Revisiting SE Asia

Posted on December 24, 2016 by culina23_wp

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.

Rendang That Was Good

Posted on August 28, 2016 by culina23_wp

Malaysia

This weekend took the passport to the opposite side of the globe from the Irish but just a short jaunt to Charlotte for me. Malaya Kitchen was the stop this weekend. It’s on Providence Rd in south Charlotte and in a strip center that’s like the UN of restaurants. There are 9 restaurants sharing a parking lot and I wrote them down because Wow; Pizza Hut, Cherry Blossom Chinese, Acropolis Café, Charlotte Café, Sushiya Japanese, Malaya Kitchen, Bella Fresco Italian Mediterranean, Qdoba Mexican, & Chile’s.

Back to Malaya Kitchen. The place is a restaurant and lounge and they have pretty subdued lighting suitable for a lounge so it wasn’t surprising most people were asking to be seated in a brighter area near the front window. The bar part of the main seating area rather than a separate section but the whole thing seems to work.

The menu has a lot of things you find on most southeast Asian fusion restaurants but they did have a few things identified as being Malaysian so I went with the popiah appetizer and beef rendang from the lunch menu. The rendang came with a salad, the first of 3 surprises, so I basically had a small 3 course lunch.

The salad was unremarkable but the popiah was interesting. It was a shrimp spring roll with a plum chili sauce over it. I got mine steamed but they also offer it fried. Oh yeah there was shredded lettuce and carrots on the plate too like some mini salad, surprise #2. It was still there the waiter took the plate away. The beef rendang was next.

Surprise #3, the rendang came with broccoli too. I know you’re thinking “look at all that broccoli” and shuddering kind of like I did but I have to say it wasn’t that bad. They were pretty tasteless but they were firm and a little crunchy so they had texture going for them. I got white rice but brown rice is an option as well in case you were wondering.

OK so the rendang is basically like a really really thick beef stew. This one had some potatoes in it and big chunks of beef that had been simmered in what the menu called exotic spices and coconut milk. It was a bit sweet and a little savory with no heat from spices. Personally I think it should have had some and based on the research for the recipe on the Tell Me More page it traditionally does bring the heat. In spite of that lack it was quite tasty. That pineapple slice was a fine garnish as well. It served to drive out the taste the broccoli did have plus was a nice palette cleanser at the end of the meal.

This is a decent place and the staff was very professional and the food tasted good. If I lived in the area I could see dropping by fairly often to dine or lounge.

No Hobbits In Sight

Posted on August 13, 2016 by culina23_wp

New Zealand

Well this week was a bit interesting. I found a restaurant called the New Zealand Café and I thought Jackpot! Who would have thought we had a restaurant specializing in New Zealand food. I didn’t even know what that might be other than probably mutton so I was looking forward to it even if was in Matthews.

Imagine my surprise when I walked up and they are advertising $1.00 sushi. It’s a fairly small place but apparently quite popular as it was almost at capacity 10 minutes after opening and they have the tables squeezed in to maximize the seating potential. I got a seat and was provided with not one but four menus. There was the new sushi menu, the daily special sushi menu, the regular sushi menu and the everything else menu. I was beginning to suspect they might specialize in sushi. I like sushi but I just had some excellent fish for dinner so I opted for the everything else menu in the hopes of finding something New Zealand-y.

Not even one mutton dish and nothing else that felt unique to NZ. So with a bit of disappointment I ordered the New Zealand pork chop. While I was waiting I got a look at some of the sushi rolls and bento boxes being served to others and I have to say they looked pretty good. When my meal arrived it was on a tray, as you can see below, like the bento boxes and the way the pork was cooked it reminded me of what I had in Japan.

The pork chop was fried and served with onions and a mayonnaise sauce that turned out to be sweet which was a surprise and better than I expected. I went with noodles instead of rice and it came with salad, two fried shrimp and two chicken skewers. The meal was good but really felt much more Japanese than anything else.

I expect you could get all the items on the menu in New Zealand somewhere but nothing on the menu was uniquely New Zealandish. If I was in the area again and felt like grabbing some sushi I’d join the crowd and grab some here because it looked quite good and they had a huge variety.

On the other hand the Tell Me More page has a music video with some amazing scenic shots of New Zealand, plus a kid friendly recipe.

