HowChow

The easiest place to start in a foreign market is to buy something that looks familiar.

At Asian markets, notice that Japanese noodles look like spaghetti.  But that can deceptive -- they're actually easier to cook, better for you, and often better-tasting as well.

The noodle selection can be intimidating, so start with the Hakubaku brand that sells udon, somen and soba noodles.  They're Japanese staples, and they go with flavors from all around the world from shikate mushrooms and traditional recipes in Kimiko Barber's The Japanese Kitchen to cayenne pepper and modern American cuisine like Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking.  

Japanese noodles are a pantry staple that will adapt to your tastes.  You can add them to soup.  You can make chilled summer salads.  You get noodles that are different enough to be interesting, but you can find recipes in many places so that you eat them with the vegetables and meat that you prefer.

The real magic occurs in cookbooks where the author has something to say, not just something to sell.

Korean restaurants serve some of Howard County's best food, and thanks to the Kevin and Ann Eat Anything blog, I have learned that they're not just limited to serving Korean food.

Kevin has written a really interesting post about Jja Jang Myun -- the Chinese cuisine that has developed in Korea and now been export to the United States. He points out that America created General Tso's chicken and the Taco Bell chalupa. They're now available around the world, but they're a hybrid cuisines -- American inventions, not catholically Chinese or Mexican.

In the same way, Chinese food migrated to Korea, where local ingredients, local tastes and local people changed it into the hybrid Jja Jang Myun. For several years, you have been able to buy Chinese-Indian dishes at Mirchi Wok in Columbia. Now, there are at least two Ellicott City restaurants where you can sample the Chinese-Korean cuisine, and Kevin lays out a primer so that you could give it a try:

Check out Kevin's post for the details, but you're looking at variations on steamed noodles, soups, fried rice and other items that will be accessible to anyone who has tried Asian food. The two restaurants, Tian Chinese Cuisine and HanJoonKwan, might look Korean to the uninitiated. But they would be considered Chinese if they were in Seoul, and Kevin says the calssification here probably depends on whether you're Korean and what generation you are.

I had seen Tian down from Shin Chon Garden, but I hadn't tried yet. Now, these are definitely on my list. One day, I'd love to try to write about the variations of Chinese food around -- the Indian-Chinese and Korean-Chinese cuisines juxtaposed with the whole "authentic" versus Americanized discussion sparked by Hunan Legend's "secret" menu. For now, this is my take on Chinese restaurants (and it needs updating).

(Photo taken from Kevin and Ann Eat Anything.)

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the H Mart, my favorite place for food.

You can enjoy the H Mart even if you don't cook. There are prepared foods and foods that you can just eat off the shelf. Start there. Maybe you'll see other items that you want to try or see something that sparks your fancy. To keep this short, I'll just list th

em here.

1) Lunch: Against the right wall is a Korean takeout place

and a sushi counter. Have lunch. Try the beef soup.

2) Korean melon (right): Slice and eat one of these yellow melons or any other exotic fruit. In produce.

3) Kimchi: Take a refrigerated jar of pickled cabbage or other vegetables from the display in the back near produce.

4) Seaweed wrappers (right): Super-cool item to make dinner right out of the pantry with rice and tuna fish. It's like a sushi wrapper. Just make rice and pour on a little seasoned rice vinegar (also available at H Mart).

Moisten a can of tuna with the vinegar as well. Then, make little rolls with the seasoned rice and a dollop of tuna. Aisle Four near the front.

5) Edamame: Frozen soybeans, steam or microwave for a snack or appetizer.

6) Hai Reum brand dumplings: Delicious dumplings -- veg or meat -- to steam or pan fry. Generally in the open freezer in the middle of the frozen aisle.

7) Azuki ice cream: Red bean ice cream, eat it right from the container. In frozen.

8) Nong Shim potato-flavored snack: It's like an airy potato chip in the shape of a cheeto. Across from the dairy.

9) Choripdong soybean curd (right): Triangle pockets the size of a matchbook that come with a sauce. Season some rice with the enclosed sauce, then stuff in the pockets. In the refrigerated/dairy section.

