Geeyore's Profile
Visiting DC/Fredericksburg Area
If you're in Fredericksburg you might as well check out the battlefield which IMO is just unbelievable and mind boggling as a battle ground, and then check out the Battlefield Restaurant which is almost directly across the street from park HQ. I'd read some good things about it but when I was last there it was closed for the day (I think a Monday?).
Anyway agree that your schedule for DC seems ambitious, I'd pare it down to Arlington, one or two Smithsonian museums (Air and Space, Natural History, and old National Gallery are always good), a stroll around the Capitol, and leave it at that. Traffic and parking in Georgetown (M Street and Wisconsin) can be challenging on weekends though if you're committed it can be good for a quick visit.
For something "exotic" and unique to DC Metro (outside of California) I always recommend Eden Center which is the largest Vietnamese shopping mall east of the Mississippi. Lots of restaurants (>20) and small shops. For Vietnamese hoagies ("banh mi" pronounced "bun mee") try Banh Mi So 1 (Banh Mi Number 1) or for sit down try Huong Viet which is acknowledged the best or for Vietnamese noodle soup ("Pho" pronounced "Fow") try Pho Xe Lua (Xe Lua = railroad train).
Anyway have fun.
Visiting DC/Fredericksburg Area
I had a very disappointing experience at Dixie Bones in Woodbridge, and wouldn't personally recommend it. Very expensive for the small serving sizes and flavors (I sensed that these were carefully weighed and measured portions). Also the atmospherics were unpleasant, the entire wait-staff looked glum, as if they'd just been upbraided by the owner, and there was a certain amount of haughty arrogance at the front counter (in a Q joint!?!?). Finally, the Dixie Bones reviews I've seen on other web sites are oddly hyper-enthusiastic (e.g., "5 stars!!!! Yummmm!!!", mixed in with the more realistic 1-star and 2-star disillusioned gripes like mine. Which makes me wonder whether the web "reputation" services (i.e., reviews for pay) are at work. By the way I'm a bit of a Q fanatic and have been all around DC for the Q experience as well as Texas and St. Louis and Georgia Big Pig Jig (where I was a judge) so that's the angle I some from when ID'ing Dixie Bones as mediocre at best.
New Dim Sum - Hong Kong Pearl Falls Church
Alkapal -- Just to be clear, is your report above in paragraphs 2,3,4,5 of Miu Kee or HK Pearl?
It wouldn't surprise me if Miu Kee had massive empty MSG containers in their trash - they have gone downhill over the last 5 years IMO - but it would disappoint me if HK Pearl was starting out on that foot.
New Dim Sum - Hong Kong Pearl Falls Church
1) Huh? Vietnamese-Chinese ethnicity and restaurant ownership is worth dissecting? How very odd. You ever hear of Cho Lon in Saigon? Or Eden Center?
2) Go to Fortune dim sum next weekend. See what you get for any equivalent $$ amount. Pricing isn't much different, Seven Corners restaurant owners do this kind of competitive reconnaissance, and so might you. I am delighted to have a new alternative to Mark's Duck House and Fortune.
3) I could not care one whit about decor, so long as everything is clean. Which HK Pearl appeared to be.
4) Yeah, they gently encouraged us to buy stuff from the carts. I didn't find it rude or bothersome, that's what owning a dim sum restaurant is all about, yes?
5) Happy that your family knows some of the staff. Other Chowhound posters might also.
New Dim Sum - Hong Kong Pearl Falls Church
They seemed to have a good selection of non-shrimp items like duck, pork, and beef.
New Dim Sum - Hong Kong Pearl Falls Church
Sorry, forgot to note a few things:
1 - Yes, it's directly across Wilson Blvd. from the main Eden Center entrance as others have noted.
2 - Prices are reasonable, pretty much the same as Fortune (which is across Rt. 50). About $30 for 5 decent-sized items off the cart. Oddly there's a minor charge for tea. $1.50 for 2 people.
3 - From what I could tell it opened Nov. 15.
New Dim Sum - Hong Kong Pearl Falls Church
I'm going to repost my review from another site. Recommend that Chowhounders check it out and add your own opinions:
We visited for dim sum on Sunday morning, the place was about 2/3 full. The carts were nonstop, delectable, and laden with all of the normal dim sum offerings, including plenty of Cantonese broccoli with garlic and cucumber salads.
We had fried squid; clams with bean sauce; cucumber salad; and char sui beef noodles (fat noodles); and chicken feet. Everything was very good. I like that the food was lightly spiced so that you can add as much soy and hot chili oil as you like to meet your personal taste.
The clams were great: succulent, slightly briny, and cooked perfectly. The squid was the same, with plenty of nice and delicate purpilish tentacled pieces on the plate. All of the food was as it should be and (thankfully) no MSG afterburn as we've experienced with a couple other places in NoVA in recent months.
Service was impeccable, we were asked by the waitresses at least 5 times over 45 minutes if everything was OK, and there were lots of carts coming by throughout the meal.
