Weekly Dining Round-up

This week’s round-up is about very different choices, but all full of flavors. Our first outing was to the Indian Restaurant and Grocery situated at 525 E. Market St. in the Bellewood Commons. At the time of our outing, the lunch buffet was not set up, so we decided to take a look around the grocery section. Being fans of Indian food, we were really happy to discover that this little grocery had tons of specialized ingredients: beans, lentils, spices of all sorts, etc. We bought a spice mix to make butter chicken at home. It gave excellent results. We will have to go visit again to see how the buffet is, but the Indian Restaurant and Grocery store is definitively a must go if you are shopping for Indian ingredients. Also, it needs confirmation, but it looked like they had some Bollywood movies for sale.

Our second suggestion this week is Moe’s Southwest Grill situated at 667 Potomac Station Dr NE. For being part of a chain, the food was surprisingly good. After being greeted by the traditional “Welcome to Moe’s” yelled by all employees when someone comes in, we picked a ground beef taco meal and a pork salad from the menu. Both portions were huge and the taste and spices were excellent. The taco was so full of meat, guacamole, salad and pico de gallo that I had a hard time not getting any all over my shirt. The pork salad is made with pulled pork meat and was dressed with our choices of ingredients : cheese, pico de gallo, beans and cilantro. Of course it did not replace a trip to New Mexico or South Texas, but it was good southwest food for Northern Virginia.

Finally, we made a nice discovery during our First Friday outing. We sampled some of the products (apple cobbler, beignets, hushpuppies and cornbread) from Woodpecker Farm Foods. This Virginia company was founded in the early ’90s by the great grandson of Betty Washington, George’s sister. The gourmet batter and dough mixes are made with simple, natural ingredients.  You add a little water to the mix, stir, bake or deep fry and voilà! Their products, very affordable (between $3.50 and $4.50 a bag) can be found at The Pink Shop or online.