BABA GANOUSH

The best baba ganoush I've ever had, by far, is at the Lebanese Butcher in Falls Church. They've recently reopened after a fire, and I don't know if the restaurant has reopened yet, but the baba ganoush is available for takeout in the grocery (along with very good hummus and tabouli).

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Lebanese Butcher & Restaurant
109 E Annandale Rd, Falls Church, VA 22046

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

If you were visiting DC, which neighborhoods are the best package of sightseeing and good cheap eats?

I think Steve hit this one right on the nose. Eden Center is a huge shopping center well worth spending an hour or so poking around in, as it's a slice of Vietnam plopped down in the U.S. suburbs.

The only substitution I would make is for Costa Verde, which I've found to be inconsistent and will be hard to find for out-of-towners driving a car. I'd consider instead La Carraquena for Venezuelan arepas, Meaza for Ethiopian, or Llajtaymanta for Bolivian (where you might very well sit next to an old woman wearing an Andes-style bowler). All of these are on main streets and should be easy to find.

If you decide to stick with the no-car idea, you'll probably do best visiting various restaurants off the Red Line in Arlington and Falls Church. The neighborhoods are going to be pretty upscale/preppy, but there is good authentic and reasonably cheap ethnic food to be had at Minh's (Vietnamese, Courthouse metro stop), Chez Manelle (Tunisian, Courthouse metro), the aforementioned Costa Verde (Peruvian, Clarendon metro stop and easy to find if you don't have a car), Ravi's (Pakistani, a 15 minute walk from the Ballston metro stop, but worth it), and Sangam (Indian, mostly southern, 10 minute walk from Ballston metro).

But honestly, to get the best ethnic food you've got to get away from the high rent districts along the Metro corridor and that requires a car. If you decide to go that route, don't miss Hai Duong in Eden Center, which has possibly the best Vietnamese food I've ever had at dirt-cheap prices (in a loud formica-table cafeteria setting) -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/mississippi_snopes/4695032160/

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Eden Center
Falls Church, VA, USA, Falls Church, VA

Minh's
2500 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22201

Meaza Restaurant
5700 Columbia Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041

Sangam Restaurant
1211 N Glebe Rd Ste 2, Arlington, VA 22201

Llajtaymanta Restaurant
7236 Arlington Blvd, Falls Church, VA 22042

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Aburi Gardens, Ghanaian restaurant in Woodbridge

No, it was grilled but not over charcoal. I look forward to your report on Aburi Gardens.

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Aburi Gardens, Ghanaian restaurant in Woodbridge

My wife and I went to Ghana on vacation a few years ago and were surprised by how good (and how spicy) the food was. We hadn't managed to find many Ghanaian restaurants in DC, which is surprising since there are a fair number of Ghanaians in the area. We knew about three -- Ghana Cafe near Adams-Morgan, which is too bland; Akosombo, at 5th & K Streets, NW, which has pretty good food but is too dirty (and we don't have picky standards for cleanliness); and Rainbow Restaurant in Gaithersburg, which we haven't tried because it's a long hike for us and because there are some strong customer complaints online about being ripped off there.

So we were pretty excited when a Ghanaian waiter at Dixie Bones Barbecue restaurant in Woodbridge told us that there were TWO Ghanaian restaurants right there in Woodbridge.

We tried one of them, Aburi Gardens, recently, and I can report that we have now found a source of very authentic Ghanaian food, in a sparkling clean setting.

The Ghanaian community in the DC area (around 11,000 as of 2006, according to an article in the Post) has largely left Alexandria, where they formerly lived, and relocated in Woodbridge. Driving down Route 1 you can now see Ghanaian grocery stores and even a Ghanaian wedding hall.

I can recommend Aburi Gardens pretty highly, as two of the three dishes we had were delicious -- an appetizer of chicken gizzards and peppers, sprinkled with ground cayenne pepper (pictured below), and the peanut soup with goat meat and fufu (which was one of our favorite foods when we vacationed in Ghana back in 2007). Both were blazing hot, but within the zone of tolerance.

Unfortunately, I can't be as enthusiastic about the third dish, a whole tilapia with red pepper sauce. This was my favorite dish in Ghana. When we had it there, the tilapia was fresh caught from the Volta River or Lake Volta and charcoal grilled and the fiery red pepper sauce, which is made from a mixture of tomatoes and peppers. The wild tilapia is far better than the farm-raised tilapia we get here.

