Zombie Walk will soon devastate Silver Spring

Much like I am trying to revive this near corpse of a blog, the undead will rise and wreak havoc in Silver Spring on Saturday, October 22nd at 8pm. 
As some of you may know, I am a huge halloween and zombie fan.  And I will definitely be participating in this year's zombie walk in Silver Spring...until we pull off a Dawn of the Dead-like takeover of Westfield Wheaton some year.

I always have a great time at this event, and for the second year in a row, friends will be visiting from out of town just so they can also participate.  For anyone who is interested, check out the official website.  There is also a sweet poster being issued for this year's walk.  Our group is attempting to come up a clever zombie costume theme this year, so if anyone has some suggestions (i.e. zombie pedestrians who were struck by cars trying to reach the new Costco???) send them on over.

Congrats, Ren's!

Post food writer Tom Sietsema released his 2011 Fall Dining Guide today, and Ren's Ramen has the honor of being listed as a recommendation!  The only other MoCo restaurants to get a mention are La Canela in Rockville and Tavira in Chevy Chase.
I have been meaning to try Ren's for a while now, and this mention was just the nudge that I needed to check it out. 

Me and Mr. WC shared an order of gyoza to start the meal.  My initial impression was they were sauteed a little too long in the skillet - instead of being brown from the pan-frying, they were bordering on a little bit charred.  Still, the filling was very moist (and hot!) and I didn't really get a burned taste when I was eating them, so I give the gyoza a thumbs up.

For our meals, we both ordered the ramen with miso broth.  It comes with a thin slice of roast pork, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, scallions, and noodles of course.  We also both added pork belly onto our soups, which added two pieces of tasty fatty pork to the bowl and Mr. WC added an egg as well.  The broth is cloudy, fatty, and thick. I've never had 'real' ramen before, but I thought the broth was great and the noodles themselves were obviously fresh, which a nice texture to them - they had body without being too chewy.  Our meal, with the gyoza, pork belly, and egg added on came to about $32.  So, it's not a bargain, but it certainly left us both very full.  There was a nice crowd of people already in there when we came in, and I'm sure the crowd will only get bigger once more people read the Dining Guide.

Gyoza Appetizer

Two bowls of miso ramen w/pork belly

Reviews of some old favorites

After too long of a hiatus from blogging, I was inspired by Good Eatin's recent post to do my own updated reviews of some favorite restaurants here in Wheaton that I have visited recently...

New Kam Fong
Just went there for dinner tonite.  Went in planning to get something 'light', but ended up getting two dishes that added up to a delicious shellfish feast - we ordered a daily special of razor clams in black bean sauce and also got the twin lobsters with ground pork.  It has been a long time since we've been to NKF, but throughout our meal, we kept asking ourselves why the hell we stayed away for so long!  The food was delicious (especially the lobster), service was great, and they suprised us with a yummy pastry dessert at the end of our meal.  Here are some pictures:

Razor Clams

Twin lobsters (with discarded clamshells in the foreground)

Nava Thai
We went there for dinner on a Thursday and were suprisingly impressed by the musician they had playing - named "Chai T".  He was playing excellent covers of pink floyd, eagles, etc., throughout our meal.  I tried the stir fried eggplant for the first time and was happy with all the ginger and basil in it.  Mr. WC ordered his usual floating market noodle soup (which he claims is one of the hottest dishes he has ever had...in a good way).  Unfortunately, the soup completely lacked any heat at all and was fairly bland.  Hopefully the cook was just having an off night, because that's one of the dishes that normally gets rave reviews for Nava.

Rock Creek Company
I had off work last Friday and stopped in to get takeout for lunch.  I REALLY wish they kept this place open for lunch on the weekends - no one else in Wheaton offers the sort of light, gourmet, french-inspired salads and sandwiches that they have.  When I stopped in, they had an asparagus and mushroom quiche on a bed of greens as their lunch special, which I immediatley jumped on and ordered.  It wasn't exactly "light" with all the egg and cheesy goodness going on, but it was tasty.  They also suckered me into buying one of the homemade blueberry muffins they also had in their display case - it was light and crumbly (almost like a scone) and dusted with granulated sugar.  Yum!  If you're ever around for lunch on a weekday, I highly suggest you check them out. They offer a nice break from the often heavy food options here in Wheaton.

