FoodMayhem

Janny and I have both been to Tomoe before but this was the best visit ever. There was no line! It was a little past 6 and we sat at the sushi bar. The waiter placed little bowls of marinated bean sprouts in front of us and we started to look through the menu.

Janny ordered the spicy crab appetizer and the sushi deluxe. I had the sushi/sashimi combo. We were both extremely impressed with the fresh and flavorful fish. It was even better than usual! I normally won’t eat tuna because I think it’s a tasteless fish but the tuna last night was delicious. I was in shock!

Every piece on my plate and Janny’s was wonderful and I was also impressed by the selection. Usually dinner specials/combos are just the same boring fish. I got 2 pieces each of tuna, salmon, and yellowtail sashimi, but also got, octopus, surf clam, tuna tar tar, and tamago. The sushi pieces were scallop, red snapper, whitefish, fish roe, a sweet shrimp sushi. It also came with half a roll (normally spciy tuna but I asked for yellowtail scallion)and all dinners come with soup or salad and a slice of watermelon at the end. I was so happy with the $35 dish, I want to go back this week!

It was super hot yesterday but the perfect opportunity to picnic since everyone was off from work for Memorial day: Xiu-Jing, Angie, Sheryl, Sara, Lon, Ice (my jack russell) and me… and eventually Shaun joined us after Sheryl and Angie looked for him for almost on hour.

We made sandwiches with ham, turkey, pastrami, American cheese, and provolone; 3 types of bread from Balthazar: a baguette, rosemary, and walnut; lettuce tomato, cucumber, and condiments. We had sides of Kettle Chips (Thai and honey mustard), watermelon and honeydew, an artichoke dip, and cupcakes.

We ate, talked, napped, walked, played with Ice…..and everyone was over-heating.
Eventually, Lon and I had to get back to cleaning, sorting, and repairing….since we just moved back in to the not-finished renovating apartment the day before.

After 2 trips to Home Depot (where all employees really know nothing about their field and mostly misguide you), we decided to just eat dinner next door at Outback. The free bread is really good and our waitress was super friendly and cheery. We ordered crab cakes as an appetizer. They came out nice and hot with tons of lump crab meat and a great sauce. The large portion suprised us and after 2 loaves of bread, we were already getting full. Lon’s chicken ceasar came with perfectly cooked chicken and fresh romaine but I didn’t like the dressing. It wasn’t Ceasar; it was parmesan cheese dressing. I got the house salad with the mustard vinaigrette. It was ok I guess and I knew it wouldn’t be great but I wasn’t hungry due to the day of eating and both of us were tired enough to fall asleep in our food.

After stuffing ourselves with BBQ, my parents asked us if we wanted to have dinner with them. We couldn’t turn down peking duck so we headed down to Chinatown. We had to wait about 15 minutes for a table but the duck was definitely worth it.

The other thing I love at Peking Duck House is the appetizer of shredded meat, seafood, and vegetables with mung bean sheets. I still haven’t found this dish at any other restaurant and I love it. It is so unique. A room temp dish presented beautifully with each ingredient separate so that you can toss it together yourself. The bright carrots and scallions bring color to the shredded pork, shrimp, jelly fish, shredded egg, mung bean sheets, and cucumber. It’s delicious.

The duck was also fantastic, especially the freshly made pancake/wraps that are served hot in a metal warmer. The crispy skin, juicy fat, and tender and flavorful meat convinced me to eat 4 of them wrapped with scallions, cucumber, and hoisin sauce. YUM! We ordered some other dishes which were all good but not fantastic: The soup dumplings were a bit doughy. The eggplant was a bit too mushy. The beef dish was over-fried with a sweet and spicy sauce. I think Lon really liked it but it was way too sweet for me.

I was still very happy with the duck but the air conditioning was blasting beyond my tolerance level so I was eager to leave. I highly recommend going though if you haven’t. It is a necessary experience.

After a morning of moving, we were really hungry. Justin, Lon, and I decided on barbecue, which we had been craving for a while.

We ordered a ton of food at Bone Lick Park: full rack of ribs, pulled-pork, fried chicken, and an oyster po’ boy accompanied by cole slaw, cornbread, french fries, salad and mac & cheese.

Everything was mediocre. The fried chicken and cornbread were actually bad. The Po’boy was probably the best item. The prices are too high for the mediocre quality. The service was very good though. Even the water boy was on point and friendly.

Very loud, nothing special at Cuba Cafe.

We both liked the yuca and crab croquette but everything else was just ok. The seafood paella was undercooked rice and overcooked seafood just tossed together. It didn’t taste like paella. No saffron, actually not much flavor at all. The rustic salad had one of my favorite cheese cabrales but the bacon couldn’t compare.

We had a passion fruit cake with mango sorbet. The mousse-like layer on top was good but the rest of the cake was a weird texture and lacked flavor.

The prices were too high for the so so food…..

Congee Village is my dad’s favorite restaurant, maybe Janny’s favorite, and tons of other people just love this place. The best food that you can get for those prices but the ugliest decor ever. Service can be rude at times too but they get things done pretty quickly.

I’ve been telling Lon about some of their special dishes for a while and I was so excited to finally get to take him there. We went with my parents and ordered tons of food:

• Fried Chinese Buns with condensed milk for dipping
• Chinese Steamed Fish with ginger, scallion, and some type of preserved vegetable
• Crispy Skin Chicken with tons of fried garlic piled on top
• Fried Squid with green and yellow chives
• Soft Shell Crab
• Fried Rice with salted fish and chicken
• Candied Walnut Shrimp – covered in a mayo sauce and served with broccoli

Everything was delicious except the last 2 items were slightly under their usual performance.
The whole dinner (which was way too much for the 4 of us to finish) cost $77!

BTW, this place is great for little parties cause you can book private rooms.