Silver Fountain – Silver Spring, MD

Wow, I haven’t posted in a long time. School and work have kept me plenty busy. However, a few weeks back, I was able to get some delicious dim sum at Silver Fountain in Silver Spring. This was only my second time trying dim sum. I’d heard good things so I suggested that we try out Silver Fountain.

It’s located in the Aspen Hill shopping center. I had heard that it gets packed so I went early to secure a table for our group. I arrived around 1pm on a Saturday and was able to be seated right away.

The place is bigger then it looks from the outside.

It was pretty crowded and loud, with a good mix of young and older people. We were seated at a large, rotating table. They brought us out tea to start.

We tried a little bit of everything. Truthfully, it was loud and we couldn’t always hear what we were ordering so I’m not sure of all the dishes that we tried.

I really liked the shrimp and pork dumplings. I also was a big fan of the pork buns. The prices are extremely low. We were a pretty large group and did not break the bank even though we all ate until we were full. The food kept coming and was always piping hot. This place is definitely worth a visit.

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North China Restaurant – Bethesda, MD

A few weeks back, my girlfriend and I were in Bethesda and wanted to order some good Chinese food. We decided to try North China Restaurant, because they had a menu that looked to have more then your regular Chinese delivery place.

We ordered over the phone and the food came fast. Really fast. Definitely gets points for speediness. We ordered the fried pork dumplings, dan dan noodles, crispy squid, and the beef brisket stew (extra spicy).

For $5.95, we got six pork dumplings and they were excellent. Dan dan noodles were something I’ve wanted to try for a long time. Dan dan noodles are a mixture of vegetables, minced pork, chili oil, Sichuan pepper, and scallions served over noodles. This dish was really spicy and probably my favorite thing that we ordered. The crispy squid was great and had just enough breading on it. We asked for the beef brisket stew to be spicy, so it had a nice added kick. It tasted great served over rice.

We were very satisfied with this meal. The prices were good, the food was great, and the service was extremely fast.

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Oriental Gourmet Chinese Restaurant – Arlington, VA

A few weeks back, my girlfriend and I wanted to eat something good and not the same old thing. We did a little research, and decided on Oriental Gourmet in Arlington, VA.

The menu was fairly standard, but it also had some interesting things on it. We ordered the steamed dumplings, shrimp in lettuce wraps, wonton soup, crispy shredded beef, and Chinese pickled mustard cabbage with intestines.

We ordered over the phone and they arrived extremely fast. The steamed dumplings were filled with pork and were delicious. We also really liked the shrimp in lettuce wraps. The lettuce is sent on the side and you fill it up with the shrimp to your liking. The wonton soup was good, although it would be hard to mess up something so simple. The crispy shredded beef was alright but it was too sweet. The cabbage with intestines was good, but not as good as when I ordered it at Paul Kee in Wheaton.

Overall, some interesting stuff on the menu and the meal was pretty good. The service was fast and the prices were good. I’d order from them again, although I wouldn’t go out of my way to do so. I’d like to try their dim sum one of these days.

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Full Key Restaurant – Wheaton, MD

My girlfriend and I were craving Chinese food, so we decided to have dinner at Full Key. It’s located on University Boulevard in the same strip mall as Max’s and Pho Hiep Hoa. We found a spot right out front and headed inside.

We really liked how well they are using the space. Although small, it’s very comfortable and inviting. There is a counter at the back of the restaurant for picking up carry-out orders.

They brought us out a pot of tea. I wanted a beer, but they do not have their alcohol license. For food, we ordered half a roast duck, two bowls of shrimp wonton soup, and an order of the baby clams in black bean sauce.

The roast duck comes out on a platter with a side of soy sauce and rice. The skin is nice and crispy. The duck itself was cooked to perfection. We did find a few bites to be salty, but overall this is excellent roast duck.

The shrimp wonton soup was absolutely delicious. This was my favorite part of the meal. The broth was piping hot, the wonton’s were light yet filling and stuffed with delicious shrimp, and the noodles really hit the spot. The portion size is also great. I highly recommend this soup.

The baby clams in black bean sauce were also delicious. The portion was huge, and we really enjoyed the flavors. The black bean sauce perfectly complimented the clams.

Overall, we really enjoyed our meal and the prices were more then reasonable. The atmosphere was comfortable, the portions were great, and the food was delicious.

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Area Round-Up

Good afternoon, everybody!

Just a couple of updates in the world of food from our area.

