monkey nonsense

A few months back, I tried out Ba Le, a Vietnamese restaurant, in Rockville. I remember thoroughly enjoying my food, but the place seemed more like a restaurant. They had a few coolers and displays of prepared Vietnamese food but nothing compared to Eden Center. Plus, it was much farther than Eden Center, which I already don’t go to much! Then a friend mentioned that there was another location in VA really close to my house! I never knew how close it was! But friends would stop by and pick up sandwiches there on my way to my house often.

I finally went this weekend! This location seemed to be much bigger than the Rockville location! Maybe not as much seating, but plenty more prepared foods! I was so overwhelmed by the choices! I wanted to buy one of everything but I was on my way to a baseball game so I couldn’t! I ended up getting a mango bubble tea (delicious!! it even had the fibers of the mango!), while a friend got a pineapple bubble tea (which I tried and thought was delicious!!!) and another friend said the Vietnamese iced coffee bubble tea was also good! I got a chicken “lunch box”… that chicken was so juicy and flavorful! I wanted to try their beef noodle soup that I eyed on someone else’s table as I was leaving! I love beef noodle soup (both the pho type and the Chinese type!) but my favorite place is too far away for me to go often!

I think I will be visiting Ba Le a lot now…

Note- post title taken from: Candy Mountain!!

The same blue food dye found in M&Ms and Gatorade could be used to reduce damage caused by spine injuries, offering a better chance of recovery, according to new research… The only side effect was that the treated mice temporarily turned blue.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/28/spinal.injury.blue.dye/index.html

see how awesome blue dye is?!?!

this weekend, derek was in town visiting old friends.  i ended up meeting him, nancy, and one of his old high school friends, amelia, at teaism in dupont.

the place was pretty cute with unique decor.  a small little tea house (seating upstairs) right next door to a starbucks, hahaha.  they served both breakfast and lunch foods.  the menu included items that seemed somewhat indian, somewhat thai, with a heavy emphasis on tea.  not being a big fan of eggs, i went with lunch.  nancy, derek, and amelia ordered breakfast food.  nancy and amelia got this tea-cured salmon with naan dish which was pretty interesting (i helped myself to a bite ).  the salmon flavor overwhelmed any tea-curing flavor.  derek got some omelet which looked pretty good.  i think also with the tea-cured salmon.  i got some thai curry which was pretty good, but later on, i regretted not trying some of their more unique items on the menu.  but eh, i was hungry and the thai curry was filling

the place had a wide variety of tea… i ended up trying their bubble tea.  the tea flavor was good, but i felt like their bubbles were too mushy.  derek got the mango juice, which i saw a couple more orders of… it looked pretty good.  nancy got the iced green tea which also looked good.  i’m not sure what hot tea amelia got, but it was kind of nice because they gave her her own little tea pot.

pretty nice place.  i’d like to try a few more items off their menu before deciding whether i like it or not.

so one of my coworkers heard about this fancy hot dog place near adams morgan (a little over a mile away from my office)… we decided to make the trek a couple of wednesdays ago.

the place is owned/started by the same people who run the late night falafel shop in adams morgan too.  my coworker had heard good things about the place, but also that it’s a bit pricey.  $5 hot dogs?  and there’s even a $20 special kobe beef hot dog!

one of my coworkers ordered the spicy DC halfsmoke.  another ordered beef & pork NJ ripper; it was deep fried which is the first time i’ve ever seen a hot dog deep fried.  one coworker and i both ordered the andouille which wasn’t too spicy.  we split an order of fries, which were nice and crispy and most importantly, saltly .  i got the $1 “uptown” fixing bar which was pretty impressive.  a lot of different toppings, but i honestly didn’t use that many of them.  it was kind of annoying because i pretty much paid that $1 so that i could get sauerkraut on my hotdog… i think that should’ve been part of the free fixing bar.  oh well, i ended up adding bacon to my hot dog to maximize my $1.

