Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Comments On Chinese, Pizza, Cheesesteaks And More -- And Where Do We Find A Giant Pizza?

Whole snappers at Costco from Min E.
The "Welcome Home" posts were great fun, and people should go back for the comments if you want to pick up more tips.  On the "Date Night" post, folks talked up Tino's, Cafe de Paris, Ranazul and more.  Scan through all those posts and look for ideas for everything from Chinese and pizza to a bunch of places for liquor.

Or remember that Min E. emailed a photo of whole snappers and an update to my post about unusual food:  chicken hearts seasoned with salt and pepper paired with Korean rice wine at Rainpia in Ellicott City.

Even as I tried to summarize what I've learned, the Howard County scene continues to improve.  The Family Market in Columbia feels like a game changer to me.  The Wegmans will clearly have a huge impact on the local food scene, but the new supermarket in Long Reach brings produce, Asian and Latin products that you couldn't get south of Rte 40 before.

Anne, Allan and others added their comments to the original post.  Min E. always offer great advice about what to buy.  The fact that she came away impressed confirms that this could reduce my runs to Catonsville.  I have shopped twice at Family Market, and I have several posts in mind -- Korean snacks, Argentine chorizo, and more.

Beyond those, people keep adding their ideas -- and asking questions:

15 comments:

  1. Make your own cheesesteak. Harris Teeter & JW Treuth's sell pre-sliced steak if you don't want to bother. Cooks Illustrated prefers white American cheese, but you know the options - Cheese Whiz, Provolone, white American. Saute up some peppers, onions & mushrooms. The problem is finding a good roll, but the innards are easy and pretty quick to make especially if you get the pre-sliced steak.

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  2. I've been to Family Market 3 or 4 times since they opened. Wow! 99-cent jumbo eggs and $2.99 gallons of milk cannot be beat around here. Love the mix of Asian and Latino foods. I saw the fresh chorizo last time and was very tempted. This is the best store to happen to Columbia in ages.

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  3. Pudgie's in Clarksville makes an oversized pizza

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  4. Have to agree about Family Market. Having it close by has not only replaced my trips to H-mart but more and more it's replacing my trips to the local Giant. The only thing I miss compared to H-mart is I think H-mart has better seafood.

    Was just there last night and they've tables set up on the bakery side in what look like a food-court configuration and there was a meeting going on there where it looked like they were talking about what to do with the space.

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  5. Was just in Philly last weekend, made one cheesesteak pitstop, at Dalessandro's in Manayunk. SO good.

    They chop the steak to bits, which works with whiz but gets into a clumpy mess with provolone etc.

    If anyone in HoCo can approach that, they'd do a killing.

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  6. It would be nice to go to Manayunk and not have to run the whole way back to the art museum. I ran the Philly marathon in November. Was sad they did not hand out cheesesteaks as promised!

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  7. Next time in Philly, head to John's Roast Pork. The best roast pork sandwich in the city, which is the TRUE staple sandwich in Philly. They make great cheesesteaks too.

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  8. Meadows ice cream! I had forgotten about that place. Thanks for reminding me!

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  9. Just hit the family market yesterday. Was happy to see that I no longer need to make the hike to rt. 40 and rolling road for my produce and meat anymore. I was happy to find the store clean, well organized and well staffed. Looks like there is plenty of room for more products as well as the food court idea. And yes, you can't beat the price on eggs and meat....whole tenderloin for $5.99 a pound this week! The lowest I have ever seen h-mart is $4.99, this is a really good deal! I am still looking forward to wegmans's but you better believe that my stop for produce will be family market....and it doesn't hurt that chicken-n friends is in the same shopping center!

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  10. Speaking of pizza, would like to get some recommendations for delivery pizza. For a long time we have gotten pizza delivered from Roma's Market on Phelps Luck Drive, but they seemed to have changed the way the make it and it's not as good anymore.

    So what delivery pizza do you think is best?

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  11. Re: Delivery pizza

    I've always enjoyed Royal for delivery. Their pizza is decent and as a bonus their wings are superb.

    Gateway, Long Reach and Upper Crust have never really done it for me.

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  12. Re. Delivery Pizza
    Best delivery pizza is definitely Vocelli's on Rte. 40 at St. Johns Lane. But best pizza by far is Pastablitz on Route 108 at Snowden. Having come from New Yawk, of course I don't believe there is no "real" pizza outside the five boroughs, but Strapazza comes as close as I've been able to find. They don't deliver but it is so worth the drive to pick it up.

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  13. Oops, typo. I meant "I don't belive there is ANY real pizza..."

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  14. Any ideas whats up with the Friendly Inn?

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  15. Pudgies in Clarksville has a sheet pizza (think Ledo's) that is humongous. Can easily serve 6 hungry adults or so.

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I love comments -- especially comments that specifically recommend dishes or items to buy. Tell people what you like and why. If you can, please don't leave it as "anonymous." Just choose "name/URL" below, type in a nickname and leave the URL part blank. I like following people's comments even if I don't know your name.