Fenny L.'s Profile

Frankly, this was not what we expected, but at the same time, it was exactly what we were hoping to find.

Several Yelpers have pointed me to Cuban Corner, but I'll admit, I was thrown off by it's location in a craptapulous and rundown stripmall.  However, after two hours of dismal house hunting, we were hungry and in the mood for something different to lift up our deary moods.  

Enter Cuban Corner.

Upon entering, the little foyer is a surprise of colors with a colorful tropical mural painted on all four sides, and even the ceiling.  Immediately, I felt that this might be the magic we needed.  The dining room is even better. The cheerful and mildy epilectic-inducing tropical mural is subdued by notices of famous Cubans, photos and newspaper clippings.  If it sounds busy and bizarre it was.  But in a completely amazingly kitschy and fun way.  

We order the ropa vieja (my standard go-to for Cuban) and my husband got the roasted pork (I forgot the name, but it's a holiday special) and a side of fried yuca.  Within 10 minutes, our food arrives, hot and delicious and with a side of black beans for our rice.  The ropa vieja could stand to have a touch more heat, as would the roasted pork, but on the whole, the melding of spices and flavors were very complementary.  As my husband says, "this is what I always imagined a simple homecooked Cuban meal would taste".  Simple, rustic and hearty.  Not out of the world, but definitely hits the spot.

While the ropa vieja and the pork were both good, there were two dishes that were outstandingly delicious: the fried yuca and the flan.  So we ordered the side of fried yuca, expecting to get the big, thick wedges of yuca that one gets at the grilled chicken joints.  Not so here.  The yuca were cut thin, like french fries and fried until they were amazingly crispy.  Served with a dipping sauce that was like a combination of thick Italian dressing and heaven, it was remarkable.  It was so delicious in fact, that after we (OK, *I*), inhaled the plate, we ordered a second plate of the fried yuca!

The there is the flan.  Before I talk about their flan, I have to first say that I have serious "flan issues".  Since my first bite of flan at Guapos in the 7th grade, I have determined that the problem with flan is multifold: the constancy resembles dried pudding, the caramel sauce is too sweet and I usually find that the flan has either no flavor or tastes like vanilla eggs.  So when the server recommended that we get their homemade flan, I silently grimaced and figured that I would have just a bite to round out my review.

My husband and I nearly came to blows over who got the last bite of flan.  HOLY SCHMOOLIES.  This was what my mouth has been looking for each time it had flan.  The flan was rich and thick, the caramel sauce was light and enhanced the natural creamy deliciousness of the flan.  Actually, no - I am not using the right adjectives...just know that this flan was perfect.  My husband, who dislikes non-chocolate desserts, loved it.  I, who hate sweets and desserts AND has serious flan issues on top of it, loved it.  

The service was pretty great too.  Our server was ultra sweet, attentive and didn't make fun of us (me) when we (I) ordered the second plate of yuca.  She also kindly found the name of the CD that was playing and even wrote it down for us, because although the songstress was Celia Cruz, it seriously sounded like a man.  Singing "I Will Survive".  In Spanish.  Needless to say, we ordered that off of iTunes that night.  Heh.

We will definitely be back, as my husband is hankering to try some of the more adventurous dishes, and I'm dying to try their stews (they smelled delicious!).  And of course, we will be ordering more yuca and flan...but next time - no sharing.  We'll each get our own.

Yes, this is sushi in a mall.  Which violates 11 of my uncle-the-sushi-chef's 8 sacred rules of eating sushi.  However, it's new, has a conveyor belt, rather cute, and sandwiched in an open area between two busy escalators.  What could be better?  Sushi, mall, and people watching?  I blithely toss my uncle's "Laws of Sushi" right out the door.

Which goes to show - rules exist for a reason.

We spent the day shopping with my sister-in-law, who needed clothing advice.  And she came to me?!?!  Heh.  Evidently she didn't get the memo where I only have two modes of dress: "boring yuppie climbing the corporate ladder" or "cheap hooker for sale".  Fortunately, her brother (my husband) is border-line gay in his ability to pick out women's clothing.  No, I'm not worried.  If anything, it was one of the things that convinced me that he was "the one".  