10) Donut: On the way out, MoMo Bakery is in front. Take a snack for the road. Red bean donuts are spectacular. The "potato salad" donut is a lightly sweet treat -- no mayonnaise or anything gross.

443-612-9020

NEAR: Rte 40 just west of I-695. If you are driving from HoCo, you'll see a Starbucks and a FedEx at the end of the shopping center. Turn right immediately after the Starbucks. If you miss it, just turn right at the next intersection.

Our honeymoon in Thailand was the only trip in which I came home without craving some familiar American food. Bangkok Delight captures the feel of Thailand -- from the pretty paper umbrellas hanging from the ceiling to the mango with sticky rice that we eat every time.

Start with chicken laab -- minced chicken dressed with lime juice, celery, red onion and herbs -- or one of the lemon grass ("tom yum") soups. Those capture the Thai flavor that balances salty, sweet and sour flavors and takes special advantage of lime, herbs and sometimes hot peppers. A first-time visitor will enjoy a chicken or pork satay -- skewers of meat served with a peanut sauce. The adventurous will savor spicy yum salads -- beef, chicken, squid other choices mixed again with lime, spices, celery and scallions.

Then order whatever entree looks good. You're choosing between noodles and rice dishes, picking different curries or stirfries, and deciding whether you want veggies, chicken, pork, fish, etc. Everything has been delicious, and there are specials that extend Bangkok Delight from a basic joint into a creative restaurant. Squash dishes, soft shell crabs and special curries. This kitchen wants to impress you, and entrees from $11 to $20 make it easy to come again and again. It's also great takeout, especially the noodles and curries -- most surprisingly the brown curry that we only tried recently because, well, it was called "brown" curry and "ruby," "red" or "green" sounded more appetizing.

Again, my post about the mango sticky rice.

(Update: My thoughts on Bangkok Delight have changed. For a while in 2008, I thought it was the best restaurant in Howard County. But I have been disappointed several times in 2009. There are comments below from The Minx, who was really disappointed in November 2009. I really don't know what has happened.)

(If you want Thai, many other people -- including a handful who disparage Bangkok Delight -- swear by Bangkok Garden in the Oakland Mills Village Center. Check out a note and see the address is below.)

NEAR: The Giant off Rte 108 just west of Howard High School and east of Rte 29. Bangkok Delight is in the shopping area just north of Giant. Look for the Burger King on the corner.

(I promised myself that I wouldn't write many negative comments, but the Mexican restaurant next to Bangkok Delight is one of the worst that I have ever eaten. Eat at Burger King first.)

NEAR: They're in the Oakland Mills village center.

You can buy any Asian ingredients that I have ever wanted from Thailand to Korea -- wonton wrappers, coconut milk, long beans, three kinds of bok choy, 10 kinds of tofu, 10 kinds of rice, an entire aisle of sauces from soy to fish to chili. I found pickled plums. I discovered Asian pears. I bought bulgogi meat ready to cook.

And they have scrumptious General Tso's chicken under the name "Chef Xu's."

That's my guilty pleasure. I like going with a group where you can order an array of dishes. General Tso's is like hamburgers -- better to get them at a good place than settle for greasy ones. With a crowd, I can balance off the friend chicken in brown sauce with Szechuan green beans and some other, more-healthy fare.

The truth is that the Asian Bistro has such a broad menu that I never order Chef's Xu's when it's just me and Mrs. HowChow. This is Chinese food as served in most American restaurants, but well-made and served in a nicer atmosphere than your normal shopping center. We love those green beans, the spicy black bean chicken, great tofu dishes, the chow fun noodles. Recently (late 2008), we discovered the red sauced wonton appetizer and the duke chicken entree. The first is a bowl of mild wontons stuffed with pureed scallops, chicken and pork and then sitting in a soy-based sauce that gives a really nice flavor. The entree is spicy, sauteed chicken with peanuts. A cousin of kung po, but strips of white meat instead of diced chicken.

