Heads up, Columbia...

It's just one week away: hot on the heels of the new one in Bel Air, Wegman's is coming to Columbia.

It's the most wonderful time of the year! (2011 Edition)

Peeps aren't just for Easter anymore, but we've known this for some time.  Still, chocolate-flavored cat peeps?  (Taken at the Columbia Harris Teeter about a week ago. Love those ghost peeps, too.)

Random Bites: Tax Day Edition

Tax season bites. Looks like I withheld too little last year because I owed for the first time ever. Wow. I also made more in all of my part time work than I realized, which is great - though it did push me into a higher tax bracket. I'm not complaining about being taxed per se. I'm just kicking myself for not having changed my W4's sooner. Now I'm withholding nothing. Hopefully I'll get something back next year?

Just a few more bites as I recover from tax season.

1. The drive to cut back on my soda consumption has taken a slightly bumpy road, but I'm still on it. I now drink, on average, about two cans of soda a day. That said, I have gotten much more used to using that press-n-seal wrap on the half-empty can and putting it back in the fridge. I've also been a little generous in my definition of what counts as "soda". I haven't been counting it if it's normally caffeine-free, like ginger ale, or "all-natural", like one of those sugary sodas you might find in some of the more upscale natural food stores. The iced tea I keep brewing (thank you, Luzianne) has definitely cut down my soda consumption, that much is certain.

2. About those "upscale natural food stores": I don't have the cash to do all, or even much, of my shopping at places like the Good Life Organic Market in Severna Park or David's Natural Market in Columbia. I do love roaming around them to see the merchandise and hopefully pick up one or two things without breaking the bank. Good Life has hot soups (a small Senegalese Peanut Soup will cost $4), chocolates that I cannot avoid (a quarter pound for about $4.50) and more of those natural sodas. They also sell eggs individually - 35¢ per egg. David's is also a lovely store, and I have become addicted to the individually wrapped Dan's Chocolates that are conveniently located right by the checkout (50¢ each).

3. The Haute Dog Carte has a second location! It's at the Colonnade at Hopkins.

4. Speaking of businesses in Mt. Warshnin', Bansky's is just awesome, a beautiful group of people with awesome food.

5. I'm trying to find some huckleberries in the area! This is for an upcoming Snacking State-by-State post about food from Idaho. Rachel (Coconut & Lime) gave me the head's up that Atwater's at Belvedere Square sometimes sells huckleberry jam, but they have none at the moment. Will probably need to break down and mail order it online, like I almost did with poi for my upcoming Hawaii post.

6. If you didn't know this already: RuPaul's Drag Race (one of my guilty gay pleasures) is on every Monday night at The Hippo. Now I don't have to wait until it's posted online the next day!

Meatless Fridays #3 & #4

My last few weeks of Meatless Fridays have taken me to both familiar and unfamiliar territory. Meatless Friday #3 took me to Columbia's Noodles & Company. Oddly enough, I have never been there before. It is an efficient chain with American, Mediterranean (mostly Italian) and Pan-Asian (mostly Thai) offerings to which you can add meat of your choice. The Friday before last, I decided to add nothing to my pad thai. Though it wasn't remarkable, it certainly was satisfying enough. I would order it again if I had to.

Meatless Friday #4 took me back to Mango Grove on Dobbin Road. I am really starting to both look forward to going for their cheap and ridiculously filling vegetarian buffet and dread it knowing that I will leave full and slightly achy because of all the rich food I just ate. Please don't let PETA tell you that meatless food is not fattening (which they have apparently tried to say before). This is fattening. One remarkable appetizer I hadn't seen before was the bread pakora. Think a small piece of sandwich with potato filling slathered with a tomato chutney inside, then dipped in chickpea batter and deep-fried. It was just beautiful, but it showed me that I can't rely on vegetarian food if I want to lose weight. Mind you I'm not overweight, and I wouldn't mind losing a pound or two. Still, I won't see that happen if I still eat these things!

Meatless Friday #2

Today I had better success eating meat-free. Lunch today was a sushi roll at Howard Community College. Do I remember the days when schools did not serve sushi. Those were less interesting food days.