The tilapia at Aburi Gardens tasted ... not really fishy, but old. My guess is that the owners don't like American tilapia and have imported Ghanaian wild-caught tilapia, which suffered from the journey. Also, and this is probably just a matter of taste, the tilapia was literally covered in a quarter-inch thick layer of the pepper sauce, which easily placed it among the five hottest dishes I've ever eaten from any cuisine (including Thai and Sichuan). That was okay, but I prefer the serving style I saw in Ghana, where the pepper sauce was on the side and you could modulate the heat on a bite-by-bite basis.

Aburi Gardens' address is 14830 Build America Drive, but it's really on Jefferson Davis Highway (Route 1), near the intersection with Maryland Avenue. The other Ghanaian restaurant (that we know about) in Woodbridge is Rahama at 12744 Darby Court. We looked in and it also looks very authentic (all the customers looked African), but we didn't eat since the portions at Aburi Gardens are absolutely huge.

For pictures of Aburi Gardens and the food, see the links below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mississippi_snopes/5134084093/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mississippi_snopes/5134083757/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mississippi_snopes/5134038383/in/photostream/

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Akosombo Restaurant
613 K St NW, Washington, DC 20001

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

De Xao Lan (Spicy Goat Curry) Special at Hai Duong.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the tip on the goat curry at Hai Duong.

Not only was it spectacularly good, it let me make a small bit of progress toward convincing the restaurant to let non-Vietnamese customers have the good stuff.

We arrived and quickly decided on the baby clams, the pigs foot soup, and the sizzling catfish ... but there was no goat curry to be found on the menu. I got up and started studying the specials board, which is only in Vietnamese, and the waiter rushed over, loudly assuring me, "Everything the same as the menu, exactly the same. Exactly the same." I responded, "Oh, can we have the curried goat? It's not on the menu." He did a quick double take, but recovered nicely. Since we devoured everything, maybe it helped convince the waiter that not all non-Vietnamese-Americans are timid eaters.

The baby clams were just as good as ever (though I think Hai Duong's version isn't quite up to that of Present) and the sizzling catfish on a bed of fennel was superb. I wasn't greatly impressed by the pigfoot soup, it seemed a little bland though the pig's foot itself was pretty good, but my wife and son both thought it made a nice contrast to the other dishes.

For my taste Hai Duong has to be in the very top tier of DC restaurants of any price range. While I'm there I can even convince myself that it might be the best restaurant in DC.

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Tri-Tip butchers Washington D.C.

A small grocery with the odd name of European Foods Import-Export Inc. in Arlington specializes in Brazilian and Portuguese food. It always has a large selection of Brazilian style tri-tip steaks, unmarinated. They also have delicious house-made churrasco sauce in case you're not planning to make your own (as well as a good selection of Portuguese wines).

It's at 2700 Pershing Drive, Arlington, Virginia, which is at the intersection of Pershing and Arlington Boulevard.

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European Foods Import-Export
2700 N Pershing Dr, Arlington, VA

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Sichuan Chengdu Hot Pot -- Sichuan Village, Chantilly

Uncle Liu's gave us the cow throat and cuttlefish without any problem. What would happen to blood in the hot pot? I don't think I noticed that among the options.

Cow throat, by the way, was surprisingly white, crunchy, and tasteless.

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

What are your Top 3 monthly "go to" places in the D.C. Metro area?

Cava (Capitol Hill)
Ray's Hell Burger (Arlington)
El Charrito Caminante (Arlington)

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El Charrito Caminante
2710 Washington Blvd, Arlington, VA 22201

Ray's Hell Burger
1713 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22209

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Elephant Walk - Thai in Falls Church

I posted a somewhat longer review here:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/725478#5832784

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

All this FEAR is making me HUNGRY!

Probably the best restaurant within easy walking distance of where you're staying is Cava, a fantastic Greek restaurant on 8th Street. Get the grilled baby octopus and the lamb sliders. This might be the best buy for your money in the DC area right now.

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Lebanese Butcher -- Closed due to fire

The head butcher at the Lebanese Butcher told me they hope to re-open within 3-4 weeks in the little strip mall across from Halaco on Hillwood Avenue.