When we lived in Ellicott City, the Asean Bistro was our delivery joint. The black bean chicken, a chow fun, and hot & sour soup with a wax-paper bag of crispy, fried noodles. You can't get those noodles at the restaurant. Only delivery. That was great eating for nights when we just couldn't open the refrigerator. Now, we drive to the restaurant.

(Update: By late 2010, I wouldn't say Asean Bistro is the top restaurant anymore.  Asean Bistro can't touch Grace Garden in Odenton, and my most-recent meals at Asean Bistro haven't been as good as I remember from five years ago.  It's still a fine place to eat, but it has come back to the pack even while places like Red Pearl in Columbia serve good dishes.  Check out my 2010 post about Chinese restaurants in Howard County.)

Asean Bistro was one of Elizabeth Large's "Top 10 Restaurants in a Strip Mall" in her blog, which is great fun. Check out the restaurant's Web site, which generally has a coupon you can print for $5 off a $50 tab.

If you're looking for Chinese, I definitely recommend Grace Garden, although only for people who want an adventure. I'd also recommend dim sum at Asian Court. Some people love Hunan Manor and Hunan Legend. I'm still trying to figure out what to order so that I can enjoy the good stuff, but you can try Hunan Legend's "secret" menu. Or click for a 2009 "best restaurants" in Howard County.

Jesse Wong's Asean Bistro

Columbia Palace 9

8775 Centre Park Drive

Columbia, MD 21045

410-772-5300

http://www.aseanbistro.com/

NEAR: In the shopping center just off Rte 108 between Howard High School and Rte 29. Very convenient from Rte 100. There is a Giant on Centre Park Drive, but Jesse Wong's is actually the closest store to Rte 108 near a dry cleaner and Dunkin Donuts.

When I have to wait in line, I figure that a place serves good food, and the trick is learning what part of the menu draws everyone inside.

(Update: I profiled three more markets, including an Indian one, in May. Or check out a comprehensive list of organic and ethnic markets.)

Mexican: Lily's Mexican Market in Columbia

Lily's is a small, professional market at the end of the shopping center with the Express DMV and Sushi King. It has well-stocked shelves and a butcher in the back. Although there is a small amount of produce, the shelves are mostly cans, jars and packages labeled in Spanish and English and sold by national or international brands.

Terrific for finding Mexican staples like masa, the soft and crumbling cheeses, and both thin and hand-made tortillas. There are some unique items like fresh cactus, but mostly, it is Mexican brands of things you know -- sodas, cookies, chipotle peppers, beans, etc. There is a broader selection of Goya products, including recaito and several types of refried beans.

Buy a copy of any cookbook by Rick Bayless and see if the butcher can hook you up with something new. In Mexican Everyday, Bayless cooks mostly with fresh vegetables and simple recipes. I prefer it. But in earlier books, he preached an authenticity that probably calls for some visits down Lily's Market's aisles.

(Update: Lily's now sells fresh tortillas. And Lily's sells take-out tacos.)

(Update: I had an old address here. Lily's is at 6490 Dobbin -- in the same shopping center as the DMV.)

410-772-5459

NEAR: The DMV off Dobbins Road just south of Rte 175. Look for the intersection with a Blockbuster. The shopping center with DMV, Lily's and Sushi King restaurant is across Dobbins from the Blockbuster.

Blog link to Lily's Mexican Market: http://www.toomanychefs.net/archives/001848.php

Greek and Middle Eastern: Aladdin in Laurel

Start with the bread, olives and yogurt. Aladdin is a small shop steps from Rte 1 in downtown Laurel. The shelves are mostly cans, bottles and bags, but you can start with fresh pita and lavash breads, including a whole wheat lavash that tears into delicious strips to be dipped in Greek-style yogurt or eaten with spicy olives. The yogurt is thicker than American yogurt, mild but somehow more flavorful than Dannon.