We arrive at Wasabi around 1:30 and is told that there will be a 30 minute wait.  We put our names down, wander around a little bit more, and come back in.  I check in with the host, and he tells me that we're next.  The very next booth that opens up will be ours.  Great!

We wait by the host stand and within a minute, I see a booth opening up.  The booth is bussed, and I stare at the host, trying to get his attention to point out that hey, booth is open!  Can we go eatz now?

Nope.  Although there were two hosts at the front, one was taking names, the other watching him take names (yes, you read that right), they didn't seem to be doing much to clear off the wait list.  The second guy (the watcher) eventually takes a walk around the place to check up on the open tables...and comes back to continue to stare at the guy taking names.  The booth that I've been staring at?  Yeah, STILL EMPTY.  It's also upfront, so it's not hard to miss.  Seat us already!  Finally, the guy taking names finally realized that if he didn't seat us in the next 3 minutes, I was going to strangle one of them with the new top I just bought from Charlotte Russe, and quickly showed us to the booth.

Erm.

Starved, my husband and I grabbed sushi off the conveyor belt like we hadn't eaten in a week.  All in all, the sushi was decent mall quality sushi.  Don't expect this to be authentic or spectacular and you'll be fine.  Also be aware that the portions are *small*, even the "dragon roll" which usually tends to be a huge monster of a fusion roll, here, it's about the size of a cucumber roll.

The service was hit or miss.  I asked for extra wasabi, and the server promptly brought it.  He also was careful to keep our waters refilled, as well as my sister-in-law's tea.  However, as my sister-in-law doesn't know how to use chopsticks, we asked for a fork - which never came.  Also, she sugars her tea (I know, I'm cringing...and my ancestors are weeping at such an affront), and asked for sugar.  Twice.  But never got it.  Heh, OK, I'm not going to count this against them, because sugaring the tea is like pouring ketchup on a ribeye.  Yeah, it's *that* horrific.  Really.

As my expectations were low to begin with I wasn't disappointed.  The space is cute, and the concept is a great fit for Tyson's...however, everyone needs to remember, that no matter what, this is still MALL SUSHI.  Expecting an experience like you had in Tokyo, or the same quality as your favorite local sushi-joint is silly.  Again, I repeat, this is MALL SUSHI.  Approach it as such, and it makes for a decent lunch.  Expect more and you will be sorely disappointed.

I love it when my voice is so loud that people in the next store can hear me.  HAHA!  My mom calls me while I'm at Bread Corner, to ask where I was, because she was at Mama Wok's (next door) and could totally hear me, but she couldn't find me.  Heeheehee...that's like 17 different kinds of awesome right there.

Let me start at the beginning.

We were meeting my parents next door at Mama Wok's, but surprisingly, for once, we arrived well before my parents did.  As we had dinner plans with friends the next day, I thought that it would be a great idea to head over to Bread Corner to pick up some desserts.

While the selection of Asian baked goods did look quite mouth watering, it was a little aggravating that not all the buns and cakes and rolls were labeled correctly.  So we would pick up something that we *thought* was a taro bun, but it looked suspiciously like a pineapple bun.  Hmmm.

We decided to bypass the buns and go for the cute little cakes and perhaps a cake roll.  We stand by the counter and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  On the other side of the counter, were 4 employees, folding boxes and gossiping away.  As far as I can tell, a guy dumped one of the girls a few weeks ago, but called her to see if she wanted to get coffee the other day.  What could this mean?!  Does he want to get back together with her?  Or no, he did say that he was hoping that they could remain friends and this is just an olive branch.  But perhaps he realized that he made a mistake and wants her back?  But if that was the case, he should have made it dinner and sent flowers too.  Or perhaps he just misses her?  After all, he will never find anyone who is as caring and supportive as she.  But wait, she shouldn't go back to him, because if he can break her heart once, he can do it again.  Unless he's grown up in the past few weeks.  But no, guys like him never grow up.  She could do *SO* much better.

While I admit this was quite riveting, we stood there for quite a while without any of the 4 ladies even looking our way.

