nelumbo

Yes, it almost certainly wants fresh beans, which just isn't going to happen. I popped open the can of backup beans that I had also bought. The weird thing is the canned ones are tiny - smaller than kidney beans, so they are really really hard to skin. I went through the can and only successfully skinned about half, but that was enough to test the rest of the recipe, so there was at least partial success (it tastes good, just need to fix the bean consistency thing). I think I will need to go on a hunt and see what I can find.... there are a bunch of Latin markets not terribly far from here, and a New Grand Mart that has a mix of Asian/Latin/Indian stuff, so I'll head over that way. Thanks for the tips! Am converting the mush into a Moroccan fava bean soup for tomorrow night.

I have a fava bean emergency: I am pre-testing recipes for a Viking feast coming up this Saturday, which I need to prepare for about a dozen people. Yes, I have waited until the last minute here, but I picked a bunch of simple recipes to make my life easier. One recipe is for a fava bean salad - a simple salad of the beans, apples, mushrooms, onions, nuts, cheese, with vinegar and honey dressing - how hard can that be? I live in PG county where grocery options are kinda limited, so when I went looking for fava beans last week, the only thing I could find was some dried beans at Mom's organic mart, and also some small canned beans. I picked up an extra bag of the dried beans to test this week. So, following the instructions on the package, I soaked the beans overnight to get the skins off. Following some internet advice, I then blanched the soaked beans in water with some baking soda for a minute or two to loosen the skins, peeled them, and then proceeded with "simmer for 35-40 minutes" in fresh water per the package. 8 minutes later, I check and the beans are almost completely dissolved in the water. Now I am seeing mixed advice when I search - leave the beans in the skin when cooking dried beans, peel the beans because the skin is nasty, etc. Should I not have blanched them?? Should I leave them in the skin?? If so, do I peel the skin after they are cooked?? Should I ditch the dried beans and go pick up a bunch of canned beans?? I'm pretty far from anything but Safeway, Giant, and Mom's - no Whole Foods, TJs, etc. Will be doing my main shopping on Thursday, but I've already got to go out of the way for some specialties at Ikea &etc, so I'd like to avoid an additional major trek in search of fava beans if possible. Any suggestions on what to do with a pot of dissolved bean mush? Ugh.

The former Good Fortune space on University Boulevard in Wheaton is now split into two restaurants - Cam Ranh Bay on the right, and Gourmet Inspirations on the left. The ownership has changed, but the space has been renovated and on their website (http://www.gichinese.com), the new owner of Gourmet Inspiration says: It has been a while since I went to Good Fortune - the interior has definitely been spruced up. We arrived shortly after they opened at 10:30 on Sunday, there were only a few tables of folks when we got there but it was filling up rapidly by 11:30. At first only a few carts were circulating, but more carts were added after a little while and new items were added to the carts. The good: "¢ everything we got was fresh and hot "¢ no line or wait to get in at opening "¢ service was attentive with tea, carts, and a special order of gai lan The acceptable: "¢ gai lan, siu mai, har gao, cream buns, shrimp rice noodle rolls, taro puffs The less than stellar: "¢ the tofu skin rolls were in a weird gelatinous sauce and the filling was odd in a way that I couldn't quite figure out We only had three in our party, one of whom was not very hungry, so did not sample a wide range. While this was not the greatest dim sum ever, I have had far worse. I'd eat dim sum here again, although in part that is because it is one of the closest to my house in PG county and I don't like Oriental East on weekends. Also, they have made arrangements to allow use of part of the Bank of America lot across the street for parking on Sundays and evenings, and at the Pearle Vision lot when Pearle is closed.

A visit to Grand Trunk last weekend - this time I ordered the Lahore Chicken. This was better than the lentil dish I had on my first visit, although weirdly all the hot pepper spiciness was at the very bottom of the bowl. The sauce was flavorful and the chicken was nicely cooked. The naan was hot and fresh although there were very few people in the restaurant when we first got there - it filled up with people around 1 pm and then emptied out again. For some reason the street level had no air conditioning while the lower level had the a/c on full blast.

