Category Archives: Asia Pac

Posts about Asian Pacific countries

C Food Saturday

Posted on by

Asian Fusion

This rainy Saturday was brightened with family sharing lunch for the second weekend in a row. We were in search of a culinary-passport lunch to prepare us for some Dave & Busters later and the Akahana Bistro looked like a good option.

They are located in Baxter Village in Fort Mill just off the interstate. Fortunately for us we found a couple of parking spots on the street close to the restaurant so we didn’t get too wet on the way in. There weren’t very many people there when we arrived and I think the employees outnumbered the patrons most of the time we were there. There is a bar, some sort of outside seating, as well as a standard seating area with heavy wooden tables and plenty of room.

The menu is a mix of Asian cuisines including; Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, and Chinese. There are quite a number of options and deciding took us a while so we ordered some salt & pepper calamari to help us through.

I really enjoyed the simplicity of the light salt and pepper coating that was complimented by the plum sauce. The plum sauce was thinner that any other I’ve had but that was quite alright because it didn’t overpower the rest of the flavors. My nephew and I pretty well destroyed that plate. They were served on a bed of light crispy noodles, cilantro, scallions & shallots.

For an entree I chose salt & pepper soft shell crab with fried rice. Good thing I liked the salt & pepper coating from the calamari because that seemed to be the same as they used on the crab.

It may not be obvious but there was a fair amount of crab on the plate and soft shell was right. Again I appreciated the relative simplicity of the coating that allowed the crab taste to come through. I felt like I was taking a chance with this because I’ve had some soft shell crab that was a little more shelly than I would have preferred but this was great. The crab was served with the same noodles as the calamari had been with the addition of some jalapenos to keep you one your toes. I chose fried rice as my rice option and it was just ok but I enjoyed the crab enough to not care.

My nephew got sesame chicken that he put a good dent in but couldn’t finish due to quantity.

My brother-in-law got the sushi deluxe lunch platter and it looked amazing and based on the clean plate and satisfied comments he made I believe he enjoyed it. We did all agree his was the nicest presentation of the lot and it was a good value too.

My sister did apps for lunch selecting spring rolls, Asian summer rolls and fried dumplings that she freely shared. All were deemed tasty especially the dumplings. Visually the Asian summer rolls with the see through rice noodles were the most interesting and I did have a bite and can vouch they were not bad at all.

The service was good and aside from an issue with the first try at sweet tea being light on the sugar we were well taken care of. Based on experience when a restaurant isn’t busy service can be a crap shoot, either too much attention or they get caught in conversations or other distractions because they’re bored. Our server did a good job of keeping an eye on the table without hovering.

Overall I’d recommend the place to anyone, lots of choices and the food was very good. Fueled up we were ready to take on Dave & Busters. I’d like to thank Dee, Chris & Jesse Mays for spending their lunch with me and treating as well. Hard to beat that deal, family and free food.

Winter Bowling

Posted on by

Korea III

With the winter Olympics going on in Pyeongchang it really isn’t that surprising that I had a hankering for Korean.  Doing a bit of internet research to find a place other than the two I already know, I found Bulgogi Box in Charlotte that looked promising.

I found the restaurant and then a couple of blocks later a parking spot.  The restaurant has a wide front but the dining area isn’t very deep at all and the kitchen looks to be twice the size of the area with tables.  I was greeted by a couple of the staff behind the bar and they invited me to sit wherever I liked so I grabbed a spot at the end of the bar.  One of the ladies who greeted me asked if I’d been there before and when I said I hadn’t she welcomed me again and said she hoped I’d love the food.  That made two of us.

The menu isn’t extensive but varied enough to offer something for most tastes.  The didn’t have any Korean beers on tap so I ordered a Dragon’s Milk from New Holland Brewing to give me something to sip as I mulled my options.

Well that turned out to be a good choice.  It was obviously a stout and the first sip was a surprise.  It had a very smooth vanilla flavor and another strong taste it took me a minute to figure out and another moment to confirm it was a bourbon barrel aged stout.  The bourbon taste was quite distinct and not bad along with the vanilla taste.  Good start to the meal.

