nom (n.)

The sound made when eating something (or someone). Can be referred to as "nomming" as a verb, and is often pronounced in the sentence "om nom nom". -Urban Dictionary

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Mai Thai - Washington, DC

I’ve been to Mai Thai twice for dinner, and both visits were amazing. If you like Thai food, this is the place to go. This restaurant is classy and is perfect for a fun night out or an intimate meal.

If you don’t mind sitting at the bar for dinner, then do it! It’s an awesome seat in the house, plus your glass never goes empty. For a slightly different experience, you can opt for the seating areas.

The Crispy Tofu appetizer is simply delicious and cooked perfectly with a tasty sauce. I like spicy food – it’s not hot enough unless I’m crying, and I shed a few tears here. I had the Pad Thai Tofu, and it was wonderful. You must have dessert here and I totally recommend the Sticky Rice with Mango. I ordered this dessert at the bartender’s suggestion and was glad I did. The consistency and flavor of the rice goes perfectly with the mango.

I plan on returning here often, and you should definitely check it out if you find yourself in the District.

Rating: ★★★★★

KFC: Buckets for Breast Cancer

KFC for the Cure

KFC Double Down

From now until May 23, KFC is  donating 50 cents to Susan G. Komen for the Cure for each bucket of chicken sold. The ultimate goal is to raise $8.5 million. You can also donate to The Cure here.

In other news, KFC recently announced a new sandwich, the Double Down – “so meaty, there’s no room for a bun.” Between two pieces of chicken, you have bacon, cheese, and sauce. The sandwich contains 540 calories, 32g of fat, and 1380mg of sodium – Whoah! So in addition to helping fight cancer, the Colonel is peddling foods that increase the risk of all sorts of health problems such as heart disease and diabetes. Hypocrisy?

My advice: Skip the chicken and go donate anyway.

Pizza Hut vs Dominos - Results

You may have seen my previous post on Pizza Hut vs Dominoes. After watching the polls for a bit, it’s clear that Pizza Hut (PH) is the victor, for now. For some reason, I keep getting the ‘Pizza Hut Combination Taco Bell’ by Das Racist stuck in my head.

So what makes Pizza Hut so good? Well, I broke it down into a few categories.

Crust
Two words. Stuffed crust. Pizza Hut’s stuffed crust is actually amazing, but not for the weak-hearted. I generally find that the crust also makes for an awesome breadstick to dip in marinara. Domino’s actually has a new crust recipe, and they brush it with a garlic-butter before it arrives at your house. Even with the new recipe, the crust can tend to be a bit dry and chewy.

Pizza Hut: 1, Domino’s: 0

Toppings
Both stores can hold their own in the toppings department, but PH comes out on top. Pizza Hut’s Lover’s Pizza is overloaded with choice toppings. While Domino’s also has some awesome topping selections, the sheer amount on the pizza just doesn’t compare to what PH offers.

Pizza Hut: 2, Domino’s: 0

Price
Pizza Hut is a bit pricier and Domino’s usually offers specials when you order more than one pie. The current deal with PH is any crust, topping, and size combination for $10. Dom’s is offering a 2-medium, 2-topping deal for $5.99 per pie. Domino’s just has more deals to help you get more for the money.

Pizza Hut: 2, Domino’s 1

It’s close, but Pizza Hut is the top choice between the two. There were a lot of things I didn’t include – such as the sides, desserts, and entrees offered by both competitors. I looked at the foundation of the two companies, which is really in the pizza.

Wawa Uh Oh

I love Wawa. No really, I do. I love the hoagies. I love the coffee. I love how no matter where I am, I can find what I need at Wawa. You can now imagine how disappointed I was when I had a terrible experience at one. My faith in the chain has been shaken and bruised by a single incident at store #917. Here’s what happened:

My mother and I decided to hit Wawa for dinner, because their hoagies are THAT good. We ordered on the touch screens, paid for our sandwiches, and then watched as the help put the hoagies together. My sandwich was fine, but my mother’s…thank God that you can actually see your food prepared.

The manager-in-training making my mother’s hoagie was on the phone. Okay, no big, it’s not like we talk to them anyway – except the dirty phone was in his hand! We tried to keep our cool, and at one point we were even impressed that he was doing everything with one hand. The moment of truth came when he needed to cut and wrap the sandwich.

He shouldered the phone, and used his phone-hand to hold the knife. Still not touching the hoagie. We were holding our breath, waiting…and then it happened. After slicing the hoagie, he grabbed each end to place it for wrapping. Gross!

Kudos to my mom. She kept her cool as she asked him to put down the phone and make her another hoagie. Mr. Manager-In-Training had an attitude though, and slapped together a new one, missing some key ingredients too! He roughly put the new hoagie on the counter, and then skulked away like a child. If he hadn’t acted so rudely, a simple apology would have forgotten this incident.

Who to call? Board of Health? HR? Well, my mother emailed Wawa and of course, they sent multiple apology-filled responses explaining that they were fixing the incident. I’m actually surprised they didn’t include coupons because it’s going to take a while for me to venture back into Wawa after this.

This is for the manager-in-training:

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Due Amici - Brielle, NJ

Due Amici is an Italian restaurant in Brielle, NJ. The interior design is cozy and chic. The atmosphere is very romantic. The menu is not inexpensive, but expect to get what you pay for.

The waiter took our drink orders, but neglected to ask if we wanted appetizers when we requested more time to order our entrees. Oops! He vanished for a bit before returning and we’d had our menus closed and on the table for some time. He came back with a bread basket in hand and pen ready to take our orders. We started with the calamari appetizer and I ordered the seafood lasagna, which was one of the specials.

The fried calamari was cooked to perfection  and the texture of the batter was just right. The sauce that accompanied was a spicy marinara, which complemented the calamari very well.

My entree arrived, but the waiter didn’t notice that I was missing a fork, so I had to wait for him to come back to request one. Nevertheless, Chef specials at Due Amici are fantastic and the lasagna was no exception. It was filled with cheese, seafood, and a flavorful sauce. If the dish hadn’t been so filling, I could have cleaned my plate, but I allowed myself to have leftovers for the next day instead.

I was too full to even think about dessert. My evening was delightful and the only improvement available is with the service. I’d recommend Due Amici for any intimate occasion.

Rating: ★★★★☆