Like the title mentions there was a disappointing lack of hobbits for a place with New Zealand in the name.

A Taste of India

Posted on May 22, 2016 by culina23_wp

India

From Japan last week I ventured west to the Indian subcontinent as represented by Chaupaati Indian Restaurant in Pineville, NC. I’ve been to some other Indian restaurants in town that were pretty good but wanted to try a new one and their subtitle, “Casual Indian Kitchen”, pulled me in.

It’s located in a non-descript shopping center so unless you knew it was there you probably wouldn’t stumble on it. Fortunately they do have a pretty good website to give you an idea what you’re in for menu wise and to provide directions, see the link at the bottom of the post.

When I arrived there was one person waiting for take out, which is apparently a good part of their business, and the young lady working the counter. When I told her I hadn’t been in before she grabbed a menu and asked if I’d ever had Indian before. When I said I had she asked what I liked and proceded to point out some popular choices. She was very nice, willing to try to help someone pick out a meal they’d like and industrious judging by her activities while I was there. I settled on the Lamb Chetinad, an order of butter roti and a mango lassi.

When I ordered she asked if I wanted it medium or spicy and to be on the safe side I went medium. Turned out to be the prudent choice.

The lamb chetinad is a curry made of coconut, chili, masala and other spices with chunks of lamb. It comes with rice as you can see and the roti sops up the curry quite nicely. The lamb chunks were very tender and just about melted in my mouth. The sauce itself was about the perfect spiciness for me and I’m not too proud to admit the spicy would probably have done me in and made the dining experience not nearly as pleasant. The flavor was very good and the portions quite generous. At first I thought it seemed expensive but I had two helpings and still took some home so two people could easily share this dish. Oh and last but certainly not least was the mango lassi. That was worth the trip all by itself.

It is a sweet yogurt drink with mango and according to the menu it had pistachios as well. I couldn’t taste the pistachios but the mango was there in force. It was a bit like a milk shake but not quite as thick. I could’ve downed a gallon of this stuff.

My verdict is this is a great place to get authentically Indian food of good quality in a comfortable atmosphere. The menu is extensive enough anyone should be able to find something they could like.

Here is the link to their website and don’t forget to check out Tell Me More for a chetinad recipe and Bollywood dance numbers of course.

Chaupaati Restaurant

Japan in Amber

Posted on May 16, 2016 by culina23_wp

Japan

After skipping a week and being busy as IT support Saturday and hitting the cinema to see Capt. America Sunday, keeping it close to home was an attractive option so I decided to head on over to Amber Buffet & Hibachi to represent Japan. I’d seen it many times since moving to Rock Hill but the hibachi part filled the bill today. They were moderately busy at 2:00pm Sunday. It had the most diverse cross section of humanity I’ve come across on any of these dining experiences. I guess buffets are the great equalizers. The dining area was a bit dim and they love some colored lights. The buffet area was a actually better lit and quite large.

The first thing I hit was the sushi line. There was a nice selection of pretty basic options and I tried one of each. You can pick you wasabi and ginger from a big bowl. It all looked pretty vibrant and the way people were hitting the sushi station they had to be restocking it pretty often although I didn’t see anyone making them.

After that appetizer I ventured down that same line to the hibachi zone. Here you pick you meat and a few veggies and some noodles if you want and put the plate on the counter and they line them up and grill the contents, put the finished product on a new plate and set it on the other end of the counter. Nice and easy. I was kind of surprised they didn’t have any rice there but that may have been to keep from having to clean it off the grill. Whatever the reason I wasn’t sad to go with the steak, chicken, noodles, fungus and veggies.

After that I perused the buffet lines. There is a big rectangle with plates of you standard oriental buffet fare and then a couple of lines with salads & vegetables and one with deserts and ice cream. I did like the white serving plates that gave everything a bright clean look. I opted for a couple of items from the steamer section and ended the day with some fruit.

On one hand I’m sorry I never went in before now and on the other I’m glad because I could get big as a house if it became a habit. As buffets go I have to give this place high marks. The food was good, the staff was friendly, the patrons were well mannered and never once did I see people waiting at an empty spot on the buffet. I’ll be back but not too frequently.

Here’s the web site and don’t forget to check out the Tell Me More page for a yum yum sauce recipe and a great music video.

