Korean Barbecue at Shin Chon Garden

Korean barbecue is one of my most enjoyable dining experiences. At the center of the table is your very grill which you will place your choice of meat on. You can choose from getting marinated or non-marinated beef (short ribs, loin, tenderlion, or brisket), pork (thick bacon or short steaks), or chicken.

Shin Chon Garden uses this cute little turtle for the grilling surface. It's fun to actually do the cooking yourself at the table. Korean barbecues also come with various banchan, which is pickled vegetable side dishes, a side of soup, and some white rice. Also pepper, garlic, and condiments are offered to go along with the meat.

Normally, diners would place the cooked meat piece in a lettuce leaf, add in condiments and garlic and pepper, wrap the lettuce leaf up, and eat. The lettuce leaf give it a fresh, crisp texture to it while the meat is juicy and flavorful. It's absolutely delicious and fun for a party or a family.

Shin Chon Garden

8801 Baltimore National Pike

Ellicott City, MD 21043

410-461-3280

Hunan Taste's Lunch Special

Hunan Taste at Catonsville, Maryland on North Rolling Road offers a lunch special where you can order a combination of three dishes from a long list of food to go along with your choice of soup for only $24.95. This is a very affordable meal for a party of four. My family and I went to Hunan Taste just for this deal and we were amazed on the taste quality that this place delivers.

For starter, we got the Corn Soup. We really wanted the Clam Soup but it was unavailable at the time. The soup was a little mild in flavors but we enjoyed the simple, clear taste of it. For our three dishes, we choose Sliced Fish with Spicy Bean Sauce, Sliced Beef with Sa-Cha Sauce, and Pork Stomach with Celery. The fish dish has a very good spicy sauce but what really turns this dish off is that the fish has bones in them. You have to be careful when you eat this.

The Sliced Beef with Sa-Cha Sauce is an out-of-the-park homerun dish. The Sa-Cha sauce is paired very well with beef and vegetables in this dish.

And finally, the Pork Stomach with Celery was just okay, nothing special but not bad. We would definitely come back and try other dishes from the lunch special. There are 36 dishes and 7 soups to choose from. Imagine the possibility of combinations.

Hunan Taste

718 N. Rolling Rd

Catonsville, Md 21228

410-788-8988

Two Youngs' Daegu Jiri

Try the Daegu Jiri (#31) at Two Youngs. A very delicious seafood stew in a light white broth. The broth is full of flavors and this dish is best for anyone who does not like the spice of the Korean cuisine.

Thai Orient: Still Great

It has been years since I've been to Thai Orient in the Valley Centre Shopping Center in Owings Mills. And today, I visited the restaurant and found that not much has changed. I also enjoyed a delightful lunch there. My guest and I ordered two entrees. Each entree came with either an egg roll or soup. Knowing that Thai Orient made some delicious chicken corn soup, I had to order one of those today while also getting an egg roll.

The chicken corn soup was exactly the same as I remember it: totally delicious! I am dead serious about this. I've had chicken corn soup from many Chinese restaurants before and Thai Orient's chicken corn soup is absolutely the best out there. Moving on to the entrees... we had an order of Pad Thai and an order of Scallop Pad Ped.

The Pad Thai is sweet and savory and the crushed peanut gives it a delightful texture. The meat used in this dish, chicken and shrimp, can be done a little better. But overall, I enjoyed this Pad Thai very much.

Next is the Scallop Pad Ped, a scallop dish with mixed vegetables in a Thai curry sauce. The scallops used here are very nice and fresh and have a very good texture, which is hard to say for every Asian restaurant. I think the sauce was done very well here. The spice in the sauce was good, especially when you pair it with steamed rice.

This was a very good experience for me, returning to Thai Orient for the first time in years. The service is great. The restaurant looks nice. The food tastes good. And the price is decent, under $10 per entree. It's good to see how this place hasn't changed much and stayed true to its ways, especially when it produces delicious Thai food.

Thai Orient

9616 Reisterstown Rd

Owings Mills, MD 21117

410-363-3488

I ❤ Sushi Ya

I absolutely love Sushi Ya! I've been coming to this cute little local restaurant that provides good quality sushi and good quality service for over 10 years. It is located in the Valley Center Shopping Center in Owings Mills. The setting of the restaurant is perfect for a date at night and also relaxing for lunch with co-workers or friends and family. The place is attractive and sets a good mood. Today I went to Sushi Ya for lunch for some delicious sushi.