Which is why I had to raise my voice - to get their attention...and of course, my parents decide to show up at Mama Wok's at that moment...which is why my mother could totally hear my voice, yet couldn't find me.

So actually, I blame this on Bread Corner.  

As to the cakes themselves - they were a little disappointing.  The strawberry napoleon-esque cake was remarkably free of any strawberry flavors...and the coffee cake roll was rather bland.  Eh.

Perhaps I will try their buns next, as this is the "Bread Corner", and not the "Cake Corner", but only if I just happen to be meeting my parents at Mama Wok's.  And only if I get there early.  And only if the staff won't be having relationship issues.

Ever since my husband spied Berrycup on our last trip into Rockville Towne Center, he's been yearning to go.  Finally, yesterday, as we had a late and very filling lunch, we decided to go "light" for dinner, and get some fro-yo instead.

So, my husband will disagree with my assessment of Berrycup, but hey, he has his own Yelp account so :P on him.

Berrycup is decorated like practically every other fro-yo joint in this area.  Clean, slick, and adorably modern and bright, it's actually very cute and a good spot to hang out.  While Berrycup is slightly more expensive (45 cents per oz) then Yogicastle (39 cents) or Caliyogurt (42 cents), it is by far cheaper then Yogiberry (60+ cents) which is the only other fro-yo offering on Rockville Pike.

So, the pros:
+ 1 star: My original tart fro-yo was remarkably non-sour...yet the flavor of the for-yo was so tasty and complimentary to my fruit toppings that I actually wanted *more* after I was done.

+1 star: As we left, the staff actually said "thank you" and "good bye".  This may seem such a small and stupid thing, but my husband has this thing where he always says "thank you" upon leaving a place...and this is the ONLY store/restaurant/establishment that said "thank you" to him BEFORE he said it to them.  I know, it's stupid and crazy, but in this insane world that we live in, politeness gets a solid one star bump in my book.

However, there were a few negatives:
-1 star: the toppings bar was slightly lacking.  The selection was poor, and none of the toppings were labeled.  I ended up getting a huge scoop of what I thought was mango, but turned out to be very unripe cantaloupe.  Eh.

-1 star: they were playing Taylor Swift (thank you very much Kanye for bringing *that* bit of horror into my life.  I'm bitter).  I don't like sweets and I don't like cold food and I really dislike dairy products.  So eating fro-yo, while admitted delicious, is already going against everything I believe in.  The least they can do is not play music that will surely turn my stomach and make me vomit a little into my mouth.  

OK, I'm not going to deduct a star for this one.  However, they've been warned.

-1 star: the selection of fro-yo flavors were slim.  I suppose that I've been spoiled by Yogicastle and Caliyogurt, where there are at least 6 different varieties of fro-yo.  Admittedly, I will not get any fro-yo flavor except for the original tart, but I like to pretend I am actually going to get something different.  Here, there were only 4 flavors, and none of them were a chocolate flavored fro-yo, which is what my husband was looking for.

So all in all, I give it 3 stars and will definitely come again if I'm in the Rockville Towne Center.  Nice little store, very polite staff, and pretty delicious original tangy fro-yo.

My husband and I were just across the street at Saki for the Yelp Elite event (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) when my husband leans over to me and whispers, "honey, I'm starved.  Can we please get food before I die?!?"

I paused for a moment and contemplated which would be the greater loss - missing out on the rest of the awesome fun with Yelpers, or watching my husband expire before me.  As we haven't finalized his life insurance policy, I went with feeding him.

Heh.  I kid.  Of course it was no contest - even if we had finalized the policy...but you can bet your horsies that I will definitely remember to feed him prior to any more Yelp outings!

Anyways - we were going to head over to Amsterdam Falafel as neither of us have been yet, and like the Jumbo Slice, is an AdMo institution.  However, right across the street from Saki, was Shawarma Spot...and Amsterdam Falafel was down the street...and my husband was *REALLY* hungry.  So we nearly caused a car accident as we bolted across 18th Street to the Shawarma Spot.

My husband marches up to the counter and asks what does the cashier recommend.  He comes back with a spinach pie, and an order of beef and an order of chicken shawarma with all of the toppings from the toppings bar.