Amber Buffet & Hibachi

Khan I Get a Bowl

Posted on April 16, 2016 by culina23_wp

Mongolia

Mongolia visa, entry and exit stamps, 2011

I’ll start with an apology for the title but I couldn’t help myself. Obviously I took the culinary passport north of China to Mongolia this week. To represent the Mongols’ food I dropped in at the Genghis Grill for Mongolian BBQ. The restaurant is in a nice area in a little strip center that was unbelievably popular today. I wound up having to park in another parking lot and walk a bit to get to the Genghis Grill. That was ok though as I was in third place in a Fitbit challenge so I needed the steps anyway.

I was greeted at the front by a polite fellow who asked if I’d been there before and since I hadn’t he took me to my seat, got my drink order and then came back and walked me through their process. You choose your bowl size first from small, regular or large. The regular was actually wider than the large but more shallow and I’m not sure it’s not the better deal based on the model. Once I had my large bowl he walked me up to their Fresh Bar where there were essentially 4 stations; meat, spices, vegetables, and sauces. The deal is you can pile as much in the bowl as you can without leaving a trail behind you. I think the regular size bowl with a wider, albeit more shallow, profile might allow for a higher pile if you are feeling like a challenge has been issued. As you can see from the pictures below there were a lot of options at each station and if you want to see what they all were check out the website via the link at the bottom.

I decided not to make it a challenge to see how much meat or how high it could be piled but instead went with some Mongolian chili shaved beef and Korean pork in moderate amounts for protein. From the spice station I had some yellow curry, garlic & ginger. The vegetables all looked fresh and I piled up a sampling from well over half the options. From the sauces I only grabbed the Mongolian BBQ sauce and the Dragon sauce which was a little sweet with a little heat. From here I took it to the grill where I got to pick three “sides” with the large bowl. Choices were steamed rice, brown rice, fried rice, udon noodles, cabbage, and tortillas. I went with brown rice, cabbage & udon noodles and a couple of eggs thrown in because why not. You can see the giant grill below and the sticks they use to stir it around with. Another place I’ve been had giant metal blades which I personally think were cooler but this guy got the job done.

The picture doesn’t make it clear how much food that was. I ate all I wanted and still brought a box home. I’m glad I didn’t overdo any of the spices or sauces since it is mixed all together. The flavors all melded together nicely and I didn’t add anything else once they brought it to the table. If you like to be inventive and try different combinations this is your kind of place. You could come every week for a year and have a different recipe each time. One more word about the staff I interacted with while I was there. They were all very polite, smiled and were helpful and when they had a little rush the general manager jumped in and helped at the grill until the rush was over. Overall thumbs up from me.

Here is the link to the corporate website. Genghis Grill

Also don’t forget to check out Tell Me More to check out the Mongolian throat singing video.

Dim Sum – Yum!

Posted on April 11, 2016 by culina23_wp

China

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One cool thing this week was I got to use the passport stamp from my own passport for China.

There are many options for Chinese cuisine and it can be a difficult decision which way to go but I knew from the start I wanted to visit a dim sum restaurant. For those who don’t know dim sum is a Cantonese style of food cooked in small bites or portions often served in small steam baskets. It is perfect for trying a lot of different dishes. Bringing friends means you can try even more items without overstuffing, and well, all meals are just better with friends. So I called in reinforcements from Columbia; the McGehees, Andy, Melanie & Ian plus Ms. Christy Goodman.

They first introduced me to the Dim Sum Chinese Restaurant in Charlotte and it has never failed us. The place isn’t fancy by any stretch but it is clean and bright. You can order from a menu if you want but the main attraction for us is the dim sum that comes around on carts of steamers or plates. They push it up to your table and you pick out what you like or think is interesting. We wound with several types of dumplings, buns, crepes, feet, custards. That’s right I said feet. Tried my first and probably last chicken feet on this trip. As you can see in the photo (3rd one down) they don’t look bad and honestly they aren’t.

The chicken feet had a nice coating that was flavorful but the foot itself was mostly skin and gelatinous goo that was sort of chicken flavored and overall very bony. They weren’t bad but my overall impression was more of a “why bother” with all the other delicious options available. So while I wouldn’t balk at eating them again, I’m not going to add them to my favorite things to eat column either.