After trying almost everything on the menu, my mom and I just hand selected a couple rolls off the sushi menu. We chose the rainbow roll and the soft shelled crab roll along with some salmon nigiri sushi. The soft shelled crab was fried very nicely, crispy and tender, making the roll very enjoyable. The rainbow roll was decent, only lacking in the quantity of fish. Comparing to China Moon where they make the best rainbow rolls I've ever tasted, I thought Sushi Ya did ok with that roll. Lastly, the salmon nigiri was fresh and delicious. I could feel the salmon melt in my mouth.

After our lunch, we ordered a black sesame ice cream. It was surprisingly good with no overpowering taste of the black sesame. It was the perfect dessert to complement our meal. I left Sushi Ya very satisfied and I can't wait to go back again.

Sushi Ya Japanese Restaurant

9616 Reisterstown Rd

Owings Mills, MD 21117
410-356-9995

Dry-fried Beef Ho Fun

Ingredients:

• ho fun/rice noodle crepe
• beef eye round
• been sprouts
• green onions
• oil
• soy sauce
  

Quick Directions:

1. Cut beef into thin slices about 1/4 inch thick. Marinate beef in soy sauce, sugar, and cornstarch.
2. Cut rice noodle crepe into strips about 3/4 of an inch to an inch wide to get ho fun.
3. Cut green onions into two-inch long pieces.
4. Heat oil in wok over high flame.
5. Stir fry beef slices until they're cooked. Remove from heat. Set aside.
6. Insert oil, bean sprouts, and green onions into the wok to stir fry. 
7. Add in ho fun and cooked beef and stir fry along with soy sauce until ho fun softens.
8. Remove from wok and plate.

Five Guys: A Greasy Bag of Yummy Goodness

Five Guys Famous Burgers & Fries is one of the best places to go for a burger. It is several cuts better than fast food burgers while still providing quick service and inexpensive deal for a meal. The burgers are simply amazing and you can choose as many toppings as you want for free. The beef patties are great and the melted cheese provides the perfect harmony. This just might be the best cheeseburger I've ever eaten. The fries are fried nicely and seasoned to perfection. A regular fries consist of a cup of fries plus an extra scoop into the bag. It's more than what one person would be able to eat in one sitting; perfect for two. Everyone's favorite thing about this place is the fries. They are pretty amazing. Five Guys's menu is small but it hits all the necessity for a burger joint: burgers, hot dogs, fries, and soft drinks. The end product is a greasy bag of deliciousness. Five Guys is definitely a must-eat restaurant for meat eaters.

Five Guys

11708 Reisterstown Rd

Reisterstown, MD 21136

410-526-8975

Mexican Coca-Cola

I really want to try Coca-Cola from Mexico. I've heard great things about it. The big difference between Mexican Coca-Cola and American Coca-Cola lies in the taste Mexican Coke uses sugar from sugar cane instead of the normal high fructose corn syrup all American soda packs. Supposedly, it has a cleaner, sweeter taste and leaves a better mouth feel. The only problem is where can I find some of this Mexican Coca-Cola in Maryland.

Pho Dat Thanh Cafe: A Tasty Big Bowl

At Pho Dat Thanh Cafe in Columbia, you can get a huge and i mean a HUGE bowl of pho for a good price. Lots of people enjoy going to this restaurant for their Vietnamese dishes. I am one who has a thing for pho and here the pho is very good. There's only one thing I didn't like; Pho Dat Thanh Cafe does not provide slices of hot peppers to add into the bowl of Vietnamese beef noodle dish. When I ate there, I missed the spicy flavor I usually add to my bowl of pho. But even so, I enjoyed the dish; the broth is excellent and the beef is of good quality. And it comes in a huge serving, so you're getting your money's worth.

Pho Dat Thanh Cafe

9400 Snowden River Pkwy

Columbia, MD 21045

410-381-3839

Ikkyu's Tonkatsu and Udon Combo

I did a review earlier on this little shop but I didn't know the name of the shop at the time. So now I'm reviewing a different meal. The name of the shop is Ikkyu, which serves simple, fast Japanese cuisine. Each meal is numbered and has a corresponding picture indicating what the customer would get. There are 22 items on the menu and the cost range from $6 to $10. Each meal is bound to fill you up. I chose #7 which is a combination of a simple udon noodle soup and a small portion of tonkatsu. I say "a small portion" because I compared it with the full portion of the tonkatsu meal which is gigantic, but really one can be full from eating that "small portion". The tonkatsu is a nicely fried port cutlet. Ikkyu uses a thin slice pork and the end result is a moist pork cutlet with a very crispy breading. Along with the tonkatsu is the udon, which is a hot noodle soup in a mildly flavored broth. I like to add kimchi to the udon to spice up the flavors. Anyway, Ikkyu is a good place to go for a quick lunch.

