Sunday, May 20, 2007

Eating Out

Of course in addition to cooking I like to eat out quite a bit. Where have we been eating? I know you're dying to know.

For Mother's Day Chris took me to get a dozen crabs at Bethesda Crab House. We ate outdoors, we had corn, a dozen mediums (all that were left by the time we called, and thank goodness we did as they are ALWAYS running out--they even ran out of CORN). It was delicious and oh so filling. I think the mediums are good for us, because it was the first time we actually finished the entire dozen. It was a wonderful date.

I also had a jonesing for Vietnamese food. Since the move we are incredibly far away from the mecca of Vietnamese food in the DC area, Eden Center. So we drove in from work one night since I had to work late anyway. We went to Huong Que (or Four Sisters) Vietnamese Restaurant where I ordered the standard Pork Ribs in Clay Pot and Chris got the vermicelli rice noodles with grilled pork and crispy spring roll. We started with the Crispy Spring Roll and it's always so flavorful and good. It's like the best egg roll you've ever had. It's all pork and just the right amount of filler with this awesome dipping sauce. The sauce is lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and water but it may as well replace crack on the black market because it is completely addictive. I bought a bottle for my house for when I have the Trader joe's Coconut Curry Stix.

Just a note about Trader Joe's...Where are my Pork Gyoza???? Apparently the factory that manufactured them in Thailand shut down suddenly.

After we get the Vietnamese food we always stop over at Song Que for some bubble tea and banh mi. I get the ham and pate banh mi for lunch the next day and hence two cravings are quenched in one trip. Why are there no places in Maryland that make these damned sandwiches? This trip I got the pineapple bubble tea and it was very sweet but also tart and had some pineapple pulp in there. MMmm, citrusy.

Finally, last night we went for Dosai at Woodlands Indian Restaurant. This was our first time at Woodlands, and the first time I have had dosai in the three years since leaving Atlanta, when we would go to Udipi Cafe all the time for this flavorful potatoey treat. Now just like there are a dearth of good Vietnamese restaurants in MD, there was a huuge hole of great Southern Indian restaurants in Northern VA. Now we're in MD and we can go to Woodlands and get the Butter Masala Dosai all the time. We also tried the Madhu Vada, which are donuts made from lentils and flour. They taste like savory donuts. They come with the two standard dipping sauces, sambar and coconut chutney. The sambar is like a thin flavorful curry sauce which is warm, and the coconut chutney is grated coconut and spices served cool. The dosai itself was really flavorful and exactly how I remembered it. I don't know if there's a formal way of eating the dosai, but I just tear pieces of the crepe off the edge, stuff it with potato, dip it in one of the sauces and pick my way through it. Even though the mound of potato looks so small, appropriate crepe to potato rationing will get you through the meal. Gorgeous!

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