Meatless Friday #1

As I recently said, I am attempting to go meatless on Lenten Fridays, as per my cultural template and upbringing, just to see if I still have the fortitude to do so. Today was Lenten Friday #1, and I eschewed not only meat but fish (the go-to meat alternative for Catholics). My lunch choice was the always-tasty, always-filling, sometimes-a-little-slow Mango Grove for their always vegetarian lunch buffet. I had to hurry out since I was lunching between courses and had to get back to work. But it was quite a good choice. There was an okra dish that I had never seen or tasted before, and I failed to get the name of it, but it was quite a nice surprise. And their idli was soft and spongy. A good choice for anyone giving up meat for Lent. Even if only for 1/7 of the week.

Oh What a Cake!

I stopped by Oh What a Cake today after work. This cake catering business in Columbia also has ready-to-buy cupcakes, which is what I was hoping for. The best part is the price: many of them are just a dollar, and the really fancy ones are $1.25 (like their red velvet cupcake). I got three of their dollar cupcakes - chocolate with vanilla buttercream, yellow (butter?) cake with lemon frosting, and "butter with buttercream frosting". This last one was my favorite and I ate it in the car on the way to my next destination. The others were also delicious, and all three are soft, sugary and simple. Very good cupcakes. I'll have to go back again soon.

A few random bites: February Edition

Just a few things I've missed saying...

1) In doing research for my next "Back to the Beltway" post (coming up at some point in the next few weeks, just with the gas prices and expense and all), I was surprised, shocked and dismayed at all the eateries in Linthicum that have seemingly shut down. One hot dog place, Duncan's Famous, hasn't been there for a while. Granted, they once gave me the creamiest hot dog that I have had in ages, not since the Soda Pop Shop near Baltimore Highlands, late 80's.

2) Lunch on Friday was at the House of India in Columbia. I had to get in and out, which I did with ease. It was quite good: some of the least bony chunks of goat I have eaten in a while. plus tasty and toothsome ras malai and various chicken, chickpea and rice dishes. One dish I was not so hot on was the dhabha chicken, which tasted and had a texture like warmed over day-old Chinese takeout, and I don't mean from a good place. And yet there it is smack dab in the middle, piled up as if to say "Taaaaaake meeeeeee. You KNOW you waaaaaant meeeeee." Next time I go back I'll just get everything else. Though at $12 for the weekday buffet, it is a wee pricier than some other buffets that are just as good. I guess you're paying for the "Columbia" experience.

3) The latest beer tasting I did at the Wine Source was of R.J. Rockers out of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Most of their beers were lovely though I was particularly captivated by their winter seasonal, The First Snow Ale. Billed as a "malt beverage brewed with honey and spices", the beer's nicest quality is its gingery punch. I rarely leave with a whole six pack ($9) but I did this time.

4) A gas station in Glen Burnie sells Pepsi from Mexico, made with actual cane sugar. Not as sweet as the HFCS stuff.

5) Along those lines, I have been quite good at drinking less soda. I've been averaging 1.5 cans a day - down from about 3. Let's see how much more I can cut back.

6) Try and figure out why I spent the past week making doro wot (Ethiopian chicken stew), GamJa salad (Korean potato salad) and curtido (Salvadoran cole slaw) - and ate it all at once. Go on.

Harris Teeter is going to bankrupt me if I'm not careful

Oh, Harris Teeter, that gorgeous, gleaming North Carolina-based supermarket chain, how you entice me with your delicious cheeses and dessert items. Ever since I picked up some extra work in Howard County this semester, I have made it a habit to swing by the Columbia Harris Teeter location after work on Fridays.

I would move into this place if I could.

I know: yes, it is just a supermarket. But there's something about going for the first time into a supermarket chain that you've never entered or seen before. I felt the same way the first time I ever entered a Wegman's (sometime in 2006), a Whole Foods (that would be 2004) or a Trader Joe's (waaaaaay back in '97 after moving to SoCal, back when the East Coast was largely TJ's-free).

