Da Rae Won and Kogiya

October 26, 2016February 22, 2017Leave a comment

We were in the mood for Korean food last weekend so we ate two different styles: Korean noodles and Korean BBQ. Here are our thoughts on Da Rae Won and Kogiya, combined into one review.

DA RAE WON

We worked up quite an appetite after going hiking in Greenbelt Park, so we headed for Da Rae Won. Da Rae Won is a popular Korean restaurant in a strip-mall along Route 1 in Beltsvile. They specialize in handmade noodles, which are made fresh throughout the day.

The restaurant has been open since 2003. It’s an attractive space that shows few signs of wear, despite its age. The menu, mostly in Korean, has short English descriptions below. This can make it a little tricky to get a full understanding of what you are ordering based solely off the description. We found the staff tremendously helpful and eager to explain the dishes, though. For example, there were two “Noodles with Black Bean Sauce” on the menu, items “1” and” 2” in the numeric listing, so I asked our server to explain the difference. One was more like a soup, she said, and the other had more onions and was saltier. Plus, they both contained pork unless you tell them otherwise. I chose the latter, while Marnay went for the Spicy Seafood and Vegetable Soup.

The selection of panchan, or free side dishes, was a little small but the quality was high. The four dishes included radish kimchi, daikon, raw onion and an umami-packed black bean paste. Marnay described the thick, slightly sweet paste as tasting a bit like dark chocolate, almost like a mole sauce.

We also ordered four huge pork dumplings, or mandu, crispy from their brief swim in the deep-fryer but not greasy.

If you go to Da Rae Won, you may notice a constant “wapping” noise coming from the kitchen. This is the sound of the noodle dough being constantly worked and stretched. It is a welcome reminder of the freshness of the noodles you are about to enjoy.

The best part of our dishes was the texture and chew from the handmade noodles. For Marnay, next best was the tender squid in her soup. On the other hand, the octopus was so chewy it was nearly inedible. The spicy soup’s broth had a burn but it did not set our mouths on fire.

The noodles and the black bean sauce were served in separate bowls. (Check out the before picture above and the after picture below). I mixed in the bean paste, onions and pork on top of the noodles, creating something that looked like an oil slick. The mole-like sauce and the snap of the noodles combined to make a delectable dish.

Da Rae Won is a friendly strip-mall restaurant with a dedication to the art of making noodles by hand. It is well worth a drive or an Uber trip from the Greenbelt Metro.

Best Bite
Paul: Noodles with Black Bean Sauce
Marnay: Spicy Seafood and Vegetable Soup

Address
Da Rae Won: 5013 Garrett Ave Beltsville, MD 20705
Closest Metro: Greenbelt, 3.5 miles away

KOGIYA

The day after Da Rae Won, we still had not had our fill of Korean food. So, we headed to Annandale, the DC area’s unofficial Koreatown. The first thing you will notice at Kogiya is the massive amount of panchan that awaits you at your communal table. It reminded me of the free snacks that were part of aperitvo in Milan.

Kogiya is a Korean BBQ restaurant with tabletop grills, which are manned by your server. The panchan selection was so vast that we only had to order two kinds of meats, and you could still do well with one meat between two people. We chose soy-garlic ribeye and miso pork belly.

We grazed on the panchan and sipped on some Korean beer as our server cooked the thin slices of ribeye in front of us. In about five minutes, it was done and we attacked it with our chopsticks with reckless abandon. The ribeye was sweet from the marinade but still meaty. Of the three dipping sauces available, my favorite was the gochujang, a spicy fermented bean paste.

There was a bit of an execution problem with the pork belly. Our server came over to start cooking while we were still eating the ribeye. The only thing is, he walked away and never told us when it was done. Almost 20 minutes later, we flagged down another server and asked him if our food was finished cooking. He took a look at the pork belly, fiddled with the grill and poked at the meat a few times and then declared it done. By now, though, the pork wasn’t that hot. We liked the sweet and nutty flavor from the miso, but a few pieces were so chewy as to be inedible.

Pork belly confusion aside, we would be willing to go back to Kogiya. We may go to another Korean BBQ restaurant first, though, and then compare.

Best Bite
Paul and Marnay: Soy-garlic ribeye

Address
Kogiya: 4220-A Annandale Road, Annandale, VA 22003
Closest Metro: East Falls Church, 5.5 miles away

Ultimate Richmond Weekend

July 22, 2016February 22, 2017Leave a comment

We woke up at 5:00am on a Saturday to get ready for our 7:00am Amtrak train to Richmond. Unfortunately, our train was an hour and 15 minutes late getting to Union Station. It was fine, though, as it allowed us to walk around the station a few times before sitting on the train for over 2 hours.