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Lebanese Butcher & Restaurant
109 E Annandale Rd, Falls Church, VA 22046

Hillwood Cafe
4155 Linnean Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Hill Country BBQ coming to DC

It has to be better than Capital Q. It's baffling how that place stays in business.

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Capital Q
707 H St NW, Washington, DC 20001

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Hill Country BBQ coming to DC

jac0077 - This idea that just because you've eaten Texas barbecue, you're somehow especially qualified to say that DC has no good barbecue is just silly. I think Rocklands and Urban have very good barbecue -- and I've eaten at Kreuz's and Black's in Lockhart and City Market in Luling (not to mention Oklahoma Joe's, Gates, and Arthur Bryant's in Kansas City; Lexington No. 1 in Lexington NC, Wilber's in Goldsboro, NC; Moonlite and George's in Owensboro; Rendezvous, Interstate, and Payne's in Memphis; Sims in Little Rock; McLard's in Hot Springs, Ark.; Angelo's and Railhead in Fort Worth; and a bunch more less famous barbecue places.

If I've eaten a lot more barbecue than you (and I almost certainly have), does that make my judgment of Rocklands and Urban right and yours wrong? No, but it does mean you're not entitled to say our local barbecue is bad just because you've eaten in a few Texas barbecue places.

This is food. People's opinions differ, even people with a lot of eating experience.

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Seafood shacks in Southeastern Virginia?

Margie & Ray's on Sandbridge Road in Virginia Beach is one of the best seafood shacks I've ever eaten in. It's a little bit of a drive from you, but worth it.

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Margie & Ray's Restaurant
1240 Sandbridge Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23456

Mississippi Snopes in Mid-Atlantic

Seafood Market Arlington

I've been to the Grand Mart in Seven Corners and the Super H Mart in Merrifield many times. They have a comparable variety of seafood, but the one Super H Mart smells much less fishy.

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Grand Mart
6255 Little River Turnpike, Alexandria, VA 22312

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

New to DC area - Restaurant suggestions for Arlington and area

I think Black's gives you a wide choice of sides and one of my dining companions chose the rice. I think the coleslaw was just what you get if you don't pick coleslaw as a side. If you get a side of coleslaw, it's huge. Skimping on portions sizes isn't a problem at Black's, to say the least.

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Long weekend in KC - recommendations for restaurants from local immigrant communities?

Thanks again for the suggestions, I guess I owe you a report on the weekend.

We started with a big winner, El Camino Real for tacos and fritos charros. You don't know how much I wish we had a taco place this good in DC. We have some real authentic places, with fillings even more exotic than El Camino Real (like pig's ears), but nowhere as good (or as friendly). Our group had carnitas, longaniza (Mexican sausage that seemed pretty different from chorizo), cabeza (cow cheeks), lengua (tongue), and al pastor ("in the shepherd style" -- pork and I think beef slices layered on a spit with a pineapple on top). All were very good, but the longaniza and al pastor were other worldly. The pico de gallo served with the chips was also superb. At $1.50 a taco (a couple of nights a week, they're $1 each), if this place were in DC I'd weigh twice my current weight. Wonderful start. (By the way, I see some reviews elsewhere on Chowhound calling this a "bad" neighborhood. It sure didn't seem bad at all.)

Next, a beer at Grunauer. Great beer selections and the menu looks fascinating, but we didn't (couldn't actually) eat. But the passion of the servers for the menu (they quickly corrected us when we referred to the Austrian menu as "German") makes me wish we could have squeezed in a meal here. Maybe next time.

Then, way too soon after lunch, we headed to Oklahoma Joe's. Fortunately, the line was a full one hour and one minute, so we were at least vaguely hungry by the time we got through the line. I know everyone here is way more familiar with Oklahoma Joe's than me, so I'll just say that I think I've eaten at just about all of the most famous barbecue places in the country and I've never eaten better barbecue. And, while I'll probably never stand in line for an hour for a restaurant again, I have to say talking with the Kansas Citians (sp?) around us in line was a lot of fun.

Sunday, we decided we wanted a bit more relaxing atmosphere before heading to the Royals game, so we ended up at the Fiorella Jack Stack at the Freight Station (right next to Grunauer's, not coincidentally). Very good, if not quite great, barbecue and a real pleasant place to eat on a pleasant early September afternoon. Fun waitress, whose relentless upselling was done in such good grace that you hardly minded it. Good place for people watching and train watching too.