Ikkyu

8801 Baltimore National Pike

Ellicott City, MD 21043

410-203-9919

Chinese Hot Pot

Today my family and I enjoyed a nice hot pot, or some would say Chinese fondue, for lunch. We only do this special meal every once in a while as it is not as efficient and takes a lot of preparation. Items needed to start a hot pot:

• portable butane stove
• butane fuel cans
• a large, wide, round pot
• chopsticks
• steel wire skimmers
  

My family uses a pot with a separator in the middle so we can have one side spicy and the other non-spicy. To get started, boil up some water in the hot pot.

We added a packet of hot pot flavoring to each section of the pot: spicy hot pot and pork based broth. Typical food cooked in the hot pot includes:

• thinly sliced meat
• leafy vegetables
• mushrooms
• wontons
• seafood

Today, we had shrimp, tofu, radish, beef, oysters, squid, a variety of fish balls, and several leafy greens. Each of us put in the item we want to eat into the water in the pot and watch it cook, taking in the flavors from the broth. When it's fully cooked, take it out, let it cool a bit, dip it into soy sauce mixed with a little sha cha sauce, and enjoy. After a while, the broth of the pot would be full of the yummy goodness taste from all the food that was put in there. We paired this broth with some noodles and we had the best homemade noodle soup ever.

Hot pot is a fun family meal. Everyone gathers around the table and has a part to cooking his/her own food. Just be careful with the stove as the fire and boiling water can be harmful if not careful. I have a blast every time my family does it.

Asian Court for Dim Sum

If you're looking for dim sum in the area, look no farther than Asian Court because there isn't many options around. Making the drive to Silver Spring would be a little too much for a light dim sum lunch. The food at Asian Court is decent and specializes in traditional Cantonese flavors. Today I picked out the dim sums that I want from a hot cart that one of the waitress push around the restaurant. I chose phoenix claws, shrimp dumplings, lotus leaf rice, and steamed barbecued pork buns. I like the taste of the phoenix claws with a little hot oil added, which Asian Court kindly supplies. Pork buns are always a special treat and here it is done just right! The shrimp dumplings are okay and the lotus leaf rice is enjoyable. Each dim sum usually come in small portions so eaters can ordered a variety of dishes at one sitting. If you visit here on Sunday, there will be a lot more hot delicious food to choose from and a lot more people, so expect to wait if arriving late. Without much competition, Asian Court is simply the place to go for dim sum in the greater Baltimore area.

Asian Court

9180 Baltimore National Pike

Ellicott City, Maryland 21042

410-461-8388

Umi Sake: Not So Good

Umi Sake wasn't quite the sushi dining experience that I would enjoy. My party was seated right next to the bar and had to endure many loud chats from other guests throughout the meal. There were many open tables in a quieter, isolated room but management wasn't smart enough to fill that room up first for guests coming in for dinner. I think I got a headache before we even ordered.

My dinner party ordered quite a few items from the wide variety of food on the menu. This Asian Fusion restaurant is a bad attempt to accommodate Chinese, Korean, Japanese flavors to satisfy the everyday American. We ordered the appetizers Tuna Pizza (pictured above) and Korean Seafood Pancake (pictured below). The Tuna Pizza is a flour tortilla with a layer of tuna sashimi topped with fried crumbs and finely diced tomatoes. It was surprisingly decent despite its hideous look. The Korean Seafood Pancake is nothing like a Korean seafood pancake. It looks bad and tastes bad.

We ordered four different types of sushi rolls: Rainbow Roll and Dragon Roll (pictured above), and  Tour of Fusion roll and Soft-shell Crab Roll (pictured below). The rolls are pretty good. I especially like the use of the wasabi mayonnaise on the Tour of Fusion roll. The fish used is nice and fresh, which is expected and appreciated at any sushi restaurant.

We also had an order of Shrimp Tempura, a Japanese favorite featuring fried shrimp. I found a strange sweet taste to the fry batter. The shrimp used didn't have a good consistency and I was left disappointed for this dish. At the end of the night, everyone in the dinner party was very thirsty. We figured it had something to do with the large amount of MSG the restaurant put into the food, which is a huge turn-off. Despite the good sushi, I probably won't come back to this restaurant again. 

