Is It Worth The Trip? Emily Checks Out Great Wall, The Chinese Supermarket In Catonsville

Great Wall has Chinese duck, pork and chickens

Our options keep expanding faster than I can check them out.  Like the Great Wall Supermarket in Catonsville that opened in late 2013 -- and that I still haven't visited.

Luckily, I got an expert report from Emily of the Howard County Cook blog.  Emily is a first-generation Chinese-American who was born in Chicago and raised in Houston, home to one of the largest Chinatowns in the United States.

Emily's parents originally immigrated from Taiwan for graduate school.  She and her family -- including a husband and two kids -- moved to Maryland about five years ago.  She volunteers at local shelters, their school and church, and she has blogged about all kinds of eating and recipes, including red cooked pork belly and a yellow curry with squash and chicken.  She also wrote a great series based on the finds in her Breezy Willow CSA.

Emily and I got to talking about Great Wall, which is a Chinese-run grocery on Rte 40 just inside Rte 695.  I'm a huge fan of the Korean-run supermarkets like H Mart and Lotte, and they both offer Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese and other cuisines.  But I wondered what finds might make it worth driving past both to try a market aimed at a Chinese market.  Emily checked out Great Wall, giving her report and suggesting some items just like the Unmanly Chef wrote up the Caspian Market last month:

Even though I live five minutes from the Lotte close to Rte 29 and Rte 40, I usually travel to H Mart about 15 minutes away because I know where everything is.  I find the produce to be more consistent on any given day, and it’s small, which means there is a higher turn around on their produce.

I was a little worried I would find Great Wall to be too far. It really wasn’t. I drove past H Mart, past Rte 695, and there it was, just inside 695 on the left. Google told me it would take 22 minutes. Google was about right on. I realized I had been there before -- at the Asian grocery that was there previously, but apparently had closed.

Once inside, I was impressed by the variety of produce, all looking fresh. Check. The prices looked good too.  There were some really great deals, and some fair prices, comparable to the other Asian stores. I was VERY happy to find a huge stack of perfect Japanese eggplant. Not bruised, not wrinkled, perfect. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about, was that many of the leafy Chinese vegetables were pre-packaged into plastic bags. That sort of thing drives me nuts. I like to see, touch, examine, and pick my own produce, so I wasn’t a fan of that. Not all of the produce was that way, just most of the green Chinese veggies. I'm not sure why, and I hope they do away with that.

Iron Bridge Leads The List Of Good Meals That I'm Not Eating Right Now; Recs For Small Plates

There are so many meals that I'm not eating these days.  It's by choice, and it's great fun.  But my restaurant dinners will be far fewer once I have fit them around work and bath time.

But friends are stepping in to help.  The Cordis Couple are friends with terrific taste in food and wine -- and a toddler old enough to leave with family.  They recently hit up Iron Bridge Wine Co., the Columbia restaurant that was on our "to do" list all summer but never actually gone done.

Sra. Cordis wrote up their dinner from last week.  They recommended a great red wine called Quilceda Creek, and they do recommend Iron Bridge -- especially for a mix of small plates:

Iron Bridge is one of our favorite local restaurants to go to for date night. Our first time there with our toddler wasn't the most successful (what were we thinking?), but subsequent visits there solidified this restaurant as our go-to-place for a delicious adult meal with wine as the star of the evening.

Our favorite meal there was actually sitting at the bar, when we had a spontaneous evening free, but no reservations. If you get there early (before 6 p.m.), there is usually room for two at the bar, where the bartender is knowledgeable and can quickly give you sips of wine by the glass before choosing your bottle.

In general, we prefer several small plates rather than large entrees.  We typically order 3-4 appetizers and one entree for two adults. The crispy brussels sprouts, although ubiquitous at most hip restaurants, are absolutely delicious. So is their burata, with its soft creamy inside, complimented with tomato and fennel jam, olive oil and sea salt. The hamachi ceviche, served with roasted pineapple, red onion, macadamia nuts, cilantro, and Sriracha, is a lovely balance of acid, heat, and crunchiness. The soup of the day was a white asparagus soup with beans and crispy fried kale, which was a little salty and bitter, but warmed us up for the rest of the meal.

