Sushi Hana, Thai Arroy, Indiclub Triple Play

I haven't eaten out much this past week, which is saving me tons o' money (yay)! Some thoughts on the few places I have eaten at over the past week.

Sushi Hana

I didn't think I could eat anymore after the Great Tastes Show, but Cathy and I thought we could squeeze in a little sushi at the Sushi Hana last weekend - she wanted to do her taxes after the show, and I had TurboTax on my computer. We were hungry afterwards and Sushi Hana was close.

We got more than we thought we would, especially since Cathy was convinced to order a second roll (against my urging - you can't really bag this stuff, can you?). It was Sushi Hana's "I Like It Roll" - sliced and wrapped in seaweed, with fake crab and avocado, tempura-fried, and topped with crab. It was tasty but I had to take mine home. At least it was cooked. The other one, whose name I forget, was pretty good too, covered in raw tuna and black fish eggs.

This is that last roll.

Of course, the tempura ice cream was a requirement. It's perhaps my favorite dessert, period. The fizzy marble water I got with it was interesting. You have to go through all this trouble to push a marble into a bottle of soda and then it gets fizzy. Don't ask.

Grand total for everything: damn, I don't remember. Each roll was about $10 and the sashimi appetizer was about $7.

Thai Arroy

Cool Thai art greets you at the door.

My friends Eric and Alan are surprised I have kept with this blog, which I told them about a while ago Most bloggers give up the enterprise in less than a year; the fact that I've stuck with it as long as I have bodes well for the BS.

Hey, my acronym is BS! That only just hit me :|

So Thai Arroy: Very crowded place in Federal Hill. But Eric sent the rest of us to reserve a table while he found a place from which he wouldn't get towed. Looks as if Thai Arroy is frequently among Baltimore's Best, and it shows in the food. Some of what I enjoyed:

• Some spring rolls with a really good peanut sauce - actually the peanut sauce was the part I was impressed with. The roll was standard. Tasty, but like many I have had at Thai and Vietnamese spots before.
• My tom kha kai soup. It's difficult to do tom kha soup wrong. I say this because I have rarely had a bad one. This one also pleased. Consistent and delicious.
• My main course, the pa nang kai (pa nang chicken), more coconutty goodness, with chicken, carrot and green beans. I don't like green beans because they usually taste too fresh. I know this sounds strange, but it's almost as if they are undercooked, and I just don't enjoy them. Not these - these were good. I had plenty left over for dinner in the week.
  

Indiclub

Could someone tell me why the hell parents would allow four children to go running, screaming, fighting with butter knives, stopping at other diners' tables and almost running underneath the waiter's legs to go unchecked while they just chit chat and wait for their food. My God, they even thought it was cute!

Apparently there was little that Indiclub could do (would do?) to stop them. It was a table of twelve adults who obviously didn't notice this bullshit. And I can ignore most stuff that happens out when I'm eating - crying babies, arguing diners, even someone getting sick. But twenty minutes of this squealing, yelling, playground behavior and my sister saw me transform into Mr. Restaurant Rage. Fortunately, I kept it to the table, but I had to say something to the waiter, who apologized and said he had asked them to stop. And it didn't really stop until the waiter talked to them after I mentioned something to him. We thought we were in the Twilight Zone for a while, since we seemed to be the only people who were bothered about this. Until a gentleman behind us mentioned with to a fellow diner, not long before he left, "It is too much noisy in here." HA! Thank you!

But DAMN! Parents, either force your children to stay at the table, find a babysitter or take them to Cheeburger Cheeburger where they're allowed to act like maniacs.

Ahem.

Aside from that, the food, which I've talked about before, was pretty good. My favorite part of the meal was the crab masala (about $7), which was new, creative and very tasty. That appetizer went too fast. My achaar gosht ($13), or lamb in pickling spices (I love Indian pickle - pungent), was not quite the same I used to get at Indian Delite in Catonsville, which has since stopped serving it. It was part bitter, part salty, and quite hot. I probably wouldn't order it again, but I will definitely finish what I did get. The kulfi ice cream was so dense and delicious, very cardamom-my. Very satisfying, despite the kinderexplosion at the other end of the restaurant.

IndiClub (Indian / South Indian / Pakistani) - 1660 Whitehead Ct., Woodlawn, MD 21207; Phone: (410) 594-9600

Sushi Hana (Japanese) - 6080 Falls Rd., Lake Falls Village, Baltimore, MD 21209; Phone: (410) 377-4228



Thai Arroy (Thai) - 1019 Light St., Baltimore, MD 21230; Phone: (41) 385-8587