Mama's on the Half Shell - Canton, Baltimore

Hey Everyone! The FI (still getting used to writing that) and I met up with college friends for a relaxing weekend lunch. They took us to a popular seafood spot - Mama's on the Half Shell in Baltimore. Thankfully there was zero line when we arrived because we passed one going out the door as we were leaving. It is in the city, so parking can be found on the street.

The place is pretty small, thus creating the line of waiting patrons. It is two levels of dark, colonial looking decor which looks like 'Baltimore seafood place'. Not sure what that means, but it fits! The vibe is casual, but airing on the nicer side.

Our friends ordered a 1/2 pound of Steamed Jumbo Shrimp with chipotle lime cocktail sauce, drawn butter and bread ($9.99). The shrimp were big, and delicious eaten with the sauteed onions. The cocktail sauce didn't taste like it had chipotle lime in it, but was still good.

I was craving Cream of Crab, so I ordered the closest thing on the menu. The Seafood Chowder ($6.99) had shrimp, scallops, clams and applewood smoked bacon in a heavy cream base. It was so good and satisfying. It was quite heavy so if I didn't want to stuff myself (which is never), then I could just eat this as my lunch.

Our friends high recommended this ginormous sandwich! What you see below is only HALF. The Seafood Club ($14.50) comes with a 3 oz crab cake, shrimp salad, lettuce, tomato, mayo, smoked applewood bacon and swiss cheese. You also have the option of fried oysters instead of the crab cake. The shrimp salad had big chunks of shrimp, the bacon was flavorful and you can't go wrong with a crab cake in Baltimore. It's hard to eat because it's so tall, so I took it apart and ended up getting rid of an extra slice of bread in order to fill up on the good stuff.

After our meal we stopped by the famous Vaccaro's to pick up some Italian desserts for the road! A little on the pricey side, and not as sweet as typical desserts.

The service was quick and nice. They sliced the sandwiches for us and I have no complaints. We didn't get a chance to try any raw oysters as their name suggests, but next time!

2901 O'Donnell St
Baltimore, MD 21224
www.mamasmd.com

Full Key - Wheaton, MD

Happy New Year guys! Not just Lunar New Year, but regular New Year. This is my first post of 2013, and it's good to be back. Lots of positive changes happening including a new job, which will give me more free time (yey!) to get back to writing about deliciousness.

This past Sunday was Lunar New Year, and I celebrated the 'Year of the Snake' with my dad at one of my family's old stomping grounds. Full Key has served Hong Kong-Style food for decades in this tiny, old shopping center. I grew up in Wheaton, and my mom used to own a hair salon block away. It was nostalgic to be back after 15 years. Parking is limited up front, so there is parking in the rear. Closest metro station is Wheaton on the red line.

The interior has changed a bit since I was there last. Structurally, it looks the same, but they've added much more decor. Wallpaper, booths, picture frames and the Chinese roof replica. Even with the changes, the vibe is still very casual and not pretty, but clean.

The menu is fairly large, but typical for a Chinese restaurant. They specialize in Hong Kong-Style cuisine, which means mainly Cantonese influenced dishes.

We ordered Fried Squid with Chili Pepper and Salt (around $12), which was surprisingly good. Just looking at it, you would expect it to be boring, but it's crispy and flavorful. Half of the reason for the yumminess was the large amount of MSG sprinkled on top (you could see it), but it's ok once any a while! So good, you don't need to dip it in any soy sauce.

The Wonton and Noodle in Soup ($6.75) is a staple item because it's the best around! Huge pieces of shrimp inside the wontons, perfectly cooked noodles, and a flavorful sweet broth. It's a huge bowl too, so feel free to share so you can try the next item I'm about to mention.

Drool. As a kid, all I would order would be duck on rice. We ordered a 1/4 Roasted Duck ($7.95) which was fatty, crispy and had the right amount of salt. Look at the glistening skin!

It was great to be back, and I intend to not forget about this place again. The food was delicious, service was nice and quick, and food was inexpensive.

2227 University Blvd
Wheaton, MD 20902
(301) 933-8388

Bobby's Burger Palace - College Park, MD

What a storm! I hope everyone is safe because Sandy was quite destructive, but thankfully our part of Rockville wasn't affected much. Just a few hours without power.