For their entrees, almost all their pasta dishes are outstanding and typically change with the season. T onight's pasta was a kale and ricotta cannelloni made with savory fennel sausage Bolognaise, which was terrific and went well a bold full-bodied red wine.  Their burger is excellent, and their signature steak is outstanding. In general, I find their protein entrees (e.g. steak, salmon), while extremely tasty, a bit large/generously proportioned.  However, they are great for sharing, especially if you want to make room for dessert. Typically, their 'bread pudding of the day' is the highlight of their dessert menu.  My personal favorite was a bread pudding made of glazed donuts.  It was worth all the calories.

We feel fortunate to have a place like Iron Bridge so close by.  Not only is it a wonderful restaurant, but it is also a wine store. I n fact, we often bring home a few bottles after dinner (and, at times, a couple of cases), in hopes of recreating the experience at home (at least the wine part).

 I'm going to need to annotate the HowChow To Do List with some things that I can really do and some that need to wait a while until we can match Lil' Chow with some babysitters.

How To Make A Young Chef! Lisa's Girls Go From Picky To Primary Producers In The Kitchen

Acorn squash!!

The only thing better than having fun in the kitchen is teaching other folks to have fun there themselves.

Lisa blogs at Lisa B, Mrs. S about a range of life -- usually about Howard County, sometimes about food.  She has a daughter with a love of composting, always close to my heart, and she has great posts about fun that she has had with her kids around here.

This is part of a series of guest posts by Howard County bloggers.  For local food blogs, check out the HocoBlogs food page.

Lisa has a family of good eaters, and they're big on Gorman Farm's CSA and local shopping.  And now she is building an entire house of chefs as well -- with her daughters cooking up dinner on their own:

Greens!!

Roots Market posted picture of parsnips on Facebook, and that’s all it took for me to realize how much my kids have grown to become the foodies they are today.

When they were witty bitty, they were pretty picky. Not extremely picky, just normal picky, but it was a real drag nonetheless. I can’t speak for fathers or even for all mothers, but I do know I’m not alone in having physical pain and distress at the prospect of my child going underfed. So it would make me quite cranky when a five-year-old Prima would crinkle her nose at the dinner I made, and it would push my last button when a three-year-old Seconda gagged at the table.

I’m so glad those days are over.

The turning point, I think, began with parsnips. Jamie Oliver made herby pork chops with parsnips, apples, and onions on a Food Network show. Oh my goodness. As if his adorable accent hadn’t already won me over, the dish looked amazing. I believed I could smell it through the TV. I made it the next night, having never even seen a parsnip before that show.

A few weeks earlier, I had an idea about how to put the nose-crinkling, toddler-gagging, Mama-stressing dinner behavior to an end. You see, I trusted the experts that said young children will, on balance, not over-eat nor under-eat. I trusted that a night without dinner would not cause them harm, but all my angst and lost patience might put us all in a bad place. So, I wondered what would happen if I kept on cooking what I cooked and just served the kids a spoonful of each dish. That’s it, a teaspoonful of each food would be required, then they could have as much of only the things they liked from the table as they wanted. We began with herby pork chops with parsnips.

Hey Mikey! They liked it!

Fast forward seven years and my children - Prima, Seconda, and Terza - have incredible palates. Recently, they’ve stepped up their game by taking on the cooking duties. Prima, especially, loves to play a version of Chopped on the weekends. Weeknights are full of homework and activities, so we need dinner to be a sure-thing at a sure-time. Last night, Prima and Terza rose to that occasion with a delicious meal of chicken sausage, sautéed greens, and baked acorn squash.

If you’re like us and belong to a local CSA, then you know that this is greens season again. Collards and kale are staples, but the Gorman Farm CSA to which we belong grows other interesting greens, as well. Last night, Prima followed my stand-by greens recipe, but added her own twist. She softened some yellow onions in olive oil over medium heat before adding the chopped pac choi and tat soi from our CSA share. When I noticed the volume of greens was a little low for our family of five, she remembered the sweet potato leaves I cooked up last week. A little chicken broth, a sprinkle of steak rub and a few minutes later we were dining on delicious greens.

Terza used Martha Stewart’s classic Baked Acorn Squash recipe to cook the squash (also from Gorman Farm). I sliced it up, then she took it from there. Butter, salt, pepper, brown sugar, 350-degrees and 15 minutes was all it took. 

