An Aromatic Flower At Thai Orchid

If you have been a longtime reader of my blog, perhaps you will recall the little drama I experienced at last year's dinner during my trip to Columbus for the annual Ohio Linuxfest. It seemed that of all the restaurants I could pick in Columbus for a post-convention meal, it would have to be the same one where an ex-girlfriend ("K") from high school had been sitting with her husband at the very table next to us. The breakup hadn't exactly been easy and while I have always felt bad about what happened, when I saw her again I didn't have the cahones to be an adult and admit who I was and that I was very sorry.

It turns out that the Internet isn't all that big of a place after all. Upon learning that I am now writing a food blog from a mutual third friend, "K" decided to search for my blog and upon finding it and with my recently added conveniently organized alphabetical list of restaurants that I've reviewed, it was only a matter of time until she understandably clicked on my review for Old Bag of Nails Pub since it was one of her favorites, too. Within a few minutes, "K" sent me a Facebook message with the title, "K read your review on Old Bag of Nails in Worthington." I know there wasn't anyone around to confirm this when I got the message, but I could feel the blood drain from my face.

While she could have worded her message in many ways, she did what I couldn't and took the high road. She was kind and gracious and through several messages back and forth, I think we both managed to finally get a sense of closure to the situation. I still can't excuse my bad behavior back in high school, but I think "K" finally understood the issues I was dealing with at the time. In fact, at her request, we have now become Facebook friends.

Tonight's dinner wasn't intentionally held at a different Columbus restaurant because I was trying to avoid "K," but simply because I wanted to cover a different restaurant this time. I knew if I had returned to Old Bag of Nails Pub, I would've ordered the fish and chips again and while I was certain they would've been delicious, that wouldn't exactly be expanding my culinary horizons for the purpose of the blog. So I picked another Columbus favorite I discovered during my days living there, Thai Orchid.

When I lived in Columbus, only one location existed for Thai Orchid at 7654 Sawmill Road, Dublin, OH 43017. While this location was still open and was indeed the one I went to tonight, they have since opened up a new location just a few miles away in Powell, Ohio. The phone number for tonight's location was 614-792-1112. Since the original location was located in a strip mall away from the main road (like so many restaurants and businesses in Columbus), there was a large parking lot with ample parking available.

Here was a shot of the storefront:


Since this meal would be shared with my cousin and my aunt, I waited outside in the cool air for them to pull up. To my utter surprise, an old college fraternity brother, Larry, and his wife pulled up to get take-out. Larry and I chatted for a bit and that was when I learned about the new location for the restaurant. He had said that the food suffered a bit at the original location when the new one opened, but it had now recovered. Shortly after Larry went in to get his food, my family arrived and we walked in to request a table.

After being sat, I began taking pictures of the menu (which seemed larger than I remembered it):








After chatting it over with my dinner companions, we decided to start out with a couple of appetizers. First up was the Mee Grob:


Composed of crispy rice noodles that had been coated in a sweet chili sauce, they were perched atop several small cooked shrimp and lengths of scallion. I've had this dish before (most recently at Ty Fun Thai Bistro in Tremont, Ohio). Both versions were very similar, but the one at Thai Orchid definitely had more shrimp than the one at Ty Fun, which was nice because everyone got to sample both the crispy noodles and seafood.

Our second appetizer was the chicken satay:


Grilled chicken on a skewer? Check. Peanut dipping sauce and sweet and sour vegetables in sauce? Check. Griddled white bread? Wait. Huh? Thai Orchid has always offered a version of this dish that was different from everyone else. While I don't know how authentic the griddled white bread was, it's the version that I remember eating as I discovered Thai food for the first time. Honestly, whenever I have chicken satay somewhere else, I always miss the bread. This time around, the chicken satay was excellent, the chicken being perfectly seasoned and grilled and both sauces providing a contrast between the heavier peanut sauce and the lighter sweet and sour sauce.

Our appetizers out of the way, I decided to have a bowl of the Tom Yung Goong soup, Thai Orchid's version always having been arguably one of the best I had ever eaten:


Loaded with freshly cooked shrimp, mushrooms, scallions, cilantro, onions, and tomatoes, the soup was better than average. That being said, it wasn't quite as good as my memory remembered it. While there was a definite zip from chili heat and zing from the lime juice, it just didn't grab my taste buds the way I thought it would. Don't get me wrong, I'd order this again in a heartbeat, but if this was the latest version the kitchen was preparing, then I can definitely say that I've now had better.

