Eating Across Vienna: Nominate Dish Of The Week

It's no secret Vienna is home to 

We're out to find out where (and what exactly) it is. And we're turning to readers for help.

Here's how it will work:

• Each Monday we'll ask Vienna Patch readers to nominate their favorite dishes in Vienna.
• Each Wednesday, we'll open those nominations for voting.
• By Friday, the winning dish will be announced.
• Tune in the following Monday to read our review of the dish, and, nominate another.

We have just a few rules:

• The dish must be from a local restaurant (No chains).
• The dish must be under $20.
• You must name a specific dish, not just the name of a restaurant.
• A dish cannot "win" more than once.
• Don't worry: if your dish was selected one week but didn't win, you can nominate it again.

Nominate your favorite dish in the comments below.

Past Winners:

• Week of Jan.9 : Pure Pasty Review Coming
• Week of Jan. 16: Wolftrap Cafe Review Coming
• Week of Jan. 23: , Maplewood Grill

Review: I imagined the shrimp and crab poppers at Maplewood Gril to be like the many other "poppers" I've eaten at potlucks, barbecues and weddings up and down the east coast: fried, airy and about the size of a golf ball.

If you're looking for those kinds of poppers, you won't find them at the Branch Road restaurant.

What you will find are three dense seafood pillows each about the size of your palm resting on a bed of Maplewood's "corn salsa" (corn, avocado, tomato).

They're certainly not the greasy single-shrimp appetizers I loved to eat as a kid, and definitely not a finger food either -- this is one serious appetizer.

What's most impressive is the construction of the popper (which rivaled the restaurant's crab cake sandwich in size) itself. The inside is pure lump crab meat and shrimp -- there were at least six or seven small shrimp in each of the three poppers -- and hardly any of the "filler" (breadcrumbs, potatoes, vegetables) some chefs use to pump up the size of their dish without actually using more of the seafood itself. Each is encased in a slightly fried, crispy bird nest, which holds the poppers together without weighing them down.

The flavor of the popper, enhanced by the corn salsa,  pops on its own. But the accompanying roasted red pepper sauce adds a nice kick -- it is savory, not sweet as you might expect, using subtle heat to kick the dish up to the next level.

A reader described the poppers as the best deal in Vienna -- with three of the poppers at an appetizer price, you could make this a meal on its own, or pair it with another starter or salad for a small meal for two.

These aren't the traditional poppers some might be after -- but in this case, the twist on a classic is a good thing.

While we discourage manipulating a vote, our current voting system can't prevent the practice. So, until our engineers make tweaks, strategize as you see fit. Patch's "Restaurant Commissioner" holds the right to make changes and decisions as necessary.