Asian Bistro Cafe, Silver Spring, Md.

Friday night Robert and I went to Asian Bistro Cafe in downtown Silver Spring for dinner. He had the crispy beef and I had the shrimp in garlic sauce. The food was quite good, reasonably priced, and the servings were huge, with each dish easily being enough for two, especially if one were to have an appetizer and soup with dinner. Robert praised the beef dish, saying it was actually crispy instead of the soggy beef so often seen in restaurants these days. We'll have to go back to Asian Bistro again to try more items in the future.

Eggspectation, Silver Spring, Md.

For Easter dinner Sunday, we went to Eggspectation in downtown Silver Spring. I had the "classic Benedict," their version of a traditional eggs Benedict dish on their page of a dozen different Benedict variations (if they were truly witty, they'd have sixteen). It was a good dish, but it wasn't what I would call "classic." Instead of the traditional Canadian bacon, they used Black Forest ham and some gruyère cheese, neither of which appears in the original recipe. The eggs were served with sliced fried new potatoes and some slices of fresh melon.

In lieu of dessert, I had a blueberry muffin, warmed, per the waitress's recommendation, by grilling. They split the muffin longitudinally and toasted the insides on a grill, giving the muffin a very enjoyable crunchy, textural interest.