My friend Ray and I were stood up by all our friends for Thursday night Happy Hour last week. We’d planned for a raucous* night over at Whitlow’s on Wilson. When we figured out it would just be the two of us, we decided to put notions of bar food and beer aside and hit up Delhi Club for an official Welcome-To-The-Neighborhood dinner.
We made a good choice. We still managed to get a little tipsy on a couple of glasses of Pinot Grigio, but the food certainly beat any hamburgers or onion rings our other options would have offered us.
Our tastes didn’t run particularly adventurous: I went with the Chicken Malai Tikka ($12.50), distinguished from the classic dish by its hint of cardamom, while Ray couldn’t pass up the chance for a good butter chicken (also $12.50). My tikka was more assertive than I expected, with the yogurt marinade tenderizing the dish nicely, and I inhaled it quickly. I definitely snuck my way onto Ray’s plate more than a few times to dip our chewy garlic naan into his butter chicken sauce. Ray compensated for my thievery by asking for seconds on the flavorful rice we got with our main courses; the kitchen was more than happy to oblige.
The decor is intimate, casual and classy and you can’t beat the location, directly across from the Clarendon Metro. Next time, I’ll experiment with some of the lamb-options, perhaps – and I’m definitely indulging in the Indian Ice Cream with pistachios and almonds.
Delhi Club
1135 N. Highland Street
Arlington, VA 22201
*Language has been slightly exaggerated to make my friends sound wilder than we are.
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12Sep
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09Sep
We at DCFud have told you before how much we love our Pho and our bubble tea. So it warms my heart when I stumble upon a place with delicious renditions from both – and at a location convenient to my annoyingly-placed workplace in Springfield.
Saigon City in Springfield has become my lunch haunt of choice as of late. The place is low on lunch specials (and their dinner-priced Vietnamese selections aren’t ridiculously cheap, either), but I’m there for the Pho, which at $5.75 for a not-that-small small serving, is certainly a manageable price.
I’ve sampled two of their Phos so far, one with eye of round and brisket fat, and another with dark-meat chicken. Though the fat wasn’t appealing in the first choice, both had the typical flavorful broth, delicious meat and slippery noodles which you come to expect from a good Pho (and after having seriously sub-par Pho at Springfield Mall not too long ago, it was a welcome change). The traditional garnishes of bean sprouts, mint and lime were all provided in excess, and the dish benefited from a splash of soy sauce and a bit of hot sauce.
But what drew me to the restaurant was the brightly-colored poster boasting they had Bubble Tea. I tried two of the slush varieties: Thai Iced Tea and Green Tea flavored. Both were refreshing, with slightly firm balls of tapioca filling the bottom of my glass. After frequenting a plethora of Bubble Tea providers in both New York’s Chinatown and Pasadena, CA, I’m always delighted to happen upon a decent DC offering, where the drink seems more rare.
Saigon City is sort of a take-out/dine-in hybrid; it appears to be a regular restaurant, but you pay at the register. The servers are harried but friendly. After seeing me there twice this week, they’re already treating me like a regular. And if my Pho and Bubble Tea cravings continue, I’ll probably become one.
Saigon City Restaurant
6333 Brandon Ave
Springfield, VA 22150
(703) 569-0303 -
02Sep
Despite enjoying the three months I spent there as a resident, there are many things I don’t miss about living in Takoma Park. My roach-infested apartment building. The mildly sketchy metro station. The 80 zillion speedbumps.
But there’s one thing I would be missing about the place, had I known about it while I lived there – its proximity to Samantha’s Restaurant, at the intersection of University and Piney Branch in Silver Spring.
I went to Samantha’s, which serves Salvadoran-influenced Mexican food, with my family last week, and we loved the place. A tiny dining room filled with loyal customers and featuring friendly, low-key servers, the place has a cozy atmosphere that contrasts with its more sterile storefront.
We started our meal with the pork pupusas, apparently the snack of choice in El Salvador. Boy were these things good: two tortillas fried and stiffed with a thin layer of spicy pork and gooey cheese. They were more filling than expected, so don’t order a ton, despite their cheap $1.50 price. But they’re a great, unhealthy way to start your
meal.
