Sunday, August 29

Salad, (then later) McDonald's

Technically my night to cook.  Michael was at his friend's house for a Star Wars role-playing game-a-thon.  (Lasting over 12 hours).  Since Michel wasn't home, I made myself salad for dinner.

Michael got home later and was "starved", so we decided to go to the 24 hour McDonald's.  Michael got a couple of burgers and some fries.  I couldn't resist a cheeseburger and Baxter got a happy meal, which he unwillingly shared with Ferb and me.   

 

Friday, August 27

Out to dinner night.

In our continuing effort to eat at restaurants within walking distance, this time we venture out to Bobby's Crabcakes, a restaurant a couple of blocks from our house.  Last week I managed to score a Groupon for the restaurant, so we got a discount.  Michael and I both ordered the crabcake platter, which was two crabcakes served with fries.  They were excellent!  I was a little apprehensive because I had read some of the reviews on the place which said the fries were soggy, but everything was fabulous!  We both enjoyed dinner immensely.  It is a little expensive (even with groupon), but the crabcake quality was top-notch.

Friday, August 20

So if you notice on the calendar, we were supposed to go to a place called Apollo for dinner tonight.  We didn't.  Guess why.  Give up?  Because it's not actually open for dinner.  Michael didn't check the hours before deciding that's where he wanted to go.  Instead, we went to the Ixtapa, the Mexican restaurant we visited last month.  We had the queso again and Michael (trying to establish a "usual" for the restaurant) again ordered the seafood enchilada.  This time I ordered the chicken quesadilla.  Michael was (again) happy with his choice.  My quesadilla wasn't great -- not a whole lot of flavor -- but dipped in the queso it turned out to be okay. 

Friday, August 6

In our continuing quest to visit all restaurants within walking distance of our house, we tried Taste of Saigon, a Vietnamese place a few blocks from our house.  I had the lime steak, whih was topped with a fried egg.  Good flavor on the steak -- it definately had the Asian-style flavor.  (I opted not to try to eat the steak with chopsticks, which just seemed a bit odd).  Michael ordered the Seafood Combination, which was a bunch of various seafoods in a broth, served on noddles.  He wasn't a huge fan of it -- he thinks it was cooked in a fish stock, so the end result was very fishy.  We declined dessert.  Although my steak was okay, it wasn't a great place and I don't think we'll be back.

Friday, July 30

Out to dinner night.

It's restaurant week in Bethesda and so we decided to bend the rules about only eating out at places within walking distance.  We also broke the rule about not going to the same place twice.  We went to Redwood in Bethesda (where Michael had the fabled scallop dish that he talked about for weeks afterward).  We ordered from their Restaurant Week Menu.  For starters, I had the tomato salad (who knew that watermelon and tomatoes would taste so good together?), while Michael ordered the Arugula and Beet Salad.  Michael described his salad as "earthy", which I interpreted as meaning that it tasted like dirt.

For our entrees, I ordered the chicken with macaroni and cheese while Michael ordered the market fish, which turned out to be steel head trout.  My entree was amazing -- the mac and cheese is on their regular menu as a side and I'm going to have to go back there again just to have it.  It was absolutely amazing.  Michael enjoyed his fish dish and I tasted a tiny bit of it and it seemed okay.  (I'm not a huge fan of fish).  For desert, we ordered the chocolate pudding cake (me) and the almond cake (Michael).  We received the chocolate pudding cake (me) and the sorbet of the day (Michael).  Since our waitress seemed pretty busy, we decided not to bring the mistake to her attention.  The sorbet was cantaloupe seasoned with tarragon and it wasn't so good.  Michael was pretty luck that I wasn't so hungry after devouring my mac and cheese and chicken, so he ate most of my dessert, which was really, really, really good.  All in all, Redwood is an excellent place and I hope that we'll make another exception to our self imposed rules of dining out to go back there again soon.

Friday, July 23

Out to dinner night.  We're continuing our attempt to eat at all restaurants within walking distance, so tonight we went to an Indian place that I've been avoiding.  You see, Michael loves Indian food, but I'm just not a fan of the spicy, complex flavors.  I tend to get overwhelmed.  But I tried.  We went to Spice Xing Restaurant in Rockville Town Square. 

