Stoney River: Not So Legendary Steaks

My husband and I went to Stoney River Legendary Steaks in Annapolis (http://www.bambuza.com/) for a special occasion. The food was fine, but I would definitely try other steakhouses before going back. I remember being more impressed with Ruth's Chris's than with Stoney River. I gave Stoney River a chance even though it's a chain. While I don't turn my nose up at the chains that bind me, I prefer local restaurants. I think that the Stoney River ownership turns its nose up at chains because its website says that the steakhouses, located in several states, are a "collection" and not a chain of restaurants. Stoney River should just own its chaininess like Mortons and Ruth's Chris's. Enough philosophizing. The highlight of the meal for me? The bread with honey butter. The bread is unique; our server (who was really nice) likened it to fried doughnut holes. A close second? The coffee? Perfect, except that it could have been hotter. Sadly, the rest of the food wasn't a highlight. Not that it was bad, it just wasn't that good, especially for a supposedly high-end steakhouse. The salad offerings weren't imaginative at all. Standard steakhouse options. We got a mixed green salad, which included bacon and good cheddar and some almonds. It was good and fresh, just a bit boring. For steak, we ordered a coffee-cured filet and New York strip. The coffee-cured filet was interesting. The texture was good and the coffee flavor was noticeable; I wasn't wowed, though. The New York strip was disappointing. Although we ordered it medium rare, it came out more medium. It was tougher than it should have been (especially for aged steak) and only somewhat flavorful. The sides were ok; we had greenbeans cooked nice and firm, un-noteworthy asparagus, and scallopped potatoes that hit a nice cheese note without being too rich, but could have used more salt or flavor. We ordered the ganache cake for dessert. It was HUGE! I loved that it came with chilled shotglasses of milk -- a perfect accompaniment. The cake was so-so, served chilled, and the chocolate flakes on the outside tasted a bit stale. The frosting was yummy, though. I give Stoney River kudos for serving real cake. I hate ordering cake that turns out to be flourless, or in other words, not real cake. The verdict? Not bad, but not great.

Other Seattle Notes

To conclude my culinary tour of Seattle and so as not to bore everyone to death, here are some quick thoughts on two more Seattle dining spots: Restaurant Zoe (http://www.restaurantzoe.com/index.html). Good, but but not as good as Palace Kitchen. Again, it had a casual vibe. Gourment food with jeans. Yay! Good coffee and cool non-alcoholic cocktails, like the very refreshing cranberry orange crush. Can't remember what type of salad I ordered, but I remember being underwhelmed. My entree, the Whole Hog, was creative, and consisted of pork mixed with various other things encased in a crust. Tasty and unique. I had the pumpkin pie sundae for dessert; excellent pumpkin ice cream with crust crumbles. Good coffee as well. Bambuza (http://www.bambuza.com/). The only truly disappointing dining experience I had while in Seattle. It may have been because we went too close to closing -- an hour close, not 5 minutes close. I ordered a shrimp and papaya salad. The shrimp was undercooked and bland to the point of yucky. The summer rolls were your standard Vitenamese summer rolls, and the recommended catfish hotpot, while somewhat tasty, was submerged in a half-inch of grease. Not appealing. The restaurant charged extra for rice, which I think is absurd for an Asian restaurant. I was told, however, that in Asia, rice doesn't necessarily come with dishes because it's viewed as poor man's dish, so maybe it's more authentic that way.... Pike's Place Market. I bought the best apples (honeycrisp) that I have ever eaten there. Definitely order a bun at the Chinese stand in the outer part of the market (can't remember the name), but stay away from the juice stand. I can't remember if it's the same stand as the Chinese stand, but I ordered fresh grapefruit juice and it tasted a bit rancid. I wish that I would have had more time because the food offerings were extensive and looked unique. I think that I need a good week to eat through the entire market....

I'm a Douglasite! Part II: Palace Kitchen...arguably the best meal of my life

So, Palace Kitchen (http://www.tomdouglas.com/palace/index.html). There's so much to say about it. Again, as noted in the title of this post, it may have given me the best dining experience of my life, which is saying a lot, because I have eaten out a lot and all over the place. What I love about Palace Kitchen is that it breaks the mold. It's known for having one of the best burgers in Seattle, but at the same time, features food that could be served in a fine dining establishment. You can go there in jeans and order gourmet food, like goat cheese and lavendar fondue and no one will look at you funny. It has a huge horseshoe-shaped bar, and offers some great cocktails. I highly recommend the French Kiss. I can't remember what was in it (maybe an elderflower liqueur and pear?), but it was nice and tasty. Also, the decor gives gives off a hip and relaxing vibe. The walls are dark and feature huge oil paintings but in a decidedly non-stuffy way. If you don't want to read any further, here's the brief synopsis. This is how good the food was. I ate this meal over a month ago and still remember most of the details as I ate there this morning. Everything we ordered was good. Definitely try the goat cheese fondue and anything from the applewood grill. To make things easier, I'll go in chronological order. The bread was fresh and crispy on the outside. It was served with olive oil. To spice it up a bit, we added salt, which we ground ourselves in the mill that was on the table. For appetizers, we ordered the dungeness crab and the goat cheese fondue. The crab was amazing. It came in an interesting thick-walled silver bowl and was accompanied by a caper butter sauce with lemon. The flavors complimented each other swimmingly. The goat cheese and lavendar fondue was to die for. The texture was perfect. It was light and foamy instead of thick and gelatinous, like a lot of cheese fondues can be. We only ordered one entree because our server advised us that we could split an entree and have more than enough to eat. She recommended the chicken. Usually, I'm anti-chicken, because I think that it's boring. This chicken was the least boring, or should I say most exciting, that I have ever tasted. It was cooked on an applewood grill. As a matter of fact, at the far end of the bar, you can actually see the big pile of applewood that the restaurant uses. Our server told us that the chicken is brined overnight. It was flavorful and had a wonderfully crispy skin and came with mashed potatoes and kale (which I could have done without). We ordered cocount cream pie for dessert. Even though I had eaten it at Etta's, I indulged my friend who wanted to try it. As much as I appreciate trying new things, I didn't mind ordering the coconut cream pie again. I can't wait to try the rest of the Tom Douglas restaurants! On a parting shot, the menus at both Etta's and Palace Kitchen change daily -- even the cocktails, to account for fresh and seasonal ingredients.