• Elevation Burger is now open in Wheaton Mall. It’s located next to Panera. I’m yet to try Elevation Burger, but I have heard mixed reviews. I’m sure I’ll get over to the mall to try it out soon.
• DCsocialite is reporting that the Arlington location of Pollo Rico is now taking credit cards. No mention of the Wheaton location. I’m interested to hear if they are now taking cards in Wheaton. The story is here.
• Wheaton Patch recently reviewed Nut House Pizza. Never tried it myself. The review is here.
• Tom Sietsema really enjoyed his meal at Fishnet, the new seafood restaurant in College Park. The review is here.
• Eatin’ in Wheaton contemplates ordering chicken feet.
• The Ecclesiastical Revue enjoyed the bánh mì at Saigonese.
• Congee is good for the soul. Or so says Janet Yu, the owner of Hollywood East. Read the article here.
• Speaking of soup, Hôpital Sacré Coeur shares a recipe for Jouwoumou, a Haitian soup that is traditionally served on New Years Day. One of the ingredients is a tropical squash that can be found at HanHnReyn Asian Market in Silver Spring. The link is here.
• Rockville Spoons checked out the Great Wall Supermarket in Rockville, located where Jeepers used to be on Rockville Pike. The link is here.
• Earlier this week, I went to the open house at Beers and Cheers in Germantown. They were offering 20% off of everything in the store, and were having beer and wine tastings. This was a great event and there were a lot of people there. I was able to try the Sam Adams Double IPA which was delicious.
• I had a craving for tacos yesterday, and was in the Arlington area. I drove past El Chilango but did not have any cash and there is nowhere nearby that is convenient to take out any money. I drove to El Charrito Caminante and they were closed. I didn’t realize they are not open on Tuesdays. I ended up ordering food at Chevy’s this week, which I hadn’t done in a long time. I ordered the Chevy’s Super Cinco which included one chicken enchilada, one beef enchilada, a beef crispy taco, a hand rolled pork tamale, and a hand battered chile relleno. Chevy’s food is not worth screaming from the rooftops, but it’s not too bad when you get the craving for Mexican food. We played an order for carryout, and they were very prompt about bringing me my food when I arrived. This is not my go-to choice, but I’m glad it’s there.

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Crispy Pork Belly

Last weekend, my friends and I decided to cook an Asian feast.

I went to H-Mart for some supplies. I bought pork belly, beef short ribs, enoki mushrooms, bok choy, dried black fungus, seaweed salad and wonton wrappers.

I made the crispy pork belly. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:

Pork Belly
Cooking oil (not olive oil)
White Pepper
Salt
Ginger Powder
Chinese Five Spice

1. Wash the pork belly in cold water, then put it in a large pot.
2. Fill the pot with enough water to cover the meat.
3. Boil for roughly 15 minutes.
4. Take it out of the water, dry it off using paper towels.
5. Let it dry for roughly 10 minutes.
6. Using a knife, make a few slits into the meat (not the skin) of the pork belly.
7. Place the pork belly in a large bowl, then add your spices to taste.
8. Using your hands, mix everything together, ensuring you spread the spices evenly.
9. Leave it to marinade for roughly an hour.
10. Place the pork belly in a large cast iron skillet, then pour just enough oil to cover the skin.
11. You’ll need a cover for your skillet because the oil WILL pop!
12. Fry the skin side first, roughly 5 minutes or until brown. The meat side will cook much faster.
13. Fry all of the pieces to taste.
14. Enjoy!

This is how it turned out:

The skin was nice and crispy and the meat was very flavorful. Very easy and delicious.

My friends made short ribs, dumplings, and fried rice. It was an amazing meal!

If you make the pork belly, let me know how it turns out.

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Chinese Food Week at D.C. Eater

My review of Panda Wok generated some good discussion about Chinese food in our area. Eatin’ in Wheaton just reviewed Full Key restaurant on University. My buddy over at Rockville Spoons reviewed Sushi House. Needless to say, I’ve had Asian food on the mind.

I was interested to see that over at D.C. Eater, they are having Chinese Food Week. The link can be found here.

I enjoyed the interview with Erik Bruner-Yang from Toki Underground, a Taiwanese ramen shop on H Street. The link to the interview is here.

It was a very interesting article. They asked him about how the Chinese food scene has changed over the last few years. He also mentioned quite a few restaurants to try, including some in Rockville.

In Chinatown, he recommends:

Ming’s Restaurant –

617 H St
Washington, DC 20001

“They are Taiwanese too. They have a lot of our traditional fried pork cutlet dishes over rice or noodles. It’s called pai gu fan, and those are awesome.”

Chinatown Express –

746 6th St NW
Washington, DC 20001

“Chinatown Express was really, really awesome when I was in high school. The old Chinese guy was still making noodles in the window. When I want something that makes me feel like I’m at a real noodle shop in a little alley, that’s the one you go to. Their off-menu stuff is awesome.”