When I was a student at UMCP, we would sometimes walk a little up Rt 1 to Jerry's pizza, which as I recall was next to a tire shop. Now that section of Rt 1 in College Park alternates between seedy old liquor stores and shiny new high-rise buildings with retail on street level. NuVegan is located in one of these newer buildings, immediately adjacent to campus, and entertainingly direct neighbor to a burger joint. This is the second store in a mini-chain, with sister location Woodlands Vegan Bistro on Georgia Ave in Columbia Heights. The menu has a short list of entrees (always available), a long list of cold sides (always available), and a short list of hot sides (rotating availability), plus a few sandwiches. There are also smoothies with four different bases (almond, soy, hemp, or rice milk). Many of the entrees are vegan versions of non-vegan dishes, such as mac 'n cheese, lasagne, burgers, fish sandwish, and fried chicken. I am neither vegan nor vegetarian, and I am not inclined to eat fake cheese items, at least not where cheese is a central ingredient (lasagne, mac n cheese, grilled cheese). However I do sometimes enjoy fake meats, so I chose the "chick'n" tenders and a side of "mushroom medley". The chick'n was actually pretty well done, not completely identical to real chicken, but the texture was pretty close and the flavor was even closer. It would have been nice if the chick'n tenders were served with a side of some kind of sauce, but oh well. I think this would be a good choice for a non-meat-eater who might be jonesing for some fried chicken. The mushroom medley however was really subpar. It was described as a cold dish of "buttons and portobellos infused with a light oil dressing". Instead, it was at least 60% bell peppers swimming in an oily lake of what seemed like some kind of salad dressing (Italian maybe?). Any flavors were completely overpowered by the dressing, it was way too oily, and ugh, bell peppers. My vegetarian companion ordered bbq tofu with a side of broccoli. This was giant pieces of tofu again swimming in a thick lake of bbq sauce (I didn't try it, but it looked similar to Kraft bbq sauce) and large florets of plain steamed broccoli. NuVegan has counter service with odd seating. The tables in the center of the restaurant are high, round, and on the small side. Each table is surrounded by built-in tiny stools. Perhaps the uncomfortable seating is meant to deter college students from loitering for hours. Anyway, I think the main strength is in some of the meat replacement items. Non-dairy shakes/smoothies (did not try) can also be good for those with dairy issues. However, this place isn't going to end up in my regular semi-local rotation, unless eating with others who have serious dietary restrictions. Their website says: "Our Mission..... Become the motivating force that sparks a movement towards global awareness by redefining the perception of vegan cuisine.", but I'd rather they focused on good tasting food.

Dinner: kimchi pancake and the last of the leftover chard-goat cheese-bacon pizza. Currently cooking for weekend lunches: Chard, roasted sweet potatoes, and quinoa with a lemon-garlic-balsamic dressing. I am tempted to drink the entire bowl of dressing as is, but I guess that would be a bad idea....

Pie, why won't you bubble in the center? You have been in the oven for 40 minutes past when you should be done, the edges are bubbling nicely but the center is a runny lake of goo (with streusel topping on the verge of burnt). There is some kind of curse, or strange thermal vortex within my oven wherein all baked goods take 1.5 to 2 times as long as they should to cook. The oven thermometer swears that the temperature is correct, and yet.... Cakes are jiggly twenty, thirty, forty minutes past the timer, pies refuse to set, and it doesn't seem to matter which pan I use or what kind of recipe it is. Pie, please start bubbling soon. My apartment is sweltering, the oven has been on for hours, and I have to get up for work tomorrow.

Waku Chicken ( where 5/301 split in Waldorf) has a menu that is somewhat oddly half peruvian chicken, and half Greek (gyros, souvlaki, etc). Extremely generous portions of sides with smallish chickens. Some of the sides looked terrible - like the mixed vegetables that were clearly from a frozen veggie mix a la elementary school cafeteria, but the green beans weren't half bad and the plantains were nicely caramelized. Chicken moist but could use more flavor. 1/4 dark plus two sides (sides were probably a pound of green beans and at least three entire plantains), $7. Can sneak into the parking lot from northbound Mattawoman-Beantown by turning left just before the railroad tracks and cutting through a gas station.

Had the portobello burger at the Penn Quarter location a few weeks ago - very, very bland. I don't think they put any kind of marinade on the portobello, and the natural mushroom flavor was overwhelmed by the mass of very boring seitan "sausage", buns, and toppings (how do you make flavorless salsa, caramelized onions, and garlic pesto??). Even worse was the carrot cupcake - utterly devoid of any flavor whatsoever. I expect this of, say, cold sandwiches from the airport kiosk, where foods must pass through some kind of flavor-eliminating scanner before being allowed into the terminal. But how (and why) they accomplished it here is a mystery.

