Food Bloggers.... They're Just Like Us!

They take out the trash! They pick up the dry cleaning! That's right folks-- the world of food blogging is not as glamorous as you might expect (shocking, I know). Sometimes, we don't want to spend all day making demi-glace, or go out and eat animal heads. Sometimes, we just want good, old-fashioned, "Americanized" Chinese food.

And so we came to find ourselves at Hunan House Restaurant in Burtonsville, MD. After a whirlwind shopping trip to pick up the ingredients for Xani's upcoming party (post coming soon!), we met up with the BCD parents for a casual dinner. Hunan House is not far from Columbia, MD, and is where our parents usually get their take-out Chinese. They've had their ups and downs with Hunan House, but it was late, we were hungry, and Xani was craving a Mai Tai.


Mom had an "Eastern Sour" which had bourbon and orange juice in it. Not sure what is so "eastern" about bourbon, but hey, who are we to judge?

We got Hot and Sour soup for the whole table. This got things off on the right foot, as the soup was indeed very hot, tangy, and filled with lots of veggies and tofu. But no bowl of hot and sour is complete without those NOODLES-- they're like crunchy little bites of heaven!



We also split a couple of egg rolls, which were pretty standard:

Onto the main dishes: We love to order lots of different dishes and share them all. Some would say we "over-order," but those people clearly don't know the pleasure of cold chinese leftovers for breakfast. And we feel SORRY for those people! So our slection of main dishes included:

Pork Lo Mein

Roast Duck Cantonese Style

Spicy Crispy Eggplant

Red Curry with Chicken

We also had a spicy shrimp and scallops in garlic dish, but didn't manage to get a good picture of it.

All the dishes were adequate and some were supringly good. The lo mein was not too greasy and had large, tender pieces of pork (instead of just the little shreds you usually get). The duck was excellent, the skin was very crispy (we need to find out their technique for the next time we try duck at home). Curry was a non-traditional choice (the menu actually included a whole page of pan-asian choices, including Japanese, Thai, and Indonesian dishes), but ended up being quite good-- the chicken was flavorful, the veggies (carrots, green beans and potatoes) tender but not too soft, and Xani especially loved the spicy, creamy coconut broth. The only dish which was a little disappointing was the eggplant.

While this LOOKS delicious, it unfortunately didn't really deliver. Spicy crispy eggplant is one of those dishes that we never get as take-out or delivery, because it's best right out of the kitchen, before the crispiness goes soggy. But this order was a bit soggy right out of the kitchen, and it was not that spicy and way too greasy. Too bad.

We finished off the meal with traditional orange slices and fortune cookies (Erin wins for best fortune: "You love the night life."). Leftovers in hand, we headed back to Baltimore, to enjoy the night life and/or go immediately to bed. After all, we had a party to get ready for! Stay tuned...

Happy eating,

X & E