The Source –

575 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001

“Scott Drewno from The Source has been coming over to Toki a little bit more now. He’s an honorary Asian — a white guy who’s Chinese. The Source is awesome, too. That guy makes killer Chinese food.”

He also mentioned a couple of places in Rockville.

A & J Restaurant –

1319 Rockville Pike
Ste C
Rockville, MD 20852

“I love A&J’s. They’ve got the best dan dan mien. The most traditional dan dan mien. We do one at the restaurant, too, but it’s definitely our take on it. Their dan dan mien is awesome. And that shit will put you out for like two days. It’s so heavy and amazing.”

Bubble Tea Express –

765 E Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852

“There’s a place in Rockville called Bubble Tea Express and they do a beef noodle soup that’s really good. All his restaurant workers came to Toki [a couple weeks ago]. I was about to leave and I decided to hang out because I’ve never had 15 people that couldn’t speak English here just hanging out all night drinking beer.”

I found this to be an interesting article. I am going to have to try out some of these places.

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Panda Wok – Silver Spring, MD

Last week, I was starving and craving some Chinese food. My usual go-to is Red Ginger in Kensington. However, I decided to try out Panda Wok.

I remember when it opened and my co-workers would order from there all the time. I wanted to finally order from there and see how it compared to Red Ginger.

I ordered the General Tso’s chicken, which did not meet the $10 delivery requirement so I added an order of spring rolls.

The food came very fast and was still piping hot. I was also happy with the large portion. The General Tso’s was delicious, and the spring rolls were pretty damn good, too.

The next time the craving hits, I will definitely order from Panda Wok because of the speed of delivery, low price, and good food.

What is your go-to for Chinese delivery in Wheaton?

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Hunan Number One – Arlington, VA

Anyone who spends time in Clarendon knows that there is a severe shortage of places to grab a drink at a reasonable price and not be surrounded by douchebags. Usually, by process of elimination, we end up at Summers which really isn’t much of a bar.

However, this weekend I was able to experience the magic of Hunan Number One. I had read that this was a good place to grab cheap beer, and that the food really isn’t the focus here. We were trying to find a place to grab a beer that wasn’t packed to capacity (Saturday night college football makes that difficult.) We tried the new Mad Rose Tavern, which was totally packed and looked like a sea of pastel colored polos. We tried Hard Times, which was also packed to capacity with people watching college football. This is the moment we decided on Hunan Number One.

This place has many things going for it. We walked in and immediately grabbed a booth that comfortably sat six people. We were unsure if you were supposed to seat yourself or wait for a host to seat you. The waitress brought out a drink menu for us, and our eyes immediately lit up. They had a decent selection of beers and they were CHEAP. I ordered a 32oz of Flying Dog (no specific beer was listed, but I rolled the dice) for $6.50. Most of the beers were between $5-6.50, but weirdly Sierra Nevada was $10 and Guinness was $12. At any rate, that is still an amazing price.

The crowd was mid 20-ish, comprised mostly of tables of people with huge mugs of beer and not much eating going on. We decided to order a couple of appetizers to snack on. We tried the crab rangoon, steak fries, and vegetable tempura. The crab rangoon were clearly something out of a box, and didn’t taste all that great. The steak fries were…steak fries (delicious.) And the vegetable tempura was fried and good, although we couldn’t really tell what the vegetables actually were.

Overall, this is one of my new favorite places in Clarendon. The atmosphere is a lot of fun. The music is loud, the lights were dark, and the beer was cheap. I’ll be back.

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Back to Wheaton

When we came back from vacation, we headed straight into the hurricane and were without power for a couple days. Therefore, we ate out at a lot of restaurants.

The first night, I took my parents to Mi La Cay. This is one of my favorite restaurants in Wheaton. I had a craving for a huge bowl of pho. You can order the small bowl and be more then satisfied. The pho was fantastic as usual. My dad ordered the vegetarian version and he was very happy with it. My mom ordered the grilled lemongrass chicken and she also really liked her meal. My parents could not believe how cheap and good the meal was. If you have not checked this place out, do yourself a favor and stop in.

The next day, I went to Szechuan Palace in Silver Spring.

I was feeling unadventurous, so I ordered the General Tso’s chicken. I had been there a few years ago and ordered it and I remembered liking it.

Pros: There was a LOT of food
Cons: It didn’t taste all that great.

The chicken was slightly rubbery and I didn’t like the flavor of the chicken. I’d be willing to go back, but I would definitely order something different.

That night, I picked up carryout from Nava Thai. I ordered the panang curry, extra spicy. The food was great, and I now my family will continue to frequent Nava Thai.

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