It's great to have a new Cantonese and Sunday dim sum offering in the Falls Church area . We've been to Fortune twice in recent weeks, Hokkaido a couple times, and Mark's DH in not more than once in the last year+.
We'll definitely be going back to HK Pearl.
XO Taste
Think you have that backwards. Fortune used to be in the place now occupied by Hokkaido, then moved to Seven Corners Center next to Home Depot about 5 or more years ago.
Jaded California food snob seeks like-minded fusspots to recommend good DC restaurants
I've found over the years that Yelp people consistently overrate (often with !!!!! exclamation marks!!!) restaurants and services that I've experienced as horrible. You have to wonder when you have a 1- or 2-star experience in a place with all of those 5-star (with !!!! marks) Yelp reviews. In one instance a place I'd seen in decline for years was still packed with new 5-star reviews (with !!!!!), despite it becoming a transparently obvious ripoff operation.
BBQ in NoVA?
Dixie Bones was a big disappointment recently, in my first and only trip there. Overpriced ($16+ for a plate), mediocre flavors, small (teeny) portions, very Safeway-like beans and potato salad, weird atmosphere.... yeesh, why does the place get good reviews? I've eaten (and judged) BBQ all around America, this place is just not very good. It's a mystery why people like it.
Willard's in Chantilly was just barely OK in my recent visit. The potato salad and slaw looked promising but were both too vinegary. Not my thing. The burnt ends sandwich was generous but not real flavorful.
It is heresy and I'm shocked that I'm saying it, but Red Hot & Blue has a great potato salad and perfectly acceptable Q (pulled pork, ribs, sausages). For DC and our bizarro shortage of decent indigenous fare it's OK.
Upscale BBQ?
Ha ha. "Upscale BBQ."
You know a lot of Q heads are gonna' hoot about that!
In any case you're probably looking for something like Red Hot & Blue. They do catering, probably just what you're looking for. Maybe they can even do that "upscale" thang.
I will say that their potato salad is excellent. The Q itself is perfectly acceptable.
www.redhotandblue.com but the web site seems to be down at the moment. They do have a catering web page, and last time I looked it seemed very thorough.
Non authentic pizza in dc
I've went to Valentino's for the first time recently. It's traditional NY/NJ pizza, and I think very good. I don't know "Vermont pizza" but I do know Boston suburbs Greek pizza, and this stands up very well to all of the above.
It also reminded me of Italian Store pizza of 2 or more years ago (which has been on a pizza nosedive recently). Valentino's also compares for taste but not substance (i.e., it's heavier than) Tony's New York Pizza in Fairfax, which is also good.
So all in all and not to be too snooty, Valentino's is a welcome alternative to the pompous and faddish DC Neopolitan, margherita, fresh moz, wood fired, and charred crust "pizza" that seems sophisticated here but is just plain weird to the rest of the world.
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Italian Store
3123 Lee Hwy, Arlington, VA 22201
New York Pizza
1401 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003
Pig Roasts in Northern Virgina-Who Does it?
Saigon Market at Eden Center in Seven Corners.
Go to the back meat counter, there are usually several hanging there but you'll have to order one in advance if want a whole pig (roast pig is called "heo quay" in Vietnamese, pronounced like "hey-o why").
I've judged BBQ in Georgia and Memphis, and although these are not the same smokey taste of a hickory-smoked whole hog, these are pretty darned good whole hog alternatives.
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Eden Center
Falls Church, VA, USA, Falls Church, VA
Wandering in Reston
A little late, I know, but when I lived and worked in the Boston burbs we used to go to The Aegean in Framingham all the time, and it still appears to be booming 25 years later. I loved the place back then, one of my favorite restaurants period.
http://www.aegeanrestaurants.com/aegean_002.htm
Food Feuds
Of course. There is better. It's Pho Xe Lua at Eden, hands down.
Used to be Pho Tay Ho at Culmore but they changed ownership several years ago and an immediate decline (they also had the only pho ga long that I know of - pho with chicken livers and gizzards).
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Pho Xe Lua
6755-A Wilson Blvd, Falls Church, VA 22044
Pho Tay Ho Restaurant
6015 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041
Food Feuds
That sounds complicated. How about a pound of crab, some Hellmans, and a dash of Old Bay. Now that's a crab cake. ;-)
Staying at hotel in Tysons corner
Eden Center is the biggest Vietnamese shopping center east of the Mississippi. Many (20+) restaurants and many small delis and sandwich shops. Bourdain has graced it with a visit and a segment on his show. I've been going there since 1998 (wifey is Vietnamese).
Web site is here, so I won't give directions but only some suggestions. It's only a 10 to 15 minute drive from Tysons and could definitely provide a fun after-work evening of walking around and eating.
http://edencenter.com/
Hands down best restaurant is Huong Viet. Maybe not the best decor, but definitely the best food. Others are good but this is the best. They are all "authentic" (I hate that word). On the western sidewalk about midway along the building.
