RIP Purim Oak...

...my favorite Korean restaurant, conveniently located in nearby Towson, is now an Indian restaurant. I love Indian food, but there's already a glut of restaurants in my area.

We went for a Korean buffet dinner a few weeks ago - I was jonesin' for their delicious panchan selection, especially the cucumbers and the raw spinach - and ended up with chicken tikka masala and an okra dish. I'm glad we ended up eating there (and no, I can't remember the name right now) because I've never seen okra on an Indian menu locally, and I love okra. This was a dry fry with tomatoes and man, it was GOOD. Amazing, actually. The chicken tikka masala was meh - good, but not what we were accustomed to, and the sauce was grainy, as if nut-thickened. They also had bhuna lamb on the menu, so we'll have to go back and try that out sometime.

But where am I going to go for Korean now? The other restaurants that I know of are in a sketchy area downtown. Hmpfh.

And...my favorite Thai restaurant, Bangkok Place, seems to be closed as well. The sign is still up, but the building is wrapped in chain-link and there's an ominious "to whom it may concern" permit notice sign in the window. My bus passes too quickly to allow me to read it, so I don't know if it's a demolition warning or what.

I hope this doesn't continue to be a sad year in restaurants for me. On a brighter note, Baltimore is apparently having a winter Restaurant Week, February 5 - 9. However, it's already January 29th and I've seen no listing of participating restaurants yet....

Stay tuned!