I was torn between the bulgogi box namesake of the restaurant or the bimbim bowl.  The waiter was helpful to let me know the bulgogi had more meat and was a bit simpler where the bimbim bowl had a bit less meat but vegetables.  I decided the vegetables wouldn’t kill me and I could get the bimbim in a sizzling pot.

I got the spicy pork version of the bowl and since it was the weekend it came with a choice of side and I selected pickles.  This was maybe the best meal I had all week.

The bimbim was presented in a very hot bowl that had rice in the center topped with the spicy pork and an egg.  Surrounding the rice and meat were sliced cucumbers, collards, shredded collards, radishes, corn, onions and mushrooms.  The pork was spicy but not too bad, just enough to cause a tingle across my scalp and a bit of light sweat on the brow.  The sizzling pot cooked the rice right at the bottom to a little crunch which added even more to the overall texture and taste.  When I ordered the pickles I expected to get a mixed vegetable pickle mix but instead it was all cucumbers, thinly sliced and a bit sweet in vinegar.  Judging by the slices and ones in the bowl these were pickled in house and complemented the spicy pork quite well.

That was a ton of food and I managed to finish it off but not without working at it.  It was a great meal for a rainy mild winter day.  I’ll definitely be going back to try the bulgogi box.

Lunchistan

Posted on by

Pakistan

From Oktoberfest last blog I took the culinary-passport east to Pakistan via Zafram Kabab Palace.  I was actually trying to find a place that served Afghan cuisine and this place popped up but the best they really had that I could see was something they called Afghani rice with a couple of dishes.  Instead they mostly had Pakistani and Indian food and that’s what they advertise.  I decided what the heck I’d try them out.

They started out with a big downgrade from me.  I got there at 11:30, which is the opening time on their website, on their door and at least two places inside the restaurant but they were not yet opened.  There happened to be a family of folks from somewhere in southeast Asia who got there before me and were waiting as well.  We all sat in our cars for about 5 minutes and then they got out and stood around the door, at this point they had a few more join the initial crew so there were 8 of them.  One guy got impatient and banged on the door when he saw someone moving around inside.  That person unlocked the door and while I didn’t hear the whole conversation I saw one of the women tapping her watch and heard the guy say “12:00 o’clock”.  Every one of us immediately looked at the sign on the door that said 11:30 and then back at him like he was nuts.  We got in though and waited while they stocked the buffet.

The buffet was apparently the what they expected everybody to have because there was no offer to bring a menu or even a casual wave of the hand at the huge pictures of their food hanging from the walls.  At this point I was kind of just wanting to eat and leave so I decided to go with the buffet, in spite of the fact they didn’t have any damn kababs on the buffet.

The picture above was my second plate.  The first one I had a bit of goat biryani, white rice and chicken kadhai and some vegetable pakora.  The kadhai was chicken in a spicy tomato gravy and was quite good.  The pakora was essentially a battered potato slice along with a bit of other vegetable stuck to it and deep fried.  The second plate I had tandoori chicken pieces (they cut those chicken pieces very oddly), some white rice and pakora in a yellow curry gravy along with some naan to sop up the plate.  I didn’t catch the name of the yellow veggie stuff but it was suggested by the guy running the front who had become quite solicitous once everyone got in and got seated.  He came over a couple of time to make sure everything was good and on the first trip I got him to hook me up with a mango lassi, one of my favorite drinks.  The orange pile on the plate is gajar ka halwa, a carrot based pudding kind of thing.  The carrots were grated small and almost granular so it had an interesting texture.  It wasn’t as sweet as I thought it was going to be at first, which was good.

Overall the I’d give the place good marks for the food but they lose some for their apparent disregard for time and schedules and the initial greeting from the front man.  He made most of those back after the fact but first impressions do matter.

There’s a good recipe for kheer and a nice video on the Tell Me More page so check it out.

Next week is the last food truck Friday of the year so I’m going to have to go hard at finding new countries or new restaurants for old.

SEA Food

Posted on by

South East Asia

This weekend the South East Asian Coalition held their Street Food Festival and I couldn’t pass that up.

