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!

Ramen ramen everywhere

I've been eating a lot of ramen noodles lately.

Yes, some of you who are foodies may be retching. And many of you might be scratching your heads. I mean, with all these State-by-State posts and Beltway posts (another one coming up in a week or two), and all the other things I'm cooking you may wonder why I would be indulging in the culinary equivalent of Styrofoam.

Simple: it's easy, and one can't make meatloaves, California rolls and Hoppin' John all the time. Once in a while, I like just being lazy. Especially when I have a cold, as I did this week. How simple can it be to just boil some water, throw in a brick of hard dry ramen noodles and three minutes later have a meal?

But that dorm room / bachelor pad staple has to be zhuzh'd up somehow. So I go to my spice rack to make those ramen noodles a little more interesting. Some combinations I've come up with (in each case, the spices are added along with the spice packets. You might also try it without them):

Beef ramen - add a dash or two of the following combinations:

• cayenne and curry powder
  
• turmeric and curry powder
• mint

Shrimp ramen - dill worked very nicely this morning. Made it taste almost buttery.

"Oriental" ramen - a Thai or Chinese spice blend works well, or some ginger

Chicken or roast chicken ramen - tarragon or thyme, or any of the ones mentioned above for beef

Five Things I Wish We Had in Baltimore

There are lots of things we have. Some are exclusive (Berger's anyone?) and some are just better here than anywhere else (anything and everything crab-related - and yes, I mean the whole Chesapeake, not just our corner of it). But no city has everything. A few of the things I miss from other parts of the world that I wish I could find here, with the first being the closest to get to from here:


1. Sonic Drive-Ins - Based in Oklahoma City, Sonic has over 3,000 locations in the United States, almost all of them in the South and Southwest. In just the greater Mid-Atlantic there are almost fifty in Virginia, two five in Pennsylvania, four in West Virginia, three in Delaware...and none here. Sure I would not eat there every day. Probably not even every week. But their drive-in service brings milkshakes, Texas toast, hot dogs, burgers and many more things right to your car. It's the perfect way to gain weight if you eat there on a regular basis. The last time I ate at one I was visiting former landlords who had moved to the Tulsa area. The closest Sonic to here? Ironically it's above the Mason-Dixon Line, around 50 miles away in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Maybe I'll visit on the way to the Choo-Choo Barn. Sonic logo from Wikipedia.


2. Wagamama - With locations in 12 countries (mostly in Western Europe), this London, UK-based noodle chain charmed me twice, in London and Amsterdam. I have no idea how many locations this more-than-just-a-noodle-house noodle house can boast, but the food is amazing. It really gives "ramen" a whole new meaning. The closest Wagamama to here? Ironically, it's in the United States, two locations, both in Boston, Massachusetts - seven hours and 400 miles away, in Faneuil Hall and Harvard Square. Photo of the Wagamama near the Tower of London, from the hardware.silicon.com website.


3. Del Taco - Yes, another fast food place, based in Forest Lake, CA. Much of their food is junk, but Taco Bell can't hold a candle to this place. This is edible Mexican fast food. Every time I visit SoCal this is one of my very first stops, because I have to get two soft tacos del carbón, one chicken and one beefsteak, with chopped fresh onions and cilantro on top. You can find most of Del Taco's 500+ locations in the West. But there are Del Tacos scattered on this side of the Mississippi, including Tennessee and the Great Lakes. The closest one to here? Toledo, Ohio, about 475 miles away, or 7 1/2 hours by car. Photo linked from the 99W website.


4. Fat Tire Beer - A rich, smooth, full-bodied amber ale manufactured by the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, introduced to me by a former graduate adviser and his wife in Riverside, California. Fat Tire almost feels fattening in the mouth. It's so good, but it has no peer on the East Coast, since (like Del Taco) it's almost entirely found west of the Mississippi, with no immediate plans to get out here. The closest place to here that you can buy Fat Tire? Ironcially, east of the Mississippi, in Tennessee. I'm not sure where in Tennessee. Maybe somebody could volunteer that information for me? They probably sell it at least in all the major cities. The closest one to us is Knoxville - eight hours and over 500 miles away. Graphic linked from the New Belgium website.


5. In-N-Out Burger - Whereas we might see the other four things in Maryland someday, In-N-Out Burger is now and will always be a West Coast franchise - with 200+ locations in Arizona, Utah, Nevada and (mostly) California. Unlike the "Hundred items for $1" state of McDonald's and similar locations, Irvine, California-based In-N-Out has just a handful of selections on its menu, and every single one is made from fresh ingredients. Nothing of a diet nature is on the menu, except for Diet Coke if you can get it. Since it won't be coming out here, I have to get out there. The closest one to here is in Phoenix, Arizona, almost 2,350 miles away - five hours by plane (use Southwest - they still don't charge for a second bag, much less a first one). Photo linked from the CNN website.

Amsterdam Trip Part Vijf: Wagamama

After the 15 months since I visited the one on a non-descript but well-traveled street in London, and several days after passing up my chance to eat at the Faneuil Hall one in Boston, I finally got my chance to go back to Wagamama. There are two in Amsterdam, three total in the Netherlands, and I insisted on dragging Jim to the nearest one, on the Max Euweplein near the theater, Museumplein and Leidesplein.

We had just come from the Anne Frank Huis, the museum built around the house where the famous Dutch Jewish girl hid from the Nazis with her family and another for several years, until their safe house was breached (only her father survived the death camps, which took 6 million Jews and 5 million others). We had also just visited the nearby Homomonument, which as far as I know is the biggest monument in the world dedicated to GLBT persons around the world, especially gay victims of the Holocaust (5,000 to 15,000, at least). Max Euweplein, dedicated to a famous Dutch chess champion, is the site where people (like Anne Frank's family and many other Amsterdam Jews, gays and other Holocaust victims) were marched to be sent to the concentration camps. It was very sobering.

Still, we did enjoy our trip to Wagamama, as did the US and (moreover) UK tourists around us, and the Dutch coming in to eat as well (maybe they were also tourists?). Jim assured me he liked his food, so I didn't feel bad obsessively making him wait for the place to open at noon). And this is why I wish they would open more in the US, maybe DC, especially Baltimore, even LA which I do occasionally visit:

• The Wagamama Ramen (€12), a big steaming bowl of, as their menu states it, "noodles in a vegetable soup topped with a marinated and grilled mushroom, seasonal greens, kamaboko-aka [a type of fish], wakame [seweed], prawn, seasonal fish, chicken, fried tofu, menma [dried bamboo] and spring onions". Oh my God, this was good stuff. Everything was so wonderful, especially the kamaboko-aka and those grilled prawns. I got almost to the bottom, and was disappointed that there wasn't more at the bottom of that big bowl. Jim got the Seafood Ramen (€13), which had the same seafood as mine, plus other fish and squid.

• The Banana Katsu (€5) covered with a dollop of orange-vanilla ice cream. I've had banana tempura but never banana katsu (banana fried in Japanese bread crumbs). Three small banana halves with a small dollop of ice cream. Heavenly, about as good as a good tempura ice cream. We each got this.

• I was less impressed with the small side order of Japanese pickles (€1.50), not for the taste but specifically for the size. You could fit all three pickles together on the head of a quarter, they were that small).
  

While eating we did get the chance to see some guys playing chess outside. This was no ordinary chess game, mind you, but a game featuring very large and light pieces that can be played for all to see very easily. The piecs are in two large locked boxes so people can't just walk off with them. You have to get the key from somebody. It was amusing lunch entertainment.