Towson Town Center's Restaurants

I was invited* to Towson Town Center to take a "tour" of some of their major eateries: TGIF's, P.F. Chang's, Stoney River and The Cheesecake Factory.  Below are some of my thoughts on each place.


Also, Towson Town Center has been having some special events this month, including one on Saturday March 24th from 1-3PM: Cooking Demo and Wine-Pairing Seminar

• Local food and wine expert, Laurie Forster "The Wine Coach," will host a cooking demonstration and wine-pairing seminar.
• Seminars will be held at 1PM, 2PM and 3PM in the Level 1 Grand Court
• Seminars will include table-side sampling (SAMPLES!!!!!), fun raffles, giveaways and retailer offers.

Follow Towson Town on Facebook to keep up with more events.

P.F. Chang's
(Check out my last review of P.F.Chang's from 2009 here)

At P.F.Chang's we were given some items from their Happy Hour menu to try.  Their Happy Hour is Mon-Fri, 3-6pm.  The prices I have included in this section are from that menu.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps 

I hadn't been to a PFC in a while, so I have to admit that I was excited about trying the Chicken Lettuce Wraps ($6) again.  They are still so good.  The chicken concoction mixed with mushrooms and water chestnuts are good alone, but even better when made into a wrap with crisp lettuce.  Yes, of course you can make this at home, but if you're at the mall shopping - this is definitely a nice appetizer to order while sitting at the bar.

Talking about the bar, we tried two specialty cocktails, an Asian Pear Mojito ($6) and a PFX ($6).  The mojito tasted very similar to the regular, but with a slight hint of the pear.  It was nice and crisp.  The PFX is flavored with passionfruit and hardly tasted like there was any alcohol in it, though I am assuming that is a good and bad thing :)  It is supposed to be modeled after the cosmo.  I liked both!

 Crab Wontons

Dan was fan of their Crab Wontons ($5), which are made with a cream cheesy crab filling and served with a plus sauce.  He remarked on how much crab there was in the wontons, and how well they went with the sauce.  If you feel like something fried, and are tired of the ubiquitous eggroll, these might be the thing for you! 

Stoney River

Stoney River also introduced us to some items from their Happy Hour, which takes place from 4-7pm everyday.  There are some seriously good deals:

This menu is solid, especially because it  lasts until 7pm!  It would be so easy to come here for dinner and make a good meal out of these offerings, not to mention with some nice cheap cocktails!  For a drink, ask the bartender to make you a Lemon Iced Tea Cocktail, which is made with Bacardi Limon, lime, sour mix and some iced tea.  If you like Arnold Palmers, this is the drink for you. If you like tea (me), this is for you (me).

We tried and LOVED the Jack Daniel Whiskey Shrimp ($6).  It was so good and SO buttery.  The sauce is made with Jack Daniel's (obv.) and mustard and oh my the little slices of baguettes were just loaded with butter and the sauce and a jumbo shrimp.  Yes please!

We also tried the mountain of Bleu Cheese Chips ($6), and it really was a mountain (though it's hard to tell from this picture). Though blue cheese is not my favorite kind of cheese, once melted it has a mild flavor to it, so I surprisingly didn't mind this at all.  If you love blue cheese, it would be right up your alley, especially because the chips were perfectly crisp and salted. It would be nice if they had other flavors for the non blue cheese lovers.

The Crunchy Ahu Tuna Roll ($7) was also quite tasty, especially when dipped in the accompanying soy ginger sauce.  Sesame seeds and breadcrumbs give the roll its crunchiness.



TGI Friday's

Guinness Stout Milkshake from TGIF (sample size)

There are two new drinks for St. Patrick's Day: the Irish Rita (made with whiskey, sour apple, midori and margarita mix) and the Guinness Stout Milkshake (Guinness with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup).  Their Irish Rita was way too sour for my liking, but the Guinness Milkshake was surprisingly tasty, and I don't even like Guinness!

All in all, I am simply not a fan of this place.  The dishes were dirty, the food tasted unhealthy and it's really just not my kind of atmosphere for a restaurant.

Cheesecake Factory
(Check out my review of the Cheesecake Factory in 2008 here)

I am not going to lie, I tried bites of about 12-15 different types of cheesecakes.  This sounds amazing, but after a while I got a bit sick.  THAT'S A LOT OF DAIRY, YOU GUYS!!!!

My personal favorite from the Cheesecake Factory is the Fresh Banana Cream Cheesecake, but of all the ones I tried from that day, I really enjoyed:

• Vanilla Bean cheesecake (layers of vanilla bean cheesecake, vanilla mousse and whipped cream) 
• I liked the simplicity of this, plus it felt light because of the mousse.
• Godiva Chocolate cheesecake (Godiva chocolate cake + Godiva chocolate cheesecake + Chocolate mousse) 
• The addition of cake and mousse in this cheesecake took away the usual heaviness from a chocolate cheesecake.  I loved the rich and dark taste of the chocolate.  
• Dutch Caramel Apple Streusel Cheesecake, pictured (terribly) below (original cheesecake with a TON of baked apples and then topped with some delicious brown sugar walnut streusel topping)  
• I loved this because it was so different.  It tasted more like an apple pie with a little layer of cheesecake.  There's a lot more filling than you would think, which is what really made this cheesecake stand out for me.

The problem is that to get a slice of cheesecake, you have to deal with the outrageous wait for a table because that place is packed ALL THE TIME.  What is up with that?