The festival was on Central Ave in the Plaza Midwood section of Charlotte.  They were using a parking lot for the festival and there weren’t really any provisions made for other parking so it was mainly street parking often in areas that weren’t really designed for it.  I found a spot I felt wouldn’t likely get me ticketed or towed and parked.

As I said they were using the parking lot and had three food trucks and several tents set up to serve food and a dozen or so other tents with crafts, organizations and drinks.  I have to say I was expecting more from a street food festival.  Two of the food trucks I was familiar with and have eaten at one already and the other was serving up only bubble tea.  The three tents that were to serve food were still setting up and didn’t start serving until after 12:00 and then it was nothing I couldn’t get at most Asian restaurants around town.  I overcame my disappointment and decided to go ahead and try the Yummi Banh Mi food truck.  Specifically I got their Vietnamese rice bowl with lemongrass pork and the free range egg add on.

For the record I took several pictures of the truck and in every single one someone walked in front of the logo.  Once I waited until the coast looked clear and just as I was pushing the button a kid ran through the frame so here’s the best of the lot.  More importantly though the rice bowl was very tasty and very generous.  It consisted of steamed jasmine rice with cilantro, pickled carrots, daikon reslish, cucumber, jalapenos, the fried over medium egg and the lemongrass pork served with a vinegary dressing.  The lemongrass pork was sliced thin and cooked tender with a hint of the lemongrass flavor and some other mild spices.  I added a pack of soy sauce and that really made the whole thing just great and it alleviated some of the initial let down.

To drink I decided to try bubble tea since I’d never had it in spite of seeing it in quite a few Asian restaurants over my lifetime.

The Boba Café truck was only serving bubble tea but they had quite a few flavors to choose from.  My choice was mango because I just love mangos.  The drink looks small if you use the normal concept of a straw to inform your perspective but this straw was huge in diameter.  It was like one of those plastic pixie stix straws we’d get as a kid when we were flush with cash and needed a sugar rush that would last all day.  It had to be big because the boba are apparently tapioca balls about the size of a sweet pea that they put in the bottom of the drink.  If you’ve never had them they’re kind of soft and chewy without much flavor except being a little sweet.  The tea in this case was a little bit of green tea and the flavorings they used were powders that went in along with ice to form a blended ice concoction they dumped on top of the tapioca balls.  It had a good mango flavor and the tapioca made chewing your drink a thing so it was cool.

On my way out I saw a sign for Viet Coffee over one of the tents and thought I could go for a swig of coffee after that rice bowl.  So it turns out a nice, smiling older Vietnamese lady was sitting there making iced coffees, mixing them one at a time.  She had her strong brewed coffee, she’d add a little sugar, a couple of teaspoons of Eagle brand condensed milk, whisk them up add a little water and ice before giving it another good stir and you were good to go.

It was nice and strong and a nice way to wrap up the visit to the street food festival.  So after my initial disappointment I was able to finish with three positive experiences and that has to be a win for the afternoon.  Next weekend I have Food Truck Friday and Octoberfest Saturday so that should be good for a couple of posts.

 

 

Kaaaaahn!

Posted on by

DragonCon Edition

I guess that should have been Connnn!  Well, nerds gotta nerd.

This past weekend I carted the old culinary passport to DragonCon 2017.  In addition to all the great pop-culture, geek, gaming, educational, art and cosplay available there is no shortage of food options in downtown Atlanta.  In the host hotels and at the Americas Mart buildings you can’t swing a dead Pokémon without hitting a pizza or sandwich stand.  If you walk a bit further the Peachtree Center food court offers a ton of variety all jammed together and offers plenty of opportunity to make new friends as any empty chair at a table is gold and sharing tables is pretty much obligatory and sitting in the floor, back against the wall is not unheard of.  If you want to enjoy a bit of downtime from the crowds you can find some of the restaurants that aren’t totally overwhelmed with con goers.  I visited three while I was there.  One was a revisit and two were new.  They are truly international in theme as one was Italian, one Turkish and one a Pacific rim themed restaurant.