I'm a Douglasite! Part I: Meet the Chef and Etta's

What's a Douglasite, you ask? Well, it hearkens back to my trip to Seattle, where I had two of the coolest dining experiences EVER!!! I happened to be lucky enough to meet Eric Tanaka, the executive chef of Tom Douglas's Seattle restaurants. His girlfriend accompanied us to lunch at Etta's Seafood in Pike's Place Market (http://www.tomdouglas.com/ettas/index.html). For someone who appreciates food as much as I do, it was super exciting to meet an executive chef of any restaurant, let alone someone who has won a James Beard award and appeared on Iron Chef. Eric came and sat at our table for awhile and was kind enough to answer all of our random questions about food, like: What cookbooks do you use? Where do you find inspiration? How did you become executive chef of a restaurant even though you didn't go to culinary school? And so many more. So now, the food. Granted, it's been awhile, but the high points have been seared into my brain. As I mentioned before, we went to Etta's and a few nights later, I went to Palace Kitchen. Both were excellent, and I think that I might have had the best meal of my life at Palace Kitchen. (More on that in part II) At Etta's, we had a bunch of appetizers: spring rolls, dungeness crab cocktail, and a tuna salad. It's too bad that I can't remember more details (it's hard enough for me to remember what we ordered) but all were excellent with unique twists. I can't remember being disappointed by anything. I ordered the crab cakes, which were good, and other people in my party ordered wild salmon cakes and a seafood soup (can't remember if it was pho or curried). I sampled all and would have ordered any of them, even the salmon cakes, which is surprising for me because I generally don't like salmon at all. Apparently, wild salmon tastes a lot different from farm-raised. We had a caramel apple concoction and a cocount cream pie for dessert, both of which were amazing. I was told that the pie crust is a point of pride for the restaurant, and it didn't disappoint. And the cherry on top? The coffee was GREAT! Of course, we were in Seattle, but still... I would definitely go back and highly recommend Etta's to anyone who wants to go to Seattle and eat some good seafood.

Garlic Fest

There are two schools of thought on garlic. Some people view garlic as a crutch, while others think that you can never really over-garlic anything. Aside from eating garlic raw, I've never had anything that I thought was too garlicky. I love garlic. It's universal and appears in so many different types of cuisine. A week ago, I went to the H-Mart (Korean market) and bought already peeled whole cloves of garlic. It was awesome! Apparently, pressing garlic takes away from the flavor, so ideally, it should be minced. I used to buy the jars of minced garlic, but it just doesn't taste the same as the fresh stuff. I then moved on to pressing because it doesn't require that the cloves be peeled. The peeled whole cloves are great because I can just throw a whole bunch in the mini food processor and have a ton of minced garlic in seconds. A warning, though. The peeled cloves make the whole fridge smell like garlic, so I'm trying to work on a way to contain the smell...

Best Chinese in Gambrills/Crofton Area

So, that might not be saying much, as Anne Arundel County isn't exactly a mecca of ethnic cuisine. Nonetheless, you've gotta work with what you have. Here are my recommendations for the best Chinese in the Gambrills/Crofton area. If you want the "hole-in-the-wall" standard Chinese experience, I highly recommend Kwong's Hunan. It's located at 1659 Crofton Center in the shopping center with Shopper's Food Warehouse and the Kmart. The food is great. Unlike almost all of the other Chinese restaurants where I have eaten in the area, it uses white meat for its chicken dishes. One disclaimer. I ordered the yaki soba (a Japanese dish) and it was not good. It may be that Kwong's just isn't as good at Japanese. One other recommendation; try the spicy wontons. They are excellent meat dumplings flavored with ginger and soaked in a delicious sauce that, while not meeting my standard for spicey, are truly tasty. If you want a fine dining experience, go to Grace's Fortune (http://www.graces-fortune.com). The atmosphere is nice. There's a koi pond and piano. It's on the pricey side, but the food is fresh and prepared without additives. If you go, you can tell that the restaurant is run by people who clearly love and appreciate food. Grace's has a Sunday buffet that I am dying to try. Also, a neighbor highly recommended Hunan L'Rose in Odenton. Apparently, its owners formerly ran a Chinese restaurant in the small shopping center on Defense Highway where Lemongrass is now located. They sold that restaurant to other owners, who didn't keep the restaurant up to snuff, so it went out of business. My husband and I are planning to go to Hunan L'Rose on our next Chinese run, so stay tuned!

Better Than Bouillon

I highly recommend Better Than Bouillon. It's a concentrated base that can be substituted for bouillon. It's 95% organic and works like a charm. It has no artificial additivies like MSG, is fat free, and low in sodium. I've used the chicken version to make turkey noodle soup, and it turned out deliciously! Here's a very rough recipe: Ingredients Organic chicken stock Water Carrots Celery Cooked turkey Thin straight egg noodles Salt & Pepper Directions Combine chicken stock, water, carrots, celery, and cooked turkey. Heat on the stove. When liquid is hot, add better than bouillon, salt, and pepper to taste. When carrots have softened, add egg noodles.