You may be wondering where the rest of us were in all this. Seconda was doing homework, I was setting up computers for the kids’ first session of online language classes, and The Man of the House was running Terza back and forth between home and dance. We didn’t sit down to eat as a family, but cooking together, even in the jumbled way we did that night, still made it feel like a Family Dinner, which tastes better than frozen pizza any night.

The Chef Goes Shopping: Finding Persian Delicacies In Caspian Market On Rte 40

As Bill Parcells once said, "They want you to cook the dinner -- at least they should let you shop for the groceries."

The Unmanly Chef blog has been a new, steady source for posts about cooking, especially Persian food.  But the local blogger offered to shop for some groceries at Caspian Supermarket on Rte 40 in Ellicott City -- and to make practical suggestions about things that you could check out in the store or at Pars Market in Columbia.

This is part of a series of guest posts by some new Howard County bloggers.  For local food blogs, check out the HocoBlogs food page.

Caspian is on the south side of Rte 40 just behind the Burger King and Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt.  As an Iranian-American and Howard County local, the Unmanly Chef frequently shops there for essentials of Persian cuisine.  I have been a few times for past posts on saffron ice cream and other delicious items, but the Unmanly Chef offers a comprehensive tour of items that you could ask about there and then cook using recipes on his blog:

The owners of Caspian, Ali Nazarian & Roya Radfar, are a husband and wife that have been fixtures in the local Iranian American community since they opened in 2006.
An international grocery store can be intimidating, especially if you don’t know what is what in the store. I’m here to give you a nice guide from the Persian perspective. 

Roya Radfar or “Roya Khanoom” as I call her was gracious enough to give me a tour as she highlighted items that many of her non-Persian customers often miss.   They are always willing to help you should you have any questions.

Butcher Shop: Caspian has halal lamb, organic beef, and organic chicken. They will also do custom ground blends for you, if you want to make a special kofte or Koobideh kabob they will blend lamb and ground beef for you. I highly recommend using them for any lamb dish you plan on doing.  (I went to get some lamb shanks and tongues.)

Breads: Persian breads are underrated; they go way beyond your standard pita (which isn’t Persian at all) or naan (Indian/Pakistani). I really recommend trying some of their Barbari bread or Lavash. And if they have some in stock, Sangak Bread (Noon-e-Sangak in Farsi, meaning bread of little stones as it is prepared on little pebbles). 

Eating With Toddlers: Sara Picks Good Places For Good Food; A Call For Your Suggestions

Jason's Deli -- with toddler fingers

It's shocking how little experience that I have eating with children.  That's why Sara has stepped in for a guest post to kick of talk about toddler eating.

This is part of a series of guest posts by Howard County bloggers.  For local food blogs, check out the HocoBlogs food page.

Sara blogs at Sunshine Whispers, and she mixes posts on religion, food, kids' activities and more.  She has even created a resource page with links to all kids of toddler activities.  She also plays violin in the Columbia Orchestra.  That community group has its first concert of the season on October 11, and Sara will both play and post about the group as the season unfolds.

But Sara is here now for food. Specifically, her recommendations about good places to take toddlers for good food.  Sara and I want your recommendations as well.  She is experienced enough to mix her recommendations with delicious food, healthy options, and extras like table service and crayons.

Take it away Sara:

It can be incredibly traumatic to go to a restaurant with a toddler. Gone are the days when baby would sleep in the carrier while Mom and Dad enjoyed a nice quiet meal out. Gone are the days when baby was content to sit in a high chair, falling for the old ‘airplane in the hangar’ trick. Nope, you are in the jungle now Mom and Dad. At the crossroads of ‘I want to do it!’ and ‘I’m done. Get me out of here!’ Proceed with caution. Fortunately, there are a few restaurants in Howard County that could be considered ‘safe zones.’ Restaurants that provide healthy, tasty menus for both parents and toddlers are essential. Restaurants that include some added ‘nice touches’ are amazing. 

Here is a list of my top picks for toddler-friendly restaurants in Howard County: 

Jason’s Deli: 8874 McGaw Road, Columbia, MD (right across from Wegmans),
As a Mom, I cannot say enough good things about Jason’s Deli. First of all, everything on their menu is free of trans-fat and high fructose corn syrup. This is a chain but the menu options are surprisingly healthy, including a healthy, all-you-can-eat salad bar. There are plenty of kid friendly options, and everyone gets ice cream at the end of the meal. The best part for families with toddlers? Servers bring the food to you. 