For the main course, my mother ordered a Cuban-influenced marinated pork dish that was melt-in-your-mouth delicious, assertively spicy without being overwhelming. My father and I though, fell prey to old ordering habits rather than being adventurous. If my dad sees surf and turf on the menu, he gets it. Luckily, Samantha’s delivered, with the lobster cooked perfectly and the meat seasoned just enough to give it mild Mexican influence. I was less fortunate with my old standby;paella is one of my favorite foods, and since I don’t cook it for myself very often, I find it hard to pass up if I see it, even when Samantha’s warned me of a 30 minute wait. The dish wasn’t really worth the extra time – the rice was flavorful and the serving was generous, but the seafood was subpar. Many mussels were still closed, and the scallops were rubbery. It was easy to eat around the problems, but I’m going for a more unusual choice next time.
Strawberry margaritas were small but satisfying, and my father argued that the flan he ordered was the best he’d tasted, and this is a man who’s been known to order three of the dish if they’re reasonably priced. Our meal was a little on the expensive side, overall, but if you stick to the more traditional Mexican choices, or avoid seafood, Samantha’s is a steal, with plenty of choices in the $10 range. I’m definitely planning a return visit next time I find myself in the People’s Republic of Takoma Park.
Samantha’s Restaurant
631 E. University Blvd
Silver Spring, MD
301/445-7300
–This entry was written by the very talented mjf who currently can’t post entries because the oh-so-brilliant Smorgasblog crack support team (err…me) broke Movable Type again…-amg -
26Aug
Editor’s Note: This story originally read to say Chef Roberto Donna owns Il Radicchio. According to Roberto Donna’s PR department, Donna founded the group of restaurants, but has since sold the venture.
Sure, for some of us, All-You-Can-Eat Spaghetti is kind of an unnecessary concept, whether it be on account of our fear of carbohydrates or a lack of capacity to polish off more than a helping or two of the dish.
That being said, naysayers shouldn’t be turned off by Il Radicchio’s bottomless bowl of the classic pasta. The “spaghetteria” with locations in Arlington, Fairfax and DC, is an inexpensively-priced venture founded by Galieo restauranteur Roberto Donna, and one branch is conveniently within walking distance from my new home in Courthouse.
The place has specials, salads, panini, appetizers and a wide array of gourmet pizzas from which to choose, but my family, who was in town for the weekend, went straight for the spaghetti. For $6.50, you get all the pasta you can eat, and can choose from a variety of 8 oz servings of sauce, ranging in price from around $2-4. The menu I found online was different from the one I had in the restaurant, but still gives a general idea of the place’s selection.
My family sampled three sauces: a mascarpone-based cream sauce, a marinara with artichokes and shrimp and a gorgonzola-pistachio offering. The mascarpone was only adequate; it had a sourness I wasn’t expecting and was a bit runny on the texture. But the other two were delicious, particularly the pistachio. If none of our choices sound appealing, there are over 15 more that should suit your fancy; a friend of mine enjoys mixing pesto with a red pepper sauce, creating an Italian-flag worthy plate.
Other notes: bruscetta is generously piled with tangy tomatoes and drizzled with balsamic. Service at lunchtime was attentive, but not intrusive, offering us complimentary cappucinos when our waiter heard I was new to the area. All in all, the meal was a perfect welcome to Arlington for this former Silver Spring resident.
Il Radicchio
1801 Clarendon Blvd
Arlington, Va
703-276-2627 -
25Aug
Coober Pedy. In the local Aboriginal dialect it means ‘White man’s hole in the ground’. And there’s a reason for that: the 2700 miners who call ‘the Opal capital of the world’ their home reside on top of, around, and often underneath the conical mountains of white waste-soil from earlier generations. This means that million dollar finds are often attributed to hollowing out a bedroom.
