Popeyes

You may be a bit confused about this review since Popeyes isn't actually a restaurant. I mean it is but it's a fast food chain and none of my previous reviews have been of chains. Popeyes though has a special place in my heart. I actually flew down to New Orleans one summer to find some good fried chicken, red beans and rice, and cajun rice.

When I got to New Orleans I was very confused. There was a Popeyes on every street corner. It was like 7-11 and Mc Donalds. Everywhere you turned there was a Popeyes. I wasn't going to go to a Popeyes after flying so far but after 6 (yes SIX) days of trying Cajun food at restaurants ranging from upscale to hole in the walls I could not find anything better than my beloved Popeyes so on the 7th day I broke down and went to Popeyes.

So that was just the background to this post. Some people have made fun of this report but I actually empathize with these customers. The link to the video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pyW6w5B7Aw

And yes I love that chicken from Popeyes.

Cafe Salsa: Nuevo Latino Cocina

Ay, CARAMBA! I actually have no reason to be shocked about the food at Cafe Salsa: Nuevo Latino Cuisine (I spelled cuisine in the title Spanish because it seemed appropriate).  I've learned that whenever a restaurant has "NEW CUISINE!!" (meaning that they've revolutionised the food or have done some sort of play on it) and it's in an area like Old Town Alexandria it's probably bad.  That was actually the first comment I made when I sat down and saw the menu but I decided to give it a try anyway.

It was a rather hot day and I had just biked 20+ miles with some friends so we got a bottle of Pellegrino and were given complimentary tortilla chips and two types of salsa.  The salsa on the left comprised of lime juice, salt, tomatoes, cilantro, and olives.  The salsa on the right was a simple tomato salsa with salt and lime and a bit of diced tomatoes but it comprised mostly of tomato juices.  The chips were actually very good.  They came warm and were very fresh.  They were a thick cut and had a great crunch to them.  The salsa though was a bit of a disappointment.  Both salsas were flavorless and did not compliment the chips.  The left salsa had an overpowering taste of olives and nothing else while the right salsa seemed to be left tomato juices from preparing another dish.  Both were very under seasoned.

The two sandwiches below are suppose to be different but were essentially the same.  I had ordered a Cubano sandwich while Jason ordered and Chicken Aioli sandwich (can you even tell a difference by looking at the pictures?).  Like the salsa for the chips, both sandwiches were very bland.  The biggest disappointment in my opinion of both sandwiches is that they were both served with french fries.  The restaurant was clearly Latin and emphasized this through the artwork, color, music, and furniture in the restaurant but they serve a Cubano sandwich with fries?  I know french fries are immensely popular in Latin America but so are yuca fries and plantain chips.  I would have liked a choice and it would have added much more character to the dishes.

Terro ordered a flank steak that was served with rice, plantains, and a side of beans. According to him it was not very good.  The steak seemed chewy and overcooked from the look of it.

The restaurant ambiance was decent but a bit cramped.  The owners seemed as if they were a bit ambitious in maximizing their space and put one too many tables in.  The servers were decent also and responded when asked for but were cold. Only the owner greeted and thanked us where as the servers all had a stone cold face.

The biggest issue I had with Cafe Salsa was their serve time.  We waited over 40 minutes for our entrees at 2 in the afternoon.  It was a late lunch so there was not too many people in the restaurant.  I'd hate to find out how long it would take if it were a full house.

With tax and tip my sandwich came out to be $15, which is a bit much for a mediocre sandwich and mediocre service.

I would say that most of my cooking has a bit of a Latin influence and sadly I think I could come up with a better tasting menu than Cafe Salsa.  I would not recommend this restaurant for anything.

Rundown:

Price: Moderate - High

Service: Mediocre

Food: Below Average

Restaurant Decor/Setting: Good

808 King St.

Alexandria, VA 22314

703-684-4100

www.cafesalsagrill.com

The Present (which you can't return...)

I think the title sums up what I think about this restaurant.  Have you ever gotten a present and the person who is giving it to you is incredibly excited thinking they just got you the PERFECT gift which you've also wanted?  Going to the Present is pretty much the same exact experience except instead of receiving a free gift you're paying for your own gift which you can't return.

The Present has been open for about 6 months and I've actually been there 3 times.  Each time they've made major revisions to the menu because their business has not taken off yet. Unfortunately they still have not gotten together something that works.

First off who wrote this latest menu?  It's pretty absurd.  Some of the dish names are "Cow in the Open Field" and "Gift from the Sea on a Haystack".  The names were so outrageous that I ordered by number and by my broken Vietnamese.

