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

We're Cuban, B!

By Erin

On Tuesday of this week, there was much reason for celebration: we were celebrating our petitions being turned in and DONE (thus indicating the end of our first year of law school!), it was my friend Lydia's birthday (belated), and it was most people's first day of work in their various legal jobs (myself included). Why not celebrate with a few mojitos? So, we went to a great place in Federal Hill called Little Havana, located on Key Highway, right on the water.

The folks at Little Havana definitely know how to party. How do I know this? The slogan on the backs of the waiters' shirts is "You can't drink all day if you don't start early." Amen, brother.


Anyway, Little Havana not only has a great atmosphere, with a large indoor bar/restaurant and a cute deck on the right water, but the food (and drinks) are great as well. I've been to Little Havana many times but this evening, lots of new folks came along (including some of my new fabulous work friends from my summer job at the US Attorney's Office), so I was excited to show them the Cuban ropes (um, what?).


The mojitos at Little Havana are great - so great that I forgot to take a pic...sorry!


However, I did remember to take pictures of the food...whew. I got my usual, which was a Cuban Sandwich. I love the Cuban Sandwich - pulled pork, ham, swiss cheese, pickles, and yellow mustard on crusty bread (essentially baguette), which is pressed in a sandwich/panini press to perfect crunchiness. It sounds like a weird combo but trust me on this one, it's AWESOME. (Cuban Sandwich anecdote: The last time I was at Little Havana, I was enjoying my sandwich when someone asked me if I kept kosher, to which I responded "well, there are TWO kinds of pork, plus cheese, on this sandwich...so no, not really.")

Cuban Sandwich

Normally the Cuban Sandwich at Little Havana is served with black beans and rice and plantain chips, which is what my friend Adam got with his. I wanted to try their sweet potato fries, however, so I requested those instead of the rice and beans. The fries were good - sweet and salty, though they had a little too much seasoning (Old Bay, I think) which overpowered the yummy yammy flavors. Here's a shot of the black beans and rice, with the plantain chips (which are quite good).

Lynn got a black bean bread bowl, which she said was "okay". The bowl sort of fell apart and couldn't hold up to the black bean soup. Also, if I recall correctly, she felt "mislead" since she thought it was going to be more like nachos - a word to the wise next time you're at Little Havana.

Black Bean Bread Bowl

Although we did not order this dish this time, Xani and I are known to get their appetizer, the masas de puerco fritas, which are little pieces of pork that are fried up and served with a cilantro lime hot sauce - this dish is delicious, intensely-flavored, and highly recommended.

We had a great time celebrating our various events at Little Havana, and I'm sure we'll be back soon for more good times!

Happy eating,
EP

"Give it to us raw and wriggling!"

By Xani and Erin

So in honor of Xani's triumphant (?) return to Baltimore, we decided to go to dinner at Matsuri for dinner. Matsuri is our favorite local sushi joint-- it offers high-quality, freshness, and good selection. It doesn't hurt that it is also the closest sushi place in Baltimore, right next to the Cross Street Market, an easy walk from either of our homes. But while avoiding parking hassles is a priority, no way would we go to Matsuri as often as we do if it didn't offer great food, service, and atmosphere. I particularly like the atmosphere-- the downstairs has a small sushi bar and is crowded with tables that overlook the street. It seems cramped but once you are seated, everyone has plenty of room. The upstairs dining room is a bit more spacious (and has tables for larger parties) but I think the downstairs has a better "city-livin'" vibe to it. Also, we once saw a celebrity there, sitting downstairs -- none other than Chef Duff of Food Network's Ace of Cakes! So, there's that...



Moving on, we got seated downstairs right away and after catching up a bit (it's not often the BCD sisters don't see each other for a WHOLE WEEK) we got down to ordering. We have our favorites but we always check the specials to see if they have anything interesting going on. While they did have a Super White Tuna Sashimi special, which we have had before and was quite good, we decided to pass this time. Instead we ordered some wakame (seaweed) salad and vegetable tempura.

Seaweed salad was a hearty helping of the chewy, green strands, and the tempura featured slices of eggplant, zuchinni, green pepper, and sweet potato, and a green bean in that delicious, crisp coating. We were disappointed that we didn't get the broccoli that sometimes appears in this appetizer, but I guess thats the luck of the draw!