overall, the hot dog was good.  but i also didn’t seem too special.  perhaps i should’ve tried the deep fried hot dog or the $20 kobe beef hot dog (my coworker was regretting not trying it) so that it would’ve been a more unique experience.  i don’t think it’s a place i’d frequent often (because of distance, but also because of cost)

i remember when i was a kid, our family would always participate in the annual “twin oaks” festival. i’m not sure what it was exactly we were celebrating, but it was sort of like a cultural fair that a lot of the chinese schools participated in. i just remember having to create a game for the little kiddies (remember toss the ball through the fruit game?! how is that really teaching chinese culture?…) oh oh! and the year that i, for the ONLY time in my life, beat my sister at a drawing contest. i drew pigs…. she drew a landscape of the twin oaks estate. mine (i was probably 8.) looked like a 5 year old drew it. hers (she was probably age 11) looked like an adult drew it. after entering our drawings in the contest, we had to draw a piece of paper. mine was randomly marked… so i won!! anyways….

they always gave one “goodie bag” per person… and inside the goodie bag would be a drink, a cheap plastic toy, a fruit, and a bag of combos! i remember this was the highlight every year. me and my sister would get all excited about the combos! whether it was because she couldn’t find them or she just didn’t think to buy them, my mom never bought combos. she bought all sorts of snacks when i was a kid, but never combos! so to get that bag of combos from twin oaks was great! it was like a treat for the year.

after my cousin hsi-yun’s wedding this year, i ended up going to valhalla to spend the night with my sister. in the morning, we were in a rush to go see her friend run a marathon so we didn’t have time to eat breakfast (not that i’m a big fan of breakfast food). as we were leaving, my sister asked me if i wanted any breakfast combo. i was surprised… i thought we were in a rush and here she was offering to make me a breakfast combo, like a full-service diner or IHOP! eggs and sausage? bacon and sausage? turns out she was just offering me some combos! she seemed to have started a habit of eating those tasty snacks as breakfast!

this morning, my tummy was ‘a rumbling. i woke up late so i was running late and didn’t have time to grab anything on my way in. so i went to get a snack from the vending machine. to my surprise, they had combos! i bought a bag of the cheddar cheese pretzel combos! what a delicious breakfast! great idea, jie!

went to eat this steak place last friday. it’s a small place, seats maybe 30-40 people. it doesn’t take reservations because it’s so popular so u just have to wait. we were supposed to meet at 6, but a few people were able to get outta work early and got there early to get a table. which was a good thing… because they ended up getting a last-minute cancellation table from 6 to 7:30 (yea, i’m not sure how they’d regulate how long u’re at the table) and if we hadn’t been able to get that table, we would’ve had to wait til 8:30.

the steak was deeeeeelicious! i’d been craving steak for quite some time (i seem to crave steak whenever i’m sick and i had been sick the week before). talida got a reaaaaaaally tender filet mignon… it MELTED in the mouth! tina got a new york strip also good. i got the rib eye with horsey sauce. it was pretty good and considering my taste buds still haven’t fully come back from being sick, i think it would’ve been even more awesome. the wangs got the chateaubriand which was a LOT of food and also quite yummy. they also gave you family style sides to share… creamed spinach, regular mashed potatos, and garlic mashed potatos. quite tasty. we got dessert as well… i’m not sure what it was… it was some sort of pie with a citrus-y taste i think and some mousse… yum!

unfortunately, the wangs got sick that same night… not sure if it was the chateaubriand… it’s a pretty reputable steak place. i think i’d risk going back again! but i’m not so sure the wangs would agree…

last wednesday, a couple of my coworkers and i went to famous luigi’s right by our office.  it’s this small, italian place with a sunroom.  once we walked in, it had a small italian eatery-like feel to it.  one of my coworker and i ended up getting pasta.  he got some white sauce spaghetti… i wanna say it included the word toscana because then we talked about the zuppa toscana (sp?) soup at olive garden, i got the rigatoni rustici because i was craving sausage and our waiter suggested it.  i  liked it, but it had a bit too much ricotta cheese for my liking.  my other coworker got a meatball sandwich that looked pretty tasty as well.  i did notice that other tables had pizza which looked pretty good, maybe something to try on another visit.

then today, i was looking up the resturant online and found its history page.  apparently, famous luigi’s is famous for introducing pizza to DC!!  … ‘cept it was founded in 1943.  isn’t that kind of late for pizza to be introduced?

