Eater's Digest
Welcome to Vox's Eater's Digest blog, where staffers will comment on their favorite and least favorite eating and drinking experiences in Columbia. Your participation is not only requested, it's welcomed. Please note that we currently require real names for comments, but that policy is up for debate.
Bangkok Gardens
August 1, 2008 at 1:04 p.m.
Although I’m not a big fan of curry (I tried, and I just don’t like it), I love Bangkok Gardens. It’s good food with a laid-back atmosphere and relatively inexpensive dishes. You can feel as if you went to a really nice restaurant and only have to throw down a twenty for a meal and a drink. Plus, the water cups are made of tin.
By far my favorite dish on the menu is #16 Moo Taud. The geniuses back in the kitchen take filets of pork, bread and fry them. Alongside the pork are sauteed broccoli, cabbage and onions. The dish is brought together by white rice and a slightly sweet pepper sauce on the side. That’s where the heat kicks in.
Bangkok Gardens uses a 1-10 spice scale for most of their dishes. The diner can choose the spice level of their own dish. I always order a three. I feel that ordering anything less is looked down upon. I haven’t ever tried it, so I’m not sure if the server would roll his or her eyes at you or just point at laugh. But I’d rather not try. Nor have I ever ventured higher than a three. Some day I might be brave, but for now a three is good. Anyway, I’m weak, and a three still makes me cry.
On my most recent visit, I branched out from the perfection that is #16 and opted instead for a noodle dish, #2 Phat See Eiu in specific. Again, I ordered it at three-level hotness. Broccoli, onions, cabbage and carrots in a teriyaki-style sauce sit on a bed of rice noodles. Because the sauce is already mixed in with the noodle and veggies, I am at the mercy of the chef. With the Moo Taud I add the sauce. This is important, because depending on the day a level three can mean very different things. One day I might go and pour all of the sauce on and be fine. The next day, a small amount will leave my eyes tearing and my nose running (always good at the dinner table).
The food is always good, and I’ve convinced at least three other people that #16 is the best dish in Columbia. The service, however is quite another story. On this most recent visit we sat at the table for a solid five minutes before anyone ever came over to the table. He did make up for it by splitting the check even though it explicitly says on the menu that they don’t split checks.
Delicious Potbelly's, I mean, Pickleman's
July 18, 2008 at 9:29 a.m.
Two years ago my friend introduced me to Pickleman’s. We were back in Columbia after our respective summers at home. She boasted that they had chewy, toasty sandwiches and I was salivating before we got there. I walked up to the large menu board and had a déjà vu moment. I thought I was back in Illinois at Potbelly’s. Except I wasn’t.
Potbelly’s is a sandwich chain that is spreading throughout the Midwest. Like Pickleman’s it serves toasted sandwiches on white or wheat rolls. The sandwiches at Potbelly’s are more basic though. They have meat, cheese, mustard or mayo and the typical sandwich veggies such as tomatoes, lettuce, onions and peppers. They tend to pack on the meat, rather than add fancy sauces or variations.
Pickleman’s operates the same way. The beauty is the simplicity. You order your sandwich at one end of the counter and scoot down as the toasted creation emerges minutes later. You then ask for your personalized additions. I ordered the BBQ chicken and added lettuce and tomato. The chicken wasn’t the frightening processed kind that many sandwich places carry and the provolone cheese was gooey and delicious.
Like Potbelly’s you can order the same classy, bottled sodas from the cooler next to sandwich line and choose from a variety of chips that lay spread out in a shadowbox-like shelving. During my time in Columbia, I’ve gone through sandwich shop phases with W.G. Grinders, Sub Shop and Jimmy Johns. Now that Pickleman’s has their downtown location, there’s yet another option for sandwich eating.
Lollicup: This is what love tastes like
July 15, 2008 at 8:09 p.m.
I’m a fan of the only-in-Como cafes, but my favorite vice at the moment is a little place called Lollicup. It may be a national chain, but it’s still an infant eatery in Columbia, and I’m hooked. Remember way back when you frolicked around the pool all day with your preteen friends with your fierce tan lines and didn’t even know what cellulite or day jobs were? That’s the carefree, summery, indulgent feeling that’s served up every time I enter (eyes glazed over) a Lollicup. If you’re a fan of fancy drink concoctions, grab a straw and listen up: This place has something for everyone. It boasts more than 170 drinks that include flavored teas, milk teas, coffee, blended drinks, smoothies and more.
If you’re craving a comfort-food-esque, creamy and sweet drink, aim for milk teas. Lollicup has a long list of flavors, including chocolate, caramel, honeydew or lavender. Want something a bit thicker, but lighter than a milkshake? Order “snow,” which is fluffier and airier than ice cream but just as satisfying. The canteen serves up sugar-free snows and calorie-free teas, too, for those of us who visit too often. Lollicup also has slushes in a zillion flavors.
And let’s not forget what made this mecca o’ milk teas famous in the first place: boba. Some call them “pearls,” others “tapioca.” They are all the same, and they’re all scrumptious. If you want to get technical, boba is a little ball made of starch from the cassava root and infused with honey. Simply put, it’s divine. The tapioca ball heightens the flavor of any drink, as long as you can control your straw and steer clear of choking. (There’s actually a warning on the cup for people who slurp their drinks too quickly).