The spinach pie was good, although I found the dough a little dry.  However, I really enjoyed the chicken shawarma.  The chicken was nicely seasoned and the bread that functioned as a pita was more like a fluffy...almost naan-like in texture, then pita.  Whatever that bread was, it was *marvelous*!  The beef shawarma was OK - I felt that seasonings on the beef was a little to heavy and it overwhelmed the sandwich.

All in all, the Shawarma Spot...ummm...hit the spot and made my husband very happy.  

I suppose that since our meal here was so quick, we could have returned to Saki for the revelries, but then I noticed some other Yelpers leaving, and eager to get the FTR for the event, I dragged my husband home.  Alas, I was the 5th reviewer.  Dammit.  Next time, I'm *SO* bringing my laptop and wifi card to these events, so I can always snag the FTR.  Heh.  Yeah, I have issues.

I don't know where to begin.  You know, instead of my usual 5000 page epic novel - I'm going to have to bulletpoint this one.  Yelp does not give me enough characters to go on the full on rant that this place needs.

1a) The menu is sparse - it's just wings and boneless wings.  So...why on earth does it take TWENTY MINUTES to get 10 wings? TWENTY MINUTES!  Yes, it was a Sunday, but I've also been here on non-football weeknights and the wait never gets less!

1b) To go off of point 1a, this WingStop has been in this location for well over 3 years.  That's over three years of football Sundays.  Are they seriously telling me that they don't haven't analyzed their Sunday ordering patterns?!?  PUL-EASE!  My dad owns a florist, and we only have Valentine's Day once a year, and I can tell you within a 2% point differential, the call and sales volume for each 15 minute interval.  If the management at this place is really so lame that they can't figure out that 30-45 minutes prior to kickoff of the first game, there will be a rush and they should probably cook up a bunch of chicken wings and not wait for each individual order to come in before cooking, then hell, they really need to hire someone new.

2) OK, so you know when you order wings at ANY OTHER place in the USA, that you get a little container of bleu cheese or ranch dressing, and a stick or two of celery?  Yeah...at WingStop you have to pay 75 cents!  For a tiny little quarter shot of dressing!!!  HUH?  I can see charging for EXTRA dressing...but charging for the very first container of dressing?  And seriously, 75 cents for two sticks of celery?  Which everyone knows that you only have it with your wings, so that you can say "oh, there's veggies with it, so it's healthy"...I mean, it's like GARNISH.  

3) The attitude of the staff has to be experienced to be believed.  It's as if they are doing us a favor.  Um, no.

4) There are NO TRASHCANS.  ANYWHERE.  IN THE ENTIRE STORE.  I know, I LOOKED.  Repeatedly.  So guess what?  I left my trash on the table, because THERE ARE NO TRASHCANS.  ANYWHERE.  I mean...REALLY?????????????

5) Because there are no trashcans, one would assume that the tables would be bussed and wiped down.  NOPE!  There was a pile of trash on our table a mile-high...covered in grease (as this is a wings place)...and no one came to pick up the trash or to wipe down the table.  Not even when I said "HEY, can someone please come and clear off this table".  

6) The chicken wings themselves are TINY!  Now, yes, I've been spoiled by BonChon of late...but even still, I've seen bigger wings from a quail.  These suckers were *SMALL*.  And they aren't cheap.  

7) I could and should probably pull a Su K and do a price breakdown per wing, but you know what?  Issues #1a - 6 should be enough to warn you away.  Plus I can't do math.  But even my non-math doing butt knows that the prices aren't reflective of quality of the wings.

I love Popeye's.  The juiciness of the tender chicken.  The crispiness of that amazing skin.  The buttery fluffiness of the biscuits.  The fatty yumminess of that cajun gravy.  M'mmm...I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

So why the lame 2 star review for *this* Popeye's?  Because they suck.  Tragically so.

Due to the fact that I'm one of those unfortunate people that can gain weight just by *thinking* about food, I try to store up my calories for more delicious yummies.  I mean, if I'm going to get fat, I might as well blow it out for more worthwhile treats, right?  However, my husband and I were about to put a pretty obscene offer on a house (we didn't get it.  *sigh*), and we needed to bolster our morale with some bad for us fatty foods.  Popeye's it is!

