Mediterranee - in Great Falls but not that great!

Mediterranee, 
10123 Colvin Run Road, Great Falls, VA. 

Pan fried flounder

If you like to try out small, family-run restaurants, Groupon is a good place to start your search. Last weekend, I used a groupon deal for Mediterranee, a small restaurant that specializes in American Meditteranean cuisine. 

The meal started on a positive note - complimentary bread which tasted like it might have been baked in-house. It was served with olive oil for dipping.  I had the opportunity to sample their three-course meal that was comprised of an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert. Among the appetizers, my friend and I tried a soup and a pork pate. The soup, a vegetable puree made from greens, was adequate. The pate was chunky and cold - came with a smidge of mustard, and a salad on the side. Neither the pate nor the soup was served with any crackers or garlic bread, which is a shame, as I think it would have helped neutralize the blandness of the pork.

Flambe with rum and vanilla ice cream

The entrees, a grilled salmon and pan fried flounder, were both well-cooked. They were flavored with herbs and capers and came with a side of blanched greens and some pickled onions. The entrees as served were simply too rich. Going easy on the butter would have helped bring out the natural flavors of fish, with a little more herbs for flavor.

Finally, we had two desserts: a banana, mango, berry flambé with rum and vanilla ice cream, and a bread pudding with caramel sauce. The bread pudding with strawberries on the top was moderately sweet, which suited me. The taste of rum was too obvious in the flambé, masking the natural sweetness of the mango and banana. 

The Vegetarian Edition

Saravana Palace, South Indian

11725 Lee Hwy  Fairfax, VA 22030

Aloo Tikki Chaat

If you are a vegetarian, and in the mood for some Indian food, there aren’t many options in the Washington DC region. Among the limited choices, Saravana Palace is one of the few that exclusively serves Indian vegetarian food.

What’s unique about this place is its wide-ranging menu of vegetarian dishes, especially the “fast foods” from India. While they certainly cater to those craving Chole Bhatura, bhel puri, uttapam, masala dosa, idli wada, pao bhaji, I am afraid it may not meet your expectations if you have ever had the chance to sample such food in India.

Chole Bhatura

I tried several dishes during my visit to Saravana Palace. The aloo tikki chaat - comprised of small potato cutlets served on a bed of chick peas mixed in yoghurt, and a tangy tamarind date sauce, garnished with cilantro and onions. 

Though I didn't try it myself, according to my friend Debasree, the tikkis were a little too dense and dry, and the sauces didn’t help in masking the dryness .Their popular dish, Chole Bhatura - fried bread served with spicy chick peas was edible but not especially memorable. 

There were also several Indo-Chinese dishes on the menu that are not commonly served in many Indian restaurants. The Gobi Manchurian - crispy cauliflower cooked in a spicy Chinese sauce although somewhat chunky, was the best of the three entrees I tried. 

Mandazi for Supper

I am never in a rush on road trips and always prefer a nice leisurely meal at a local restaurant rather than restaurant chains for a quick bite. So, on our way to the Fallingwater in Pennyslavania, we stopped at a little old town diner in Frederick, Maryland. We opted for the a la carte menu instead of the buffet despite most patrons preferring the latter. I had a seafood omelette with fresh crab meat and shrimp with a side of well-cooked potatoes along with some pancakes. It was a very filling and delicious meal that kept us satiated until supper time. 

The next stop was in Morgantown, West Virginia. Partly due to the lack of interesting eating options, we ended up having supper at the Kenyan Cafe, located in a strip mall in this university town. It was my first time trying Kenyan cuisine. I was told it is very similar to the Indian cuisine. 

We started with some vegetarian samosas and mandazi for appetizers. For the entree, I tried the spicy chicken curry with a side of chapatti. I would agree that the curry served was bright and colorful looking like most Indian food. But it differed in taste. First, unlike most Indian curries that are smooth in texture for the most part, this curry had a lot of semi-cooked veggies – mostly carrots and peas. The spicy curry already came mixed with the rice, which I was not a fan of – another reason for not enjoying the curry with the chappati. This might be because I am habituated to mixing the curry with the rice in the proportion I want. The samosas were milder and had almost similar ingredients of carrots and peas. 

My favorite part of this meal was the Mandazi. It was a slightly sweet fried pastry made from wheat flour. I was not sure whether it was to be had with a curry or stew like the chapatti but it certainly had its own taste and tasted good by it self. 

Goan or Peruvian seafood - You decide because I can't!

Fried seafood

Seafood is a staple of Goa. This spoilt me and made me critical of seafood from other parts of the world.

However, even I have to admit that the seafood in Mancura, a small coastal town of northern Peru, is comparable to that from my beloved Goa.

Obviously, ceviche was first on my list of dishes to try during my travel to Peru. Ceviche is raw fish cooked with citrus juices. It is served all along the coasts of Latin America. I obtained my ceviche from Restaurant Cevicheria Frutos Del Mar in the northwestern town of Piura. The fish was fresh and heavily flavored with citrus juices. To balance the acidity, it is usually served with a salad, fried yuca or potatoes, and plenty of corn.