I don't have a Middle Eastern cookbook, but the shop is a no-cook dinner party waiting to happen. For $30, you could assemble a feast and unpack it right to the table. Fill bowls with with those olives and yogurt, then faugment the table with feta or Kashkaval cheese, baba ganoush and hummus. You can buy the dips canned, or you can buy the ingredients -- tahini, chick peas, even canned eggplant. Add a can of foul, the Egyptian-style fava beans, and six people could graze with a bag of bread. Dessert could be some figs or baklava (fresh from Canada or refrigerated from a Greek bakery apparently in Cleveland).

On top of the ready-to-eat, you can buy basic ingredients for your own cooking -- lentils, bulgar, lupini beans, rose syrup, pomegranate molasses. There are juices, including a Marco Polo brand pomegranate/sour cherry. There is an entire wall of spices (including black, dried lemons that I want to learn how to use) and a freezer with spanakopita and other heatable treats. Try the spicy samosas. I cooked them over high heat in a Pam-coated frying pan rather than deep-fry them as the package suggested. Spectacular flavor. The type of spiciness so intense that I stopped reading my newspaper, but still full of flavor and not discomfort.

Aladdin Food Mart
308 Main Street
Laurel, MD 20707
301-362-5060

NEAR: Downtown Laurel off U.S. 1. You can take Rte 216 East from I-95, then turn left at the light on Main Street.

Asian: H Mart in Catonsville and Lotte in Ellicott City

These supermarkets -- or at least the H Mart -- are worthy of long posts extolling their value and giving some suggestions. The H Mart is better, but both offer an enormous array of fruits and vegetables, large seafood sections, and an encyclopedic selection of Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Thai packaged goods -- sauces, rices, noodles, canned vegetables and fruits, etc. Lotte really excels at prepared food -- marinated meats and panchan -- that you can buy in whatever amounts you want.

Buy Thai Food and Cooking by Judy Bastyra and Becky Johnson. Great recipes that taste like the food I ate in Thailand. Great pictures, and I am often suspect of any cookbook that invests so much in the showing. An opening section describes and shows various rices, noodles, vegetables, etc. You can carry it through the H Mart and pick up everything you need except maybe kaffir lime leaves, which should be available online.

(Update: Why H Mart Is My Favorite Place For Food.)

H Mart

800 N. Rolling Road
Catonsville, MD 21228
443-612-9020

NEAR: Rte 40 just west of I-695. If you are driving from HoCo, you'll see a Starbucks and a FedEx at the end of the shopping center. Turn right immediately after the Starbucks. If you miss it, just turn right at the next intersection.

Lotte Market
8801 Baltimore National Pike
Ellicott City, MD 21043
410-750-9656

NEAR: On Rte 40, just west of Rte 29. From Rte 29 south, you take the Rte 40 East exit, then stay in the left lane on the exit ramp. That takes you into the shopping center.

It's pho. It's bun. It's a drink made with salted plums. An Loi Pho serves up friendly, accessible food with enough authenticity to make the trip worthwhile.

Outside, it is a shopping center anonymous even for the suburbs, and inside, the decor isn't much more complex. Plastic tables. Minimal artwork. Silverware and condiments laid in on every table. The menu is simple and affordable, more of a soup and grill joint than a full display of Vietnamese cuisine with its sauteed vegetables and clay pot cooking. Most dishes are $6-$10, and most everything is a variation on noodles, meat and a sauce or soup. It's a fine selection if you know Vietnamese food, and it's easy to navigate if you want to figure it out.

The basic menu sections:

Start off with a summer roll or beef wraped in grape leaves. They're both delicious. I prefer the shrimp rolls, which are served cool not fried and dipped in a peanut sauce.

And order the "salted plum soda." Mrs. ChowHow stepped up and discovered this delicious offering. It's a hand-made drink, not a bottled soda. Club soda mixed with a little sugar and a few salted plums at the bottom. Imagine a lemonade with a touch of salt instead of sour. Refreshing and delicious. Exotic, but really not that strange.

Red bean may not replace chocolate, but you can get interesting, tasty desserts by checking out some local Korean-run bakeries.