Michael had the Chicken Tikka Masala, which he really enjoyed.  I had the Tandoori Chicken, which I ate.  We both ordered Naan, a flatbread.  I had garlic Naan (the best part of the meal, besides the Cosmopolitan), while Michael had regular.  The service was good and they were setting up for Curry-oke when we left.  I guess I'm just not a fan of Indian food, though.

Saturday, July 17

Cheese fondue


Michael's night to cook. He made cheese fondue. The fondue recipe calls for some beer as a base, but since the only beer we had in the house was a blackberry flavored one, Michael decided to substitute wine and a little chicken broth for the base. It gave the cheese a slightly different flavor (as did the hot sauce he added) but it was still pretty good. The cheese was nice and bubbly and tasted really good on the bread.

Friday, July 16

Out to dinner night

We've decided that for the summer, we're going to try to complete our goal of eating at all the restaurants in Rockville. So we'll only be going to places that we can walk to for the next couple of months. This week, we decided to try a Mexican place that we've walked by so many times. We started out with the queso as a appetizer. (I didn't really care for the salsa -- the flavor was good, but it was a little too chunky). The chips were pretty tasty, though. For our entrees, Michael ordered a shrimp and scallop enchilada, while I ordered a chicken chimichangas. Although my chicken chimichangas turned into a beef one, it was pretty good. Michael was also pleased with his order. Along with dinner, I had a couple of margaritas, which were some of the best ones I've ever had. All in all, a pretty good place.

Sunday, July 11

So it was supposed to be my night to cook dinner, but it just didn't work out. The recipe I was planning to make -- pulled pork -- called for a lot more liquid smoke than we had, so I had to make a last minute substitution and we ordered pizza. Lame, I know.

Saturday, July 10

So it was supposed to be Michael's night to cook.  And we were supposed to have homemade ravioli.  But apparently I misunderstood what Michael meant when he asked me to take the hamburger out of the freezer.  I guess he meant now.  As a result, the hamburger was not defrosted and we ended up going out.  After a ten minute negotation process where one of us would suggest a restaurant and the other would immediately dismiss it, we settled on Hollywood Diner, just a couple miles from our house. 

I ordered their fried food platter -- chicken fingers, buffalo chicken wings, moz sticks, onion rings, with a side of fries.  Michael ordered the chicken ceasar wrap (which came with fries) and a side of moz sticks.  Both of our orders contained fries.  About seven minutes after placing our order, our waitress came back and told us they were completely out of fries.  Not exactly sure how that happens at 5:30 pm on a Saturday at a diner, but well, okay.  Michael subbed homefries for the fries and I decided to go without.  My food was tasty.  Although I wasn't surprised given that it was just fried food.  Michael's chicken ceasar wrap appeared to not contain ceasar dressing and the homefries were pretty disgusting. 

About 3/4 of the way through dinner, our waitress reappeared and told us they now had fries and asked us whether we wanted them.  I could tell Michael wasn't happy with the homefries (and really, I hadn't had enough fried food yet), so we told her, yes, we'd like a side of fries.  Putting aside the question of how they now had fries, we tried them.  Not completely fried and kind of soggy -- they obviously rushed getting them out to us.  Bummer.

Anyways, we'll probably go back again just because they have such a huge menu (last time we were there, Michael loved the spaghetti with meatballs), great hours, and are convenient, but we'll remember not to order the fries in the future.

Friday, July 9

Out to dinner night.  We decided to try a place in Potomac this week -- Normandie Farm Restaurant.  We knew that because of the location of the restaurant, the crowd would probably be older.  And we were correct -- our entrance to the dining room probably brought down the average age by about 15 years.  The restaurant itself is sort of like eating at your grandma's house.  In the 1960s.  (By the way, your grandma says hi.)  The decor is a unique mix of French provincial, German-like architecture, and roosters.  I didn't really understand the roosters. 

The service was excellent.  True to its website, service begins with warm popovers, served with raspberry jam and whipped butter.  Quite tasty.  I had the french onion soup as an appetizer, while Michael ordered lobster bisque.  My soup was good, although not as beefy as I usually expect French onion soup to be.  The cheese was excellent, though.  Michael's soup was incredible heavy on cognac.  So much so, we joked about trying to light it on fire using the candle.  For entrees, Michael ordered prime rib, which was served with a baked potato and vegetable of the day (which turned out to be green beans).  I had crab cakes, also served with baked potato and beans.  The portions were substantial and we were unable to finish our entrees (though Michael took both home for later).  I was a little disappointed that we were so full that we couldn't try dessert because they had a huge menu and I suspect their desserts would be excellent.  All in all, an okay experience, although I'm not sure I'd be racing to go back.