Deciding that a trifecta of shrimp dishes were to comprise my dinner tonight, I ordered the Gang Goong Sapparot for my entrée:


The bowl contained a tantalizing combination of shrimp, pineapple and green peppers cooked in a red curry and coconut sauce. I've never had to play the "convince my server I really want it spicy" game at Thai Orchid and by asking for it spicy, it actually came out quite spicy. I'd say "spicy" at Thai Orchid was equivalent to "Extra Thai Spicy" at other restaurants. Just something to keep in mind.

When you order your entrée, you have your choice of steamed or fried rice. Tonight I chose steamed rice:


Once I had received both my dinner and my rice, I used the supplied third plate to scoop a little of each onto it before digging in:


Other than the trip to the bathroom to clear my sinuses, this was a marvelous taste of Thailand. The shrimp were cooked perfectly and just slightly sweet. The acid from the pineapple balanced the sweetness from the shrimp and the coconut milk in the red curry. Finally, the spiciness of the red curry brought all of the classic Thai flavors together in my mouth: tangy, salty, hot and sweet.

Our meal finally concluded, my aunt graciously picked up the check for tonight's feast. Of course, I only discovered this after ordering some of Thai Orchid's delicious Pad Thai to go. It should be noted that all "to go" orders are discounted by 10%. Which, for my Pad Thai would only amount to a measly $1, but if your order was larger, clearly you'd save by eating the food someplace other than the restaurant.

I was pleased that my meal tonight brought back so many memories of eating here many years ago. It seemed that whether there was a dip in the quality after the opening of their second location or not, at least tonight the flavors were consistent, delicious, and worth seeking out. I highly suggest if you are in the mood for Thai food and you live in Columbus, check out Thai Orchid.

A Return Trip To The North Market

For my second installment of this year's weekend in Columbus, Ohio for the annual Ohio Linuxfest, I decided to once again return to the North Market across the street from the Convention Center during my lunch break. Not realizing the rich resource that the market was, for the first three or four years I attended the conference, I would foolishly follow other convention goers to the first floor of the center in lemming-like fashion to stand in line for Subway, Sbarro, or Great Steak and Fries. While it was filling, it was never satisfying.

Walking out the west doors of the center and onto High Street, I crossed the street and walked the ONE block to the North Market located at 59 Spruce Street, Columbus, OH 43215. Parking was available in the lot outside the market, of course, but since I was walking, it didn't particularly apply to me. A benefit of parking in the lot was that any purchase made inside the market was enough to get your parking validated; such a perk is always a nice thing.

I was happy to discover that my food vendor choice for last year, Lae Viet, was still around and actually had quite a line of people. Not wanting to cover the same vendor twice, I decided to walk around and choose something different for lunch today. After passing by the Greek place, the Hungarian place, and the Italian place, I ended up deciding on Flavors of India, just a stall or two down from Lae Viet:


As I got close to the front of the line, I took a snapshot of their suspended menu:


While Lae Viet had been serving food cooked a la minute, Flavors of India took a more "Chinese restaurant in a mall" type approach by allowing customers to order rice with one flavors, two flavors, or more, all served up from a large steam table full of half-size hotel pans:


While I normally wouldn't associate great food with this steam table type of approach, the line was definitely long for lunch and the product was being turned over fast enough that I put my fears aside. I decided to go with a two way vegetarian combo today and after grabbing a bottle of water, a cup of the freshly made mint chutney and a foil package containing Indian flatbread, I paid my $8.49 at the register and took my spoils to the second floor, where I managed to snag a small table just off the stairs.