My recommendations for would-be Lollicup lovers are vanilla or chai snow, chocolate or honeydew milk tea and the peach slush. It used to be that every time the kids I nanny for - Sarah and Will -asked for Starbucks or ice cream, I'd pretend I couldn't hear them (have to teach them moderation, right?). But if they even attempt the syllable “Lol-“, I’ve already parallel parked and we’re inside ordering another delish drink. My treat.
Locations: Columbia Mall’s food court and Ninth St.
-- Lauren A. Miller
The Compound
July 10, 2008 at 2:28 p.m.
The Compound is the name the secret players use, or maybe just those that work there, but it's better known as Uprise Bakery, Ragtag and Ninth Street Video. With the combination of all three, you're set; there's food, beer and movies to be seen.
The bakery attracts a nice lunch crowd with their house-made breads, soups and pastries. Not to mention the use of organic ingredients for those health-savvy eaters. Here, you can get hot or cold sandwiches, salads, pizza, bread plates or a combo of soup and salad, soup and half-sandwich or salad and half-sandwich. They also serve up espresso and coffee drinks, among teas, juices and organic sodas.
A word of caution: the bread used for their sandwiches is sometimes a bit tough and might cut the roof of your mouth. I always order my sandwiches with their house-made sliced bread (wheat, rye, nine grain). Sandwich prices range from $4 (grilled cheese) to $7.50 (cuban pulled pork).
A favorite is the curry potato soup. It's reminiscent of Southeast Asian flavors and is the perfect balance of spices, veggies and creaminess.
The atmosphere borrows from the original Ragtag on Tenth Street with its independent, quirky, relaxed feel. But the new version boasts copper counter tops at the bar, an outdoor patio, classy exposed ventilation, warm colors and interesting artwork from around the community.
While sipping on a toddy with milk (the fancy term for iced coffee), you can get your work done with the use of free wifi. Note the password is niceguest.
The Compound is also worthy of arriving early for your movie. You can sit at the bar and enjoy a pint or 22-ounce tap beer for $3-4, respectively. Or have a bottled beer for $3.50, featuring Bell's, New Belgium, Boulevard, Sierra Nevada and Stag, among others. But for those non-beer drinkers, there's wine and spirits too.
Maybe sitting in the theater isn't what you want to spend your evening doing. Well, just walk into Ninth Street Video and choose from over 6,000 titles with a vast selection of genres and time periods. They also carry several titles from the True/False Film Festival held every year in early spring.
This three-piece compilation on Hitt Street is a heady combination, sure to pleasure the senses, whether it's eating, drinking or screening a movie.
Kaldi's Coffee
July 10, 2008 at 2:16 p.m.
The evil image of the chain restaurant disappears when its product outweighs its typecast. Thus is the case with Kaldi’s Coffee on Ninth and Cherry. Here, all the elements of an average coffee shop — basic sandwiches, a million varieties of coffee, a comfortable atmosphere and annoying but tolerable hipsters (yes, you’re ironic; we get it) — come together to make Columbia’s best café.
Kaldi’s furnishings and ambiance are the restaurant’s biggest appeal. Yeah, the store serves coffee and food, but I mean, seriously, you can get a coffee anywhere, but the atmosphere of a coffee shop is its biggest draw. And Kaldi’s has a great one because its furniture and environment does what they are supposed to do — allow people to sit comfortably while they eat, drink, study or whatever else.
The tables are at the correct height; the chairs fit under the tables to allow for proper scooting; and the art on the wall is probably from Target, but that is OK. Moreover, there seems to be a refreshing shortage of white-belted hipsters and their counterparts, the extension-chord-belted hippies. This adds up to quality “study” time for me.
Kaldi’s coffee is fine. No, not ground fine; it is just all right. It is tolerable I mean. I’m not a café snob, but the chain’s coffee is never bitter; even an iced americano is delicious. And yes, they sell naturally-grown, BGH-free beans, blah blah blah varieties, but whatever. Call me crazy, but I’m concerned with how the things I drink taste, and whatever coffee Kaldi’s Coffee sells tastes good.
Food at Kaldi’s is standard issue for any café — fancy, overpriced and mediocre. Avocado and turkey, strawberry crepes and a variety of sweets litter the menu. I had something called a turkey stack on my last visit. Now, it’s my understanding that “stack” means heap or pile. Perhaps I picked up the kids menu because my stack of turkey was one piece of meat cut in thirds. Maybe they meant bread stack, because I had enough cooked dough to make 300 more turkey stacks.
Best advice for Kaldi’s — skip the food, drink an americano and enjoy the quiet, comfortable atmosphere.
Special and important note: Lakota, please address these issues:
It’s great to have “custom” furniture to add “local zest” to a coffee shop, but it looks like something from a truck stop and it’s damn uncomfortable to sit in, let alone to eat or study in.
The art on your walls is a distracting and predictable mix of planes dropping dollar-sign bombs or dollar signs replacing the stars of the American flag. Get something new.
Lastly, when I go to a coffee shop, chances are that I want to concentrate; turn down the CSNY or Enya album. Also, please dispose of the drum circles, yogic chanting and any other organic, fair trade, patchwork noise being played during my studies.
Oh, but please keep your amazing coffee.