So we haven't started our 'wedding' diet yet, so I'll just continue to write about fattie places like Bobby's Burger Palace. The Fi (I guess that's his new name? Let's test it out.) visited the University of Maryland location. We met at UMCP, and things have changed. We never had nice buildings and restaurants like this when we were there! I'm not that bitter though...

The name is self-explanatory - they serve burgers. Gourmet ones created by Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay to be exact. The interior is bright with warm lighting. It's filled with bar seating/communal tables and very comfortable chairs that spin! It's a casual place where you order/pay at a register, they give you a number, and they bring food out to wherever you are sitting. 

Many of the burgers are named after cities and characterized by a food that represents them. For example: The Fi ordered The Philadelphia Burger is topped with Provolone Cheese, Griddled Onions and Hot Peppers ($7.75). He thought it was good, but nothing out of the ordinary. 

If you're not in the mood for a burger, they offer sandwiches, salads, sides, milkshakes and other beverages. Also, if you don't eat beef, you can substitute the beef patty with turkey or chicken breast.

I wanted a flavor explosion so I ordered the Bobby Blue Burger with Blue Cheese, Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato $7.75), and it wasn't as pungent as I was hoping. Again, it was an ok burger, but nothing particularly special. Ray's Hell Burger's equivalent is much better.

I love Sweet Potato Fries ($3) and these came with a Honey Mustard Horseradish Sauce which was awesome.

If you like dipping sauces, they have a variety including Jalapeño Hot Sauce, Chipotle Ketchup, Burger Sauce, and Barbecue. Sadly none of them really stuck out for me.

Overall, we weren't wowed. So if we were visiting our Alma Matar again, we'd probably stop by Cluck U. However, I will say their service was impressive. We weren't there for long, but 3 different times someone would check on us. Pretty nice!

8150 Baltimore Avenue
College Park, MD 20740
240-542-4702
www.bobbysburgerpalace.com

Iron Age - Rockville, MD

Hi Everyone! Recently, the bf, my cousin and I went to eat a super late lunch at Iron Age. We figured since we had another boy around, it would be worth getting All-You-Can-Eat Korean BBQ.

The place is bigger than it appears from the outside. Sticking to its name, the interior is clad in metal/iron, not wood like many Korean restaurants have. Lots of TVs and a huge projector screen play Kpop music videos. They are open until 2am on the weekends, so I'm sure it's pretty popping at night.

The menu is very easy - pick Gogi A ($18) for 3 meats, or Option Gogi B ($22) for 5 meats and sodas. Each of us selected option B because it was more meats and drinks for $4 more per person.

We were given 3 meats, 1 skewer of veggies, 3 frozen triangles of rice, a pancake, egg soufflé, 4 ban chan sides, a soup and salad. The meats we were given were the first 3 on the menu. They weren't marinated, so they were bland, and tough. Both my cousin and I broke our chopsticks! The rice took 30 minutes to warm up thoroughly on the grill. The ban chan didn't include kim chi! The egg soufflé and soup were bland too. Thankfully the pancake wasn't too bad, so we had a few.

They also provided 4 dipping sauces: chili sauce, soybean paste sauce, sesame oil with salt/pepper, sweet sauce. I didn't think they were too special, but the bf liked the sweet sauce the best.

On our table had a call button, which we used at least 5 times because the service was poor. There were about 4 tables in the restaurant and it took them 10 minutes to take our order. They only gave us 3 out of 5 meats, and we thought they were bringing out the others later, but it never happened. We ended up cooking our own food, and using the call button for refills/requests because we weren't checked on. Towards the end of our meal, a server even blew out our grill before we were done cooking all of the meat!

I have a bunch of friends that will probably disagree with me, but lunch took forever, and it wasn't even good. I'd rather drive to VA or even buy marinated meat at H Mart and cook it myself for cheaper. My cousin who hasn't had Korean BBQ before thought it was fine. The Korean bf of mine liked the amount of meat, but not the taste. As a girl, I don't eat that much, so paying $22 for mediocre food and poor service isn't worth it.

