Great Groceries!

So, grocery store free samples work! I was taking a gander through Giant the other day. Unwisely, I always go to the grocery when I'm hungry. So, when I saw the free salsa samples with multigrain chips, I decided to try it out. The salsa was not the jarred variety, but fresh! It was excellent, and it goes really nicely in salad. It has enough spice that the salad can be lightly dressed. My second is example is a bit attenuated. I was at Whole Foods the other day and was looking for good snacks. Sometimes my parents come over to help with our house renovations, and they always complain that I have no snacks. Whole Foods was giving out samples of kettle corn. I couldn't find the brand that was being given away as samples, so bought the store brand instead. It was delicious! Sweet and salty and lowfat. Finally, on a random parting note, Welch's has a new juice 100% juice out. It's Black Cherry Concord Grape. Totally yummy!

Spezie

I went to Spezie (1736 L Street NW) the other night for some light fare. Spezie has a cool menu of small plates with wine pairings. I opted to forego the wine since I was feeling sleepy and had to commute home. I ordered the salted cod and potatoes. It disappointed me. The dish almost had a crab cake consistency and was mixed in with potatoes. It was bland and a bit on the dry side. The aroncini, which are fried balls of rice, was excellent! This is a short review, but hey, the meal was short, too. I'll go back to get a better feel for the food since I only ate from the small plate menu. I ate there once before, but it was so long ago, I can't remember the meal.

Where's the Pizza?

Anne Arundel County and Bowie are desperately in need of some good pizza. Last night, at around 9, I decided that I wanted to go out for pizza. The options were slim. The only games in town were chain restaurants. Sure, there are some places like 3 Brothers and Italian Market or Squisito that are open during the day, but Anne Arundel County is seriously lacking in good, local pizza places. We ended up at Bertucci's, which was fine, but the lack of options was just sad. If I'm missing anything, please tell me!!!

Cupcakes Again

I've previously discussed how the cupcake rage annoys me. It's crazy that people can charge over $3 for a cupcake. Nonetheless, I love cupcakes, so I've become part of the problem -- one of those people who on occasion, will pay that much for a cupcake. I ventured out to the newly opened Red Velvet Cupcakery in Penn Quarter (7th & E) on Thursday because it was giving out free cupcakes to the first 500 customers. I stood in line in the freezing cold with crazy windchill (at least for the DC area) to get a free cupcake. By the time I got out of the freezing cold and into the store, I was thinking, as were several other people in line, that the cupcakes had better be damn good. Were they? Yes and no. I wanted to try a bunch of different flavors, of course for the sake of the blog :) I picked the Morning Call -- chocolate/coffee cake with a mocha frosting, the Southern Belle -- red velvet with cream cheese frosting, and the Peanut Butter Cup -- chocolate chip cake with peanutbutter frosting. Here are my rankings: 1) Southern Belle; 2) Peanut Butter Cup; and 3) Morning Call. Put another way, it's a good thing that Red Velvet named itself Red Velvet instead of Morning Call. Morning Call was my least favorite because I didn't like the frosting. It was almost like eating whipped butter in texture and was lacking in flavor. Also, the coffee/chocolate cake didn't taste that different from the chocolate chip cake. The frosting on the Peanut Butter Cup was better, but it was a bit too much like eating straight peanutbutter; the peanut butter frosting at Hello Cupcake definitely wins that battle. The Southern had a nice, light, and tangy cream cheese frosting, and the cake flavor was just what red velvet should taste like. As for the cake itself, it was fine, but the texture was subtly gummy and had too many air bubbles for my liking. But maybe I'm being hypercritical because of my long wait in the cold, or maybe because I still feel like cupcakes are generally overpriced. If someone would have baked these cupcakes at home and brought them to a party, I would have thought that they were better. On the plus side, the owner was enthusiastic and friendly and was giving the cold people standing in line little cups of cocoa. I appreciated the giveaway. It was a great marketing technique! The verdict? I'd rank it the same as Hello Cupcake. Both had one cupcake that I thought was great. Next, on to Georgetown Cupcake.

Otani: Round Two

So, Eugene and I returned to Otani Sushi. The first time we went, we didn't have sushi, because I thought that seeing as how the sushi won't be as good as Joss, what's the point? Eugene persuaded me to go back because Otani is primarily a sushi restaurant and it wouldn't be fair to write it off without trying the sushi. The brief synopsis? Would I go back? Maybe if Joss weren't in the picture. The sushi is fresh enough and creative, but a bit on the non-traditional side with a tad too much going on at times. The most important thing is that the sushi was fresh, though. One cool thing is that our server remembered us from the last time we were in even though it was a really long time ago. We started out with a seaweed salad and fried calamari. The seaweed salad was good, but a bit on the tiny side, especially since it came in a really large bowl. There were good things and bad things about the calamari. On the up side, it was surprisingly tender and non-rubbery. On the downside, it was really bland. Luckily, it came with a spicy sauce that gave it some flavor. Portions were really small. First, a note on the sushi menu. I love tuna, but it's good to have variety. I wanted to check out the spicy tuna, but order another non-tuna non-shellfish roll. Most of the special rolls contain tuna. It was hard to find something without it. We ended up ordering yellowtail, spicy tuna, and a special twister roll. The yellowtail was fine; fresh enough. The spicy tuna was a bit weird. Instead of tuna seasoned with spicy oil, it was tuna that had been ground up and mixed with a spicy mayonnaise or something similar. I didn't care for it. It's never good to get ground up mushy stuff when you're not expecting it. The twister roll was good. It had lobster tempura and a bunch of other stuff, including yes, tuna. A lot going on! It was tasty, but I just got the feeling like less would have been more. On a parting note, the waitstaff are really friendly and the presentation of food is artful. The restaurant has a nice atmosphere. Don't be deterred by the darkened, unwelcoming windows, which make the restaurant look closed or sketchy. It's not!