Frantic pre-cooking for weekend re-enactment. We have a small group this time, and the venue provides dinner on Saturday night and coffee in the mornings, so it is just two breakfasts and two lunches. I usually do more pre-cooking, including things like early period recipe wafres (pizelles) made stovetop with a cast-iron vintage press, but this week was too crazy so the menu is relatively minimalist. Sat breakfast: cheesy bacon onion tart - a version of a Lombardy 15th century tart. The original boils the onions and then cooks them in a pie with eggs and a fresh cheese. I cook up some bacon first, sauté the onions in the bacon grease, and am subbing in some parmesan for some of the cheese. I also "cheat" and use edible modern pastry recipes instead of the period crust recipes which are just flour and water with no fat because the crust was functional rather than particularly edible. This one reheats nicely in a large cast iron pan over a fire. dried fruits and nuts Saturday lunch: roast chicken bread and cheese apple tart - early 16th century German recipe using grated apples cooked in butter, then mixed with cheese, eggs, and spices, then baked. This one is experimental. Saturday after provided dinner: a large fire and a variety of beverages. I am contributing several fruit cordials from last summer's pyo fruit collection. Sun breakfast: sausages bread & cheese Sun lunch meatballs - these are wacky little things, spiced pork meatballs with chopped up hard boiled egg yolks in the center, a 15th century Portuguese recipe. I've precooked and frozen them, and they will be reheated on-site with a beef broth and chopped parsley and green onions. salad of spring greens - these would include more herbs than we use now, like basil, tarragon, sage, rosemary, and violets. With oil & vinegar * deviled eggs - the period deviled egg recipes are really not that far off from modern recipes, except the deviled eggs are fried in butter after being assembled. We'll see how that goes, but it sounds like a plan to me. * a translation of the original recipe says "You English are even worse, after washing the salad heaven knows how, you put the vinegar in the dish first, and enough of that for a foot bath for Morgante, and serve it up, unstirred with neither oil nor salt, which you are supposed to add at table. By this time some of the leaves are so saturated with vinegar that they cannot take the oil, while the rest are quite naked and fit only for chicken food." http://www.greneboke.com/recipes/greensalad.shtml Since we are doing an English encampment, I guess I'll be using a lot of vinegar!

Every time we drive past Cheddar's in Waldorf in the evening, the parking lot is packed to the gills. I drive between upper PG and Avenue (St Clement's Bay) several times a month. Any food brought in the morning will be left in a hot car all day, so that limits options. By the time we are driving back, we are exhausted and starving, and with a long drive and somewhat late hour, we usually don't want to detour much at all from the usual route. Thus, we have ended up at almost every single establishment on Rt 5 between Waldorf and Avenue. North of Waldorf, 301 is just a wasteland. With all the new housing construction, I am hoping that the new mall on 301 in Upper Marlboro that currently has a Petco, Safeway, and Bojangles will also open something with real food. Or even just a Panera.

It is better than New China or Hot Pot....yes, I have eaten at the sticky table in New China. On Saturday, I had to detour through Waldorf on my way home (usually take Mattawoman/Beantown and skip most of the main drag) and noted that there is a Peruvian chicken place where 5 breaks off from 301. I am hoping it will at least be no worse than the sad peruvian chicken joint near my house (Pollo Cabana).

I have actually been there. There are two floors, the first floor has a bunch of booths, a round bar in the middle, and the counter for placing orders. The first floor was also freezing cold on an arctic, blustery day. The downstairs requires walking down a flight of clear stairs with tv screens underneath, which is pretty disorienting - the wait staff will carry your food down if you don't want to try to navigate the stairs with a tray of food in hand. There is a motley assortment of seating arrangements in the lower level, including a long table with benches? and some smaller tables with a variety of chairs. There are tv screens everywhere on the lower floor, each showing something different, and is probably best avoided by anyone sensitive to flashing lights. The restrooms have multifunction toilets with bidets and a control pad. There was a soccer match showing, and a bunch of people who were friends of the owners came in to watch the game on the first floor. IIRC, the owners may live upstairs and are independently wealthy and running the venue for fun rather than profit, but I could be wrong on this one. I went there a month ago and don't remember my exact order - I think it was a lentil dish, which I would describe as perfectly fine but not memorable (clearly). We were also given a free basket of I think cinnamon sugar naan? I didn't try any, but everyone else seemed to like them. It was not very busy, and they were fine with a large group lingering for a long time.