Bahn Mi So #1 (Sandwich Number One) is my fave for Vietnamese banh mi, which are little subs (aka hoagies) that are lighter and cheaper than American subs. Buy 3 or 5 or 5, they're cheap! In the standalone building out by Wilson Blvd.
Kim Phung Bakery or Song Que, both Vietnamese delis that sell "bubble tea" which is better tried than described. Get the weirdo concoctions and takeaway stuff, not just something vaguely tolerable. Both in the northwestern corner of the sidewalk mall, basically next door to one another.
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Eden Center
6763 Wilson Blvd, Falls Church, VA 22044
Huong Viet Restaurant
6785 Wilson Blvd, Falls Church, VA 22044
Best Pizza in DC?
Do they sell bagels at The Italian Store?
Maybe you missed a turn and were at Brooklyn Bagels in Clarendon?
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Italian Store
3123 Lee Hwy, Arlington, VA 22201
Best Pizza in DC?
Just seeing the photos and comments about "Two Amys" is enough to keep me away. It's the kind of pizza that requires a topping of arugula and sun dried tomatoes and "artisinal mozzarella." It's not a NY pizza, or New Jersey, or even Boston for that matter. It's a con.
I got a Suprema at The Italian Store last weekend, where I've been getting almost-New Jersey pizza for about 5 years. Something has changed there, and not for the better. The little mini-mall has been undergoing a spiffy face-lift, and the cooler right inside the front door will filled with some kind of unappealing American salami and an underwhelming selection of cheeses. There was no crowd (at 4PM on a Saturday). The pizza was kind of synthetic looking and not really up to par.
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Italian Store
3123 Lee Hwy, Arlington, VA 22201
If I go to Baltimore, MD what kind of foods are the known for other than crabs and crab cakes? Thanks.
Custard snowballs (I thought everybody had those!), Esskay hot dogs, Tastycake peach pies (I know, Philly), Polish sausage.
I know we're not supposed to mention crabs, but I recall $20 bushels in July, and my dad buying the requisite case of National Bo from Art Donovan (Colts lineman) at his liquor store off York Rd. in Towson. He called my Dad "Blondie" and always gave us kids lollipops (Dad would bring us along when he was buying beer, just to say hello to Art).
If I go to Baltimore, MD what kind of foods are the known for other than crabs and crab cakes? Thanks.
I grew up in Towzun in the 60's and had completely forgotten about the peppermint and lemon, thanks for the reminder.
If I go to Baltimore, MD what kind of foods are the known for other than crabs and crab cakes? Thanks.
You mean Rapa Scrapple, yes?
Which by the way, has it's own web site (but unfortunately no T-shirts or keychains for sale):
http://www.rapascrapple.com/
Where to find Maille Dijon Mustard in DC...
Just confirming that the Magruders grocery chain does indeed carry Maille Dijon (regular and coarse), and Magruders is not exactly a highbrow store. The Safeway I occasionally use also has it.
Help escaping a conference for non-touristy eats (or attractions, if you've got any)
It's been many years since I've walked through the doors of Nam Viet, because the first (and last) time I was there, it was the worst Vietnamese cuisine I'd ever been served including during the 9+ months I've lived in Saigon and elsewhere in VN. My wife who is Vietnamese also thought it was fairly heinous. The manager (owner?) was pretty darned rude and basically said "I don't care if you don't like your food, you paid for it, now you may leave if you don't like it." Unbelievable.
Has the ownership or management changed since 1999/2000?
I sure wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Where to buy short ribs...a lot of short ribs!
H Mart and Grand Mart in the Falls Church/Fairfax area always have lots of short ribs in the butcher case.
Where can I find pickled herring?
Vita brand pickled herring is widely available in most of the local grocery chains. It always seems to be tucked in around the dairy/butter/horseradish/cold pickles section of the store. Less often around the seafood counters.
Where to find Maille Dijon Mustard in DC...
I'm pretty sure I saw it at the Magruders in Falls Church. Maybe other branches of the chain have it. (Magruders carries a couple brands of French Dijon which is actually made in France)
Best Instant Coffee
The best instant I ever had was in 1997 in Bangkok, where the hotel restaurant was serving me a great cup of joe with breakfast every morning and I had no idea it was instant until the 3rd or 4th day. Turned about to be Nescafe instant, and I've been pining for it again ever since.
Wegman's Leesburg: @145,000 square feet the largest in the chain.
Watching the flaming out-of-control car wreck called Safeway is getting entertaining, as the local NoVA stores close their once-acceptable bakeries, sell only the junk "Primo Taglio" deli items, put phony plastic boosters under all the fake fresh vegetable "piles", and eject familiar brand names for ever more trickster Safeway brands. What horrible management they have, unable to run a simple grocery store circa 1965.
Who Needs Mark's Duck House?
The heo quay stand is run by the same guys who ran it in 1998.
