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!

2009 NOVEMBER: 2nd gathering: Caryn's house

6 of us got together in November at my house for a Filipina Gals Luncheon. We enjoyed traditional dishes like lumpia (egg rolls), pancit, kari kari, stuffed bangus, cassava cake, ube pudding, pandan jello-type dessert. It was a beautifully warm fall day for lunch on the porch and to catch up with friends. Gigi, Angel, Eunice, Caryn, Cheryl (and Cheryl's friend)
Eunice showing off her stuffed milkfish (bangus) - whole fish garnished with kale and everything! We were impressed - so what if her mom made it for her!

It was a warm fall day to enjoy lunch on the porch!

2008 MAY: Where it all started - Cheryl's place

We first began meeting in a group of 3, in May '08 at Cheryl's place. She wanted to have a "flip gals luncheon", and we thought it was a great idea.  I remember that Gigi made this fabulous mango salad, we had pancit, lumpia and a few other traditional filipino favorites.