Here was a shot of my lunch today:


Upon opening the Styrofoam container, I was rewarded with the still steaming vegetarian options I had just selected moments earlier:


The top left was Aloo Muteer and the top right was Palak Paneer; Basmati rice filled in the large cavity at the bottom of the container. The rice was soft and fresh, but as I began to eat the rice with my pairings, it became quickly evident that given the amount of toppings, the quantity of rice would be insufficient. Fortunately, I had thought to spend an extra $1 for a serving of the flatbread:


The first notion that popped into my head when I unwrapped this and saw it was: "Um, this isn't naan, it's a steamed gyro wrapper." That being said, it was soft from the steaming and actually served its purpose well to help polish off the remainder of the Palak Paneer. Speaking of which, while both of the vegetarian toppers were decent, they weren't outstanding. The Palak Paneer lacked much in the way of actual cheese (the Paneer part of the name) and while both dishes were definitely hot, neither tasted particularly fresh. The spicing of both dishes were uniquely Indian, but felt like they had been softened a bit for an American palate.

Overall, this was a slightly better than average lunch. From my memory of other Indian restaurants at which I've eaten while living in Columbus, there was (and is) much better Indian fare out there. Perhaps I should've just stuck with my first inclination and returned for another banh mi sandwich from Lae Viet.

My lunch now finished and cleaned up, I returned to the first floor with the knowledge that one cannot come to the North Market for a meal and NOT finish up with a trip to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. While we here in northeast Ohio can obtain some of Jeni's more popular flavors through several restaurants and markets, with the ability to choose from the two dozen or so flavors available at the North Market, I would be foolish to skip out on this opportunity.

As I walked up to the counter, I already knew a repeat from last year was in order: the Trio. However, I wanted to pick three new flavors this time around. First up was the Queen City Cayenne, which I had heard about from other patrons:


Second on my list was the Plum Cassis Lambic Sorbet:


And for my third and final choice, I settled on a much ballyhooed new flavor, Goat Cheese with Roasted Red Cherries:


I gleefully paid my $5 and took my sundae cup outside. After spotting an open picnic bench, I sat down and snapped this photograph of my dessert:


At twelve o'clock was the plum sorbet, at four o'clock was the goat cheese with roasted red cherries and at 8 o'clock was the Queen City Cayenne. Like last year, I decided to start with what I thought would be the most mild flavor and work my way up to the most assertive. Unfortunately, contrary to last year, I started out with the plum cassis lambic sorbet which wasn't the least assertive. That being said, it was also delicious. The flavors from the plum and cassis were bright and acidic and the fact that it was sorbet and not ice cream meant that there was no dairy to coat my tongue. The lambic added a wonderful brightness to the dish and quite honestly, this would've made an excellent palate cleanser between heavy courses at a dinner party.

I moved next onto the goat cheese with roasted red cherries. I picked out a cherry first from the ice cream and took a bite. They were sweet and sour at the same time. I then tried the goat cheese ice cream. Expecting a "Mmmm," I was surprised when my mind said, "Hmmm." I tried another bite. While I got cool and creamy and slightly sweet, what I wasn't getting was the goat cheese flavor, at all. I knew that at one point (and I'm assuming that it was the same today), Jeni's was sourcing their goat cheese from MacKenzie Creamery out of Hiram, Ohio. And I also knew that the goat cheese from that farm has a remarkably mild flavor to it. But I couldn't detect any of the slight tang that fresh chevre should have brought to the party.

I finally moved to the final flavor in my cup, the Queen City Cayenne. I took my first bite and let it slowly melt in my mouth, coating my entire tongue. The first flavor to surface was the chocolate. Next, the gentle warming spice from the cinnamon made itself apparent to compliment the chocolate flavor. Finally, a mildly assertive burning sensation manifested itself at the back of my throat from the cayenne pepper. It was interesting how Jeni's used this specific chili pepper to not interfere with the taste bud receptors at the front of your mouth, but at the rear. While this flavor was good, I truly think I enjoyed last year's selection of Thai Peanut and Dark Chocolate even better.

My trio of tastes now complete, I gathered up my trash and my personal belongings and headed back to the conference, now fully sated and ready to face another four hours of sessions at Linuxfest. While I probably could've used a nap at some point in there, I'm glad I had another opportunity to check out the offerings at the North Market. If for no other reason than to try Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, I highly suggest you give this fascinating market a try yourself.

Kicking Off Linuxfest With Monte Carlo Italian Kitchen

The time has come for another round of restaurants reviews during my weekend spent in Columbus, Ohio for the 2010 Ohio Linuxfest. While this year I decided to rent a hotel room after snagging a killer deal on Priceline for the Ramada in Westerville, I did meet up with my aunt and cousin for dinner on Saturday night at a local Thai restaurant. But more about that in a future entry.