Saturday, July 3

Out to dinner night. Yes, Friday is normally out to dinner night, but Michael's sisters and their husbands are visiting for the 4th of July and so we decided to go out for crab tonight.





Heather and Mark don't like whole Maryland blue crab, so they ordered crab cakes and snow crab legs, respectively. Heather (the fancy one in the group) also wanted wine instead of beer.








The crabs were excellent -- we ate a dozen and a half (and two pitchers of beer) between the four of us.




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Friday, June 25

Out to dinner night.  No pictures -- I guess I just need to get over the weird feeling of taking pictures of my food in public.  We went to Sol de Espana in Rockville, about a mile from our house. 

The Spanish restaurant doesn't look like much from the outside -- it is part of a strip mall -- but inside, it looks like a fine dining restaurant on the inside.  The prices are very reasonable and the portions good sized without being too much.  For an appetizer, we had a pork tenderloin, potato, and cheese dish.  It was okay, but needed a bit of salt.  For my entree, I had the baked chicken with garlic and potatoes in a sherry sauce.  The chicken was excellent -- very good flavor -- but was all dark meat.  (I'm not a huge fan of dark meat).  I had a difficult time with the potatoes because the garlic was sliced and ended up mixed in with the potatoes.  Since I didn't want to bite into a slice of garlic, I tried to separate as best I could, but the smashed potatoes and garlic slices looked remarkably similar.  Michael had some sort of seafood dish -- I can't remember exactly what it was and it isn't listed on the menu online.  He seemed to enjoy it (and he also finished my chicken dish). 

We had a bottle of Spanish white wine with dinner, which was remarkably good.  Crisp and clean tasting.  For dessert, we had a chocolate cake. Very tasty.  The service overall was friendly, although a little slow at times.  We did enjoy the leisurely dinner.  Especially since we knew getting home would take us all of five minutes.

Tuesday, June 22

Out to dinner night.  Yes, a rare mid-week out to dinner.  The local animal shelter was holding a "yappy hour" fundraiser at La Tasca, a tapas place a couple of blocks from our house.  We took Baxter and walked over for drinks and dinner.  For drinks, Michael had a beer, while I had sangaria.  We ordered beef empanadas (delicious!), a mini ham and cheese sandwich (okay), calamari (a little rubbery), and deep fried shrimp (good).  It was a good meal and we met some interesting people.  Until the thunderstorm started.  Baxter immediately crawled under the table and the umbrella over our table was somehow positioned so I managed to catch every single runoff drip.  Luckily, the skies cleared up relatively quickly and we were able to walk home.

Friday, June 18

Out to dinner night.  We're in Pittsburgh this weekend, visiting Michael's family.  On the menu for Friday night was a picnic with burgers, fried chicken, and sides.  Standard picnic food, but pretty good.

Friday, June 11

Out to Dinner Night.  No photos this time because I had to work late and so Michael met me at the Metro Station closest to the restaurant -- no time to go home to get the camera.  (I know, I always have an excuse.  I also feel sort of weird taking pictures of my food in public).  Michael picked the restaurant this time -- we went to Mrs. K's Toll House in Silver Spring.  The restaurant itself was really nice -- very nicely landscaped outside and it looked like it was a old Victoria house converted into a restaurant.  There was a wedding going on what we arrived.  For an appetizer, we had the cheese plate with an assortment of different cheeses.  Michael ordered the seafood pasta (because the salmon was not sushi quality, so they wouldn't serve it rare), while I had crabcakes.  The sauce on Michael's pasta was delicious and it was filled with
shrimp, scallops, and lumps of crab meat.  My crabcakes were good sized and had very little filler.  The crabcakes were served with mashed potatoes and green beans.  Very good.  For dessert we (meaning me) had a fourless chocolate cake -- it was so rich and creamy, it was almost like a fudge.  Delicious!

Friday, June 4

Out to dinner night.  No pictures because I discovered that my cell phone takes horrible pictures in low light.  Even with the flash.