The first of the trio was Amalfi Pizza on Andrew Young Int’l Blvd.  The entrance opens to a wide set of stairs in a decorated foyer that take you into the restaurant proper.  There was plenty of seating and I was shown to a table by a smiling young lady.  I decided to have one of their house specialties, Pizza Amalfi and a Jekyll Brewing Hop Dang Diggity to wash it down.

The pizza was great.  First off it’s from a wood fired pizza oven so you get that little bit of char that adds that extra touch to the pizza.  The pizza itself had fresh mozzarella, spicy sausage, crushed tomato sauce, peppadew peppers, caramelized onions, and their own bacon jam.  The toppings weren’t piled on like a lot of franchise pizzas so the flavors might vary from one bite to the next.  When you got a bit of the bacon jam it gave the pizza an almost barbeque sauce flavor with the sweet and smoky flavor.  The sausage wasn’t very spicy in my opinion but did have a good Italian sausage flavor.  The beer was an IPA, nothing special amid the glut of IPAs in the craft brew world.

Next up was Truva for lunch.  I did a blog entry for Truva last year that you can find in the archives if you choose.  Truva is a Turkish restaurant and is a dimly lit place on a second floor and out of the way enough that only the people from the con who truly want Turkish food show up so it’s a great getaway spot.  This year I decided to have a couple of their appetizers instead of an entrée as I figured it might be a little less heavy.  I got the Etli Borek and Karniyarik.  I loved the menu description of the etli borek, cigar shaped meat pastry.  Karniyarik is stuffed eggplant.  While I was waiting for the apps I was provided with a metal basket of warm bread with black sesame seeds and olive oil & balsamic vinegar to dredge it through.

That bread was worth the trip.  Trying to be mindful of the calories I only ate a couple of pieces and felt like that was showing heroic restraint.  Fortunately my meal of starters showed up.

The stuffed eggplant was partially peeled in sections to provide a decorative presentation and it was stuffed with a ground, spiced lamb and beef combo.  It was ok but honestly I think it could have been spiced up a bit more and the eggplant was a little rubbery.  Not my favorite dish from Truva to date.  The cigar shaped meat pastries were better although it was essentially the same meat mixture.  It benefitted from the pastry dough and the yogurt sauce which tasted like it had some mint in it.  They could have doubled the sauce and made the dish twice as good as far as I’m concerned.  I wrapped it up with a Turkish coffee.  I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get the fancy cup like I did last time but the coffee was good.  I’d have to give this visit only 4 stars.  I’d have gone as low as 3.5 but the waiter was very good so that kept in the very good range.  Oh yeah and the bread, I finished that basket before I left.

Last but certainly not least was the Pacific Rim Bistro on Peachtree Center Ave.  It covers a wide span of Asian cuisines including sushi.  This place was packed with con goers so I was seated at the sushi bar and even though I didn’t order any I got to watch them make it as I waited for my food.  In addition to seating at the sushi bar they have tables inside as well as outside and both high tops and regular tables.  The staff is also very attentive.  I was checked on by at least three people aside from my server but it wasn’t annoying.  I was torn between the Malaysian curry chicken and the Lamb stew in coconut curry and my server was helpful enough to let me know the lamb stew had been extremely popular so that tipped the scales.

The stew came with big chunks of vegetables; peppers, broccoli, potatoes, and cauliflower, all sharing the coconut curry bath with a healthy portion of bite sized lamb.  The menu indicated it would come with black and jasmine rice but they only had jasmine by the time I ordered mine.  That wasn’t a problem though as this was fantastic.  It was one of the best things I’d eaten all week.  I even like the cauliflower, which is a vegetable I’ve never really cared for.  I’d definitely recommend this dish to anyone that didn’t have an aversion to something a little spicy.

Overall I was quite happy with my international dining experiences while enjoying DragonCon.  If you’re in downtown Atlanta don’t hesitate to check one of these places out.

 

Noodles in the Wings?