But while it’s easy to spot the toothless old-timers noodleing in the piles of dust at the side of the road, the open mine shafts in the middle of town, and the many 4-wheel drives rushing explosives to hidden claims out in the ruined dessert, it’s a little more difficult to spot a more basic cultural phenomenon: Almost everyone in Coober Pedy seems to be Greek.
In a town large enough to support four restaurants, two are greek, one is Serbian, and the other one is a pizza place that also serves Greek food.
Zaf and amg had just trudged in from a hard day excavating in the mines with pickaxes and an animal-hide bucket*. They craved a big chunk of cow, or at least kangaroo. There was only one place to go: Tom and Mary’s Greek Taverna, noteworthy both for its inexpensive meals and for the fact that the road to it is paved.
I’m not sure who Tom and Mary were but the actual owners are Anastasios and Maria Klosses. They’ve been cooking in one location or another since they arrived for the second opal rush 15 years ago, and unlike most of the town, this incarnation of the taverna is built above ground. Huge feta and olive salads, fabulously aromatic lamb, and grizzled old men with beards down to their belts and steel-toed workboots knocking back unlabeled beer like they don’t want to live, all combine to give the dining room a really cosy feel.
We tried the all-meat platter and smelled it even before it came out of the kitchen. There were patties of spicy ground meat patties, huge lamb chops, huger pork chops, a steak, and an unbelievably juicy lamb kabob. Non-meat additions included tzatziki, another olive salad to ward off scurvy, and a mass of boiled potatoes bigger than the Devils Marbles formation just 1000 K up the highway.
Tom and Mary’s is a welcome retreat from the dusty scrub-desert where more dentally-challenged locals wait to buy or sell you opal. Its also one of the few places in town not covered in warning signs never to walk backwards when taking a picture. We were even given an entire pitcher of free water which is apparently something of a luxury out here. The whole meal was inhaled with serious gusto. Mining** can do that to a person.
*Driving around in a rental car being tourists
**More driving -
24Aug
During the past year or so that I’ve lived in DC, my Thai restaurant experiences largely have been mediocre. From Tara Thai to Sala Thai to some-place-in-a-Falls-Church- shopping-center-I-can’t-remember-the-name-of, no restaurant has stood out in my mind as one deserving a repeat visit.
And while my recent trip to Benjarong in Rockville, my second trip in about 8 months, wasn’t flawless, the restaurant still justifiably has earned my repeat business. Despite the uber-suburban setting, the place delivers tasty Thai food at reasonable prices in a pleasant atmosphere.
I’ve chronicled before that pineapple fried rice is one of my favorite dishes, and Benjarong delivers a juicy, flavorful version bursting with fruit, cashews, chicken, and even bits of ham (though I confess I could do without the ham). Another standout dish is the roast duck with asparagus, its skin crisp and the meat not too fatty. Lao Dang, a deep fried beef dish in a red wine sauce, tasted a bit more BBQ-sauce-esque than I’d expected, though my companion enjoyed the tangy entree. Soups are the usual fare – both Tohm Yum and the coconut milk-based Tohm Kha were fine, but unremarkable.
All in all, I enjoyed Benjarong, but I’ve yet to find a Thai restaurant in the area to best my favorite New York offering or even a recent Pittsburgh discovery. Thai fans, where should I be looking?
Benjarong Thai Restaurant, Wintergreen Plaza
885 Rockville Pike (Rt. 355)
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 424-5533 -
23Aug
The results are in from the Washington Post’s Best Bets Readers’ Choice awards. Thousands of people from across the metropolitan area voted in such diverse categories as bakeries to romantic restaurants.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is decide of the voting populace is just on crack, or even go through the list and find a couple keen locations for yourself. -
11Aug
I love cannoli. It might be my favorite dessert, except I don’t get it often enough to tell. You only ever get it at Italian restaurants, and even they often only have ‘ice cream cannoli’ or somesuch nonsense, or none at all. My memories of cannoli are easily traced back to the dearly departed Floriana Ristorante, where Matisse is now. Floriana may have made the perfect cannoli, or it could be over-idealized in my memory.