So I order a tuna steak with green papaya.  The description sounded good and I was a bit surprised by the portion size.  For $12.95 I got a tuna steak that would have easily cost $6-8 at the supermarket.  The plating was actually pretty nice.  The entree though was not as good as the plating.  The tuna steak was deep fried with no seasoning whatsoever.  It was very very bland.  The tuna is suppose to be eaten with the fish sauce poured over it but that didn't help very much either since the fish sauce was also bland.  

My dad got the rice vermicelli with beef and spring rolls.  The beef was overcooked and the wrong cut of meat was used.  Traditionally the cut of beef used is a slightly fatty sirloin.  A fatty sirloin needs to be used or at least a slightly fatty cut of beef needs to be used because the meet is sliced thinly and grilled.  The Present used a top round cut which is extremely lean.  Grilling a thinly sliced lean meat is never a good idea as it'll easily be overcooked and dry out becoming tough and chewy.  Also, a top round cut is never a good choice for grilling.  It's better off in a pot roast, stew, or roast.

The restaurant decor is very nice and the staff is hospitable and attentive.  When asked how the food was my dad gave his honest opinion and they made every effort to correct the situation and gave us free dessert.  The dessert was fried banana in a coconut syrup.  This dessert has been done time and time again.  It wasn't bad but it's also not very hard to get right.

Lunch for two ended up only costing $34 with tax and tip.  That's a very fair price seeing as I ordered a tuna steak.  There were other items on the menu that I really wanted to try, specifically a flaming beef dish cooked on bamboo but it wasn't available at the time.

Overall if The Present can get their seasoning and cooking right this will be a great restaurant as the service and ambiance is excellent and the pricing is very fair.

Rundown:

Price: Moderate

Service: Great

Food: Below Average

Restaurant Decor/Setting: Very Good

6678 Arlington Blvd
Falls Church, VA 22042

(703) 531-1881

http://www.presentcuisine.com/

How this site will help you get white and asian girls

A couple of nights ago I was thinking of what posts I can do other than the restaurant reviews I have done and planned and a great idea came to fruition. My site helps guys get white and asian girls. No joke. True story. (I only write about white and Asian girls cause that's what I'm familiar with. I am in no way discriminatory against other female races. If you're a fun, active, attractive, young professional woman I'd be interested in you regardless of race. Feel free to e-mail me if you fit the above criteria) Lets first start off with how this gets you white girls.

White Girls

White people like foreign culture or are at least intrigued by it. They love traveling or the idea of traveling and learning/experiencing things they have never done. So that's the link. Nothing says you're cultured or well traveled more than knowing about lots of different kinds of food.

The definitive resource that proves this is the website http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com. This site has 13 posts relating to food and/or foreign culture. (If you're curious they are post #s 7, 13, 20, 36, 42, 45, 54, 58, 63, 72, 78, 90, and 112)

If you're a white guy trying to get that white girl that's caught your eye what says I'm well cultured/traveled more than taking her out to a foreign restaurant and then breaking down the dichotomy of the food on its authenticity. You're pretty much the best of both worlds for her. She's tired of hamburgers, fries, and good ol'American pie and wants something new and exciting. You can give her that and at the same time she's not venturing too far into the unknowns since you're white too.

If you're an non-white guy then just be yourself and use this site as a resource to save a couple of bucks. Don't try too hard. She's already into you because of your race. Your ability to speak multiple languages and personal insight on another culture has caught her attention. MILK it while she has an infatuation with your culture before she decides she's had enough of it and moves onto the next culture.

Asian Girls

Asian girls are a bit of a conundrum. A lot of them are sick of their traditional Asian upbringing and want to rebel. Most of the time they do so by dating outside their race and associate all Asian males with their fathers and the suffocating tradtional Asian culture which they were brought up in. Interestingly though at the same time they yearn to find that extremely white Asian guy that understands their situation and feels the same that they do about traditional Asian upbringings. So most of the time Asian girls are at a lost. They feel like white guys only like them cause lets face it all white guys have yellow fever and Asian guys are well too Asian and not white enough.

So where do I come in? If you're non-Asian it's simple. Use this site to learn about Asian foods. The Asian girl will feel that since you are open minded enough to try her foods then you'd probably be open minded enough to care and try to understand her situation.

For Asian guys use this site to save a few bucks. Pop your collar a little more and wear more North Face products. Try to mix up the Asian and American restaurants and don't be so bitter about all the Asian girls who only date white guys. Laugh it off and be confident in your game. If you're bitter then it's only more reason for her to stop dating Asian guys.

Green Olive: Seafood Buffet

No. Do not go here unless you are dying of starvation. 