To start with, the guy at the counter was slooooooooooooooooooow.  As in, I ate my meal faster then it took him to take our order - which was two #1 Combos.  

Then, after we placed our order, and it looked like he was going to take *just* as long to gather our order (which I'm not sure how, as all the items were precooked at under heat lamps), my husband says - quite loudly, and in front of the guy - "ask for hot sauce while I go wash my hands".  The guy doesn't bring give us any sauce packets - in fact after my husband got back from using the restroom (and the guy was STILL working on putting together 4 pieces of chicken, 2 biscuits, 1 corn and 1 container of coleslaw on our tray), he had to ask for the hot sauce.  Twice.

Also, we were unaware that the combos didn't come with drinks.  Unlike most place which would say "would you like a drink with that?" when placing the order, he didn't say a thing.  We didn't realize it didn't come with a drink (and come on, how can a combo not come with drinks?!?), until we said something about needing cups.  So we had to order drinks, which then took another billion years for him to ring up (seriously, how hard is it to hit the drink button on the register twice???).

Finally, this is not the first time I've been to this Popeye's and almost always I get stinky attitude and issues.  So boo on you Popeye's!  Boo!

While my brother was getting insanely lost trying to find Ren's Ramen (although, I don't know how, as we practically grew up in this neighborhood!) he stumbles upon Leslie's and thought to appease his desperately hungry and increasingly annoyed sister (me) with birthday cupcakes.

Although I'm not a fan of cupcakes or of sweets, I do have to say - it's hard to be annoyed at my brother when he shows up with a grin on his face, and a box of Halloween themed cupcakes.  Plus, I was halfway through my bowl of ramen, so I was definitely in a good mood.  Heh.  Food shall heal all wounds.

After the delicious yet salty meal at Ren's, we broke out the 4 cupcakes: red velvet, almond/amaretto (I think), chocolate and double chocolate.  The red velvet was fluffy and sweet, but not sickening so, and the almond/amaretto cupcake was equally delicious.  Unfortunately, the overwhelming butteriness of the frosting in both of these cupcakes, completely took over.  If I hadn't had a bite of the cupcake parts first, I would have denounced both cupcakes.  As it were, the cupcakes themselves were tasty, but the frosting did not do them justice.  The a regular chocolate cupcake, and a double-chocolate were very "meh" to me.  Overly sweet and rich, these cupcakes were just too heavy for me to take more then a small bite from each.  

So up to this point, I am waffling between a 1 star or a 2 star review.  There were a few good things about them, but too many things were wrong with the cupcakes for me to be more generous.  But Fancy Cakes by Leslie had a secret weapon (the "Fancy" in the name isn't just for show, after all): edible glitter.

Yes, these cupcakes were all liberally sprinkled with glitter.  Like a bad Janet Jackson song, I can not resist anything that sparkles.  It's like...ummm...well...a moth to a flame burned by the fire...blah blah blah.  So yeah...glitter is definitely a bonus.  However, I was slightly (OK...*VERY*) disappointed that my poo didn't come out all sparkly.  Because I looked.  With camera in hand, in hopes of capturing elusive photos of glittery poo.  Alas...nothing.  Yes, I know it's gross, but hey, all in the name of Yelp, right?  Perhaps I can not blame the glitter, but my overly powerful digestive tract that can absorb anything.  Heck, it's even been known to absorb corn kernels, so you know my intestines are like...hard core.

So thanks to the glitter, I confidently give them 2 stars.  Perhaps they will work out their kinks before the next time my brother shows up 45 minutes late to lunch, and I can give them a higher rating.

I love my family.  I love Yelp events.  Sadly, Yelp events and family events often coincide with each other.  It's almost as if my family looks at the Yelp events page and says "hey, it looks like Fenny is going to this UYE...let's do a family event during this time instead!"  Or perhaps it's you Yelpers.  You look at my family Google Calendar and say "oh man, Fenny has to have dinner with her family that night?  Let's have the wildest, craziest UYE EVER that night.  And make it super epic.  Just to drive her batty".  

