Showing posts with label duck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label duck. Show all posts

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Chef Siri's (2009.06.14)

It seems I only go out to eat with AJ or E. At least according to my tags anyway...lol

Chef Siri's is a Thai and American Cuisine. Of course, 80% of the menu is Thai, the American stuff is for the "Americans." This is the fifth time eating there. I've tolerated everything I've ordered. I don't love it, but I like it more than other places I've been. I've tried something different each time and haven't disliked something too much.

We ordered an appetizer, two entrees and dessert. For the appetizer, we ordered the Thai Shrimp. It wasn't quite what I expected, but it tasted ok. It's not something that would turn me away from eating there again. Thai Shrimp consisted of baked shrimp stuffed with crab meat, cabbage and vermicelli. Thai sweet and sour sauce is drizzled over the Thai Shrimp. The shrimp was rather tiny and non-existent really. I'm not sure if there was actual crab meat, though it did have a seafood taste. The sweet and sour sauce wasn't too bad. They didn't mix it together, so you weren't stuck with Thai Shrimp dunked in sweet and sour sauce.


One of the entrees was Siam Duck. The menu capitalizes all the letters to "SIAM DUCK." Well, at first glance, it can look like "Slam Duck," which E found super amusing and was the main reason she wanted to order it. lol. Siam Duck is fried crispy pieces of duck with scallions, broccoli, carrots (lots of big chunks) and onions sautéed in chef’s special sauce. The special sauce was a mix of soy sauce, garlic, basil and curry. Not quite what I expected... The fried crispy duck was mostly batter with duck. I think I had more batter than duck, a bit disappointed with it.


The other dish was Thai Basil with sliced beef sautéed with fresh basil leaves, carrots, onions, carrots (lots o big chunks), chili & garlic in a brown sauce. It was pretty good, the overall flavor was decent. The beef could've used a bit of corn starch to soften it up, was a bit tough. I like the taste basil leaves give, but I'm not a fan of eating it. It's like my philosophy with ginger and garlic. I love the flavors it gives food, but I need it chopped up finely so I don't pick it out!!


Oh, and can you tell we weren't fans of big chunks of carrots? I like my above philosophy applied to carrots. That or at least shredded or sliced, no chunks though.

For dessert we ordered Thai Sticky Rice with Mango. The sticky rice was not the kind I was used to. It's long and thin. The rice was warm and had coconut drizzled over it. Slices of mango accompanied the rice with dabs of whipped cream and basil leaves as decorations. On it's own the, rice and mango were all right. However, when you eat the rice with the mango, it's pretty good. I wouldn't mind trying it again. The coconut gave it a stronger taste since mango or rice on its own doesn't taste like much.


Total price: $6.95 + $14.95 + $9.95 + $4.50 + tax + tip = $23/person

Note: Pictures are courtesy of E's camera...

Monday, May 11, 2009

Victoria's Gastro Pub (2009.05.06)

This place was highly recommended by my co-workers as we were driving to a Thai place for lunch. Well, they made it sound SOOOO good, that I asked "Are you guys sure you want Thai food?" And they said, let's turn around and you can try this place out. Ok, well there goes Thai food. Next time.

Located at 8201 Snowden River Parkway, Columbia, MD 21045, Victoria's Gastro Pub doesn't have the most appetizing name. That aside, the dish below is the American Dip with a small poutine. The American Dip is Slow Roasted Van de Rose Farms Hereford Rib Eye with Horseradish Sauce and Anchor Porter Beef Jus. The thing of black juice is the "Beef Jus." Go Figure. The horseradish was rather bland so I relied on the Beef Juice for flavor. This was the marinated juice from roasting the Rib Eye. It wasn't too bad. The original sandwich came with Vermont Cheese, but I got mine without it.

On the side, instead of the normal selection of sides, my co-workers recommended getting a side of Poutine. A Poutine consists of Duck Fat Fries, Duck Confit, Gruyere Cheese and Duck Gravy. It's very duck-oriented. The history of the Poutine is rather interesting.

Duck Fat Fries are fries that were fried in duck fat.
Duck Confit are pieces of duck.
Gruyere Cheese is some kind of cheese.
Duck Gravy is duck made from gravy...er...gravy made from duck...

It was ok, I'm not sure what the rave was about... LOL



Sidenote: I had this lunch with 5 co-workers who were all guys. I think had it been any other female, she probably wouldn't haven't gotten what I ordered. LOL.

Total Cost: 16 + 2.50 + tax + tip = $23

Saturday, February 7, 2009

富記 (Full Kee)

At 富記 (Full Kee) in DC (H St, I think) we grabbed our dinner. We both ordered a type of noodle soup. The first picture shows 燒鴨混沌河粉湯 (Roasted duck, wontons and he fun soup). The duck was good. The wontons were a mix of shrimp and pork and were additions to the soup. That was good too. He fun is a thick rice noodle. Also very good.


E ordered a 叉燒混沌蛋麵湯 (BBQ pork, wontons and egg noodle soup). The BBQ pork was pretty good, very standard BBQ pork. The egg noodles, all right. I may have to try it again, but I like he fun alot, so maybe not...hehe


Total price: $16.50 ($7.50 for each bowl + tax + tip)