Richmond Main Street is one of the nicest, cleanest Amtrak stations that we have ever been to. The station itself is one of our favorite parts of visiting Richmond. We left and walked straight to one of our all-time favorite lunch places, Grace Noodle. Marnay got miso ramen with ground pork and I got a rich vegetable ramen. I am getting right now hungry thinking about it! On top of everything, the place is ridiculously inexpensive.

While it was almost 100 degrees outside, we were prepared for it and went for a walk to the Manchester neighborhood, on the south side of the James River. We normally like to organize activities ahead of time, but this was completely unplanned. We stumbled across a train museum with a huge model train set which volunteers had spent years building. We also found a modern art exhibit space called ArtWorks Richmond in a former industrial space. In general, Richmond is doing an excellent job taking obsolete factories and turning them into lofts, artists spaces, etc. Thirsty after all of this walking and exploring, we headed to BlueBee Cider and enjoyed a drink.

Next on our jam packed Richmond adventure we ubered to Hardywood Brewing for some more cold ones and to take advantage of their air conditioning. We spent a lot of time at Hardywood enjoying the beer and staying cool.

By 4:00pm, we were absolutely starving, so we headed to the Roosevelt for our 5:00pm reservation. Before we actually got to dinner, we stopped across the street at Sub Rosa, an incredible bakery, for some baked goods to help tide us over. Our dinner at the Roosevelt was a tad inconsistent but we had a great roasted rockfish dish. Most importantly, we were full for our long train ride home.

Richmond is easily doable as a day trip from Silver Spring/DC. Plus if you take Amtrak like we did, you can sample as many drinks as the city has to offer without having to worry about driving home!

Places we visited
Grace Noodle: 1823 E Main Street Richmond, VA 23223
Old Dominion Railway Museum: 102 Hull Street Richmond, VA 23224
Art Works: 320 Hull Street Richmond, VA 23224
Blue Bee Cider: 212 W 6th Street Richmond, VA 23224
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery: 2408-2410 Ownby Lane Richmond, VA 23220
Sub Rosa: 620 N 25th Street Richmond, VA 23223
The Roosevelt: 623 N 25th Street Richmond, VA 23223

Pizzeria Orso

October 17, 2015February 22, 2017Leave a comment

We met after work at Farragut Square and took the Orange Line to East Falls Church. After a pit stop at Dominion Wine and Beer to pick up some Cigar City Jai Alai IPA (no idea how Dominion got this stuff, Cigar City doesn’t distribute this far north) and Delirium Tremens, we walked to Pizzeria Orso. Pizzeria Orso is located in an office building in Falls Church City and it is one of our favorite Neapolitan pizzerias in the DC area.

Pizzeria Orso was celebrating receiving its Verace Pizza Napoletana certification. Getting the certification is quite an ordeal. We started the meal with beers. Marnay had the Lost Rhino Faceplant IPA, from Ashburn, VA. It’s October and I had yet to have a pumpkin beer, so I got the Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale. It’s brewed with actual pumpkin puree, which makes for a subtle flavor profile instead of an assault of spice and sweetness. The restaurant did put pumpkin spice on the rim of the glass and normally I would find that a little cheesy, but it was actually a fun touch based on the context of the meal.

Next, we got oven roasted olives with extremely fresh homemade sourdough bread. The olives had been roasted in olive oil and it was fun to dip the bread in the oil, or to make little open-faced sandwiches.

We also got a baby kale salad with pears, hazelnuts and white balsamic. The hazelnuts were our favorite part of this very simple salad, since we rarely see them. They brought a toasted flavor and a good crunch, but did not overpower the remaining ingredients. I think that as a general matter, the simpler the salad the better.

As part of the celebration, the restaurant’s DOC Margherita pizzas were half off! DOC pizzas must be made of 00 flour, San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella (made from water buffalo milk), natural yeast and salt. Absolutely nothing else. The dough must be mixed by hand, be no more than 11 inches and then be cooked for 60 to 90 seconds in a 900 degree wood or gas oven. At the end, basil and extra virgin olive oil are added.

We have had lots of DOC certified pizzas over the last two years, but this was the richest, creamiest mozzarella we’d ever had. It made the pizza, in my opinion. The crust had just the right level of char and the middle was soft, as it should be.

We had a great time at Pizzeria Orso. I can see us going after work quite often.

Address
Pizzeria Orso: 400 S Maple Ave, Falls Church, VA 22046
Closest Metro: East Falls Church

Eat Now Run Later

Category: Virginia

Da Rae Won and Kogiya

Ultimate Richmond Weekend

Pizzeria Orso