Text 3363, 114 rader
Skriven 2006-07-15 10:11:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: local tastes 985
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We had a coupon for half off a bottle of wine at Allison's,
which took over the space of the late lamented Lucky
Luciano's, down by Carol's office. Invited her friend from
work, the HR director Judith (Carol has friends in high
places) and her husband Richard, who live not far away.

The breads that come to the table (with decent butter) are
a white-and-yellow cornbread that was sweet, like a cake,
fine-textured, like a cake, and vanillaed, like a cake, and
a salty Italianate loaf that is like what I'd expect Pillsbury
Brown 'n' Serve to be like if it came in Italian flavor.

Carol had a pretty authentic lobster bisque followed by a
fritto misto Caesar - fried shrimp and squid, generous
serving, well fried things, over salad.

A 14-oz New York strip was pretty good but came in a
bbq sauce made with liquid smoke. Cheddar mashed were
pleasantly low in cheese, creamed spinach pleasantly
low in cream (but a bit stringy). Also overherbed
sauteed zucchini. 

After various soups, Judith had a chicken salad dish and
Richard a chicken over pasta; both were deemed good.

Carol and I split a good, eggy creme brulee; they split
a chocolate sundae that they said was nice.

The wine I chose was the Newton Claret 02, which although
just a tad short on fruit was quite convincing, and one
might have thought it was a lesser Bordeaux. List at the
restaurant was $38, so with the coupon it was a good deal.

The place was good enough for us to make another confirmatory
visit (aided by a $10 coupon from the ad mailer) - this time,
just the two of us.

Same greeter, same waitress, same table as last time.

As I'm curbing the alcohol consumption because of the Tylenol
issue, we just had beers - I ordered the Fordham oyster stout,
which of course they were out of - the only other draft was
Copperhead ale from the same brewery: it was well hopped and
pretty good with the food (not so good as the stout would have
been, of course).

Carol had a Caesar salad, which I didn't try - figured it was
okay, as it all went down the hatch, and the greens looked
nicely green. I had cornmeal-crusted oysters served over slaw
and drizzled with a red-pepper cream - six beauties, probably
from a can but still pretty convincing, perfectly done; the slaw
had red onion, corn, peppers, and other interesting things, and
I gobbled it down. Red-pepper cream was fine, but as a color
accent the kitchen had sprinkled on some of the same red BBQ
sauce that I had found so objectionable on the steak the other
night. Eating around and scraping off the sauce was easy,
though.

For mains, Carol had pasta with shrimp and littlenecks, which
was exactly what you'd expect, only garlickier. I could have
made it myself better, but whatever. My special of the day was
grilled skirt steak with au gratin potatoes - I ordered it rare,
and it came bloody jiggly rare, perfect; but I saw that dark
red sauce and shuddered ... turns out it was a Different Dark
Red Sauce, wine based, without fake hickory, and quite good.
Unfortunately, the serving was only a portion-controlled 6 oz,
the bulk of the plate being a slab of potatoes that was half
again as big at least and some mixed vegetables, including
broccoli, red onion, and lots of zucchini. I gave the zucchini
to Carol but found some more pieces hiding under the meat -
I'd guess that the kitchen, feeling the size of the meat
serving looked inadequate, propped it up with squash to make
it look better. Took the potatoes home for Carol's lunch the
next day.

=

Gina's Cantina has taken over a derelict building on Veterans'
Highway near 97. It's been well recommended to us, but our
loyalty to Pachanga has prevented us from trying it out until
just recently. It's pretty good, a different kind of food
(sort of Tex-Mex or worse, Maryland-Mex, but well done for
what it is). It offers decent margaritas for $5, and a pint of
Fordham oyster stout (very black) was 3.75. The menu is quite
ordinary, but the execution was competent. Carol was pleased
with her taco salad, which I didn't care for as the chili was
the house's famous "drunken three bean chili." My Mexican pizza
with taco meat (good but not very abundant), spinach (frozen
chopped, alas), and avocado (buttery ripe), was filling and
not a bad deal at the menu price: but they charged this up as
9.75, whereas the menu said 6.25 with two toppings and a buck
more for each additional. Moral: check the bill. A slice of
very sweet but quite good caramel cake rounded out the meal.

=

A new pub in a strip mall just a mile or two down the road -
the Irish Channel, which has well drawn Guinness and a decent
menu. Carol is partial to the fish and chips, but when we went
last, she had a reuben that she enjoyed (it's made with round,
which takes many points off in my book); I've been there twice,
the first time for jambalaya, which owes to a putative association
that the place has with New Orleans, the second for perfectly okay
chicken strips over salad.

We've talked about Hellas in Millersville (for everyday food),
Pachanga Grill (for everyday but really quite good Mexican food),
and the Sputnik Cafe in Crownsville (for special occasions). In
addition there's the Chinese buffet at Waugh Chapel, where there
are enough decent things so one can pig out without compromising
one's taste buds too much, and don't forget Popeye's.
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