Ooops, I did a search and didn't find this thread already started - I probably searched on the Baltimore board though (forgot this one isn't in St. Mary's). I haven't been to Johnny Boy's. There are a few trucks/smokers set up in parking lots along Rt 5, but I usually see then driving southbound in the morning and sadly can't find them again driving northbound in the evening. I've seen a lot of really positive review for Randy's, but I have been there at least half a dozen times and was never impressed. Maybe late-ish on weekend evenings is not the best time to eat there?

Driving along Rt 5 between Waldorf and Charlotte Hall, you will come across a BBQ shack pumping out a plume of smoke along the northbound side of the road. Randy's Ribs and BBQ shares a parking lot with a hunting supply store, directly across Rt 5 from the newish solar farm. There are a few picnic tables alongside the shack, but most people seem to either eat in their cars or get carry-out. The menu includes ribs, sandwiches, beef, chicken, and a variety of sides such as chili, fries, collards, mac n cheese, and onion rings. Randy's also does catering. I drive frequently along Rt 5 between DC and Leonardtown, and was hoping to find a nice little bbq shack to stop at for dinner sometimes on the way home. The kind of place with succulent, mouth watering bbq that makes the long drive to southern Maryland worth it. Unfortunately, Randy's is not this place. I've ordered the pulled pork and pulled chicken a number of times - the meat is swimming in a cloyingly sweet sauce, and is reminiscent of the kind of sandwich you might get from a nondescript food truck at a street festival or county fair. I can't tell at all from the flavor how the meat was cooked. There are some bottles of sauce on the counter that include a Carolina sauce that is less cloying than the regular sauce, so maybe this can be substituted on the sandwiches instead? More recently, I've been ordering the half smoke, which is decent, but then I don't have much half smoke experience to compare it with. On the plus side, the fries are usually piping hot from the fry vat. I should note that I have not tried the ribs - if the pulled pork had been really good, I might have been willing to deal with the mess factor of eating ribs in the car, but no such luck.

Was running late and did not make it to the grocery this morning on the way to work. Therefore dinner was Cupboard Curry - dried fungus and black mushrooms, a lingering shallot, cans of unpeeled oyster mushroom, baby corn, water chestnut, and coconut milk, and some stuff I dug out of the produce bin including whole bamboo shoots, scallions, chinese sausage, and a big vat of Maesri red curry paste. Oh, and garlic. Finally broke open the blue label Megachef fish sauce, it gets a thumbs up. The big rice bag is re-infested with confused flour beetles, ugh. I had almost eradicated them but they are back.

This one is in the running for strangest location. Turn in to the Seven Springs Apartment complex on Cherry Hill Road, drive back past several high rise buildings until you reach the large central pond/rec center, and look for the apartment building facing the pond that has a neon "OPEN" sign in one of the small windows at the garden level. This is the "mall" for the large complex, including a convenience store and this small Jamaican cafe. We parked with no problems in the nearby parking area, although a sign at the complex entrance says that permits are required. The cafe consists of maybe half a dozen small tables, a counter with stools along one wall, and a large sofa presumably for folks waiting for carry-out. There is a glass case that seemed to house a small selection of baked goods - late Saturday night, they were down to lemon cake, but I think they sometimes have various cupcakes as well. The menu is relatively brief but wide ranging. They have a selection of breakfast items including both standard fare such as pancakes as well as jerk chicken omelets and ackee & saltfish. The lunch/dinner menu includes several jerk options, oxtail stew, cow foot stew, several varieties of wraps, pasta with a Jamaican twist, and salads (including jerk chicken salad). There are multiple vegetarian options, including pastas and stews. The service was extremely friendly. After placing our orders, we were given small mugs with complimentary samples of an off-menu multi-bean soup which was very tasty. Our dishes came out a short time later, delivered in person by the chef. I ordered the jerk chicken with sides of plantains and curry cabbage. The chicken was very juicy and tender with a flavorful sauce, mildly spicy. The curry cabbage was on the spicier side with a strong curry flavor; the plantains were thinly sliced and were cooked differently than I usual - possibly roasted or baked? I also tried a small piece of a friend's sweet and sour chicken, which seemed to be fried chicken in a tangy sauce, not dissimilar from what you might find at a Chinese restaurant. The jerk style is different here than at, say Just Jerk (which has a big grill) - there, you get a quarter chicken that is very distinctly grilled. This chicken here was more tender and with a clarity of the jerk seasonings but less of a strong grilled taste. There are a number of interesting items on the menu, so I will probably be back to check out more of them (hmmm, oxtail stew...), the full menu can be found on their website: http://www.unforgettableflavors.com/ The cafe is closed Sunday and Monday. Bathrooms are in the hallway, you will need to ask for a key. There was also a writeup last summer in the Washington Post, which I completely missed as it was in the Going Out Guide.

