HOdown: Dinner 3/31 at Babur Garden (Afghan) in Ocean, NJ

Looking forward to seeing everyone next Friday. Remember this is another BYO place for those of us who drink alcohol.

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Thanks for bumping this up @seal! For those of you who haven’t seen this thread already, please join us! I can raise the count well in to later this week, I’m sure .

Meant to add the list of RSVPs thus far:

Curlz (and hopefully one of my friends)
@seal (2)
@joonjoon
@MsBean (2)
@eleeper (2)

Reservation is at 7pm

If you’ve been thinking “I should go…” today’s a good day to let me know!

Hey yuppie. Any recommendations along the route to VA? Hopefully off of route 299 50 or 301 from Delaware to md? Looking for a place and it’s a wasteland

This is indeed a wasteland. I usually stop at Two Country Chicks Kitchen, 1104 Price Station Road in Church Hill MD. It’s just 500 feet off 301 about 20 miles before the Bay Bridge.

Diner style food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Friendly service, always in and out quick and the food is ok and pretty cheap. I usually keep it simple, like a BLT or an omelet. Usually just locals in the place but they do seem to order everything on menu. Nothing spectacular about the place and if it was around here I’d go someplace better but that’s the best I’ve found on that route.

If it’s breakfast time there is also a Waffle House on 301 just south of 299 on the northbound side.

Wasn’t this a thread about tonight’s HODown?

Neither rain nor sleet…

See everyone in a few hours.

It was, and yes! Looking forward to it!

So how was it guys and gals? :slight_smile:

While I didn’t have the opportunity to join the festivities for dinner I was able to stop by and share a toast with my NJ HO pals. My apologies (well really @seal should apologize he is the HOfficial photographer) to @eleeper since she had already left by the time the picture was taken.

From left to right;
@MsBean @NotJrvedivici (Mr. Bean) @CurlzNJ @joonjoon (Mrs. Seal) @seal

It was a pleasure as always seeing you all.

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It’s true. It’s all my fault. What were we talking about again?

Sorry about the lack of pics. A good time and some good food was had by all. The best eating was in the apps. We shared some chicken and some beef dumplings that were excellent. Then @NotJrvedivici showed up and we ended up next door at Piccola Italia for after dinner drinks and dessert.

Words don’t do these things justice. Just the fact that we are able to come together as often as we do and eat different food is amazing. Everyone should make an effort to come to a HODown soon.

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We had a great time, but I fully agree with @seal that the food didn’t wow any of us. The Afghan naan was excellent and we loved the condiments. The apps were interesting, flavorful, and got me very excited for the entrées–and then we waited. AND WAITED.

While beautifully cooked, the skirt steak had absolutely no other flavor than meat. The lamb kebab had a delicious grilled flavor, but was woefully overcooked–and again, no spice or flavor other than the meat itself. We tried the spinach rice and the palau, and again zero flavor to it. The chicken korma was tasty, but I’m not sure if I liked it because it at least had some flavor.

It’s almost like there were two different shifts – one preparing apps, and other entrées. It’s a shame, because it was a lovely spot, the servers were very nice (albeit MIA while we were waiting for our dinner, probably because they didn’t know what to say), and we had a really fun time, but I really thought we were going to have far more interesting food.

Still, you can’t beat the company! Watch this board for planning/news of our next outing!

Agree 100% about the food. We’ve been there several times before and the food was quite good. While the food was not worth the way too long wait, it did give us time to time to chat, laugh, and get to know each other better. All in all a great night.

Missy

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The apps were definitely the best prepared. My (four) main course lamb chops were from a very small lamb, and impossible to cut with the table knife. I could have asked for a steak knife, but when Mark did, it took quite a while to arrive, and cold lamb chops are no fun. So I took advantage of the “handles” the chops came with. (That’s how we always ate them at home when I was young!)

The big problem was that the main course took for-farkin’-ever to arrive. (I think it was about an hour for the main course to arrive after we ordered it.)

Which is why Mark and I left before anyone thought to take a pic–it was almost 10PM when we left.

Bottom line: The crowd was great; the restaurant not so much.

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I’m good with picking up lamb chops by the bone. I don’t wait for no server.

Getting right into is something I like to do. Unless it burns the roof of my mouth. Then I get into, but regret it. But get into it regardless. Planning is for savages. I just go.

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I’m glad you guys had a good time! I really need to make the next one. Do you have any ideas on the next event? I might have a few :slight_smile:

@corvette_johnny pm me and we can talk about it.

One idea we liked was doing a combo cooking class and dinner maybe at Heirloom Kitchen in Old Bridge. I still want to get everyone together at this tapas place I like in New Brunswick, esp. for a late sangria filled Sunday Brunch. Or the afternoon buffet on a Sunday at At The Table in AP.

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I believe there was also discussion about Korean barbecue…

@CurlzNJ yum! I’m all about Korean bbq! We can let @joonjoon run this :smile:

@seal I have a neat idea.

I was at rory’s pub in sea bright a little while back. I’m not sure if everyone wants to go for this but, they have an interesting menu. It’s all bar food. I only had wings but they have maybe 5 types of wings, loaded fries, Irish nachos, fried coconut shrimp, traditional nachos, etc. It is a fried food fest extravaganza. I would love to try all the things on the menu. It isn’t gourmet dining but I think it might be a cool spot to try :slight_smile:

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