As part of my 1001 day project (87. Become a “food snob” – try out new unique/non-chain restaurants), i’m trying to try out different types of restaurants… not just the usual chain restaurants. unfortunately, this costs money. with coworkers, we’ve been trying to go out to restaurants/cafes near the office for team lunches on a regular basis. here’s my “review” of the restaurants we went to, in order of enjoyablility. i think in the future, i might post them as they occur.

Nooshi – this place offers sushi and noodles (hence the name Nooshi). This is my favorite place to get lunch. i think it’s a combination of convenient and tastiness. the sushi is decently priced and they have boxes of pre-made sushi that make for quick pickup. the noodles are also quite tasty. when tina was in training in DC, we ate here. i think she enjoyed her noodles too.

Vidalia – went for resturant week. for $20.07, i got an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. i ordered a glass of wine following the recommendation of my coworker and really enjoyed it… need to find out what wine i had. i had the rabbit sausage for appetizer… that was my first time eating rabbit. it was quite tasty. i had chorizo sausages with pork tenderloins as the entree… it was a lot of sausage. but i actually enjoyed the entree more than the rabbit sausage (don’t get me wrong, that was good too). i got an apple turnover-like dessert. quite tasty.

Greek Deli – this place has a line out the door nearly every day. so far, i’ve had the greek combo (love the orzo and pastitsio, this lasagna like dish) and the gyro… both good. portions are very filling! the bread is also quite good though the crust is quite hard. (the inside’s nice and moist!)

Kramers Cafe and Grill – this is supposedly one of the best, cheap places to eat in DC. i remember enjoying my sandwich while there (in late november), but clearly it must not have been GREAT because i can’t remember what it is i ordered! my coworkers got the meat lasagna which looked delicious and the portobello sandwich, which was HUGE. i think i’d definitely like to try this place again.

Naan and Beyond – fast, take-out indian place. i love samosas and this place has both vegetable and chicken ones (i think i like vegetable ones more). this is also the place where i first tried biryani. i’m surprised i enjoy biryani because it’s a rice dish, but it was quite delish. also good are their tandoori chicken wraps.

Levante’s – we took my new manager to this restaurant. following my big manager’s lead (he was the one who chose the restaurant), i got some sort of pizza like dish, but on a pita. pretty interesting. i think i should’ve tried the pastitsio to compare it to the Greek Deli.

Well-Dressed Burrito – this place is located in an alley. seriously. we walked down a deserted alley into this hidden door and in the basement of the building was this burrito place. i think i still prefer chipotle, but this is a pretty good alternative. it offers more variety than chipotle.

Penang – on my coworker’s “last day” (it wasn’t her last day but because of scheduling, we did it a week before she actually left), we took her out to this malaysian place. i ordered the chicken basil. it came in large pieces of chicken (not the grounded up version that i like) but it was pretty good. they had a lunch special that allowed you to get an appetizer, soup, salad, and entree for $10. pretty good price though i cleaned my plate completely.

Nirvana – my coworkers wanted indian so we decided to go to this place. i didn’t realize it was vegetarian until we got there. i think i like indian food with meat better. this was the first time i tried their after-meal refreshmint… usually it’s in a bowl by the door, these seed like things. i’m not a fan of licorice… so i wish my coworker would’ve told me it tastes just like licorice before i put a spoonful in my mouth!

C.F. Folks – interesting little place that serves a lot of international stuff. depending on what day you go, it’ll have a theme (i.e. indian, italian, etc.) the day we went was american…. i got a sandwich which was alright. nothing too special. may be worth it to try on another day… a place that can prepare both indian AND italian has got to be interesting…

Singapore Bistro – this place is upstairs from my favorite lunch place and ole standby Nooshi. it serves the same kinds of food… maybe with even less variety (but more in-depth). my coworkers who ordered the singaporean noodles preferred Nooshi’s over this places. i didn’t enjoy my food that much and didn’t even finish it.