Either way, I've been scheduling my family outings to coincide in time and location with Yelp events.  JUST so I can have the best of both worlds.  Yes, I'm so Hannah Montana.

So when Yelpers posted the Ren's Ramen UYE due to the "special menu", I called my brother and asked if he wouldn't mind if we had lunch at Ren's Ramen that Saturday instead.  He readily agreed, as the both of us had been talking about making a trip to Ren's for several weeks now.

To start with, the place is TINY - 2 tables and probably a dozen counter seats.  And there isn't an actual door to Ren's - you have to go through the super surly Japanese grocery/sundry store next door.  However, what Ren's lack in space, they more then make up in service and flavor.

Despite my dislike of cheese, I decided to order off of the special menu and got the cheese miso ramen.  The bowl was huge and packed full of yummies.  The cheese miso ramen didn't have any bean sprouts or scallions, which I think would have complimented the broth well.  And the cheese was a spoonful of cottage cheese, which seems insanely odd, but when mixed into the miso broth, actually had a delicate taste to it.  The ramen was very "al dente", which is the way I like my noodles.  In LA's famed Shishengumi, you can order the noodles "hard", "regular" or "soft" and I always order it hard.  The ramen at Ren's was definitely hard which I feel is a necessary textural contrast to the softness of  the fatty pork (that I ordered as an add-on), and the rich thickness of the broth.

So the broth.  As everyone has mentioned before, the broth is definitely too salty.  I understand that the proper way to eat Japanese ramen is to slurp up the noodles, to which the broth will cling, and thusly, impart the right balance of flavor and saltiness.  I also know that foods in Asia tend to be a little more salty then it is in the United States. However, there is definitely way more broth then there are noodles, and to leave any of the flavorful (despite the saltiness) broth seems criminal.  For the rest of the day I was chugging water like I just walked across Death Valley in the summer.  For those with high-blood pressure, I will definitely caution eating Ren's with your BP meds.

We also ordered the gyoza.  The filling was tasty, but the outside skin was mildly burnt.  Eh.  Skip the sides and stick to the noodles.

All in all, I would give Ren's a very solid and respectable 3 stars.  I definitely look forward to coming back.  I hope that the chef at Ren's reads these Yelp reviews and realize that the broths are exceptional, however, a lighter hand with the sodium will go a long way.

This MVA is an oasis of efficiency and awesomeitude (shut up, it's a real word), in the sea of crappy MVAs that plague our lives.

For the past month, my parents have been calling every day to remind me to get my driver's license renewed.  However, like a truculent 14 year old, the more my parents want me to do something, the more I resist and dig in my heels.  So lo!  Before I realized it, it was going to expire that day!

I book it down there on the night of my birthday, in hopes to get it renewed by the hair of my chinny-chin-chins...but of course, they close at 4:30.  Which makes no sense, but then, many things in this world makes little sense to me.

So on Saturday, I book it back over to the MVA and this time, I stroll in and grab a number.  I sit down, and before I could finish tweeting and updating my FB with whining about spending a hungover Saturday morning in the MVA, my number was called!  I get to the counter, and I tried to look pitiful (not hard on an early Saturday morning), and began the epically tragical song and dance about why my license had expired.  But before I could even being to tack on the "it wasn't my fault..." the lady at the counter waved away my tale of woe and told me to look into the eye exam machine.  Bam!  Done!  She asked a few questions about being an organ donor (yes), being registered (no), and the next thing I knew, she was taking my picture and telling me how utterly adorable and hilarious I was.  Which of course, made us BFFs right there on the spot.  

All in all, I was done in less then 10 minutes.  My husband, who had dropped me off, while he ran to get coffee for us, took *way* longer.  

I can't believe it, but that was probably the most efficient government building that I've ever been to!  I was in and out, and the lady was fast but pleasant.  As I hung around the MVA Express office waiting for my husband to return with coffee, I noticed that they got people in and out with a minimum of fuss.  Wow.  Who knew that the MVA could actually be...efficient...?!?!?