Posted on by

Japan

Today felt like a sushi for lunch kind of day.  NC Noodle Bar came up in the search for local (Rock Hill) sushi and was some place I hadn’t been before.  It was one of many but I’m so glad I decided to check them out over the others.

At about 4 miles from my house it was pretty convenient.  I got there fairly early for lunch and was the only patron.  It’s a fairly small place with about 9 or 10 tables and 4 seats at a counter.  I was told to have a seat anywhere and they’d be right with me.  Of the three people I saw working there all of them were very friendly and smiled a lot.  They have menus on the table but they also bring over a paper sushi menu with “happy hour” and regular pricing and I was in during happy hour.  Score!  As the name implies they have various noodle dishes from southeast Asian countries but also salads, soups and rice dishes.  The post is tagged Japan because I got sushi which is a fairly recent addition to their menu.  I placed my order and the guy who took my order was also the sushi chef so that was interesting.  They brought out a single chicken dumpling as a free appetizer.  It was crunchy and you can see from the picture it wasn’t steamed but I’m not sure if it was baked or fried.  Either way it was a nice little start.

I ordered the stuffed wings and the NC Noodle Bar Special Roll.  The roll was ready just a bit before the wings so I actually ate that before the appetizer.  I thought it was visually appealing but you can judge for yourself.

The roll had red and white tuna as well as salmon.  There was a slice of avocado on each section and each slice was topped with a dab of sauce and there were 4 different fish eggs represented.  The interior of the rolls had cucumber and some crabmeat and cream cheese and there was something crunchy.  It was very enjoyable and quite filling so the appetizer was looking like desert.

The stuffed wings were “huuuuge”.  They were deboned and stuffed with mushrooms and rice noodles and deep fried.  A sweet sauce accompanied them but it was a bit too sweet for me.  Those things were good and I don’t know how they do that magic but I’m glad they do it.  Between the dumpling and the big sushi roll I had to bring one home with me for a snack later.

There is no question I will be going back here and recommend it.  It’s not big or fancy but the food was great and the staff was very pleasant and helpful both of which are high on my list of desirable traits in a restaurant.  One question I forgot to ask was why they are called NC Noodle Bar when they are located in SC but that’ll have to be on the next visit.

 

 

I Shall Return

Posted on by

Philippines

This weekend I was able to add a new stamp on the Culinary-Passport by visiting a Filipino restaurant with great friends and previous blog participants, Andy, Melanie and Ian McGehee.  Any meal shared with friends I’m predisposed to like but Hot4Wings / Filipino Flair in Lexington, SC earned my like by serving up some great dishes.

The restaurant is in a busy little shopping center and isn’t very big but the few booths and tables they had accommodated the small number of patrons that visited while we were there. That was good for us but this place should be busier than it was on a Saturday afternoon.  As the name implies the place has wings and in quite a large number of flavors but that wasn’t what we came for and judging by what we heard I think the Filipino Flair side of the menu is what’s growing and was certainly what we came for.

The gentleman working the counter and we presumed an owner of the establishment was very glad to answer any questions and offer up suggestions from the menu.  One thing to note is this is a smaller place and they may be out of some of the items temporarily or have limited supply.  He was quick to point out what he was out of or was limited in so as to set expectations which is a great customer service move.  As we talked through out orders we made it clear there would be sharing and he brought plates and the meals were set in the middle of the table so they could be communally shared.

We started with the lumpia rolls.  We got pork and allegedly they had vegetarian as well but there was an option with meat so….


Lumpia are basically a deep fried egg / spring roll kind of deal but these had some very tasty marinated pork in it and not just a speck but a significant porcine presence.  The dipping sauce was a fairly spicy chili sauce, not too hot and a little sweet.  Great way to whet the appetite for the feast to come.

Next up we got the house pancit.

This dish was rice noodles with meat and shrimp and a lot of goodness.  The noodles were light and flavorful while the meat was tender and tasty.  The shrimp all disappeared as well so I’m assuming it was good.  We quickly put a dent in this which was good because the next two dishes arrived soon after.

