Prepare for Peri-Peri

I was just informed by one of the original food marathoners that Nando's will be the next notable restaurant chain to conquer America. Serving Portuguese chicken dishes with either lemon and herb, medium, hot or extra hot peri-peri marinades (properly known as Galinha à Africana), Nando's has already made its mark on the rest of the world. He recently ate at the Nando's in Melbourne and it was the best meal of a 3 week trip. With their first American location in Washington, DC it's only a matter of time before we get the sweet spice on the west coast.
Coincidentally, I just bought my first bottle of Nando's peri-peri hot sauce and judging by the delicious flavor I hope he's right.

The Dumpling 5k

Another Food 5k down, this time in the SGV. It started early Saturday morning at Din Tai Fung. We tried the original location but were referred to the new one around the corner. I'm not sure if the food quality is any different as everything was delicious. The service was a bit slower due to the size of the restaurant I assume.We had juicy soup dumplings and garlicky string beans.On the sweet side we had red bean buns and sesame buns.We saved room because we knew there was more eating to do.
First we bowled a couple games at the alley next door to Din Tai Fung. Note to parents, the dumpling/bowling combination- possibly combined with the arboretum makes for a great outing with the kids. I don't have kids so the food 5k continued.
Per Matt's recommendation we went to Hawaii Supermarket. Between the durian and live turtles it was much more exciting than Gelson's. We stocked up on some basics and moved on to Monterey Park.
We weren't the first to follow Exile Kiss' recommendation of Noodle House. I haven't really done dumpling due diligence so it was presumptuous for us to try this newer edition before hitting the more established SGV restaurants. I say this because the food was just mediocre. When compared back-to-back with Din Tai Fung, Noodle House's dumplings were bland and cumbersome. I even like Wonton Time's better.
The noodles were covered in sauce like broth. Unfortunately the sauce was too overpowering and not flavorful enough to garner such abundance.That said, I'm glad to have tried Noodle House. There's so much more to discover in that part of town and just too little time.
Later in the day we attended two parties, both of which had cheese plates with Marcona almonds.
Quite a day.

More BBQ

Forgot to post about Lucques BBQ night.
Lucques' patio, drinks and service are all phenomenal. On any other night I'd say the food is included in that list, but the BBQ was hit and miss.
The cocktails were strong and sweet and perfect for summer.
The beans werer full of bacon- thus making them excellent. The corn was good, the watermelon was ok, the cole slaw was fair and the greens were good. The first batch of ribs we got weren't as good as the second. I think they were sitting for a while the first time.
The pecan pie was very good. Ultimately I'm glad I got to experience the famous BBQ night.