1054 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 424-1474
http://www.yelp.com/biz/iron-age-rockville

Kraze Burger - Bethesda, MD

Quick update on my last post: I did the Whole30 diet for 4 days and quit because I wanted to die. So here I am back to eating whatever I want, yet practicing moderation...as I write about a delicious burger joint.

Last week before the "Caveman Diet", the bf and I grabbed dinner at Kraze Burger, which is a Korean-owned burger chain. (As I'm typing this post, I just found out it's pronounced 'crazy' not 'craze'.....hmmmm, interesting.)

They recently expanded the place and added a frozen yogurt portion because the last time I was there, this whole section that you're seeing wasn't there. Overall, very bright, clean, green, modern interior.

The place is small (10ish tables and a bar stools along a wall), so we found it interesting that they give you a buzzer to alert you when your food is ready. Slightly unnecessary, but either way, it's cool!

Onto the menu! They use all-natural, pesticide-free, 100% vegetarian fed beef.  You can expect some Korean inspired sauces, however the menu is pretty normal with sides of fries, chili, salads, and sandwiches, except for the side of grilled asparagus, which I found unique.

I ordered the the Matiz (beef patty, grilled, onions marinated in Kraze BBQ sauce, American cheese, bacon, pickles, tomato, mayo and lettuce). Yummy! The patty was juicy, and everything together worked well. On the flipside, I didn't like how messy it was because of the sauce (look at the bottom bun), so just get lots of napkins.

The bf ordered the Maximum (beef patty, spicy Maximum sauce, bacon, tomato, onions, lettuce, mayo and American cheese), which he added jalapeños. He also found the patty to be juicy. They told us that our burgers would be cooked 'medium', but even though they weren't, they were still fine. He enjoyed the burger though it wasn't as spicy as he wanted it.

As if burgers weren't enough food, we split Chili Cheese Fries (crescent fries topped with chili and cheese). I've had their regular fries before which are skinny. They use thick-cut fries for this dish because they can withstand the toppings. I felt it was the best chili cheese fries I've had, however the bf still thinks Ben's Chili Bowl is a bit better. 

Solid burgers that we think are at the top of our MoCo list. Size-wise, the burgers are slightly smaller than I was expecting. The fries I've had are very good. The burgers are around $8-9, which is typical, but pricey since the patty isn't huge. We'd definitely go back.

4733 Elm St.
Bethesda, MD 20814
(301) 215-9068
www.kraze.us

Yocake - Rockville, MD

Happy Memorial Day Weekend guys! Soooo I'm supposed to be getting "bikini ready", however there's a Yocake a few minutes away from me that's open until 10pm on Fri-Sat...oh my waistline. Their original location in Montgomery Mall opened in 2009, and congrats to them for expanding to a freestanding store in Rockville and soon in Dupont Circle. 

The Rockville store has limited parking in front, but I've never had a problem finding a parking space. Plus, people have been making their own spaces by parking wherever they want.

The exterior looks completely different compared to the interior. Dark bricks covering the whole building bring an old, closed-off feeling, but the bright, white and modern decor is refreshing and gender neutral. Some cupcake places can be a bit girlie, but the bf doesn't feel out of place there!

Yocake combines two of the biggest food fads ever - frozen yogurt and cupcakes. Such a simple yet brilliant concept. My cousin ordered their signature YoCake, which is (as the name suggests) a cupcake with frozen yogurt on top ($3.95). You can add toppings for an additional cost. If you just want frozen yogurt, they have up to 9 non-fat and low-fat flavors.

They bake their cupcakes on site daily and there's always 12-16 different flavors to choose from. I've been a couple of times, and have tried the typical flavors like vanilla, chocolate, red velvet and honestly compared to other cupcakeries in the area, those flavors don't stand out. However, their fruity flavors are where it's at. Individual cupcakes are $2.75 each. We got the Buy 5, Get 1 Free for $13.75.   

We originally came in because I wanted ONE cupcake as an after dinner dessert. Welp, I got 1/2 dozen. My favorite is the Lemon Burst (lemon cake with lemon cream cheese as the filling and frosting) because their amazing frosting is also injected into the cupcake making it extra moist. The bf's fav is the Neapolitan (vanilla cake with chocolate filling and strawberry frosting). Aside from digging the combo of flavors, the frosting is great. 