Here we had the pork adobo and sizzling sisig.  Both came with white rice and the adobo had some vegetable garnish as well.  The adobo was marinated pork bites served in some of the marinade that made a nice gravy for the semi-sticky rice.  The sizzling sisig was shredded pork cooked in a sauce that has mayonnaise as a key ingredient and those red peppers on top added spice aplenty.  For the curious sisig was originally made from the pigs face being all chopped up with other ingredients that wouldn’t necessarily make the first cut at your finer dining establishments.  I doubt this was pig face sisig but even if it was I don’t care because it was good.  The last of the entrees we were told would take a little bit longer and it showed up after we had done some serious damage to the these two.

The final entrée was crispy pata which is deep fried pork leg.  I expect this takes longer because as I now understand it the joint is typically boiled to tenderize it a bit and then deep fried.  The deep frying turns the skin into crackling and actually cooks out some but not all of the fat.  The pata was served with two sauces, one vinegar based and one we couldn’t determine the composition of but it was brownish grey, a little bit sweet and complimented the pork very well.  I think the vinegar was rice wine vinegar but I wouldn’t swear to it.  Dipping the pork in the vinegar gave it a kind of eastern NC BBQ flavor.  Oh yeah it had that unnecessary vegetable garnish as well.

As full as we were we had to try one of the deserts and opted for the banana lumpia.

The banana lumpia is pretty much what you could guess.  Banana and some mystery ingredient (we forgot to ask) wrapped in a roll, deep fried and topped with powdered sugar.  It really wasn’t that sweet and there was general agreement with Melanie’s observation that they would go great with ice cream.

I’d definitely recommend this place to anyone.  I know most of our dishes had pork but they have a number of chicken and other shrimp dishes as well as wings and sandwiches.  If you can round up friends to take all the better.  Give them a try if you’re in the area and if you want to know more about the Philippines check out the Tell Me More page.

 

Another Super Saturday

Posted on by

Korea

Last blog was Super Bowl themed and this one is Super G.  There is a Korean restaurant in the Super G Mart food court along with a couple of others so it’s a repeat weekend.  It would be impossible not to compare Super G with the previous Korean experience at Pepero.  Both meals were at restaurants in a market but the difference was huge.  Where Pepero feels like a family owned local place with a great authentic restaurant attached, the Super G Mart is like a prototype for an International supermarket chain that added a semi-fast food Korean eatery in the corner.  Both are great for what they are but this is about the Super G so on to the food.

As you can see in the picture they have a pictographic menu plus some items packaged at the register and some dishes in the case under the menu.  I decided to try the bibimbap this time, although I was almost tempted to go with the bulgogi since I enjoyed it so much at Pepero but stayed the course and tried the new dish.

The Jethro sized bowl had mixed vegetables and some marinated beef resting on a foundation of white rice and topped with a lightly fried egg.  Included was a side of kimchi and some extra heat if you wanted to spice it up.  I really enjoyed the mix of vegetables with the rice and egg and the marinated meat was fantastic.  The kimchi was not very spicy but there was enough of the side heat to ratchet it up to whatever level you wanted.  I kept it pretty mild and enjoyed the whole meal.  I saw a few dishes other people had ordered and they all looked pretty good too.  I’d definitely eat here again, after trying the other two places of course.

After enjoying the meal I decided to wander the aisles and see what they had and I was definitely impressed.  The produce section has more variety than I’ve ever seen anywhere and it is arranged very logically.  From there I strolled into the meat department and just past the beef lips and bull fries I came upon these.

That means somewhere out there is a recipe that calls for beef knee-caps.  After this I just wandered up and down the aisles checking out the familiar international treats but things I’ve never heard of before.  I did wind up buying a couple of packs of cookies, some Korean rice cakes (not the crunchy snack kind), and some fish sausage, just because.  Each came from a different country; India, Oman, Korea & Japan.  Another thing that set this apart from a general trip to the market was the people.  I wouldn’t even begin to guess the number of different nationalities were represented by the crowd but to say it was diverse would be an understatement.  It won’t be my last visit to the Super G and if you have need of some odd ingredient, sauce, meat, spice, check them out.