After getting off of work on Friday night, I managed to hop in my car around 5:45 PM and with relatively little problem, arrived in Columbus at the I-71 and I-270 interchange by Polaris right around 8:00 PM. Not knowing exactly when I would be arriving tonight, I hadn't made any firm dinner plans and when I realized that I would be getting to my destination early enough in the evening, I thought I would check out an old favorite of mine that ironically was less than half a mile from my hotel.

I pulled into the parking lot of the strip mall complex on the north side of Shrock Road, just east of the intersection of Cleveland Avenue and Shrock Road, to find that Monte Carlo Italian Kitchen was still open for business. At least until 9 PM. Located at 610 West Shrock Road, Westerville, OH 43081, they can also be reached at 614-890-2061. Parking was available in the general strip mall parking lot in front of all the stores.

Here was a shot of the storefront's exterior:


What I didn't expect as I walked through the front door was that the place would be packed, every single seat at every single table filled, a mere fifty minutes before they were scheduled to close for the evening. Fortunately, there was a small two-top in the corner by the emergency exit door that I was all too happy to take. Clearly most of these tables were finishing up their meals as within roughly fifteen minutes, the place went from being mobbed to eerily quiet and empty.

After seating me, my server left me to ponder the menu:





The reason I hadn't returned to Monte Carlo during prior Linuxfest weekends was that when I lived in Columbus six years ago, the restaurant wasn't open for dinner on Saturday night. If I didn't make it down on Friday night in time for dinner (which was pretty much every year), I was out of luck. Fortunately, I was happy to see that they now have Saturday evening hours for diners who can't make it on Friday night.

From what I remember of my dinners at Monte Carlo, I recall them having several seriously good dishes on the menu; however, beyond those, the food wasn't all that particularly memorable. Unfortunately, given that I was only going to have enough time to visit Monte Carlo once during my weekend in Columbus, I knew that I wouldn't be able to give the menu the thorough vetting I felt it required. This realization led me to focus on deciding which of the two standout dishes from my past to order tonight: chicken Parmesan with gnocchi and red sauce or the lasagna.

While I was deciding what to have, my server brought out dinner rolls:


While these weren't anything particularly special, they were fresh enough and strangely, after chewing them for a minute or so, I was surprised to experience a sudden sweetness that had been missing when I took my first bite. I repeated the experiment several times and was rewarded with the same results at the conclusion of each trial. Interesting.

After deciding on my entrée, I also went ahead and added a garden salad to my order:


Already, memories from past meals were beginning to re-emerge from the depths of my brain. It seemed that the rather basic, tasteless iceberg lettuce salad that had been served six years ago was still on the menu. Different, however, was the house dressing:


Salads used to come with dressing in prepackaged foil-enclosed containers ... Marzetti, if I remembered correctly. Tonight's dressing had clearly been made in house and while fairly mild in terms of acidity and spices, a generous application at least added some desperately needed flavor to the salad greens.

For my dinner, it hadn't taken much effort on my part to decide what made Monte Carlo memorable in my mind, and I easily chose the chicken Parmesan with gnocchi and red sauce:


While the menu had been amended to offer both shrimp and cod Parmesan (which I thought sounded awfully odd considering that Italians don't pair seafood and cheese together), I stuck with what I knew and was quite pleased to see what the kitchen had prepared for me tonight. What always fascinated me about the chicken Parmesan was how fresh it tasted. Because it was a nice thick piece of chicken, it always stayed moist. The coating was flavorful, the breast was fried with an expert hand, and it was never greasy. The red sauce was thick and rich and always well-balanced.

As I took a closer shot of my chicken Parmesan tonight, my mouth began to water:


Upon cutting into the chicken breast with knife and fork, I was rewarded with EXACTLY the same culinary experience I had last witnessed six years ago:


This was chicken Parmesan par excellence! Everything I had hoped would be present was still there. From first bite to last, I relished every single mouthful. Between the chicken and the gnocchi, there was enough food for dinner tonight AND leftovers tomorrow, but since I had yet to check into my hotel and didn't know if I had a refrigerator in my room, I decided to greedily finish the entire portion.

