Thursday, October 28, 2010

2010 October 28: Cellar Door (Frederick, MD)

Today, the local Frederick chapter (Angel, Caryn & Gigi) of the Filipina Lunch Bunch gathered and had…brace yourselves...a NON-Asian meal! Can you believe it? Honestly, there are not that many good Asian restaurants around here, plus Angel hadn't been to the historic area of Frederick, so we decided to branch out a bit.

We ate at the Cellar Door in downtown historic Frederick, mostly because I had a $25 coupon to use which gave us $50 worth of food for $25! You know we can’t pass up a good deal…

So here is what we had....

1) Fish Tacos: Made with Rockfish - INCREDIBLE! Not even the slightest fishy taste!
2) Vegetable Panini: Came with house-made potato chips that were really tasty
Somehow, I didn't get pictures of the salad most excellent PASTA PUTTANESCA dish we had.
3) Harvest Spice Cake: The waiter called it a pumpkin tart, which this clearly is not, so I renamed it. Spicy and moist and beautifully presented! The waiter said the chef was very pleased that I took pictures of his food!
4) Beignets - French donuts that were warm and soft and doughy and delicious!


2010 October 13: Viet Gourmet (Frederick, MD)

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I had a coupon so I convinced Angel & Gigi to meet me so we could try out this Vietnamese place in Frederick....we really liked it!

Tofu w/ Mixed Vegetables - Đậu Hủ Xào Rau Cải

Fried tofu sautéed in mixed vegetables and brown sauce

TOFU BLACK PEPPER SAUCE - Đậu Hủ Ram Tiêu
Fried tofu, carrots, broccoli and black pepper sauce

TOFU CURRY W/ COCONUT SAUCE - Đậu Hủ Xào Cari 
Tofu marinated and cooked with carrots, onions & snow peas

And for dessert...Bubble Tea Smoothies! Avocado, Coconut and Thai Coffee! Divine!

2010 October 6: Lumpia-Pancit Filipino Restaurant - farewell to Cheryl!

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http://www.lumpiapansitatbp.com/

This day we had the buffet again at "Lumpia-Pancit" and enjoyed traditional Filipino dishes for our last get together with Cheryl before she moved to Orlando. She will be missed!

http://www.lumpiapansitatbp.com/Download_Menu.html

2010 August: Thai Pavillion, Round 2

Ok, we liked this place so well when just 3 of us attended, that we had to go here again with the whole gang...it was worth coming back for the mango salad alone!

Cheryl announced that day that her husband was being transferred to Florida. Sad!

Som Tum Ma Muang: Julienned mango, crispy coconut, shallots, cilantro and red onion tossed in a spicy lime sauce.

Crispy Flounder
Pad See Yew Tofu





Some kind of tofu that I can't recall...

Crispy Banana with Coconut Ice Cream AND Sticky Rice and Mango Custard


Mr. Jacobs brought flowers for all the ladies!


2010 May: Sichuan Pavillion

Bean Curd Salad / General Tso's Tofu / Sweet & Spicy Eggplant / Stir-fried Baby Bok Choy

Dessert (round 1) at Bobek's Fruit Smoothie Shop (Passionfruit Cove & a Brazilian Specialty, Cupaco) then a few doors down, we found "The Fractured Prune" where freshly made hot donuts are dipped in glazes and toppings of your choice (I did the banana glaze topped with chocolate chips, coconut and peanuts!) They were so fresh and warm that they absolutely melted in your mouth! We also inquired about their donut parties/field trips to bring the kids when they are out of school.








As we were leaving, we noticed the steps back had greetings in different languages from different countries and we happened upon the most appropriate one for our group - MABUHAY is sort of like ALOHA, and can mean anything from Hello to How are you and I love you!

Monday, June 28, 2010

2010 June - Thai Pavillion


Spicy Eggplant            Tofu Pad Thai
Panang Curry Tofu
Nice decor
Mango Custard & Sticky Rice
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Thursday, April 22, 2010

2010 APRIL: BENJARONG THAI...Conquering the Pike, one restaurant at a time...

Today, we decided to try out Benjarong, a Thai restaurant suggested by Gigi. As usual, we had to decide between ordering our own thing and going family style...Family style it was, because we just can't seem to go without trying as many items as possible - out of the 10 things we wanted to order, we narrowed it down to 5...