Finally… a restaurant I didn’t go to with my coworkers but should definitely be included in this list:

Jaleo – tasty tapas and sangrias! i like the spinach and pine nuts dish, the potatos something-or-rather bravas, the fried sausage-shaped rolls that have something inside (!! ahh, i can’t describe it), cod fritters, the duck, and endives… i’m sure i’m forgetting more. also, their paella (sp?) was good. the dishes themselves aren’t that filling so this is NOT the place to go if say… it’s 9pm and you haven’t eaten all day and just got back from hiking in the mountains… it gets costly!

warning: subjects discussed in this post may disgust you.

one of my biggest fears in the world was discolored feces. i think it started when i was in 3rd grade and I first started taking medicine. The pills contained a warning sticker saying “May cause discoloration of the feces.” That freaked me out… like I’m going to have neon poopies?? So I was pretty afraid to eat too many of the pills. Later on, as the doctor checked up less frequently, I began to worry that I would OD and have neon poopies.

It was freshmen year in college when I think the topic of fears came up… I finally told some people of my fear of discolored feces. One of the people I told, in an attempt to reassure me that discolored feces was not that big of a deal, told me about this story of her friend and her. They were Pitt students who went to a Pitt pep rally/festivity of some sort. At the festivity, they decided to eat some “Pitt ice cream” – basically some ice cream that was dark, navy blue and yellow (Pitt’s color). It was a couple of days later, when she digested the ice cream and went uh… #2, she saw her poopies were blue-ish green. At first she wasn’t sure where it was from but a couple of days later, her friend worked up the nerve to ask her if she had experienced something weird with her poopies that she realized it was some side effect from the navy blue ice cream. BAH!

I think after hearing her story of blue poopies, I kind of figured it was ok to have discolored feces. I guess I always thought “discoloration” was something freaky like neon yellow or pink (though admittedly, bright blue poopies are kind of freaky too). And I also learned that it’s just because your body is flushing out the excess that causes the color changes (? right??)

So I got over my fear of discolored feces! And the best part of getting over it is now I pretty much ALWAYS get blue italian ice/candy which results in a lot of excess blue dye in my system without being afraid!

Like this past weekend, I got a blue raspberry italian ice two days in a row!

so my manager just came in with a new candy bar he bought from the vending machines… 1 & Only

the idea is that it combines everything all into one – peanut butter cups, a chocolate chip cookie, a chocolate sandwich cookie (oreo), a Butterfinger bar, a Buncha Crunch bar, and milk chocolate. the tagline for the candy is “has it all!” i thought genius! absolutely genius!! a combination of everything all in one! i must have one.

so while my manager discussed work with an officemate (auto-wha? program-who?), i ran out to the vending machine and bought my own bar. i came in all excitedly and began discussing the candy bar with another officemate. preparing ourselves to be awed by the miracles of modern science (imagine… the world’s brightest minds working together to solve mankind’s biggest problem… how to get peanut butter cups to coexist with chocolate chip cookies AND chocolate sandwich cookies… to create the ultimate candy bar! THIS would be the end result!!), i actually felt the bar and read the label a bit more. hrm… it seems the chocolate chip cookie was not attached tot the chocolate sandwich cookie? was i reading this wrong?? it did seem sort of clunky to be just one bar…

i opened it to discover 2 separate cups – one chocolate chip cookie topped with a peanut butter cup topped with a mini bar of chocolate and one chocolate sandwich cookie topped with a peanut butter cup topped with a mini bar of chocolate. first off, what a sham!!! 1 & only? NO! clearly these were two separate, independent pieces of candy! secondly, what kind of crap was this?!?! even i could’ve slapped these ingredients together!!! they were just stacked one on top of another.

what a waste of modern science.