As we were finishing up the first course, the watiress arrived with the massive tray of sushi we had ordered. "Oh no!" we said, in unison. We always over-order! Everything just sounds so good! Anyway, here it is:



Um, yeah. We went a little overboard, I guess. Specifically we have here a soft shell crab roll, salmon avocado roll, hamachi with scallions roll, ruby roll (tuna with fresh crab meat and scallions), spicy scallop roll, and two pieces of ama-ebi (discussed below). Yikes! What were we thinking?? I guess we were thinking we were damn hungry!

Spicy Scallop Roll

Ruby Roll and Salmon and Avocado Roll

We have tried most of these rolls before-- spicy scallop is a favorite, hamachi and salmon avocado are good standards, always very fresh and flavorful. The ruby roll was new for us, and while it was good, the texture was a little unusual. The crab meat (which is cooked) was a little stringy/mushy. Not offensive, just a little odd.

Soft Shell Crab Roll

We Marylanders love us some crabs: hard-shell, soft-shells, cakes, puffs, etc. Sushi is no exception. This roll featured deep-fried whole soft-shells wrapped into rolls. Matsuri serves theirs with mayonaise which we had to specifically request not to have because please, people, sushi and mayo have NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER. Some of you are probably saying we have no room to talk, as we are eating COOKED sushi rolls, and you kind of have a point. But I still think mayo (or cream cheese, ick!) on sushi is just going too far!

We always save the best (weirdest) for last: Ama-ebi, which is shrimp (sometimes called "sweet shrimp"). The body is served as nigiri sushi (raw on top of a finger-shaped clump of sushi rice) accompaned by the deep fried shrimp head. Oh yeah. This is the good stuff.

Sometimes it seems people fall into 2 categories: first, the folks who suck crawfish heads, eat the "yellow" out of steamed crabs, and cheerfully crunch on ama-ebi. Then there are the folks who prefer their food not be staring at them while they devour it. To each his own-- personally, we think a ama-ebi is a thing of beauty. The raw shrimp has a very rich, creamy taste and texture, and the fried head is VERY crunchy, and the flavor from the... whatever is inside the head, is awesome (if you are into that kind of thing, of course).

Now having fully gorged ourselves on sushi, it was time to head home. We were glad for the fresh air on the walk home, and went to sleep with visions of shrimp dancing in our heads...


Happy Eating,


X&E


P.S. Extra points for readers who correctly identify the source of the blog post title!

A Taste of Virginia

by Xani

That's what I always say!


So I spent last week in Texarkana, TX/AR for work (Gotta thank EP for holding things down here at BCD Headquarters in my absence!). Sadly, I am not going to blog about Texarkana. Not that I didn't have some good food (particularly Mexican/Tex-Mex and the accompanying margaritas, definitely check out Zappata's if you ever find yourself in Texarakana, it's "tremendous"), but I just never got around to taking pictures of any of it!


Instead I'm going to blog about the other trip I took last week. About 12 hours after I got home from TX at 4am, I was heading BACK to the airport to catch a flight to Norfolk, VA. My good friend Sara lives there and this was another in a series of "Girls' Weekends"* that Sara, myself, and our friend Hayley have recently made a tradition. They both visited me in Baltimore in February (pre-blog) and this time we met up in Norfolk to eat, DRINK, and be silly!

* The other "Girl" attending Girls weekend was Hayley's dog Biggie, who is actually a boy. But how cute!

First stop after Hayley and I arrive: gotta hit the bar. We ended up at Guadalajara's in Virginia Beach, right across the street from Eric's (Sara's boyfriend and our gracious host for much of the weekend) house. First course at Guadalajara's was huge margaritas that we eventually just started calling "giant bowls of tequila" because that was really a better description.

We snacked on the delicious chips, salsa and a creamy ranch-type dip they gave us, then made a meal of their very yummy and fresh guacamole. After that I had just enough room left for this vat of beer:

Apparently this place is all about oversize drinks. Not that I am complaining.

All in all a good meal and a fun night, but maybe too much fun as the next morning we all wanted, no, needed, a breakfast of french fries and pizza with bacon on it, if you get my drift... [Pictures of pizza and french fries unavailable due to laziness of photographer]

Saturday night: Prom!

Sara is a teacher at a high school in Norfolk, and she wanted to make a quick stop at the Senior Prom to see some of her students. This was also an excuse for us to dress up and go to dinner in downtown Norfolk before we went to the dance. We joined a couple of Sara's friends and fellow teachers at Rama Garden, a Thai restaurant just a few blocks from the Prom. I am a big fan of Thai food, and I was excited to try some old favorites and some new flavors and see how this place stood up to my local Thai joint.