So, you can imagine myexcitmglee when I saw the big stack of cannoli on the counter today at the Galileo Grill. For those who don’t know, the Galileo Grill is, when open, the Best Thing to Do For Lunch in DC. Superstar chef Roberto Donna himself stands behind a counter, between it and the grill itself, making your sandwiches and scooping your soup and handing you your pizza, meatballs, or ribs.
Today I had the pork shoulder sandwich with provolone, broccoli rabe and green sauce, a selection always praised by Mr. Donna as his favorite. It was very tasty, but it was a little greasier than would be ideal, and one of my co-workers found she couldn’t get her mouth around the thickly-stacked sandwich (I did not have that problem).
And I had a cannoli. The best cannoli, in my mind, do not involve chocolate; the textural necessities of the pastry, I believe, generally make the chocolate mousse too light for my taste. Galileo’s has a ‘light side’ and a ‘chocolate side’ the former of which I much preferred. It had a delicious, creamy ricotta filling, topped with pistachios and hiding little bits of candied fruit in the very center. The chocolate side, unfortunately, did fall in line with other cannolis, being a bit too light and fluffy and not enough CHOCOLATE for my tastes. This is not at all to say I didn’t thoroughly enjoy it, and won’t be getting it again ASAP. The light, crispy shell was perfect, and it fell apart in the last few bites, leaving me to lick the last gooey bits of filling from my fingers. Dignified I was not – luckily my office has a door!
At $8 for the sandwich (rabe and provolone extra), $2.50 for the cannoli – a very good deal!
The Galileo Grill
1110 21st St. NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.293.7191 -
10Aug
Kanishka over at DCist points out something we missed. Washington, DC’s Warren Brown, owner of Cakelove and Love Cafe, will be getting his own 13-episode show on Food Network entitled “Sugar Rush”.
Unlike DCist, we’re big fans of Cakelove and Love Cafe, and we’ve been known to enjoy a cupcake, a coffee, and a bit of free wireless while waiting for a show to start down the road at the 9:30 Club.
So to Mr. Brown, a great congratulations! We’re looking forward to see the series.
Read more in the Washington Post article. -
10Aug
It’s the ultimate “nature vs nurture” question – how much are our palates defined by our upbringing?
Will no food truly taste as good as mom used to make? Is the pizza you’re raised on the pizza you will always love best?
I’m not sure where I fall in this argument. On the one hand, I was raised in Cleveland, and the pizza of my youth was thick-crust, deep-dish, almost fast-food-like in quality. I never lost my inbred notion that pepperoni is the superior pizza topping, but once I moved to NYC for college, I knew I’d found the place that does pizza best.
On the other hand, no Chinese restaurant will ever hold a candle to Dragon Gate, the place 10 minutes down the road that still remembers my order when I’m home visiting my parents. On the one hand, some of the appeal lies in the fact it’s the only Chinese-restaurant-ice-cream-parlor-driving-range-mini-golf-course I’m aware of, but I’ve never found a won ton soup, egg roll or Hong Kong Chicken to top it. Meanwhile, when I eagerly bring friends from different regions to sample the place’s cuisine, they deem it mediocre at best.
Chili’s one of those foods that seems to have quite a few regional advocates who profess their city’s concoction is the greatest. Ohio had its own claim to the crown – the chili-on-spaghetti which Cincinnati made famous. Growing up, I only got the chance to sample this style from the chain restaurant Skyline Chili and my sister and I quickly pronounced it as “sick.” So much for regional pride.
Then again, I don’t think I’m much of a chili connoisseur. Chili in my house consisted of a can of tomato sauce, ground beef, onions and kidney beans – the only thing it really had going for it was the fact it was always served Halloween night, pre-Trick-or-Treating. My favorite chili recipe now is less-than-authentic, and certainly not grounded in Ohio pride – it’s one I’ve adapted from the queen of cooking shortcuts, Rachael Ray.
So with all these caveats, you can decide how much stock to place on my opinion when I tell you about the chili at Hard Times Cafe in Springfield, Va.