This is a massive supermarket, and really, you could just never leave this place if you could get away with it. Just as with Wegman's, which carries a plethora of Northeastern items we can't find too easily in Maryland, Harris Teeter does the same thing for us coming from the other direction: a variety of Southern and specifically Southeastern brands we don't often find here. This includes not only big brands of everything from fry mixes and varieties of cornmeal to the whole Dixie Crystals product line, but also smaller, independent brands. Thanks to my newly-found willingness to try the free samples when offered instead of running in the opposite direction, a new favorite of mine is Augusta's Pimento Cheese. Based out of Charlotte, Augusta's Creations specializes in sinful and delicious pimento cheese (check out their online store). Oh dear! It comes in regular and jalapeño. I like hotter. Guess what is in my fridge right now. Go on.

I also must confess an addiction to their bakery section, not far from their section of cheeses chock full of free samples, and next to their deli which is always streaming with people getting sandwiches (unless they opt for the Asian food bar, which even has dim sum). I have become particularly addicted to Harris Teeter's petit fours (12 for $5). I often get a half dozen and devour them in the car before I even get home. If you let them warm up to room temperature, they are luscious. I have tried petit fours from a few area supermarkets. Supermarkets where I have seen petit fours include the Fresh Market, Wegman's and Harris Teeter, and HT's really are at least a half-cut above. Fresh Market's are tasty also. I can take or leave Wegman's petit fours. Not a big fan. I'll spend my money at Wegman's on their delicious $6 mini white cakes with vanilla buttercream frosting instead.

I was first motivated to go there when I found out that they carried a particular favorite brand of mustard that few others in the area carry. I thought it would be much cheaper to buy Raye's Mustard right off the shelf than mail ordering a jar all the way from Maine (Yes, a proudly Yankee mustard available only in a Tarheel supermarket chain. Go fig). I couldn't find the specific Raye's Mustard that I wanted, but it didn't matter really. I was already hypnotized by all the other stuff they had. By the way, you should see their wall of mustards. It's impressive. I just wish that, among all the boxes of Morton's Salt products and all the containers of kosher salt that they actually carried Morton's Kosher Salt, which was conspicuously absent (perhaps they were just out that day). A negligible criticism for a supermarket I'm liking more and more with each visit.

Back to Mango Grove

I was in Columbia the other day, and decided to stop by one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants, Mango Grove. I've been here before, and in general I liked it (one semi-famous commenter did not, though she was later called out on it). I liked it enough to return for their $10 lunch buffet. At about noon, it was only moderately busy, unlike the dozens upon dozens of unlucky bastards waiting half an hour or more to go through the drive-thrus at McDonald's, Wendy's and Chick-Fil-A. Efficient, indeed.

Just a reminder: this restaurant, which specifically offers many Southern Indian dishes (dosas, idli, etc), will fill you up. Also, it will easily remind you (pace PETA) that eating vegetarian does not necessarily keep you from gaining weight. You could easily gain weight off this wonderful food. Just a few excellent things that popped out for me:

• the idli is tangy, but unlike other idlis I've had at area buffets, this black lentil and rice cake didn't have the funky taste I've found with others. It was a great complement to the channa dishes on the buffet, which came with their own oily fried puffed breads.
• I don't remember if aloo gobhi was on the buffet, but I ate something like it. Filling and delicious.
• Don't knock their various chutneys. My favorite was the tamarind chutney, which tasted almost like a very tangy barbecue sauce - in a good way. Close behind was a coconut milk chutney that was wonderful on the various breads I had on my plate.
• They had two types of basmati rice on the buffet: plain and lemon. Go with the lemon. It's light enough to not overpower, but strong enough that you will taste it.
  
• Also, their papadums are some of the most delicately-spiced (though deceptively sturdy) I've ever found at an Indian buffet.
• The waiter brought out a complementary dosa with a lentil filling. The texture was a little dry but it still had a lovely flavor.
  

So there's another endorsement for an inexpensive, filling and meatless (I didn't say not fattening) Indian buffet. Please, people, dispense with the 30 minute wait at Wendy's, chick-Fil-A and Micky D's. By the time you get in and out of the buffet (or the one at the attached and very much not meatless Mirchi Wok) you would've gotten through the drive-thru anyway.