Report: there was food, and we ate it, and it was good. A few more details, at least for the dishes that I can remember, please correct where I get it wrong as I know some of them are mixed up: Cold tendon and tripe in spicy sauce - I feel like this had a third meat (maybe tongue? whatever it was was the best of the selection). Thin sliced in a spiced chili oil. This dish was the last to be finished, at least the slices of tendon? were a bit lonely there until the end. Rabbit cubes, cold and bone-in with peanuts and salty spices. This was probably my least favorite due to the tiny bone shards throughout. Cumin lamb, hot lamb slices with bell peppers? I was mixing this one up with another dish, which may have been pork slices with mushrooms. Or not. Shaanxi (not) hand-pulled noodles - very tasty thin noodles with ruffled edges, dressed with chili oil and spices. Soup with lamb and mystery cubes (pita? tofu?), this came with a separate dish of some kind of chili paste and garlic, which really added a lot to the dish. Pork? in fiery pot - vat of pork slices with cabbage in a chili broth. I've had the fish version of this here before, I think I might give the edge to the fish version as the fish filets soak up more of the tasty broth. I'm not Dry fried green beans - this was the sleeper hit of very flavorful, garlicky beans. This is different from the heavier, greasier version with pork that I have had elsewhere (and which seems to be ubiquitous at every hotel breakfast buffet in China). So that is eight dishes, and I feel like I may be forgetting something. Nothing was overly spicy, but after eating enough chili oil it can be hard to distinguish flavors between dishes. Anyway, for 9 people this ended up being $18 each.

I suspect this was the "mouth-watering chicken" dish.

These are strips of tofu skin (like the skin that forms when you simmer milk) tied into knots and dried. The skin is also sold in sheets and various sizes of rolled up "sticks". I really like the texture of tofu skin, and they are great in soups and braised.

Savoy cabbage sauteed in butter with linguine and scallions. Was initially planning on making braised tofu knots, but after I put the flavorings in the electric skillet with the tofu knots, I saw that both the hoisin and the chile paste expired in 2012. I'm ok with opened containers that live in the fridge for about a year past the date, but decided that two years was over the line, especially since I don't remember how long ago I opened that hoisin and it is almost 2015. I think I will have to go through everything in the cabinets and fridge and then go on a spree at the asian mart...

Leftover bamboo shoots with ground pork, a la Dunlop. Started making rum cake for a potluck at work tomorrow, noticed small flecks in the batter. Hmmm....I was pretty sure I had eradicated the flour beetles from the flour bin..... wait, it was some kind of casing or insulation on the mixer motor (Sunbeam Mixmaster roughly circa 1990) that is now disintegrating and snowing down into the mixer bowl through the ventilation slots. Noooooooooo! I have been dreading the demise of this much beloved mixer for a long time, as I loathe the now-fashionable planetary mixers and the older rotating bowl mixers (my favorite) are hard to come by and seem to be of sketchy quality. Maybe I will end up switching to hand mixers only, my kitchen is tiny anyway. Or maybe I will get adventurous and crack the top off and see if I can just pry the disintegrating substance off without killing the mixer, since otherwise it works fine. Ended up tossing the entire cake batter (ugh, a whole box of butter was in that) and starting over, this time stuck using an immersion blender to sort-of-cream the butter. I don't think anyone will care how this one turns out once I put the rum sauce on it, at least....

Yes! And could possibly lasso in one or two others depending on timing. Also, I will note that the steamed dumplings were pretty abysmal when ordered about a year ago for a weeknight dinner w/ non-adventurous folk.

Just pie similar to pumpkin pie, but using cushaw squash instead. Cushaw has a mild, delicate flavor. I think I used this recipe most recently: http://pretendtexasfarmer.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/better-than-pumpkin-cushaw-pie/ Last night: roasted broccoli and spicy stir-fried tofu skin sticks Tonight: nut loaf with mushroom gravy

Last night, hot and sour silken tofu (Dunlop), szechuan cabbage, cushaw pie and hot cocoa.