However, the portion sizes were so huge at Jack Stack's that we ended up bagging supper on Sunday night and eating an apple in the hotel room.

Monday, our plans for LC's barbecue got disrupted by Labor Day. Our KC friends had been driving us around, but on Monday we needed a car. Despite giving us an online reservation, the midtown Avis was closed for the holiday, as were the non-airport locations for Hertz, Budget, and every other rental car company. We were staying in Westport, at a nice hotel (the Q), and the front desk guy expressed doubt about whether we'd get a cab to come pick us up there and take us to the airport. We were almost sure he was wrong (he also thought LC's, which is 5.0 miles from the hotel, was at least 20 miles away), but chickened out and started exploring options within walking distance.

We saw too many negative online reviews of Jerusalem Cafe and New Tandoor Cafe, which had initially sounded interesting, and finally decided on Habashi House -- but they didn't answer the phone so we decided they might be closed getting ready for Eid.

Finally, we decided to explore the true native cuisine of Westport -- hipster food -- and stumbled into Beer Kitchen No. 1, which had only been open for three days. Very solid renditions of the classics of hipster cuisines, like fancy deviled eggs with caviar, beet salad with walnuts and goat cheese, sauteed spinach with whole garlic cloves, brussels sprouts with bacon, four cheese grilled cheese sandwich, and Belgian fries. All really good (my wife vouches for the grilled cheese, I can't eat cow's milk).

The only innovative dish we tried at Beer Kitchen No. 1 was my "Turducken" burger (named after the Cajun classic of excessive Thanksgiving, a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken, each with its own stuffing, which I'm proud to say we've actually cooked once). This is a chicken burger with duck confit, turkey bacon, cranberry ketchup, and fontina cheese. I screwed this one up, because I can't eat cow's milk and asked them to substitute goat cheese -- which was way too strong a flavor that dominated the other flavors. The parts were very good (after I scraped off the goat cheese), but unfortunately I can't speak to the whole (which sounds very interesting).

This shouldn't be taken as a negative review, because we ate very very well at Beer Kitchen No. 1, which is America's latest ethnic food (hipster) at the top of its game. And the beer list is superb and the prices just unbelievable by DC standards (6 ounces of Founder's Centennial IPA for $2! Amazing). Beer Kitchen No. 1 is highly recommended for eating and drinking.

We did well in KC and thanks again for your suggestions. Next trip, we'll actually have a car and on to LC's and Stroud's.

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Habashi House
309 Main St, Kansas City, MO 64105

Mississippi Snopes in Great Plains

Long weekend in KC - recommendations for restaurants from local immigrant communities?

DC has a fair number of Persian restaurants, some of them very good, so I'll probably pass on Persian in KC. Ahmad's in the Old Market in Omaha is one of the best Persian restaurants I've eaten in.

I'll definitely keep Huong Viet in mind. DC has a huge number of Vietnamese restaurants (I think the third largest Vietnamese population after LA and Houston), but that sweet potato and shrimp appetizer sounds great.

Mississippi Snopes in Great Plains

Long weekend in KC - recommendations for restaurants from local immigrant communities?

Thanks for the suggestions. It sounds like Mexican and barbecue are the way to go.

The current plan: Saturday lunch - El Camino Real.

Saturday dinner - Oklahoma Joe's.

Sunday lunch - Not sure. We're going to the Royals game, so maybe we'd try the Stroud's fried chicken there (mistake?). Sunday dinner - open.

Monday - Lunch - LC's barbecue. Dinner open, but probably will need to be near the airport.

Thanks again.

Mississippi Snopes in Great Plains

Long weekend in KC - recommendations for restaurants from local immigrant communities?

My wife and I are coming to KC for a Labor Day weekend visit. We've got the barbecue places pretty well scoped out (Oklahoma Joe's and maybe one more). Those are pretty easy to research (I've eaten years ago at Arthur Bryant's and the late Boyd's 'n Son, which might be the best barbecue I've ever had).

What we'd really like to find in addition to barbecue are some good ethnic restaurants run by members of whatever immigrant communities are strong in Kansas City (like the Bosnian restaurants in St. Louis or the Ethiopian restaurants here in DC).

I see on this board that there are some taco places in Kansas City, Kansas that look very authentic (these places have cabeza -- cow's head, which is always a good sign). Any other suggestions along those lines?

