Restaurant Review - Velocity Wings, South Riding

Tonight, I took the family over to the new Velocity wings joint in East Gate.  I've heard mixed reviews in the weeks since its opening, but most of the negatives seemed to surround either service issues during peak times or takeout orders.  My wife and I fancy ourselves wings aficionados, so Velocity had its work cut out for them.

In order to avoid the potential issues with capacity (and to reduce the chance of the kids going crazy while waiting for seating or for food to show up) we decided to get there for an early dinner, at 5:30. Ultimately it seemed to be a good decision, as we were seated immediately.  By the time we left at 7:00, there was a substantial wait.

Once seated, we were greeted by our waiter within two minutes.  He was working on three other tables at the same time, but he was very attentive.  In fact, noticing the kids, as he was taking our drink orders, he offered to switch the TV channel from the basketball game (which none of us cared for) to the Disney Channel, which made the kids quite happy.  He was back in minutes with the drinks, including a Vienna Lager which came out at the proper temperature with just the right amount of head.

We decided to check out a few starters to get a better idea of the rest of the menu, so we got the Caesar salad, Nachos, and Pretzel bites for the table.  The Caesar was well dressed but a bit plain.  I would have liked to see some shredded Parmesan and maybe a splash of champagne or red wine vinegar to give it a bit more tang, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.  The pretzel bites were tremendous.  Soft, flavorful, with just the right amount of salt.  The cheese on the side was creamy and seasoned well.  Everyone also enjoyed the nachos.  The chili was present but not overwhelming, the chips warm and crispy, and the cheese was melty and stringy.  Just like nachos should be.

For mains, the kids got the mini corn dogs and the boneless bites with honey BBQ sauce, Corin ordered the medium tossed wings, and I got a split order of traditional spicy garlic and terminal wings.  Food came in two waves, spaced about 15 minutes apart.  Timing was good.  The honey BBQ sauce worked great for my older son.  Not spicy, but full flavored.  The corn dogs were your typical run of the mill mini corn dogs that you can find on most kids menus, but they did the job.  Now on to the wings.  The wings themselves were on the larger side and well cooked.  They came out piping hot, crisped up well, and with the fat rendered properly.  The medium sauce worked well for Corin, whose tolerance for heat isn't terribly high.  They had enough spice for her to feel it, but were balanced with a nice tanginess.  The spicy garlic had a great garlicky flavor with a hint of heat.  The sauce in the bottom of the basket had broken, so it was a bit greasy, but the flavor was enjoyable.  The terminal wings, advertised as their spiciest, had almost more of a rub than a sauce.  The spice level would probably have been intolerable for Corin, but for someone with a decent tolerance for heat, they were a bit of a let down.  If I order the spiciest sauce on the menu, I expect to break a sweat.  Didn't happen with these.  But the flavor was really good.

For dessert, we split a chocolate shake, which was just the right thickness and had that traditional old timey shake flavor, and the chocolate lava cake.  The cake itself didn't really have much 'lava' to it, but it was incredibly moist and spongey.  The dark chocolate flavor blended well with the richness of the vanilla ice cream on top.  Both were gone in minutes.

The only real disappointment was the backs to the booths.  They sway with every movement, so anytime someone in the booth behind you moves, the back of your seat lurches forward.  That got irritating.  But all in all and aside from the moving booth backs, we got almost exactly what we expected from a wings joint.

I'd give it a solid B grade.  I hope that the take out and peak time issues get cleared up, as those really seem to be the most irksome problems that people seem to run into.  Luckily we didn't have those problems.

The Durian cometh...

For years, I'd been hearing about a fruit that was so offensive to the olfactory sense, that in some countries, it's against the law to consume it in public, or even carry it on public transportation. Trouble is, until recently, I never had a clue where I could find any.

In the past two years, I've seen many a travel show have a segment or two on the Durian fruit. Andrew Zimmern tried it in three separate episodes, and could never finish more than one or two bites. Here's one of his experiences.

Anthony Bourdain on the other hand, slops it up like the best stinky cheeses.

If two of my favorite food show hosts had such disparate views on it, which side of the coin would I fall on?

First was my quest to find a purveyor. Luckily, the DC area is chock full of Asian markets that sell all sorts of durian comestibles: Fresh, frozen, durian juice, durian ice cream, durian Popsicles, etc. I thought my best bet would be just to go with durian au naturale.

On my way home from the market, I quickly realized that there was no way my wife was going to let me eat this thing in the house. Even in it's partially frozen state, it still stank to high heaven! Think rotten egg, onion and vanilla pudding all mixed up in a big ol' bucket. That's durian aroma for you.

Grabbing a cutting board, I brought it out onto the deck to continue to thaw. It would be mine the following day...

Properly rested and prepared for my culinary journey, I grabbed my trusty cleaver and walked out to meet my new friend.

Now thoroughly thawed, I could tell that I was a very very lucky man to have kept it outside as opposed to in the house overnight. Even with the breeze, the smell permeated everything. It's unmistakable, and unavoidable. And it only gets stronger when you cut into it. As you open it, you do get a bit more of a sweet scent, which makes it a bit more tolerable, but still not a scent that most Americans equate with anything other than spoilage. Something similar to old pumpkin. You know, the smell you get about a week after Halloween, when your carved pumpkins start to get a bit gamey?

I'd heard from several sources that durian is best eaten with your nose plugged, as the smell and taste aren't necessarily linked. I'd beg to differ.

The taste itself is odd. Not totally off-putting, but not totally enjoyable either. It's a combination of custard, papaya, celery, squash, and shallots. The sweetness is what you first taste, then you get the shallot/light sweet onion flavor in the back of the mouth. It's something that brings two distinct emotions, one of wanting to gag, but one wanting to have more. You have to keep reminding yourself that the oniony flavor isn't due to rotting, or going bad, it's just the natural flavor.

The texture is probably the strangest part. The only way to describe it is like very hard scrambled eggs, with a bit of the membraney/stringy type texture of overripe mango. It's tough to get used to.

I think the hardest thing to deal with is the 'recurrences'. Durian seems to fester in your stomach, creating a lot of gasses that you regurgitate for the next several hours, which taste and smell just as strongly as the actual fruit. Definitely keep stocks of breathmints and Beano.

Overall, it's not bad, but you definitely have to have an open mind when you attack it. It's something that, at first taste, I wasn't very fond of, but becomes an acquired taste. Now, I can eat them without a problem. But, as Anthony Bourdain said, durian is definitely best eaten alone.