We went to Cesco Trattoria in Bethesda.  We had tried to go there a couple of weeks ago, but they had a power outage.  The reviews we read on the restaurant were generally and said they served authentic Italian food.  For an appetizer, we shared a mozzarella and tomato plate.  (They actually split the appetizer in the kitchen for us and brought it out in two plates -- very handy!)  Michael had the veal stuffed tortelloni with bolognese sauce.  Michael wasn't thrilled with his dinner, but I tried it and liked it.  (Perhaps because it tasted remarkably like Chef Boyardee.)  I had the veal scaloppine stuffed with cheese and mushrooms and served with Swiss chard and potatoes.  The veal was tasty, but a little fatty.  The mashed potatoes were excellent.  The Swiss chard was a little....um....slimy.  I'm really not a fan of slimy food, but Michael enjoyed it.  The portion was huge and Baxter enjoyed the leftover veal.

For dessert, we had the Bongo Bongo, profiteroles filled with cream and dipped in dark chocolate.  Michael ordered dessert and told our waiter we would share -- one Bongo for him and one for me.  Our waiter (who had probably heard the joke many times before) laughed and told Michael (in his Italian accent) that he "like his joke."  Dessert was good -- I loved the dark chocolate sauce.  I thought the profileroles were a little soggy, but Michael liked them. 

All in all, just an okay place.  I liked our waiter, but service was a bit slow (dinner took us over two hours), and the food was nothing spectacular. 

Friday, May 28

Michael's birthday and out to dinner night

Today was Michael's birthday and for his birthday dinner, he wanted sushi. So we decided to try Sushi Ko in Bethesda. Michael loves sushi, but I'm not really a fan, so I had resigned myself to going hungry or ordering something lame like the chicken teriyaki. Michael decided to order an assortment of rolls and other pieces and I asked him to order for me as well. I decided to go with a California roll (brave of me, huh?) and a crab, cream cheese, and avocado roll. The crab roll was surprisingly tasty and I ended up ordering a second one. Michael seemed to enjoy his birthday dinner and can't seem to stop talking about it. We stopped at Dairy Queen on our way home and split a peanut buster parfait for dessert. (Baxter got a small dish of vanilla ice cream).


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Friday, May 21

Out-to-dinner night. 

We went to 8407 kitchen bar in Silver Spring (http://www.8407kb.com/) and had an excellent dinner.  The place was really crowded so we had a couple of glasses of wine at the bar before heading upstairs to our table.  The upstairs of the restaurant is an open space which feels really airy (compared to the downstairs bar area which was very crowded).  We ordered an appetizer of two cow's milk cheeses (Cave Aged Chapelle from Maryland and Grayson from Virginia) along with some oven roasted olives.  The cheeses were semi-firm and tasted quite good, especially along with bottle of Chardonnay we also ordered.  Our waiter warned us that the Grayson was a pungent smelling cheese and he was indeed correct.  We referred to it as the "foot cheese" through the rest of dinner.  For our entrees, I had the Crab Cake and Michael had (of course), the scallops.  Both were very good.  The crab cake was mostly crab and very little filler and served with a tasty tarter sauce and spring salad.  Michael was happy with his scallops, although said it ranked second in terms of best scallops he has every had (the top being the scallops at Redwood in Bethesda).  We opted for the creme brulee for dessert, which was good, but had a little too much brulee and not enough creme.  No pictures of dinner because I was feel a little self-conscious about pulling out the camera and taking photos of our food.  I'll try to be a better blogger next time.

Friday, May 14

Friday is Out to Dinner night

So we were supposed to go to Cesco Trattoria in Bethesda for dinner tonight, but when we got to the restaurant, it was closed because of a power outage.  Just our luck, I was kind of looking forward to some Italian food and Michael had already picked his entree from their menu on-line.

Since it was Bethesda, I was a little concerned about getting a table at another place at such late notice, so we decided to go home and try a different place.  We ended up going to Hollywood Diner instead.  Not exactly the same kind of place, but it ended up being really good.  First, they have a huge menu, so we were each able to choose something completely different.  Michael got the spaghetti and meatballs (above) and I got the Monte Cristo sandwich with onion rings.  Both were delicious, with very large portions.  We both took part of our dinner home (and Baxter was happy to have the leftover turkey and ham from my sandwich). Sorry for the quality of the pictures -- they were taken with my cell phone camera.