SUMMARY
The mall is definitely not a place I visit very often, but it was fun to take a tour like this to see the food beyond the food court.  Overall, I loved Stoney River.  Their Happy Hour menu was fun, well-priced and enticing!  I would definitely go back there again! P.F. Chang's happy hour menu was also a great deal, and I especially liked their drinks.  There is no need for me to talk about the appeal of  The Cheesecake Factory, because it's already got that in spades.  TGI Fridays didn't do it for me at all, but you can't win them all!

* I was invited by Towson Town Center, but I was not asked to review, nor was I told what to write.  All opinions are my own (and Dan's!)

Friday Morning Haiku AND HOT CHOCOLATE RECIPE!

All I want to do

Is sit and watch the snow fall

With some hot cocoa

I mean, seriously, does anyone want to do anything else?

This year I decided that I wanted to learn how to make the best hot chocolate at home.  Last year, my quest was to find which restaurant/cafe made the best hot chocolate (see here), but anytime it snowed I stayed inside my house, which was a bit problematic for my quest.

 I decided to first try the recipe on the box of my Hershey's cocoa powder, and I really like it, though I did tweak it a bit for my taste.  My ideal hot chocolate is made with milk and isn't too sweet. 

Hershey's Hot Cocoa

Adapted from here

Ingredients:

1 tbl sugar

2 tbl of cocoa powder

dash salt

1 cup milk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

mini marshmallows (optional)

Directions:

Add cocoa powder, salt and sugar to your mug.  In another container, heat milk in the microwave (I do it for about 2 mins).  Add a little bit of the hot milk to your cocoa concoction to form a smooth liquid and get out all the lumps, then add the rest of the milk and give it a good stir.  Add the vanilla extract.  At this point, if you have a milk frother, these are fun to use for some added creaminess/foaminess!  Add a handful of mini marshmallows on top and start sipping away!

Alonso's, Roland Park

I love burgers.
I love them at home, I love them at restaurants, I love them at other people's houses, I love them so much. 
But of course, I've been trying to be better about where I purchase my meat - so when I found out Alonso's gets their meat from Roseda Beef and Gunpowder Bison Trading Company, I happily skipped into the restaurant to get my meat on.

But here is where I got confused, and where I will take a food detour for a second. 

Why are Alonso's and Loco Hombre two different restaurants, but basically one?  They have the same website, same owners, share the same kitchen AND bar....and yet they are technically two restaurants.  You can even order from one restaurant and eat it in the other.  I don't really know what that's all about...but it's confusing.  I think it could easily be one restaurant.  Alonso's is clearly the bar side of the restaurant, whereas Loco Hombre is the fancier sit down side.  This could be easily arranged, people - start cracking!

But anyway, Dan and I sat at the bar in Alonso's and I ordered a lovely Sangria ($6) (from Loco Hombre's menu) and some AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGG Corn and Crab Flautas ($10) (also from Loco Hombre's menu).  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE try the flautas:

I love the crispy tortillas and the combination of crab and corn.  There really is something for everyone with this appetizer.  Also, the sangria was great too - lots of fruit and just enough sweetness.  Very refreshing.  Next time l want to order the Hibiscus Margarita ($9) - doesn't that sound fancy and fun!?!?!

I ordered the 8oz Bison Burger ($13) which came with cheddar cheese, grilled portabella mushrooms and a creamy horseradish sauce.  Personally, I thought the horseradish sauce added no extra flavor, so I would probably leave that off next time - but everything else was magnificent.  The bison meat was juicy and I love the flavor and texture of the accompanying cheese and mushrooms.  This was quite a meal!  The fries were also great, but I couldn't eat too many because I was so full from my burger! 

Oh, by the way, for $2 extra, you can order a 1lb burger (which apparently used to be their only size!!!!), or you could pay $2 extra to make any 8oz burger with Bison ($4 extra for the 1lb burgers).

Dan ordered the 8oz Smokehouse Burger ($13) which came with BBQ sauce, applewood bacon, pepperjack cheese and sauteed onions.  He also loved his burger and said he was especially happy that they didn't douse it with the BBQ sauce, like many places do. 

So, would I go here again?  Absolutely.  The burgers were awesome, and I love that I can switch out any burger with bison meat (though Roseda is great too, but I love the lower fat content of bison!)  The flautas also introduced me to the fact that I would love Loco Hombre's food too, so I wouldn't mind giving them a try either! They also have a ton of food and drink specials as well throughout the week.

Hot Chocolate Quest: Starbucks

Well, I'm not doing so well on my Hot Chocolate Quest that I mentioned here, other than going to Stone Mill Bakery.

I did, however, pop on over to Starbucks to get their "Black and White" Hot Chocolate - which isn't on the menu! It's a combination of their white chocolate and dark chocolate! Apparently you can also get the same thing as a Mocha as well. Verdict? Still tastes like hot chocolate, but perhaps a bit sweeter because of the white chocolate syrup. However, if I ever want a hot chocolate from Starbucks again I'll still order it only because I feel cool ordering from a "secret menu" hahahahahaha.

In other hot chocolate news, I have come to the conclusion that skim milk doesn't do hot chocolate justice. It loses all the creaminess and flavor. Perhaps next time I'll just try it with a low-fat option instead.

So, are there any other secret menu items I should know about at Starbucks????