VIP Bistro

I went to VIP Bistro awhile ago and had even completed the review on it but lost it in when my computer crash. (Scroll down for quick review is you're too lazy read everything)

VIP Bistro is in Eden Center in Falls Church, VA.  For the people that don't know where or what that is, it's the largest Vietnamese strip mall on the east coast of the US.  You can find authentic Southeast Asian cuisine there at reasonable prices but sadly Eden Center is slowing catering to the curious non-Asian crowd.  This means watered down food and price hikes but there is a plus side to this!  The positives I have seen are better service and most importantly CLEANER establishments.

VIP Bistro is one of the newer restaurants which cater to a younger and Americanized crowd. This can be seen by their great service, colorful and contemporary decor, and higher prices. Fortunately the food is not watered down.

So I suggested this place to my dad and off we went for lunch!  Our meal started out with cafe sua da (Vietnamese ice coffee served with sweetened condensed milk).  This is a popular drink in Vietnam and is meant to be drank slowly.  Think of the strongest coffee you've ever had at Starbucks and multiply it by 5.  The strength and flavor of the coffee is obtained by a slow brew using a percolator.  I was actually very impressed by their coffee.  You might think "How hard is it to brew coffee?".  Well, getting the correct water temperature to brew this coffee is very important.  It's a chickory blend so if the water is too hot you'll burn the beans AND the chickory which will give the coffee almost a cigarette after taste. If the water is not hot enough you won't get a strong enough blend.

As an appetizer we had cha gio (Vietnamese egg rolls).  It's quite different from a Chinese egg roll.  The main differences are that it's smaller, doesn't have cabbage, is heavy on peppercorn, much more crispy, and eaten with a nuoc mum (consists of lime, chili peppers, fish sauce, garlic, and other stuff).  There isn't much to say about their cha gio.  It was good but not amazing.  The most notable part of the dish was how fresh the greens were.  Greens are a large part of Vietnamese food so the freshness of the greens are very important since they are eaten raw most of the time.

My dad and I inadvertently ordered the same entree.  We ordered the beef with rice vermicelli. It was an average dish.  The beef was a bit tough and under seasoned and the noun mum wasn't as flavorful as it should be.

Lunch for two ended up costing around $30 with tax and tip I think.  I'm not quiet sure as it was awhile ago.  $30 isn't too bad for 2 drinks, entrees, and an appetizer but I could of gone to Hai Duong which is across the street and ended up with better food for about $5 less.  I would only go there again with someone who is hesitant to try authentic Vietnamese food although it's pretty authentic for the crowd it's targeting.  

Run Down

Price: Moderate

Service: Good

Food: Average

Restaurant Decor/Setting: Good

6799 Wilson Boulevard #11
Falls Church, VA 22044

http://www.vietbistro.com/?d=home&f=home

Restaurants to be reviewed

So the list is quite long but I'll start off with the places I have eaten at in the past two weeks:

• Vinh Kee (long time favorite but the quality is slipping)
  
• Bale (24 hr sandwich shop)
• Yuraku
• China King
• Niwano Hana (Found it on yelp when I was craving sushi at work)
• Hai Duong
• Rincome
• Kabob Bazaar
• Han Sung Oak
• El Pollito

No, I don't only eat at Asian restaurants.  I do eat a lot of Asian food though.  Sadly there will be no pictures as I forgot to bring my camera.  I'll try to bring my camera with me everywhere I go now.  I guess I can use my cellphone but the quality is always terrible.

The first post

A couple months back I had started working on a food critique site.  My original plan was to critique restaurants in the DC area taking into account not only the quality of the food but also atmosphere, service, pricing, etc.  Sadly my computer crashed and I was only able to recover part of my work.  So flash forward a couple months later I decided to rebuild the site but as I was working on it I realized there were tons of sites similar to what I intended to do.  So I thought what else would be interesting and helpful at the same time?  As I sat pondering I realized that a good amount of my friends come to me when they need to take a girl out.  I usually give them a list of suggestions and break down the pros and cons of each place. And then Voila! my idea came to me.

Eating out can get pricey but what makes it even more pricey is when you eat out on a date. This is especially true for guys.  So in this depressed economy I decided to blog on getting the best bang for your buck while taking your lady friend out.  I sort of have everything categorized out in my head on how I am going to approach this blog.  It'd be something to the effect of the following list:

• First date
• Casual date
• Just hanging out
• Happy hours
• Special occasions
• etc.

I still need to edit this blog as I want some sort of rating system for each place.  Hopefully I will be able to post up a couple reviews by the end of the week.