An assortment of French Macarons ($1.30 each) are also offered. I tried their Pistachio flavor, which was very sweet. They are smaller than I'm typically used to, making them kind of pricey.

Overall, I love the hours because I'm always craving sweets, so when we're bored late at night, the bf and I can stop in for a treat. The staff is always very helpful and friendly. They have a good variety of options. Their cupcakes are a great price, however I like getting my frozen yogurt at places that charge by the ounce.

838-C Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 309-0863
http://www.yocake.com

Nava Thai - Wheaton, MD

When my Thai friends recommend a Thai restaurant, I need to trust their judgment pronto! Nava Thai is located in my old neighborhood. I grew up on Arcola Ave, and my mom had a hair salon across University Blvd.

There's street parking and a small lot 1/2 block down. The closest metro stop is Wheaton on the red line.

The interior looks like a converted house, which gives it a relaxed vibe, but the ornate Thai decorations make it look much nicer.

Even though I'm trying to cut back on sugar (it never happens), I ordered a Thai Iced Tea ($2.50) and the bf ordered a Thai Iced Coffee ($2.50). Look at the cute cups they used! The server said they are from Thailand. They were delicious and a great price.

They have a huge menu! They have 80 Thai dishes and 91 Japanese items (includes rolls). Good luck deciding what to eat! They all sound awesome. I came with a group of 7, but I'm only documenting items the bf, cousin and I ordered. They all happen to be very popular noodle dishes and a dessert.

1. Pad See Ew (ผัดซีิ้อิ้ว) Stir fried rice noodle w/ Chinese broccoli in bean sauce and choice of meat ($9.95). I ordered it with beef, and I'm salivating as I type. The noodles had so much flavor! Plus the char from cooking added a nice smoky flavor.  
2. Drunken Noodles – Pad Kee Mao (เกี๋ยวเตี๋ยวขี้เมา) Stir fried rice noodle w/ veggies & hot pepper, and choice of meat ($9.95). The bf ordered beef and found the two chili pepper symbol not too spicy. He thought it was good, but liked my Pad See Ew a little better.
3. Pad Thai (ผัดไทย) - Famous Thai noodles w/ egg, shrimp, bean sprouts, green onions & crushed peanuts ($9.95). The cousin ordered this, and though it had more of a fish sauce flavor rather than peanuts, it was still very yummy.
4. Mango and Sticky Rice ($4.50). The rice was sweet and the mangoes were ripe. Great way to end a meal.

I actually can't wait to go back and try other dishes. I was able to sample my other friends' and everything was flavorful. The service was great! They were so friendly. helpful and attentive. I found the prices to be very reasonable too.

11301 Fern St
Wheaton, MD 20902
(240) 430-0495
navathai.food.officelive.com

Haven Pizzaria Napoletana - Bethesda, MD

Bethesda has a new pizza place - Haven Pizzaria Napoletana! The bf and I were invited to check out what makes their pizza different.
Look at all the food bloggers listening to Chef Mark Bergami speak. It's nice being around people asking interesting food questions, and knowing NOT to eat until we've all taken pics =)

The their bar has a gorgeous wine display and their casual, yet upscale decor fits for families, business lunches and dates. 

Other than pizza, their menu consists of Starters: Arugula Salad, Romano Salad, Haven Arance Salad and Have Potato Chip.

The ovens are 'one of a kind'! They have two 1000lb ovens that are 12x12 ft wide and completely coal operated. This picture doesn't do it justice, but they are huge! I wonder how many times people have tripped over or got hit with the pizza peels.

We washed down our meal with Foxen Park Sodas that are very poplar in Haven, CT.

The we tried many of their pizzas but shown below are the Tomato Pie and Haven White Clam Pie (my favorite!). The char on the bottom of the pizza gives it a nice flavor and the dough has a nice chew to it.

I don't know if you can see how they slice the pizza, but it's cut into 4ths, then each 4th is cut into 3rds diagonally. This is to prevent one from folding it like a NY-Style slice. Cool, huh?    

They also make their gelato in-house daily in their Italian batch freezer! It's half the fat of ice cream and have a smooth silky texture.

Definitely a place to check out! 

7137 Wisconsin Ave
Bethesda, MD 20814
(301) 664-9412
havenpizzeria.com