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers: 8640 Snowden River Parkway, Columbia, MD,
I did an unscientific survey of parents and Red Robin was a consistent winner in the ‘good for toddler’ category. The kid menu has many picky eater pleasers like grilled cheese, pizza, and mac ‘n cheese. Kids get crayons while you wait and seriously, this is a family favorite. That means it is loud… so your little firecracker can be loud too! 

Cold Soup For You: Naeng Myun To Remember Next Summer At Bu Du Mak And Other Spots

Naeng myun -- cold buckwheat noodle soup -- at Bu Du Mak in Hanoori Town

I'm out of season, but I can't wait for the summer heat to talk up one of our discoveries of 2014.

One basic Korean dish is a cold buckwheat noodle soup called naeng myun that makes a terrific entry into Korean cuisine or a new frontier for folks who already love the barbecue and tofu soups.

This is part of a series of guest posts by Howard County bloggers.  For local food blogs, check out the HocoBlogs food page.

Lisbeth of the Lisbeth Eats blog was nice enough to talk up naeng myun -- specifically the soup at one of the restaurants in the Hanoori Town food court area down from H Mart in Catonsville.  That's Bu Du Mak, the restaurant just to the left as you walk into the Hanoori Town area and right next to the new Hangari Noodle.  Prices start at $9 for the basic bowls or $12 for samples of two varieties.

Naeng myun is often a great summer food.  But you could follow Lisbeth's advice and eat off-season.  We ordered naeng myun last month with barbecue at Honey Pig, and I'll post about that meal later:

Every summer there are two dishes that I just have to have, Maryland crabs and naeng myun.  And when I say I have to have it, I’m talking multiple times.  Maryland crabs are world famous!  But what in the world is naeng myun?

Naeng myun is a Korean cold buckwheat noodle dish and is typically served in two styles, as Mool Naeng Myun or Bibim Naeng Myun. 

Mool Naeng Myun literally means ‘water cold noodles.’  This version is served in a cold broth made from beef or Dong Chi Mi (white radish water kimchi) and topped with sliced pickled radish, julienne cucumbers, sliced pear, sliced boiled beef brisket and a hard boiled egg.  The soup is often slushy or served with ice cubes.  You adjust the seasoning of the broth with vinegar, Korean style hot mustard or mustard oil before eating.  

Bibim means ‘mixed,’ like in bibimbop. W ith this version the cold buckwheat noodles are topped with the same ingredients, but instead of being served in a cold broth, it is served with a spicy go chu jang, Korean red-pepper-paste-based sauce that you mix together with the noodles.  Sure does sound strange, doesn’t it?  I agree that it does, but it really is quite delicious. 

I mean, who would’ve thought kimchi, a super stinky fermented Korean pickled cabbage, would be so popular and widely accepted around the world. They even offer four different varieties of kimchi on the pickle bar in Whole Foods.  So don’t be afraid to try out naeng myun  no matter how strange it sounds. 

Mool naeng myun

Thoughts From The Other Side Of The Check

My favorite part of HowChow has been chatting with people about food in Howard County.  OK, that's a lie.  My favorite part is the tacos.  But you are right behind tacos, and that has to mean something.

My extremely skeletal post that Portalli's had opened in Ellicott City kicked off a rash of comments in which people discussed their meals.  Great stuff, although it skirted the edge of the personal attacks that I'm trying to avoid.  As part of that, I started emailing with Lee Biars, one of the owners of Portalli's and the the Diamondback Tavern.

I invited Lee to write a post about restaurants.  To the great horror of some food bloggers, I don't have any food industry experience -- except that I have been eating for a decade or so longer than those bloggers.  I was emailing with Lee about how average diners see a restaurant differently than professionals, and Lee banged out some thoughts.  This isn't about Portalli's.  Lee wants us to enjoy our dinners out, and these were ideas that he thought might help:

Staffing servers correctly in a restaurant is like walking a tightrope on a nightly basis. We've all been in restaurants where your server is overwhelmed with too many tables.  That is terrible, but you have to know what happens behind the scenes where staffing servers is a delicate balancing act based primarily on guesswork.  A manager staffs by estimating the clientele days in advance.  Servers rely on tips, so the manager needs enough to take care of the guests but not so many that they fail to make money.  A restaurant that repeatedly overstaffs its servers will lose employees to more lucrative jobs.  But if there are too few servers on the floor, then the guests (and subsequently the restaurant) will suffer.  No restaurant staffs perfectly every night, so don't assume your overwhelmed sever means that's the case every night in that particular restaurant.  The nicer the restaurant, the more accurate they should be in staffing because most diners have made reservations and they should be able to more accurately estimate the traffic that evening.  Which leads to my next point...