Umi Sake

9726 York Road

Cockeysville, MD 20130

410-667-6585

Santoni's Marketplace's Battered Codfish Sub

Santoni's Marketplace looks like an old fashioned upscale convenient store, but it offers a wide variety of subs and sandwiches. Located in Reisterstown, many locals in the area go to Santoni's to order delightful sandwiches to go. I went to the nice looking store to get a battered codfish sub today. Understandably, there was a line waiting for sandwich/sub orders. But after about 15 minutes, I received what the warm and toasty sub that I had wished for. The fish was nice and flaky and very well fried. After eating, I figured it would probably taste even better if I had eaten the sub the second I received it to get more crispiness out of the fried fish. The tarter sauce provides a nice blend of flavors and the lettuce and tomato gives the sub a nice mix of texture. The battered codfish sub is an enjoyable lunch and probably one of the better fish sandwiches that I have eaten.

Santoni's Marketplace

4854 Butler Road

Glyndon, Maryland 21071

410-833-6610

Race for the Cure

So I received my Race for the Cure shirt and race bib in the mail today. I'm ready to run my first 5k since high school. On October 18, #28724 is gonna kick some butt on race day in Hunt Valley. I hope I don't have to work that day and miss this event. I was a little disappointed that the shirt wasn't in full pink, but I'll wear it with pride. If you're interested, please donate in support of breast cancer awareness.

Two Youngs' Soon Du Bu

Hanoori Town in Catonsville, right off Rolling Road, is the place to go for Korean food. I have always enjoyed going to Two Youngs inside Hanoori Town for lunch. It has been a while since I've touched Korean food and tasted fresh kimchi (spicy pickled vegetables). Today, I had the pleasure to go to Two Youngs and ordered a #27 soon du bu. Soon du bu is a hot and spicy tofu stew, popular among Korean cuisine eaters. Two Youngs also adds seafood, more specifically shrimp, oysters, and squid, to the stew and tops it off with a handful of diced green onions. It was served to me in a hot cast iron pot with cooked white rice and kimchi on the side. The stew was bubbling from the second the soon du bu hit the pot and lasted for at least five minutes. This keeps the stew nice and hot which goes very well with the spicy flavor. I could care less about the seafood they put inside this dish. The tofu stew itself is all I ever needed. The flavors are bold and strong; I still have the flavors in my mouth hours after eating it and I still want more. This is the perfect dish during the winter time as it would easily warm you up for hours. I think I'm gonna go back tomorrow and get another one.

Two Youngs also have a sushi lunch buffet which seems to be a big hit from the amount of people I saw who chose that option.

Two Youngs

822 N. Rolling Road

Catonsville, Maryland 21228
410-505-5002

Lotte Plaza Food Court's Katsudon

Lotte Plaza in Ellicott City has a small and cozy food court (only four shops) that serves popular Japanese and Korean food. I go to this food court every once in a while and on this lovely afternoon, I ordered a #10 katsudon from the first shop when entering the food court. Katsudon is a popular Japanese food, a bowl of rice topped with deep fried pork cutlet, onions, imitation crab, and egg. The dish is garnished with shredded dried seaweed and served with a sweet sauce. The meal comes with pasta salad, miso soup, and slices of yellow pickled radish. It's a decent meal that can be very filling.

This food court serves other Japanese and Korean food as well including sushi, udon, soon du bu, and other spicy Korean stews. It is an excellent place to go if you're in the area and need a quick lunch. 

Lotte Plaza

8801 Baltimore National Pike

Ellicott City, Maryland 21043

Pho #1

Pho #1, as the name may suggest, is one of the best Vietnamese restaurants in the Baltimore area. The menu includes a large variety of traditional Vietnamese dishes and fresh fruit drinks. The best bargain is a bowl of pho, a traditional Vietnamese beef and noodle soup.

I had the pleasure to go to Pho #1 for lunch this afternoon and I ordered my favorite bowl of pho. The restaurant allows you to garnish your bowl with cilantro, lime, bean sprouts, and jalapeño peppers any way you like. The broth is bold and addicting and the noodles are cooked to perfection. You can taste the subtle sweetness of the onions and bean sprouts in contrast to the taste of the broth.

Even though the #1 in its title suggests the year the restaurant was established (2001), this restaurant might just be the number one pho shop in Baltimore. The speedy service sure doesn't hurt. Pho #1 has definitely kept me going back again and again for the delicious meals. 

Pho #1 Vietnamese Restaurant

5764 Baltimore National Pike

Baltimore, Maryland 21228

410-719-7500

Drink Your Milk

Drink milk to prevent osteoporosis and build strong bones. I prefer drinking it out of the carton too.

Credit to Erika for the photo.

I'm finally using Blogger

I've had this blog since 2006 and I've never used it before. I figured what better time than now to utilize this blog to spread my word to the cyber world. Soon this blog will be more organized and have content. Check back frequently.

Visit thekwok.awardspace.com for a detailed bio of me and examples of my work.