Last week, a few friends of mine took me to Joe’s Noodle House in Rockville. Now i should say up front that I am far from a connoisseur of Chinese food and about as adventurous in the domain as the average American (i.e. my favorite dish is usually fried rice and General Tso’s chicken). Nonetheless, my friends had urged me to go for several months and given that we had made plans to watch a movie nearby, I was game.

Joe’s itself is as they say in great literature, “an unassuming hole in the wall” in a typical suburban DC strip mall off Rockville pike. Yet though the atmosphere is simple, it is at once fresh and inviting, as if you were entering a local joint in Shanghai where you know the food is fresh and the service is friendly. The menu is expansive and comprehensive across the major categories of protein and vegetables and frankly can be overwhelming for the unitiated. Fortunately for me I was with a few regulars and in the discussion on the car ride up, it was decided that one dish for sure would be the “mapo doufu” a Szechuan tofu specialty known for its lip numbing Szechuan peppercorns (more on that later). Joe’s is ostensibly a Szechuan establishment and not the tabasco, Siracha style Szechuan that it passes for “spicy food” in most American restaurants. I knew that spicy would be baked, indigeneous to the dishes I was eating.

After some deep consultation, we decided upon the following for our hungry party of four:

• A plate of “mapo doufu”
• A whole fish
• Green beans with garlic
• Eggplant with Basil

As the “tofu semi-virgin” (or tofu skeptic, depending on your perspective) the group insisted that I try the mapo dofufu first. I have to admit that I only intended to have a few bites to be polite and then move on to the other dishes. But after a few bites and the numbness on my upper lip combined with the firmness of the quality tofu turned me into a convert and one bite became a second helping much to the joy of my hosts who had successfully turned another soul to the Tofu side.

The fish was tasty, though I personally didn’t care much for the gelatin cubes that accompanied the spicy sauce. Honestly, I think my palate was completely confused by the Szechuan peppercorns so I am probably not well equipped to give a definitive appraisal of the fish. The green beans were excellent and inspired me to try cooking crisp green beans in season with garlic at home. Finally, the eggplant which was high quality combined with particularly fresh basil made for another great dish and my hosts noted that though the eggplant with basil was a first order for them, it is likely to be a mainstay in their ordering repertoire.

All in all, I have to give Joe’s four stars for a top quality Chinese meal at a decent price especially for larger groups. I will definitely be back and in the future I may even get one of their signature rewards cards as well so I can enjoy more food for less money

As a birthday treat this year, my wife, Ruhana, asked around and booked a table at the Strip House, one of New York’s most popular (and some would argue finest) steak houses. I’m a steak fan though once every couple of months is enough for me and when I asked a couple of steak afficandos at work, they said you couldn’t go wrong with the Strip House. I read a few reviews online which were very positive (especially about the desserts) so I was psyched when the evening came around and I brought a huge appetite. My only real concern was that the staff was known to be a bit snooty and could ruin the evening.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, we were greeted by a maitre’d who was a bit gruff and joyless asked us for our reservation. We gave the name and it took him a while to get the reservation. Our reservation turned out to be an hour later than we had originally planned and given that the Strip House is known to keep people waiting we were concerned that we’d have to wait even longer than we anticipated. Nonetheless the Maitre’d reassured us that he could fit us and asked us to place our coats in the coat room.

We were delighted to see as soon as we were done checking in our coats, the waitress came by and said our seats were ready. We did a double take at first, shocked that they really did have a table for us but we didn’t question our good luck. We were seated on a booth side of the wall with plenty of pictures of celebrities and scantily clad women (part of the gimmick of the Striphouse is its play on words). Our waitress arrived shortly afterwards with a smile and warm bowl of bread. She explained the additions to the menu and patiently helped us pick our steak. As my wife and I had never shared a Porterhouse, we took the opportunity and ordered a side of their famouse Goose Fat Potatoes and Creamed spinach. Not big eaters, we skipped the appetizers though I’ve heard from others that their shrimp cocktail is quite good as well.

My wife and I chatted and soaked up the atmosphere while waiting for the food. The scene was busy and though the restaurant was dimly lit the buzz gave it a warmth especially on a very cold winter night. Our steaks took some time to come out which I was more than happy to wait for as I viewed it more as a sign that they were being properly cooked rather than burnt and rushed to the table. When the steaks finally arrived, the waitress hand carved it nearby and nicely arranged the strip and filet pieces of the porterhouse on our plates with a small garnish of garlic. The creamed spinach was served in a small copper pan and the goose fat potatoes were formed into a dome, crispy on the outside topped with chives.

The porterhouse was excellent and truly illustrated the concept “melts in your mouth”. We had it prepared medium wanting to preserve a little of the pink. The steak was beautifully blackened on the outside but surprisingly had not noticeable taste of char while the meat itself was pink on at the very center and fully cooked throughout. I’m a steak sauce fan myself and their house sauce was excellent with the steak. The goose fat potatoes were crunchy and a little on the salty side but combined with the spinach which was perfectly done, the two sides made for an excellent compliment to the steak. My wife and I both felt that the portions were excellent – any larger and we would have felt overstuffed and I imagine each piece would not have been as succulent.

After savoring our dinner, my thoughts turned to dessert. I read great reviews about their 21-layer chocolate cake which some argued was the real reason to come to the Strip House. I’m a huge fan of chocolate cake though rarely eat it outside but as it was my birthday, I was given special consideration from my wife and permitted to order it. The couple next to us who appeared to be regulars were amused by our choice though they warned us that we should be prepared to take it with us as it was nearly impossible to eat in one sitting. We soon found out how right they were.