An Loi

Are you in need of a quick dinner spot before a play? My friends and I were in just such a need on Sunday night before seeing the closing night of a play at Howard Community College (Edward Albee's The Goat - Wow, very energetic, powerful and absurd play). But where to eat that wasn't a chain? I am okay with chains, but I prefer to avoid them if something "non-chain-y" is around. The chains are often a little pricier than some of the non-chains anyway. Eric, however, was insistent: no chains. Fine with me. I was ready to mention the always good Mango Grove, but Alan had heard from a friend about a Vietnamese place off Broken Land Parkway.

An Loi is not just a phở place, like many Vietnamese restaurants I have frequented; it serves so much more. An Loi has other types of soups, hearty noodle dishes, various Vietnamese appetizers, and even a small wine and soju list. Especially impressive to me was their fish sauce: it's homemade. Yes, it says right on their menu that they make their own nước mắm, which I have never heard of any restaurant doing before. Maybe others do and I just didn't know about it, but An Loi is the first that I know of. It is a little richer, a little more "umami-ish" - than any fish sauce I have tasted before.

Our appetizers were the typical Vietnamese spring rolls ($3.50) - the soft rolls wrapped around noodles and vegetables. All I can say about them was that they were filling. I've found these spring rolls to be more or less "okay" no matter where I go: they are a thing to order, but they don't wow you like other menu items. The peanut dipping sauce was worth noting, especially for the chopped peanuts on top. More interesting was the papaya and shrimp salad that came next, which was tangy and vinegary. In fact, this tanginess was a bit stronger to me than the papaya flavor, but the salad was still tasty.

I could have ordered the Bun Thit Heo Nuong (the highly recommended "B2" for only $7.95), which Alan enjoyed - we thought the pork in this vermicelli dish, with shredded lettuce, mint, basil, shallots, peanuts, bean sprouts and such, reminded us very strongly of bulgogi. (I can't recall what Eric got, but I liked this even more.) Instead I decided to go with the tried and true phở (large bowl for just under $7). I think mine was the phở an loi. It was filled with the typical thin-sliced beef, tripe - I hate tripe but this was more thinly sliced and enjoyable than I've ever seen in phở) and tightly-packed meatballs, mixed in with dense strands of think rice vermicelli, plus bean sprouts and the occasional jalapeño slice (again, sliced extremely thin) that I added myself. I have to remark on the meat, which was, again, more thinly sliced than I've ever seen in phở, and was also more tender than in any phở I have had in a long time. Of course, I could not finish it, even though this large bowl was smaller than most large bowls I've had. This is simply because it still was packed with about as much meat and noodles as a typical phở that I have had before.

I do also have to comment on one unusual beverage that I simply had to try out of curiosity. Among the various beverages was a salty lemon soda (about $3). This sounds awful but you would be surprised at how fascinating this salty-sweet carbonated beverage is! It's almost like a slightly salty 7-Up. I think I caused a little extra interest from some of the wait staff, curious at the European-American trying this drink that to him would clearly be something new. I don't see myself drinking a six-pack of this stuff, but I would encourage you to try this if you head to An Loi.

One final comment I must make: we got our food fast. Very fast. I don't mean McDonald's fast, but it was certainly fast for a sit-down restaurant. This was despite the fact that we were one of several tables of patrons there that night. I don't know if this is typical or not, but if you have a play or something to get to, like at Howard Community, chances are you will make it in time.

Mango Grove

The sister and I went to see George Romero's new zombie flick Diary of the Dead last night. The movie was pretty good, though it just kind of ends abruptly, gruesomely, and with not a lot of closure - is that what Romero was going for? (WARNING: gruesome picture from the movie at the end. Don't say I didn't warn you). Since it was Friday, she wanted to veer away from meat (ironic in retrospect, considering the movie we saw). Bottom line: we were looking for sushi - the closest sushi place to Arundel Mills (the only place in the area showing Diary). The closest one I could find was the Sushi King in Columbia, so we went there. I almost turned heel when we walked in the door and saw fifteen people standing around, waiting to be seated. I did turn around when the maitre'd told me she didn't know exactly how long the wait would be, but it would probably be about 30 minutes to an hour. It was very busy, which means it's probably good, so I will go back.