 

Sushi Saturday

Posted on by

Japan

It felt like a seafood weekend so a little sushi seemed to be in order.  Representing Japan for the Culinary-Passport was Red Bowl Asian Bistro in Rock Hill.  To be precise they are an Asian fusion restaurant and have multiple cuisines represented on the menu so they aren’t solely a Japanese place but they do have a pretty extensive sushi menu as well as hibachi options.  There are at least 4 Red Bowl restaurants in the area so their offering certainly provided a level of success.  I’m pointing this out because my experience wasn’t the kind a culinary empire is built on.

I was greeted by a nice lady who directed a young lady to seat me.  She didn’t sigh but it sure felt like I was interrupting her leaning time.  The waitress was Jenny on the spot and was at the table and ready to take my drink order before I even got the menu open.

I decided to start with a crispy chicken egg roll and for the entrée went with the lunch sushi which is a “pick two” from a limited selection of rolls or 3 pcs of chef’s choice nigiri plus either miso soup or salad.  I chose the Fantasy Roll, the nigiri and miso soup.  The egg roll arrived so fast my Kindle app had not even loaded yet.  It was warm and tasted pretty decent, nothing exceptional.

So next my sushi came and I had to mention I was supposed to get miso soup and was told “oh, it’s on the way”.  I guess the soup comes after the entrée here.  I waited the couple of minutes it took to get the miso and really shouldn’t have bothered.

The soup was mediocre and I didn’t bother finishing it.  The fantasy roll (crab, roe, spicy mayo) was good but I’ve had better from a Publix grocery store.  The nigiri was the high spot as the fish and shrimp looked good, had nice textures and tasted fresh.

Overall this was a disappointing experience and I couldn’t recommend them based on this visit.  Even my fortune cookie arrived broken and the fortune was something about how great my wife was.  Having said that, a number of years ago I went to the Red Bowl in Fort Mill and it was excellent so I might give them another try once the memory of this trip fades.

If you didn’t visit it last time check out Tell Me More – Japan

 

Revisiting SE Asia

Posted on by

Vietnam II

Earlier in the week Yelp thought I should know about a new hot restaurant in the area, Be’s Noodle & Banh Mi.  Since I have other plans for the weekend this seemed like a perfect suggestion for a Friday lunch and a use of the blog scheduler.

This little restaurant is in a popular little shopping area off North Community House road in Ballantyne.  I went during a less busy time of the day but there was still a bit of traffic in and out while I was there.  The place is very new and clean and the staff was friendly and welcomed everyone that came in the door.

This is another order at the counter and they bring it to your table kind of place.  They have a limited menu and it looks like pho is their star player followed by banh mi and some rice dishes.  The pho looked good but that’s what I had at the last Vietnamese place and as much as I loved it I decided to try something else just to expand the experience.  I went with their “original” banh mi sandwich and I got the grilled pork belly skewers appetizer just because.  The appetizer actually came out just a few minutes behind the sandwich but close enough that I still started with it.

The first thing I noticed was they jammed those skewers pretty tight so there was a decent amount of pork belly on each one.  The next was they did use real flame grilling as you can see from the little bit of char.  So let me just say this is pork belly and if you don’t like fatty meats you need to bypass this.  Don’t get me wrong it’s not all fat but hey, it’s pork belly.  Now that we’ve gotten past the caution, on to the taste test.  It passed.  There was a mild sweetness added to the flavor of the grilled pork and the sauce it came with added a little bit more smoky taste plus some spicy heat.  Nice start to the meal.

The banh mi I got was the original cold cut version and had three types of pork; pork roll, ham and pork pâté.  Along with those we had some cucumber, carrot, daikon radish, jalapenos and cilantro all on a 10″ baguette.  As far as I’m concerned they could have put just about anything in that baguette and it would have been good.  It was wonderfully crusty on the outside and properly soft and slightly chewy inside.  The sandwich as a whole was good.  The meats weren’t outstanding but the pâté was interesting, in a good way.  I think I’ll try them again for the pho at some point in the future but I’m not rush to have this sandwich again.   Overall I think this is a good addition to the area and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it for a quick bite.