 The purpose of making a reservation isn't just to insure you have a table; it's also to let the restaurant staff appropriately.  Since restaurants rely on reservations to get a feel for the number of guests on a given evening, it benefits both the restaurant and the guests for everybody who plans on coming in to have made a reservation.  Let me give you an example: say it's a Monday night at a restaurant you know won't be jam-packed, so your group of four doesn't make a reservation. A restaurant will typically have only one or two servers on a slow Monday, so if three other parties make the same assumption you did, the restaurant will not be staffed properly.  Maybe the restaurant isn't full, but they definitely could've used a second or third server to give you the experience you deserve as a diner.  This is why any restaurant worth its salt will always recommend that diners make a reservation, even on a slow night.

The single product that a restaurant will take the biggest loss on is bread service.  Most nice restaurants spend around $1-$3 on bread and butter/olive oil for every four guests.  If a restaurant serves 800 guests per week, that amounts to $10,000-$30,000 a year spent on something that the business never sees a dime for.  I'm not saying to hold back on the bread intake; it's there to be eaten so you should feel free to go to town.  All I'm saying is that when a restaurant has seemingly put a lot of thought into the quality of their bread service, it's something that shouldn't go unnoticed.

A lot more goes into creating an enjoyable dining experience than most people realize.  Waiting tables is more than just being friendly and bringing your food and drinks in a timely manner.  It’s the little things that can push a good dining experience to a great one, even if (and sometimes, especially if) it goes unnoticed by the diner.  Here are some examples of “the little things” that all add up to a great experience:

 1) Removing small stuff like straws and sugar packets from the table when they aren’t being used

2) Not putting their elbows in your face when serving your food

3) Describing menu items clearly and accurately so you know what to expect

4) Timing your food so you have just the right amount of time in between courses

5) Keeping water, iced tea, soda and coffee filled throughout your entire meal including dessert without you having to ask for it

6) Clearing the crumbs off a chair after a guest has left so when you sit down it is crumb-free

7) Folding your napkin for you while you’re away from the table

8) Checking back with you after each course is served to make sure everything is to your taste

9) Pulling your chair out for you when you go to sit down

I could seriously list about 200 things that go into making your dining experience memorable, but I think you get the point.

Restaurants NEED negative feedback.  The only way to improve a business is to listen to what your customers want.  As a diner you may think you’re being nice by not mentioning that the dining room is too cold or the soup needs salt, but you’re really hindering the restaurant’s ability to improve.  If it’s a restaurant you truly want to survive, you should have no problem talking to your favorite manager/server and let them know where you think they can improve.  A restaurant operator would be foolish to not listen to customer complaints with an open mind and try and tackle the issues that are brought up.

Restaurants need positive feedback as well.  If you really liked your server or thought the chicken was the best you’ve had, simply let a manager know on the way out.  This information can be crucial in deciding who gets promoted, which dishes stay on the menu, and other integral decisions that are made every day in a restaurant.  Plus it makes people feel good that you think they’re doing a good job, and that can never hurt.

 Certainly nothing on this list should be used as an excuse for a restaurant that underperfoms and underwhelms its guests.  My goal is to open the “average diner’s” eyes to things that may not be readily apparent in the hopes that they can use the information to help better all of their future dining experiences.

Lee's comments made me think because I have been violating his rules recently.  I had a Tuesday night Restaurant Week reservation, but we cancelled two hours ahead because my coughing and sneezing got bad.  It had never crossed my mind how reservations influence staffing or that staffing could be just as big a challenge on a slow night.   Then we did go for dinner a few nights later, and we stayed silent when the service was bad.  I don't exactly know how to say, "That waiter should have been more attentive."  It wasn't a disaster.  I don't want an enemy when I return.  I'd love to help improve a place, but how can I do that right?