Am I a food snob?

If you've been following my blog (which chances are, you haven't), you will notice that I am rather critical. I asked my husband if I were too critical, and he said that I am. It reminded me of the movie Ratatouille, where the mean critic guy notes that it's so easy for food critics to tear down the food that they eat, while the restaurants do all of the hard work of trying to make good food. I think that's true to a certain degree, but I think that critical reviews are helpful to people who want to maximize their dining experiences and potentially helpful to restaurants that seriously want to know how to do better. So, am I a food snob? I don't think so. I eat at McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Five Guys, Chipotle (pretty much all fast food restaurants) and like it. I think that I'm so critical of "fine dining" establishments and pricier places because if they're going to charge higher prices for their food, it should be good!

Rosa Mexicano: Eh....

You know, it might be better if people told you that a restaurant sucked before you went there, because if it were only halfway decent, you'd probably be okay with your experience there. Of course, the problem with that is that you might never go if you heard that it sucked. How does this relate to Rosa Mexicano (http://www.rosamexicano.info/ -- D.C. location at 575 7th Street)? Well, I had been wanting to try it for the longest time, because I had heard great things about it. As a result, my expectations were rather high. RM was fine, but I don't think that it lived up to the hype. I was with a big group and we first ordered the guacamole, which was made tableside, always a fun touch. It was of course nice and fresh, but a bit on the bland side; maybe it could have used some salt or something... I ordered the chicken tortilla pie. I once had a discussion with a fellow cheese-loving friend about whether something could be over-cheesed, and we concluded that it could be. I think that the tortilla pie was a tad overcheesed, which detracted from the overall presentation of the dish. We ordered churros, which were okay and could have tasted a little less greasy and a little fresher. The coffee was fine. Nothing to write home about, but not bad at all. Would I go back? Sure, if other people were going, I wouldn't pitch a fit, but I wouldn't go out of my way. If I went back, I would order the mole because it looked really really good. Oh, and the black beans served with the entrees are to die for. Hands down the best part of the meal.

Hunan L'Rose

Before eating at Hunan L'Rose (http://www.goldenfork.com/hunanl), located at 1131 Annapolis Road, I had already discussed what I thought were the best Chinese restaurants in the area. For the sake of my rankings, I dragged Eugene out there this past Monday night. We went around 8 pm, and found the restaurant to be rather full for a rainy Monday night, which I thought boded well for the food. Nonetheless, the rankings don't change after going to Hunan L'Rose. There wasn't anything really wrong with the food; it was just underwhelming. It could be that we didn't order the best dishes. Who knows? We started out with the steamed dumplings -- meat-filled with a nice ginger accent. They were tasty enough. Just a warning, though. Apparently, they take a really really long time to cook, as our server told us when she brought them to the table after quite awhile. This may be true, so if you're starved and looking for a fast appetizer, the dumplings are not the answer. Eugene ordered the beef chow fun, and I ordered the sesame chicken. The beef chow fun was good with nice pieces of quality, charred beef. The sesame chicken was not as good. While the sauce was tangy and flavorful, the quality of the meat was only so-so; it was mainly dark meat, and I found that the taste of the dark meat detracted from the sauce. The meal ended with a nice hot towel and a mini cup of orange sherbet. Overall, the food was okay, but with Kwong's right down the street from where we live, I see no reason to make a special trip out there. And the weird thing? No chopsticks! It's hard to call yourself a serious Asian restaurant if you don't at least put chopsticks on the table.

So So Saigon Noodle House

Unsurprisingly, I enjoy cooking a lot. For some reason, I haven't felt inspired to cook lately. As a result, we've been going out to eat too much for our own good. It was one of those uninspired nights when we decided to venture out to Saigon Noodle House at 2171 Defense Highway in Crofton (in the shopping center behind Rita's). I always tell Eugene that we should go try it out instead of venturing down to Viet-Thai Paradise in Annapolis. He finally gave in, especially since I like to try new places so that I can write about them, and because we read some good reviews online. Would I go back? In a pinch maybe, but I would rather take the hike to Viet-Thai. Things started out well. We ordered the combination roll because of the reviews we read online. It was very tasty. It came wrapped like a summer roll, but was crunchy on the inside -- a cross between a spring and summer roll. Sadly, the entrees were disappointing. Eugene ordered pho, and the broth lacked the subtle flavors of the other pho that we've tried. I ordered a crepe, which turned out to be filled mostly with beansprouts and a few shrimp. The beansprouts had a weird flavor when combined with the crepe itself, and by virtue of being almost steamed when cooked in the crepe. The crepe itself had a weird flavor that I didn't care for. Maybe the other dishes are good.....