Papaya Salad (without the shrimp of course), Tua Prik Gleua - battered string beans w/ garlic & pepper Pad Thai Chicken - good old favorite Pad Gra Prow Tao Hoo - fried tofu with chili pepper & sweet basil sauce and green beans. Tao Hoo Lard Prik - fried tofu with tamarind sauce. Each dish was really good...NO LEFT OVERS HERE! Overall, if Thai food is on your mind, this is definitely a place to hit. You won't be disappointed :)

Afterwards,for dessert, we decided to check out the neon lights across the street screaming "BUBBLE TEA" & "GELATO" from Sam's Cafe & Market...all I can say is "don't judge a book by its cover..." We walked into a little market filled with Middle Eastern products from spices to hookah pipes AKA bongs! haha!

Eunice's Matcha Green Bubble tea was a bit chalky Cheryl's Mango Bubble tea was clear and artificial Gigi's Taro Bubble tea seemed to be fine Caryn's Pistachio & Hazelnut gelato was not very fresh and had peculiar flavors NOTE TO SELF: don't expect top quality asian & italian desserts from a middle eastern market!


Benjaroon Thai Restaurant - Rockville PikeDrinking Bubble Tea and eating Gelato - from a Middle Eastern Market, of all places!

2010 MARCH : Vegetable Garden, Rockville Pike

"The Vegetable Garden" as reviewed by Gigi Jacobs

For me, the most memorable thing about eating at the Vegetable Garden was unfortunately, not the food. As a matter of fact, I cannot even remember what I ordered. I will say though, that the Wonton soup and Moo Shi Cilantro roll were yummy, and if you are a vegetarian, this place is definitely for you.

What stands out in my mind about that afternoon, was spending over 20 minutes trying to decide what format to order our food. Along with family style dining, The Vegetable Garden offers two lunch special options. For $11.99 you can have your choice of soup, entree and cilantro or spring roll. The second lunch special offers choice of soup, 2 entrees and cilantro or spring roll for $16.99. So what was the big deal? It all boils down to value (the lunch specials) versus variety (family style)–with value having won out. I would recommend that next time we order family style because lets face it, there is no discreet way of reaching across the table to snatch a bit of someone else’s dish like I wanted to do with Ann’s Soba Noodles!

Overall, with a pleasant atmosphere, great prices and some good dishes, I would give this restaurant a 4 (out of 5) chopstick rating.




 
"FIELD TRIP"  review by Caryn Wooster
That afternoon, we had a private showing with Terry of "Terry's Health Food Store", an older Asian man that has quite a sense of humor and is said to be especially fond of Ann, flirting with her at every chance (she conveniently left after lunch and missed our field trip). Eunice calls this place "Lolo's Garage" because as the name infers, it literally looks like your Grandpa's garage full of freezers in an industrial park garage. A popular supplier to local Asian restaurants, the store is entirely vegetarian meat substitutes and carries things such as veggie shrimp which Gigi purchased to trick her 4th generation vegetarian husband with - haven't heard how that went over just yet!

2010 FEBRUARY : 1st Field Trip

Instead of cooking, we decided to go out for our next lunch together, and took our first field trip to "Lumpia Pancit" Filipino Restaurant (Gaithersburg) with a side trips to an Indian Market and Asian Market next door...cuz you know it's all about the food!


                                                                 Even the fish thought the lumpia was tasty  ^

2009 DECEMBER : Christmas gathering at Angel's house


After us agreeing that we have mostly exhausted our repertoire of filipino recipes in last month's luncheon, we decided to go festive and do a red and green theme for December's get together at Angel's house. We had all kinds of spinach and red and green peppers and even a red tuna salad and green leche flan! Next month we're going on a field trip to a filpino restaurant and letting someone else do the cooking!