Fortunately I knew of other places to go. A few months ago I went to the nearby Mirchi Wok - also right on Dobbin Road, and nestled behind a McDonald's and a Wendy's, and next to the Mango Grove. Mirchi Wok is a Chinese-Indian restaurant with an okay buffet. Mango Grove is a vegetarian Indian restaurant, whose buffet I have never tried. Neither place was crowded, and I let Cathy choose. We went for Mango Grove.

I'm not kidding about Mango Grove being a vegetarian place. Everything on the menu is either vegetarian or full-on vegan. For some reason I wasn't worried, as I usually am when I go to a "vegetarian" restaurant. I have had some bad experiences with "vegetarian" food. Not vegetables, or meatless/fishless/diaryless/eggless dishes, but food specifically made "vegetarian". For example, the last time a Boca Burger passed my lips was a very long time ago. And that Morningstar Farms line of "meat"? That shouldn't be forced on anyone. But I admit that there is good vegetarian and vegan food out there (hey, Roopa) - I just haven't found much of it in the freezer section.

I just say that to tell you how totally blown away I was by some of the food at this place. I admit: I am usually kinder than I probably should be (yes, the Café Hon review, and yes, the Golden West review - though I still stand by the things that I did like). But once we got past the long wait to give our order (I think we sat there for 10 minutes in a mostly empty restaurant), this place truly impressed us. Plus, there were so many dishes we were not familiar with at all - the typical chicken tandooris, vindaloos and other characteristic dishes of Northern India that weren't here at this mostly Southern Indian restaurant. It was like the first time we had ever visited an Indian restaurant, all over again!

Despite their massive dosai crepes, which easily are 1.5 to 2 ft long rolled up (I am getting one of those the next time) and their oothappam pancakes, we opted for other things. Here's what we had:

This is our tangy potato-chickpea appetizer, which was on the specials menu. I am embarrassed that I didn't write down the name or anything. I have no idea what this was called (except that "batata" - or "potato" - was in the name - that's all). It had a kick. Chickpeas, potato, pieces of onion and tomato, in a tangy combination of tamarind, cilantro and - I believe - yogurt. Eight went for $6, and twelve for $8. I had that with a ridiculously large Taj Mahal, which I couldn't finish. That was the proprietor's recommendation.


Cathy had a tasty, meaty (not real meat) jackfruit stirfry with onion and green bell pepper ($12). I forget the name, but it was another special and another recommendation on the part of the proprietor. I got the nargissi aloo ($13). As the menu says, it is: "Scooped potatoes stuffed with an exotic blend of vegetables, mild spices, nuts and cottage cheese" and simmered in their "house special 'Makhani [tomato butter] Sauce'". This is obviously not one of the vegan dishes, but is still vegetarian. The sauce was probably the best makhani sauce I have eaten in about a year or two of constant helpings of murgh makhani (chicken in butter-tomato sauce). Very filling - only five balls of nargissi aloo, with my sister helping me eat it, and I still had enough to split the difference with her and take some home to eat for breakfast. We had a big helping of basmati pulav (pilaf) to go with it (complimentary) and some garlic naan. I have had better garlic naan, but it wasn't bad.


For dessert Cathy had the mango chocolate mousse - another special of the night - and I had the baadal jaam: a warm gulab jamun sitting between two frozen halves of mango kulfi in cold sweetened milk (rabri). I probably should have gotten the mousse, because this wasn't much to write home about. I could have gotten a better dessert at any Indian buffet, putting a gulab jamun in a small bowl and pouring rice pudding on top of it. It was a little difficult to eat the kulfi and the rabri was pretty weak. It was the only really weak part of the meal.

The meal was $61 - after tax and 20% tip it was almost $75 for the two of us. It was good, filling vegetarian food, and a perfect Lenten Friday alternative for the Catholic who doesn't feel like fish again.

And then we went and saw a movie where dead people eat living people. That's definitely not vegan!

Mmmm. Dad. This is the lead heroine's mother, eating dear old dad. Definitely not on the menu at Mango Grove.

Mango Grove (Indian / South Indian / vegetarian) - 6365B Dobbin Center, Columbia, MD 21045; Phone: (410) 884-3426