Royal Mile
They still have what I think is THE BEST burger, and nothing says the weekend to me like relaxing there with my burger and beer on a Friday night.  Mr. WC consistently orders the fish and chips and is always happy with that too.  I'm a little concerned about RM getting enough business with Limerick Pub open across the street, so keep giving them a little love, people!

Moby Dick
Even though their dining room isn't anything special, I still always feel like I've walked into a little oasis when I eat there.  The rice paper over the windows and the mellow music playing do a good job at making you forget the urban jungle right outside the front door.  We went here on Labor Day and they were still offering their lunch specials, so I ordered their bento box B.  It comes with miso soup, a salad (yes, Good Eatin, I love that peanut dressing too!), shrimp and veggie tempura with dipping sauce, rice, edamame, and a california roll.  All for $10!  On top of that, the family that owns the restaurant is always very nice and friendly.

Marchone's
In my quest to eat healther (not that you could tell from the list of restaurants above!), it's been a while since I visited Marchone's.  Still, when we stopped in the other day to pick up supplies for dinner (pasta sauce, olive oil and some of their awesome spicy sausage), Mr. Leo still greeted us like old friends.  I always leave there with a smile on my face thanks to him.

Water main break on Georgia Avenue affecting southbound traffic

Per an article on the Gazette's website, a water main break on Georgia Avenue has caused the southbound lanes to be closed between Randolph Road and Henderson Avenue.  The article says that the lanes should be reopened by this evening, but I wouldn't be surprised if this still impacts traffic for rush hour.  Still, it's better than the northbound lanes being closed heading into evening rush hour. 

The article also states that water service to businesses in the area was cut but residential customers still have water.  The only business I'm familiar with along this stretch of Georgia is H-Mart, so I made a phone call over to them and they confirmed that they are open.

New food blog to feature Wheaton eats!

I know I've been MIA for a while (summer has been busy!), but apparently there's a new blog in town, Hungry Like the Bear.  Since I like both bears and food, I'm looking forward this new addition to the Wheaton food scene.  I will also try to get back into the swing of things with posting more frequently!

Downtown Wheaton Summer TGIF Series Announced

The Wheaton TGIF summer series has been announced for this year, with the first event happening this Friday.  I was expecting a fairly scaled back set of events due to all the budget cuts, but the lineup actually looks better than usual.  Here's a link to list of events, which I've also copied in below.  A mix of concerts and movies is planned.  The movies they'll be showing are skewed more towards families with kids (not a bad thing), but I think they picked a good selection.  I'm just wondering if the Karate Kid will be the remake or the original.  It would be much cooler if it was the original, but I'm guessing it's going to be new version.  Between the movies and the concerts, there will be something going on every Friday starting this week through September 9th.  Pretty impressive!

June 10—Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band (Afrobeat)
June 17—Sin Miedo (Salsa)
June 24—Janine Wilson (Roots Rock)
July 1—The Nighthawks (Blues)
July 8—Despicable Me
July 15—Margot MacDonald (Rock/Pop)
July 22—The Karate Kid
July 29—Project Natale (Jazz)
August 5—Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
August 12—Chelsey Green & The Green Project
August 19—Toy Story 3
August 26—Deborah Bond (Soul/Funk)
September 2—Finding Nemo
September 9—The Lion King

Bike to Work Day Tomorrow!

I'll follow up with my Taste of Wheaton review in another day or two, but I wanted to remind everyone that Bike to Work Day is tomorrow.  It looks like the weather should cooperate, so get out on your bikes and get some exercise!  I've been biking in to my office near Farragut West almost once a week, and I'm using a different route now than the one I described last year. 

Using the biking route directions on google maps, I now mosty take 14th street in and do kind of a hodgepodge of streets on my way back to Wheaton.  Here is a link to the route I roughly use and here is my route back home.

I've been very happy with the quality of the biking directions you can get from google maps, so I recommend giving it a try.

***Update:  It was a beautiful morning to bike in, and it definitely seemed like more cyclists than usual on the roads.  The latest I've heard is that 11,000 people are participating in Bike to Work Day today (and I think that's just the number that registered with WABA).  So, congrats to any of you that biked in today, and for all of you drivers, keep an eye out for increased number of cyclists on the roads today.