Red bean paste mixes real beans and sugar into a mixture a little thicker than the filling of a cream donut. (Donut! Wait and hear about that!). It's not as sweet as a "Boston cream" or a jelly filling, but it has my favorite type of unusual, new flavor without being strange or really that exotic. These are great fun to enjoy on your own or to bring a selection to someone's house for dessert.

La Boulangarie Bakery off Rte 40 in Ellicott City sells fresh-made pastries filled with red bean for under $2 each. There is a baked version that tastes like a French dessert. There is also a steamed version that I actually preferred. A light cake in the shape of a bun with a walnut-sized dollop of red bean paste inside. They're fun to cut into pieces and serve to a bunch of people. (They're also individually wrapped in the picture.) La Boulangarie offers incredibly sweet-looking cakes and an assortment of other pastries, including a banana-shaped, banana-flavored cake that would be fun to serve kids.

But the four-mile drive east on Rte 40 is worth your time. Inside the H Mart supermarket is an outpost of the Momo Bakery. You'll see it right at the entrance with a similar display of formal cakes and other pastries. Momo has a separate cashier who you pay for the baked goods. First, try the red bean donut. "Fried but light" sounds like an oxymoron, but this is a delicious donut filled with the slightly sweet red bean. Eat it right out of the bag in your car. It is that good.

Then, go back inside to see if you feel a little more adventurous. Koreans make a rice-based sweet that they fill with various things, including red bean paste. They look like little dumplings. The consistency is like marzipan, but with a clean, lightly-sweet taste that makes me grab them whenever I see them at Momo. Mrs. HowChow loves them. Look at the packaged green and white sweets in the picture. That tray costs $3-4. The red bean sweets were the hit of my nephew's first birthday party.

Don't refrigerate the Korean sweets. They last 2-3 days on the counter, but they get hard if you put them in the fridge. As a practical matter, you can find the red bean sweets by either asking the Momo cashier or reading the ingredients on the label.

Click here for a list of other organic and ethnic markets in Howard County. Or here for all the posts about Korean restaurants and grocery stores. If you're looking for food while you shop, the Lotte is just down the shopping center from Shin Chon Garden, and the H Mart shopping center has a Korean place Beseto that has good food, but no table service.

La Boulangarie Bakery
8815 Baltimore National Pike
Ellicott City, MD 21043

NEAR: Rte 40 and Rte 29 Intersection. The bakery is across the parking lot from the Lotte supermarket in the Lotte shopping center on Rte 40.

Momo Bakery
inside the H Mart supermarket (right in front)
800 N Rolling Rd
Catonsville, MD 21228
443-612-9020 (H Mart)

This is a short profile of the H Mart, and this is a longer post about why it is my favorite place for food. If you go there, definitely check out the popped rice bowls.

NEAR: Off Rte 40 just outside I-695. If you are driving on Rte 40 from Ellicott City, you'll see a Starbucks and a FedEx at the end of the H Mart shopping center. Turn right immediately after the Starbucks. If you miss it, just turn right at the next light.

The sign outside says "Beijing-Seoul-Tokyo" and offers a food court, but you should get off the plane in Korea and stay there for a while.

The Beseto Food Court ("Be-Se-To") is an L-shaped space in the shopping center with the H Mart on Rte 40 in Catonsville. (Not HoCo, but the H Mart is worth the drive.) At lunch, the Beseto offers a $20 all-you-can-eat sushi buffet in the restaurant's front half. Tiny rolls and sushi with a buffet of Chinese food and fruit. Skip it. This is a Korean-run restaurant, and on my visit, the buffet was all white and black Americans while the back area was filled with Korean-Americans ordering off the menu. (Update: See below about possible improvements to the sushi in June 2009.)

The menu says "Cham Mat," and this is a Korean cafeteria. You order at a tiny window beneath changing red numbers. You pay cash. (Although there is an ATM that charges only 45 cents in fees.) You watch for your number to appear above the window, and you go back for your tray.

