2011 August: Goodbye to Gigi @ Pei Wei & Tutti Frutti, Columbia MD

It was a sad day as we said goodbye to one of our charter members, Gigi Jacobs, who is moving to Florida this week. However, Cheryl Roda Wu (who left us last fall) is also in Orlando and I believe the girls will be starting the "Flip Gals Lunch Bunch - Orlando Edition"!

 

We had the kids with us this time, and they enjoyed Pei Wei with their kid-friendly chopstick helpers and as you see from Nate, sometimes chopsticks are not the fastest way to eat rice!

 

2011 June: Viet Gourmet - Frederick, MD

Ooh, looks like I'm behind on my posting - what else is new. Just found these pics from our visit to Viet Gourmet in Frederick in early June just before the kids got out of school. I think it was my 4th time there and 3rd for these girls. We had the lemongrass tofu again, as well as the black pepper tofu which we had last time, adding the tamarind chicken to our repetoire this time. Taro pudding for dessert, and they were out of the coconut bubble tea smoothie, so we challenged the chef to do a taro smoothie as Gigi & I are all over TARO these days. It was good, but the guy obviously just took the taro pudding and threw it in the blender with some ice! Who cares, it was delish! Got a kick out of buddha, looking very happy just sitting there with his vices.

2011 April - Viet Gourmet, Frederick MD

I am drawing a total blank if this is the 1st or 2nd visit to Viet Gourmet, I think the second visit because on the 1st visit I didn't have my camera? It's been so long I can't remember what the top left photo is, but there's the black pepper tofu and the lemongrass tofu and the mango rice pudding (green goo) which was NASTY compared to the THAI version. We'll definitely skip that next time. Restaurant.com has coupons to this place so we get an awesome deal, hence the reason on our first visit we ordered $100 worth of food that we got for $50! We rolled out of there that day, all full & happy!

February 2011: "Little Spice" Thai Restaurant (Hanover, MD)

You may be wondering why a group of Filipinas seem to primarily be eating at Thai Restaurants and NOT Filipino restaurants. For one, there are very few Filipino restaurants around. And those that are around, are, well, just "ok". This is the deal. Thai food is like Filipino food as far as they have the noodles and the rice and the vegetables, but dang it, the Thai food is so much more flavorful! We adore the spices that abound in their cuisine such as Thai basil, lemongrass, Thai chilis, etc. These all add significantly more flavor to their dishes. Ok. There. I've said it. THAI FOOD ROCKS!!!!!!

http://www.littlespicethairestaurant.com/

December 2010: Sabai Sabai Thai (Germantown, MD)

http://sabaisimplythai.com/

I had a restaurant.com certificate for this place, so we thought we'd try it out. Pretty good...awesome desserts! It was just good to get away and catch up with the girlies in the midst of the Christmas season busyness.

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)

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!