Served up next to the chicken was the side of gnocchi with more of the red sauce:


The gnocchi were soft and pillowy, but not light and ethereal like the type that I prefer. I managed to isolate a single piece of pasta sans sauce and tasted it. Having had GREAT gnocchi in the past, these fell into the good, but not great, category. I could barely taste any potato flavor in the pasta, a hallmark of freshly made gnocchi. That being said, the gnocchi were also exactly as I remember them. I think the difference between then and now is that I've learned what really great gnocchi are supposed to taste like.

When my server returned to drop off my change after paying the check, I spoke with her for a few minutes about the food. It seemed that while the veal and chicken were individually pounded and breaded from fresh cuts of meat at the restaurant, both the shrimp and cod Parmesan were prepared from frozen products that were simply fried a la minute. I was also sad to hear, but not surprised to learn, that the gnocchi were not a homemade product. Which was a shame since the gnocchi were listed on their menu as a "signature" pasta and as such, commanded a premium price.

Regardless, I highly enjoyed my meal tonight and would return with very little apprehension for the chicken Parmesan again and again if I still lived in Columbus. Even with the food service rolls, tasteless iceberg lettuce salad and questionable provenance of the gnocchi, the chicken Parmesan and their red sauce was enough to trump all the other less-than-stellar components of my meal tonight. While I didn't have a chance to try the lasagna tonight, if it has remained consistent over all these years, you might just want to give that a chance, too.

Burger Night At Teschner's Tavern

I think we all have those friends in our lives that we can lose touch with for months at a time and then all of the sudden, something sparks a connection and we remember that it has indeed been six months since I've sent or received anything from this friend. Such is my relationship with friend, mentor, and teacher Kathy Lehr. She was the instructor of my very first class at the Western Reserve School of Cookery on French breads and for some reason, we have always had a very strong connection. I've mentioned Kathy before on the blog, when I published her recipe for Roasted Red Pepper and Black Peppercorn bread that I took with me to Friendsgiving last year.

Kathy is a retired school teacher, but given her very active lifestyle, she is anything but retired. Besides teaching her bread classes and workshops at the school in Hudson, she is taking classes on her own as well as assisting others in building outdoor bread and pizza ovens. I hadn't talked to her in quite some time and after my successes at breadmaking at both the Heartland Gathering this year in Ann Arbor as well as my demonstration at the Howe Meadow Farmers Market, I had sent her an update on myself and asked how she was. To my surprise, she invited me to join her and her husband Mike for dinner at a local favorite hangout of theirs, Teschner's Tavern in Richfield, Ohio.

Now, I had actually heard of Teschner's Tavern before. When I was in the throes of my Lenten Project back in March of this year, I had come across pierogi being served at the United Methodist Church in Peninsula, Ohio that had been provided by a small local Akron company named Posh Pierogi. At the time I didn't know this, but soon after my write-up posted on the blog, I was contacted by one of the owners, Autumn Johnston. After some discussion with her about the company and their products, she informed me that as of right now (at least back in March 2010), only Teschner's Tavern had their pierogi on the menu. Excited to finally get to try them again, I emailed Autumn to confirm this fact. Not only was my information correct, but it turned out that Teschner's was also selling their sauerkraut balls as well.

As I pulled into the parking lot of Teschner's located at 4252 Broadview Road, Richfield, OH 44286, I realized that I had never even seen Teschner's before now. Many times I get recommendations for restaurants that I've come across before, but just never visited. I pulled into an open space in the lot and prepared to walk inside. If you wish to contact Teschner's via telephone, their number is 330-659-9094. I couldn't find a website that was obviously owned by Teschner's.

The first thing I recognized the minute I walked through the door was how dimly lit the inside was. I arrived while the sun was still up; however, when it finally settled below the horizon, getting a good picture was near impossible (as you'll see soon enough). I sat myself at one of the tables in the bar and looked around. Kathy had told me that Wednesday's were $2 off burger nights. I figured that the place would be packed for dinner; it wasn't.