The cake itself is probably 10 inches high and the piece filled up a large steak size serving plate. It was decadently rich – surprisingly so for its huge size. It had a beautiful layer of chocolate sauce on the top and alternated between layers of rich chocolate cake and luscious chocolate cream. It was richly satisfying and true to legend we were only able to finish half of it. We packed up the rest and took it with us. (Postcript: I’ve been nibbling on the cake while writing this review and, if you can believe it, the fact that it was outside made it even softer).

Overall, the Striphouse is a classic case of you get what you pay for. It was damn expensive (at least by my standards) but the service and most importantly food were definitely worth it.

My wife and I were out in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania this weekend and because it was Christmas Eve few of the restaurants and shops in the historic district were open. The winter sun was setting in the late afternoon so we went in search of a cup of hot tea and some local desserts. Jim Thorpe has no town bakery but we heard good things about a new vegetarian restaurant called Cafe Origins where we were told that some deserts and hot drinks might be available.We peeked at the menu outside and saw that some fresh baked pies and crumbles were on offer so we thought we’d give it a try. We were the only ones in the restaurant and were enthusiastically greeted by Denise O’Connell, the chef/owner. When we mentioned that we were interested in some warm deserts, Denise immediately rattled off a list of pies, cookies and crumbles that she had baked that afternoon. We decided to try three dishes – the sesame cookies, the pear-apple crumble and a Turkish dessert whose name escapes me. For the obligatory hot drink, I ordered a cup of Black Currant tea.The black currant tea came out first in a cup the size of a bowl. Perfectly brewed with the tea bag hanging from a chopstick on the cup’s lip, it warmed me from the inside out. As my wife and I were chatting about a book that she had purchased at a bookstore in town, the desserts arrived. We tried the Turkish desert first. It had a warm jellied center and was covered with a sweet cookie shell. I alternated between sips of tea and bites of the cookie. I also sampled a bite of the sesame cookies. Personally I found the cookies a bit hard on the outside and dry on the inside but they softened nicely when dipped in the tea.The real treat though was the pear-apple crumble. The crumble is basically a mash of pear, apple and cake slightly warmed with hot caramel sauce on top. The cake melts in your mouth and the sweety caramel aroma rafts throughout the restaurant. In the summertime, I’ll have to come back and have it a with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Beyond the food, Denise is a great hostess. She is very involved in promoting the town of Jim Thorpe and very Internet savy, referring us to the newly developed Jim Thorpe website. The restaurant itself is an oasis within the oasis of Jim Thorpe. She’s decorated it soothing mauve tones and hung South East Asian tapestries on the wall.

If your travels through Pennsylvania find you in the town of Jim Thorpe, I highly encourage you to visit Cafe Origins. The cuisine will remind you of where good food comes from.

The newest craze in New York Indian food is a cusine called “Indo-Chinese”. Chinese cusine is quite popular in South Asia especially when dining out. Unlike American Chinese which is more sweet and less spicy, Indian Chinese is fiery and fragrant drawing upon the rich spices of the Subcontinent. Popular dishes in the Indo-Chinese cusine include: Gobi Manchurian (fried cauliflower), Hakka Noodles (fried Ramen noodles with vegetables), and Dry Chili Chicken (dry-rubbed chili chicken cubes).

I’ve been enamored with Indo-Chinese since my childhood visits to Bangladesh where “eating-out” meant eating Chinese. I was therefore excited to hear that Cardamom a restaraunt where I had eaten before had added Indo Chinese to its more traditional Indian tandoori grill menu. I had previously eaten there with a Korean friend and we both thought their Indian fare was passable if a bit pricey compared to other restaraunts in the neighborhood. Last night, my wife and I decided to try their Indo Chinese menu. I ordered Fried Shrimp as an appetizer and my wife had the Mulligatawny Soup. Service was really slow on the appetizers (it probably felt even slower because we were both famished) despite the fact that there were several waiters milling about. Nevertheless the meal got off on a good start. The shrimp was crisp but not overcooked inside and the breadding was fried a beautiful golden brown. Dipping it in the sweet chilly sauce was a treat, making it almost worth the wait.

Our main course consisted of the Masala Noodles and Gobi Manchurian. In my previous visits to Indo Chinese restaruants, I usually order the Hakka Noodles which are thin Ramen-like noodles fried with vegetables and chicken or shrimp. Hakka Noodles were on offer at Cardamomm as well but I decided to try the Masala Noodles instead because it was something new and seemed well spiced. The Gobi Manchurian was also a new dish for me but I knew it by reputation from other South Asian friends who’ve had it at other restaraunts.

The Masala Noodles (Masala means spice) were ironically over-spiced. The chef used low quality low mein noodles and added the most ginger I have ever eaten. I couldn’t tell if I was eating noodles or just pure ginger. I was famished so some how I got through about half the dish. It was so bad, that when the waiter asked me how I enjoyed the food, I flat out told him that I was extremely disappointed with how a simple could be so poorly cooked. The Gobi Manchurian was equally bad with soggy cauliflower also over-spiced.

The only redeeming feature of the evening was that I wasn’t the only one who seemed to extremely disappointed. A few other couples also returned at least one dish less than half eaten. The staff concerned that they might be losing repeat customers, was gracious enough not to charge me for the Masala Noodles.

The bottom line. I’ll only be back there if I read a review from a respected critic who gives a glowing review. Till then, I’ll be eating at Chinese Mirch down the block.