Of course, first things first, a cocktail or two:

This is a mango margarita (because apparently I had not had enough tequila the night before). It was actually more like a super-sweet smoothie than a cocktail, a bit too sweet for me actually. Perhaps I am becoming desensitized to tequila? No matter... we pressed on to the first course, where the table shared an order of crispy wontons (these were stuffed with chicken, I believe, and were good and crispy but a little boring) and, my usual appetizer, green papaya salad. This is a great starter because it is a little spicy, a little sweet, and a little tart. The unripe papaya and peanuts on top give it crunch; its the perfect thing to get your palate going. Rama Garden did a good job with both appetizers.

A few dishes from the main course:

Green Curry with Tofu

Panang Curry with Chicken

I had the Green Curry with Tofu (yes I go meatless sometimes!). Another of my usual suspects when I eat Thai--I love the creamy, spicy curry sauce, the firm tofu, and the crunchy bamboo shoots. Unfortunately this version could have used a tiny bit more heat and salt, but was otherwise quite good, and the portion was huge. Hayley had Panang Curry with chicken, also delicious (she didnt like the "meatloaf-like" appearance of the sliced chicken, but was happy with the overall dish), but, in my book, Sara had the winning dish, good ol' Pad Thai (not pictured-- hey, it was ALL THE WAY at the other end of the table. Sue me.). They did a well executed version with lots of flavor and a bit of heat, plenty of veggies and chicken mixed in, and that great "tang" you expect from good Pad Thai (which I think is from fish sauce-- I have never made my own Pad Thai at home, but I think I might have to try it soon!).

We lingered over dinner until the other teachers, who were chaperoning the Prom, were late, then headed out of there. Prom was... interesting. I saw some very unique dresses and tuxedos, and I got reminisce about my own high school dances, and how AWFUL they always were. Dinner beforehand was always the best part-- no exception in 2007.

So even though I spent another day and a half in Norfolk, unfortunately I don't have much more to report. Sara, Hayley and I ate several "meals" at her place, which consisted of guacamole, tzatziki, grapes, cookies, bourbon chicken, and leftover bacon pizza while seated on the living room floor. Nothing wrong with that, right?? I had a great time although at the end of the weekend I think we all felt like this:

Looking forward to next Girls' Weekend! Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. What did you eat?

X

A Delicious Pain in the Ass

Our Sunday dinner this week was delicious but was definitely a challenge. The menu was:

• Cocktails
• Duck a L'Orange
• Potatoes cooked in duck fat
• Steamed cauliflower
• Ice cream

Before we get to the cooking, let's talk cocktails. Mom and Xani had margaritas (same recipe as last time but we remembered to use the good tequila), Dad had a martini (2 parts gin to 1/2 part vermouth, with a twist), and Erin had vermouth on the rocks with a twist and a splash of diet sprite - very refreshing.

Now let's discuss the Main Event: Duck a L'Orange. We used Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook for the recipe, which had some good parts and some not-so-good parts. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Anthony Bourdain, I'm just saying the recipe didn't work exactly as predicted. You know?

And now onto the star of the show, whom we named Ping, a reference to one of our most favorite children's books, The Story About Ping. There were a lot of steps to this recipe, as I'm finding is common in French cuisine. First, trim the duck, season with salt and pepper, and fill with orange pieces. Then truss the bird (just the way you would do a chicken) and place in a 250 degree oven for 30 minutes. Then remove from the oven, crank up the heat to 350, then put the bird back in the oven and cook the bird for 75 minutes.

Three lessons we learned at this point: (1) Bourdain says you can use a sheet pan for this process, but since we knew we would later need to deglaze the pan on the stove, we used a dutch oven (note: you probably could use a sheet pan if you have a gas range, however we are stuck with electric, sadly, so we have to make do!), (2) the duck was not crispy and delicious after 75 minutes - not even close - so we had to leave it in for a LOT longer and even then it was not as crispy as we had wanted it, and (3) Bourdain suggests turning the pan several times during the cooking to get even heat on the bird, but we felt we should have flipped the bird (haha) itself so the bottom (non-breast side) would crisp up as well as the top.

The bird was the "easy" part. Now the sauce is a different story. The sauce took about 4 HOURS start to finish!! First you must make "confited orange peel" (which our Dad scoffs at -- "confit" is a french verb and should not be conjugated as such!). You do this by putting finely slivered orange peel, sugar, and water in a small saucepan and boiling it down to almost nothing, then drain the excess liquid.