While waiting for Kathy and Mike, I decided to go ahead and take snapshots of the menu:





In addition to the regular menu, there was a small plastic holder on the table announcing the daily happy hour specials:


What surprised me was how expensive the food was. I mean, $9+ for a burger was in B Spot territory and while Kathy professed how good the burgers at Teschner's were, I was skeptical that they rivaled a Michael Symon burger. Soon, my other dining companions arrived and after an initial hug and greeting, we sat down to start looking at the menu. Clearly this was a favorite haunt of theirs since the minute they walked in, the woman running the bar welcomed them by name and shortly after filling their drink order, came over to take our order.

Unfortunately, Kathy decidedly killed any chance of an anonymous review today when she revealed who I was, what I did, and why I was there. I was a little peeved about that at first, but then I resigned myself to the fact that with this knowledge, hopefully the kitchen will make sure that the food coming out tonight would be first rate, and for the most part, it was.

After discussing Posh Pierogi and their products, we decided to start our meal out tonight by splitting a round of appetizers. First up were the Posh Pierogi fried sauerkraut balls with a side of horseradish sour cream:


And here was a shot of the interior of a sauerkraut ball:


The flavor of these was mild, the sauerkraut being present, but not overwhelming. Sadly, there were three problems with this dish. First, they had been fried a bit too long and the outside was considerably darker than it should have been. Second, one of the sauerkraut balls came adorned with a black hair; no one at our table seated near the basket of balls had black hair. Third, the horseradish infused sour cream was nearly horseradish-free. In fact, it tasted like ... sour cream. Which, was a nice flavor to pair with the balls, but the horseradish would've added a nice kick to it.

It also turned out that Wednesday nights were chicken wing nights and a basket that normally cost $8.50 was cut to a much more affordable $4.50. Mike decided to go with a basket of the Teschner's Tangy, fried crispy, with an additional coating of Parmesan cheese and chopped garlic:


Having had the roasted garlic and Parmesan cheese chicken wings at B Spot and found them to be a bit unbalanced, I have to say that Teschner's version absolutely rocked. The skin was nice and crispy, the sauce was slightly spicy with a bit of acid from the vinegar and the garlic and Parmesan added to the complexity of the overall flavor instead of dominating it. I'd order another basket of these in a heartbeat.

Our final appetizer was a small dish of the Posh Pierogi potato and cheddar pierogi with fried onions and a side of sour cream:


These were quite good and reminded me why I had liked them so much when I had them back at the United Methodist Church during Lent. This time, however, they were fried perfectly and the combination of the crispy exterior and the creamy interior made for a delightful bite of food. The onions were expertly caramelized and the sweetness played nicely with the tang of the sour cream. While the pierogi from Posh Pierogi weren't inexpensive, they were also high quality and you could taste the difference when eating them.

Our appetizers now finished, we decided to go ahead and put in our burger orders. While there seemed to be a burger for many tastes, I decided to go with a deluxe cheeseburger, minus the raw onions, along with a side of the onion rings:


By this point in the evening, it was so dim in the tavern that I had great difficulty getting any shots that were in focus, evening with the flash on my camera. I've included the following shot only to prove that I asked for my burger to be cooked to medium, and sure enough, it was:


The burger was seasoned properly, it was juicy, and quite honestly, it was pretty darn good. The cheese was nice and melty and the tomatoes were perfectly ripe. The bun held up well and didn't get sogged out from the moist beef patty. It was a good burger and one that I would eagerly have again. However, it didn't take me to the same place that one of B Spot's burgers did. Considering that with tonight's burger discount it also only cost me $6.25, so there was that to consider, too.

The onion rings were somewhere between good and tasty. They were seasoned nicely, but as Kathy pointed out when she tried one of my rings, the breading to onion ratio was a bit too high. Additionally, as you bit into a ring, the inner onion easily detached and pulled away from the cooked batter, a sign that these were more than likely fried-from-frozen. This was later confirmed when I asked our server if that was the case. While the rings weren't bad, they also weren't a stand out either.

After separating out the checks, I ended up dropping about $21, with tax and tip. While my compatriots had several beers / cocktails, I stuck with water for tonight. While I am not adverse to spending that much for an appetizer and a burger with a side, it seemed that the problems with the sauerkraut balls and the provenance of the onion rings makes me think that if I had to choose only one, I'd pick B Spot over Teschner's Tavern. That being said, the burger was good and if you don't feel like driving all the way to Woodmere, Teschner's Tavern might just be the place to stop to satisfy your burger craving.