My tray certainly was all-I-could-eat for $8.50. Squid cooked in a red-pepper sauce with cabbage, green onions and hot peppers. It was served with rice, cool noodles, soup and a small plate of kimchi and picked squash. They were all delicious, as good as any Korean food that I have had in hotbeds by Annandale. The back seating was filled with people eating everything from grilled meat to tofu casseroles. The order before mine was a bubbling fish dish that the menu called "grilled hairtail with beat paste casserole."

Don't be put off by the few newspapers on empty tables or by the Korean-American teenagers. But expect a cafeteria, not a restaurant with ambiance. Everything was clean. You sit on stylish blue chairs, and the entire menu -- available at the window -- is in clear English. Highlights are even posted with pictures on the wall. I asked questions, and the young woman happily answered questions and offered advice.

An adventerous eater could try anything on the menu, and you should definitely check out the wall and the paper menu. There was a spicy beef soup Yookgaejang (#17) that I almost ordered from the wall, but I don't see it on the paper menu. A new-comer might want to start with Kal Bi (grilled ribs), Bul Go Gi (grilled spices of beef), or Dotset Bi Bim Bop (a hot rice bowl with beef and vegetables - and called Bolsot Bob on the Cham Mat menu). Spice and hot peppers are the fuel of Korean cuisine, but you can avoid them and still enjoy yourself by trying one of those beef dishes along with Mandoo (dumplings) or the BBQ Chicken.

The menu also has a line of "Kimbob" items described as "seaweed rice rolls" with different fillings. I don't know what they are. I didn't see them this time. But I'm definitely going to check them out next time.

(Update: Patricia wrote a comment below commending the sushi buffet in June 2009. My original post was more than a year before that, and there have been big changes in the Beseto area of that shopping center. If Patricia says the sushi is excellent, then you should definitely check it out.)

Beseto Food Court / Cham Mat
822 N. Rolling Road
Catonsville, MD 21228
410-505-5002

NEAR: The H Mart supermarket on Rte 40 just west of I-695. It's a few miles east of the Howard County line, but it's worth it. If you're driving from HoCo, you'll see a Starbucks and a FedEx sign at the end of the shopping center. Turn right immediately after the Starbucks. If you miss it, just turn right at the traffic light.

They're also impossible to just stumble across. Sushi King is in a shopping center next to a DMV off Dobbin Road just south of Rte 175. You turn at a traffic light across from a Blockbuster, and you can't see anything from Dobbin. Mrs. HowChow got the recommendation from a friend when she moved to Howard, and she took me here on an early date.

Try this as a first sample: samaurai roll, spicy grilled roll, crazy roll, and crispy roll (squeeze lemon on top). If you're a big eater, add a pretty in red roll or the Eastern Shore roll. You really won't go wrong, but you should notice that the rolls split into two price points -- about $6-8 for smaller ones and about $13-16 for the larger. The larger ones (samaurai and pretty in red) are huge and worth the price. But you may want to mix it up with the small ones.

You can eat the special rolls in a special room. Make a reservation for one of the two private rooms. Wooden walls, including a sliding door. Wooden benches so that your feet hang under the table. (You aren't sitting on the floor.) Room for six or even eight. The rooms are a beautiful place for an impressive dinner. They're also the perfect way to corral a toddler who comes along. My godson walked around the benches and crawled under the table. He loved the adventure, and the adults chattered happily without worrying that he would disturb anyone else.

All this comes with nice service. A little slow some nights, especially when the place is full. But the waitresses are friendly once they recognize you -- and maybe a little rushed until then -- so sit back and enjoy.

NEAR: The Kmart on Rte 175, the DMV/Starbucks/Blockbuster on Dobbins Road. Sushi King is in the same shopping center as the DMV off Dobbins. Look for the intersection with a Blockbuster. The Sushi King shopping center is across Dobbins from the Blockbuster.

Other posts about it: http://www.mytravelguide.com/restaurants/profile-50917005-United_States_Maryland_Columbia_Sushi_King_Restaurant.html (talks about sushi other than the special rolls)