor, above Austin Grill if memory serves. We thought the pho was pretty good.

Since you're in SS and dine regularly at Hollywood East, have you also tried Ruan Thai, and how do you think it compares to BK54 and others in the Columbia Pike crowd? And BTW, this is off topic but how's planning going for the Joe's noodle get-together? I'm psyched for that one......

Wow. I had no idea. Rocks had better add GF to the top of his list of oldest DC area restaurants.

No doubt there will now be hoards of rockwellians headed to WF, stripping price labels off of crabmeat (and goodness knows what else), and heading for the checkouts.

Sea urchin is just wonderful stuff. I used to go to Chile a lot, and down there you can get a bowlful of them, just them and their juice, for about $5 (probably more now, but c'est la vie). Mix in some chopped onion and greens, and eat them like cereal. Talk about wretched excess! The memory makes me want to get on the next plane.

For those of you who may have been following our series of Tuesday lunches at TemptAsian, here is the final report which just went out. We never got around to the pig's blood (it was pondered by several of us), but plan to do that one one of these days soon! <<<A small group of 8 gathered last Tuesday for the last in our series of TemptAsian lunches. I'm pooped, so this will be short. Jason joined us this time and took pictures. Here is a link http://www.flickr.com/photos/foodgeek/sets/852153/ We had four apps and six mains as follows (I'll skip the commentary but offer letter grades) 27 dan dan noodles (recommended by Tyler Cowen) A 15 spicy peppercorn beef A 10 mix flavor chicken B- 19 triple stuffed bean curd skin A (surprise hit) 52 Budda's bean curd B- 70 pork with bamboo shoots pork B- bamboo A+ 62 spicy emperor duck B 66 salt fried squid and prawns (modified from menu item) B+ -- whole fish with spicy bean sauce (wallboard item) B+ -- Chinese watercress (vegetable recommended by the house) B For whatever reason, for me, the apps always seem the best part of the meal--same thing in all types of restaurants--probably because I'm hungry. It was a great run: we had at least 35 or so different dishes over the six meetings, and some were sensational. I hope that all of you who attended one or more had as much fun as I did, and that those who only have been having these reports fill their mailboxes have enjoyed reading them. Let's do something like this again soon. Volunteers?>>>

Very interesting pair of articles in today's Food Section. An ex-chef and an ex-critic give each other their takes on the dining out scene. Scams and shakedowns. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5083000343.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5083000317.html Food for thought.

Anything with a name that starts with d' automatically doubles in price. Buy the whole ducks, use the legs, then give me what's left! I'll love you forever. (Ever notice how a whole chicken often costs less than "boneless breasts" by themselves. And you get the rest for free. Such a deal!)

Not to worry. I believe sugar is one of those things that never "goes bad," at least from a health standpoint, though I'm sure some bakers could chime in about how its baking properties change, etc. Am I wrong?

Well, I'd be the last one to be out here flacking for Whole Paycheck--I hate those prices, and most everything else about the place drives me crazy too. But you gotta admire their ability to separate fools from their money. Safeway at least pulls their nearly expired meats fairly frequently and puts cents off stickers all over it. That's what I usually look for at the Safeway meat case--sometimes you get a good deal--depends on the whim of the clerk who puts on the stickers. It's a jungle out there.

Your comment raises a general issue. I spend lots of time in Asian, Latino, African, etc stores. IMO it is always wise to exercise extra caution in any of the local "ethnic" markets. There are tremendous buys to be had, but also perils, especially obviously with perishables and even, it appears, with packaged, pull-dated items. I think the employees/managers in these places often perhaps are newly-arrived and are still accustomed to the way things are done in the old country. If you've ever toured markets in these places (I'm a market freak and love those places) you may know what I mean. Big corporations like Giant and WF know about strong food handling codes, and litigation, and have a different corporate culture--they don't (as an example) leave milk out of the chiller for very long, whether it be in the trucks, the distribution center, or the store. Of course you pay for all that infrastructure. Han Ah Reum has less infrastructure and, let's face it, less employee training, not to mention less "sanitation culture"--one walk through the store makes that clear. Grand Mart is even worse IMO. In all these and other such stores you pay less, but when buying fresh items especially you need to be extra careful. As the last of the cheapo bargain-hunters I'm an enthusiastic HAR shopper. I avoid GM generally, tho some have said some of their stores are OK. I would add that HAR's Super H Division, which was set up to appeal more to the western shopper, is I think generally much better. My impression is one has a greater liklihood of not having problems there. While it's a long drive for many of us to the local Super H outpost, it's conventiently located near Wegmans Fairfax store, and thus is a great shopping-crawl opportunity.

If you make the road trip up the eastern shore to the North shore, be sure to stop at the shrimp truck. One of the best meals in the world. Period. No kidding. Beats the pants off anything fancy in Honolulu. Garlic shrimp.