For those who are used to eating their meats very well-done, a category that includes me, ceviche was a pleasant novelty, although I would have to admit that I have to eat enough of this before it becomes a consistent part of my diet.

Ceviche

On another occasion, I feasted on a platter of seafood after a fun-filled day on the beach. The platter comprised of calamari, fish and shrimp. It was served with French fries and garnished with a piece of avacado on the top. This was so good, that I couldn't get enough of it. Despite being fried, my appetite for it seemed boundless. And a glass of Peruvian beer perfectly helped in washing down all the spice.

A Tapas Dinner

Roast chicken

If you are a foodie like me, like many other places, Spain has a lot to offer too. Moreover, you will find food buffs like myself, leisurely enjoying their food and drinks on a week day evening on the streets of Seville or Madrid.

I mostly stuck to the items on the tapas menu during my stay in Spain. Tapas are small-sized portions (what some people would call snacks or appetizers), but can make a filling meal if you combine a few of them. Several restaurants that I went to specialized in tapas. One of my favorites was an old market called Mercado de San Miguel, located near Plaza Mayor, that had a variety of tapas joints serving an eclectic mix of hot and cold tapas to patrons who stood and ate, while reading a book or hanging out with friends.

Unlike my experience of the Spanish tapas bars in D.C. that are generally over-priced and serve really tiny portions, Spain had much more to offer – in terms of taste as well as worth for your money. 

Not being a big fan of cold food, I mostly had hot tapas on the menu – fried calamari, roasted chicken, paella, garlic shrimp, and a Spanish omelette.  Every thing I tried was delicious.

Seafood Paella

On Day 1, I had roasted chicken - mildly flavored with salt, pepper, garlic and other herbs for lunch. It was cooked just enough to make it moist, and served with potato wedges on the side. If you are a beer person, you could enjoy a glass a beer with your meal on a warm summery afternoon.  



On several occasions, I tried the seafood paella that I will fondly remember– rice cooked with calamari, mussels and shrimp. I had this with sangria (a Spanish fruit cocktail) – that was not overly sweet and went perfectly well with the mild spices.

On Day 3, while watching a flamenco performance, I tried the Spanish omelette – served as a tapas but could easily substitute for a meal that was perfect with  a glass of sangria.  This omelette is prepared from pretty basic ingredients you would generally find in any kitchen - eggs, cheese, potatoes, salt, pepper and other herbs if you would like.



Garlic Shrimp

On the last day of the trip, I had mildly flavored garlic shrimp cooked in olive oil, served in a pan along with some bread and crackers on the side. 

I combined this with a sweet crepe. Filled with Nutella, the crepe was served with whip cream on the side. Not being a big fan of whip cream, I preferred having the crepe by itself. 

All in all, this was a perfect trip when it came to food! I would go here again, just to eat!!

Exploring Portugal through food

As a daughter of Goa, I was very excited to visit Portugal. While growing up, I often heard stories of Portugal and its influence on our culture, including the cuisine. So this was my opportunity to see whether there was any truth to these stories during my week-long trip to Lisboa. Perhaps, not surprisingly, it seemed that the Goan cuisine is more influenced by the Indian cuisine, rather than the Portuguese.


A platter of tapas

A Portuguese dinner typically started with loaves of bread (pao), and olive oil. Calamari, prawn rissois, samosas, and spanish tapas were offered as appetizers. The calamari were deep fried with a blend of spices, just like the Goan way. However, the calamari were cut into long wedges instead of cylindrical rings and not served with any sauce. The rissois were bland but still edible. While the crust resembled a Goan rissois, the bland mixture of cheese and whole shrimp was not what I would call mouth-watering. Among all the appetizers I tried, a platter of tapas served during a Fado was my favorite. The platter came with mini-portions of cheese, tuna and pork pate, olives, crackers, and bread. Mostly, a glass of Porto, helped compensate for the mediocre appetizers.

Grilled Fish

For the main course, I tried several types of grilled, or baked fish. The fish, although not particularly spicy, was very good. The option of having it with olive oil mixed with garlic and onion also helped to mitigate the blandness of the fish. The main courses were typically served with sides of veggies, mostly mashed potatoes or whole boiled potatoes and a salad. On another occasion, I had chicken with a slightly sweet brown sauce, served with an interesting combination of potato wedges and pineapple slices.

Chicken Curry

Finally, the Indian cuisine in Portugal was mediocre. Not sure whether I picked the right restaurants in the tourist hubs of Cascais, Sintra and downtown Lisboa. The Indian restaurants also served Italian food, perhaps to widen their customer base. I was somewhat disappointed by the fact that all restaurants served butter chicken but none served Chicken Xacuti despite Portugal's historical connection to Goa. Of the several entrees I tried, there was little variation in taste: most were cooked with a heavy tomato base and were very creamy.

Every meal ended with a dessert - mostly custard tarts. While not very sweet, these were very good.

Custard Tart with Espresso