Then, in a medium-size saucepan, you begin the base of the sauce with red wine vinegar and sugar, which is boiled down to a thick liquid, and is at this point so hot it is like napalm (Bourdain makes several remarks about how dangerous this step is - is that a challenge, Tony??). Next, add dark chicken stock or duck stock (we happened to have some homemade dark chicken stock that we made a while back - yeah, like that's normal behavior). Simmer the stock, vinegar, and sugar for 45 minutes to reduce. (The picture here is not very good since the sauce was so dark...sorry!) Then, when the duck is out of the oven, deglaze the roasting pan with Grand Marnier (again, major burn risk here!) and pour the liquid and deglazed bits into the simmering sauce. Add the other drippings from the duck, and let reduce by half. At the end, add the juice of half a lemon and half an orange, some butter (of course), plus the confited orange peel, and serve. SHEESH.

In the end, the sauce and the duck were delicious. The duck was adequately crispy (at least on top) and the meat was not dried out at all. The sauce was rich, intense, and delicious. But we worked for like 3 hours on it and ate it in 20 minutes! Sometimes that just doesn't seem fair. This is why you should order duck at a restaurant instead of trying to make it at home.

We collected some of the fat from the duck and used it to make our potatoes. First we peeled the potatoes and boiled them whole (they absorb less water if they are not cut up) until they were not quite fork-tender. Then we drained them, quartered them, and placed them in a pan with hot duck fat. Here, the trick is not to move them around! Resist the temptation to poke, probe, stir, shake the pan, etc. If you move them around they will fall apart; if you leave them alone, they will get a nice crispy side that comes up from the pan relatively easy. After they were all crisped up on several sides, we hit them with a little salt and pepper and chopped flat-leaf parsley.

The cauliflower was just steamed in the microwave, and dressed with butter (of course), salt and pepper. Boring but pleasantly easy compared to the rest of the meal. Here's what it looked like all put together:

We apparently love the Haagen Dazs Extra Rich Light ice cream, since we had it again last night. We have also been trying their Reserve Series, with flavors from around the world. This time we had the Hawaiian honey flavor, which was too sweet, even for Erin who has quite the sweet tooth.

It was another grand ol' time with the parents and Jelly (the wonder dog) this week - stay tuned for our next culinary adventure!

Happy eating,

X & E

Wine in the Woods Gone Wild

By Erin and Xani


On Sunday, we attended an annual wine festival in Columbia, MD (our home town) called Wine in the Woods. Both of us had been before and we were very much looking forward to trying some yummy wines and doing some serious people-watching. Several of Erin's law school buddies were there, in addition to the Vaughans, our dear family friends, so we got to drink a bit with them.

Last year, we stumbled across the best sangria we've ever had EVER, so this year we were determined to find the vineyard again and buy many bottles. Of course, our memories were no good to us (a) because it was a year ago and there were so many vineyards present at the festival, and more importantly (b), we were drunk off sangria when we had it last. Cruel fate!

After much searching, we saw a woman drinking a glass of something that looked just like the sangria from last year! We bolted to the stand where she was, had a taste of the sangria, and confirmed it was the right one - mission accomplished! We tried to buy two bottles but alas, they were sold out! Apparently our idea to buy a bunch was not an original one. However, the kind gentleman who served us our samples told us that the recipe was online and we could make it ourselves if we bought the wine, called Sweet Katherine, from them, and that we did. (Sweet Katherine is a lovely, sweet red wine, which is what makes the sangria so good. I find that most sangria recipes start with some crappy red wine, and that scratchy-ness of the crappy wine comes through in the sangria; with Sweet Katherine, this is not a problem.)

The vineyard is called Elk Run and their sangria is so popular, the recipe is located on the homepage. We will be having our own sangria soon, I'm sure!

Anyway, after our slight defeat with the sangria quest, we decided to get some food since the festival always has a wide variety of delicious treats (for ridiculous prices, of course). We had some trouble deciding where to go, but we ended up getting some West African fare, which included black beans and rice, and some of the best plantains we've ever had. Delicious.

Our friends Bryan and Laura let us sit with them at their blanket, and we had some of Laura's awesome brownies. She claims she puts in chocolate, caramel, sweetened condensed milk, and butter, but we think it was crack since they were so good.

Overall, it was another great time at Wine in the Woods, and we will surely be back next year!

Happy drinking,

E & X

ps. One of the booths there was related to the alcohol laws in Maryland, and Xani having written a piece on the topic, we had to take a picture! Too many lawyers, as usual.