I'm really looking forward to coming to Calvin Trillin's hometown to eat. I guess it's way out of date now, but I think I read most of Alice, Let's Eat and American Fried out loud to my wife. Hope I don't botch the trip and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mississippi Snopes in Great Plains

Long weekend visit

Oh, right. Thanks. I forgot that this is a multi-city board. I'm used to the DC board.

Mississippi Snopes in Great Plains

Long weekend visit

We're coming into town for a Labor Day weekend visit, and right now our options are looking pretty limited. I've got that Tony Bourdain says that Oklahoma Joe's is one of the ten places you must eat before you die ... but that's just two meals ... and I note that, so far, at least, Tony has not scheduled a Kansas City show.

However, I also note the taco places on KC Kansas, with stuff like cabeza (cow's head) tacos.

So, once we get beyond the obvious (KC Joe's) and the attempts to do international food "okay," what is reccommended in KC?

Mississippi Snopes in Great Plains

Where to meet between Baltimore and D.C.?

Last time I ate there was in March 2010 and it was impressive then.

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Where do you take out of town guests?

If the out-of-town guests find Ethiopian too exotic, then I'm guessing they're not LA foodies who are intimately familiar with the various wonderful Asian restaurants in that area. California's a big state.

For what it's worth, a friend of mine moved here from LA about three years ago and finds the ethnic food here BETTER than LA. Not in raw numbers of great restaurants, of course, but in their accessibility. LA unquestionably has more great Asian restaurants than DC, but you have to drive for hours to get to them.

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Best Ethiopian in DC?

I wasn't arguing Dama's merits. I just noted that it's striking how many Ethiopians I talk to name Dama as their favorite restaurant. When we ate there, it was good but not notable and the service was no problem -- but we did have to park down the street a ways.

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Dama Restaurant
1503 Columbia Pike, Arlington, VA 22204

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Where to meet between Baltimore and D.C.?

Jesse Wong's Asean Bistro in Columbia has outstanding pan-Asian food (mostly Chinese) in a very pleasant setting. It stayed on Washingtonian food critic Todd Kliman's weekly list of "25 Places I'd Spend My Own Money" for several months, although it has recently dropped off that list. Slightly upscale.

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Asean Bistro
8775 Centre Park Dr Ste 7, Columbia, MD 21045

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Where do you take out of town guests?

I second that for Present. I've taken several people here and they have uniformly loved it. Get reservations though. It's almost always packed.

My only objection to Present is how determinedly the waiters try to steer you away from stuff they think isn't suited to the American palate. You practically have to argue with them to get anything offbeat.

Mississippi Snopes in Washington DC & Baltimore Area

Tony Bourdain is coming to Austin: Where should his handlers send him?

Bourdain visited Kansas City -- but the show (so far at least) has never aired. Yet in an article he listed Oklahoma Joe's barbecue as one of the "13 places you must eat before you die," alongside such luminaries as St. John (London), Le Bernadin (NYC), and the French Laundry (the fancy part of California).

So play to your strengths. I'm sure that by this point Tony empathizes with Calvin Trillin (the first great foodie writer), who when told by the local Chamber of Commerce gladhander, "We have a wonderful French restaurant “La Maison de la Casa House, Continental Cuisine," would respond, “No, you don’t. Don't take me to the place you took your parents for their 35th wedding anniversary. The place you went after you got back from 13 months in Korea.”

Slightly updated, the message would be, don't take him to your best simulacrum of a Japanese izakaya place, but a place that's really good. The place you'd go if you just got released from a week of hospital food and dreaming about where you'd go for one meal if God would grant you that wish.

I don't know Austin food, but I've got to think City Market Barbecue in Luling has to be very high on that list.

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City Market
633 E Davis St, Luling, TX 78648

Mississippi Snopes in Austin

Barbecue crawl in Austin/South Texas

Sorry I overlooked this earlier, but from your earlier post about Black's it sounds like you're still barbecue crawling. If so, I'd highly recommend City Market in Luling (not far from Lockhart). Every bit the equal of Black's, which is in the very top level of barbecue places I've ever eaten.

Atmospheric too.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mississippi_snopes/4540067294/

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City Market
633 E Davis St, Luling, TX 78648

Mississippi Snopes in Austin