The rice noodle shrimp things were popular at the table and the shiu mai, leek, pork and shrimp dumplings all got gobbled up. The steamed bbq buns were tasty but I forgot they had paper on the bottom so I got a little extra fiber in one bite. We had some shrimp balls and shrimp toast, not to mention the crabmeat wrapped in bacon (because what isn’t better wrapped in bacon), some shrimp, leek and egg pancakes and stuffed eggplant. For desert we had a little egg custard, not too sweet but just sweet enough to qualify as desert.

As I said this restaurant has always delivered a good meal and a good time spent with friends. If you’ve never had dim sum I encourage you to find a place that serves it, grab some friends and go enjoy. Just a tip it might be something on a weekend menu for some Chinese restaurants that may serve more “traditional” fare during the week.

Don’t forget to check out Tell Me More for a video featuring double erhu’s and a list of dim sum recipes.

Luck O’ the Vietnamese?

Posted on March 19, 2016 by culina23_wp

Vietnam (by way of Ireland)

Vietnam

When I left the house today for lunch it was to have a taste of Ireland in honor of St Patrick’s day. My destination was Belfast Mill located in Charlotte’s Brevard Court. Guess when Charlotte’s St Patrick’s day parade was? Guess what was very close to the parade route? That’s right, Today & Belfast Mill pub. Undeterred I worked around the closed streets and found a parking deck a couple of block away that was reasonably priced. On the way over I came across the streets closed off and covered with vendors of such Irish treats at funnel cake & fried what nots and a stage where some troubadours were belting out Star of the County Down.

Short walk later I head into the Belfast Mill. The bottom floor is a smallish pub with a bar area and there are some stairs going up to two other rooms with bars. One had some folks watching soccer, excuse me, football to them, and the other just a bar and a few tables. As I bellied up to the bar and ordered meself a pint I found out two things; they don’t serve food any longer and they are renovating the place. I had brief chat with the bartender, knocked back the Guinness and headed out in search lunch and as luck would have it Brevard Court offered me some options like the Pho Plus noodle restaurant.

The Pho Plus is a nice place right across from the cupcake shop (I pointedly ignored the siren’s call of those evil baked goods). There weren’t very many people in the place when I got there, in fact the staff outnumbered the patrons at that point. That worked in my favor since I told the guy I had never been to a pho place before and asked for recommendation. He hooked me up with the beef pho and explained the condiments you could just dump in what you liked and helpfully pointed out the sriracha and hoisin sauces. He did tell me if I didn’t add any of the other condiments I should at least squeeze the lime into the soup.

The soup was delicious. I don’t know what was in the broth but it was good by itself and then the beef strips and chunks of beef ball (I didn’t ask too many questions) plus the bean sprouts, cilantro and peppers thrown in with the noodles plus that squeeze of lime and you had a hearty meal. I didn’t have any of the tea options they offered but they did have a number of hot teas, cold teas, teas with milk plus some beer and soft drinks. If I go back, and that’s very likely, I think I’m going to try the passion fruit tea.

So while I didn’t start out for Vietnamese I’m happy that circumstances led me to the Pho Plus Vietnamese Noodle restaurant and Brevard Court. Below is the link to their website and don’t forget to check out Tell Me More for bonus content on Vietnam.

Thai One On

Posted on March 5, 2016 by culina23_wp

Thailand

Thailand Stamp

Staying with the warm climate but moving halfway around the globe this week, Thailand was the country and Sunrise Thai Cuisine, #sunrisethai, was the place to eat. Interestingly (to me at least) an early iteration of this restaurant called Tropical Sunrise was the first place I visited for breakfast when I started posting weekend food pictures.

The name has changed but I believe it still has the same owners as the interior didn’t change and my waitress was the same one who waited on me before so there is definite continuity.

The menu is certainly different and has a number of authentic Thai foods including the ever popular Pad Thai. I decided to go for the chicken larb with a #3 on the 5 point spicy scale. My confidence in choosing the dish was reinforced when the waitress smiled, nodded enthusiastically and said “Good choice”. It was too.

I’ll admit when I first read it on the menu I thought it said LARP and for the non-geeky that is Live Action Role Playing and I was trying to figure out how that wound up being a salad. After the double take and reading the description this was a salad I could get on board with. The salad base was iceberg lettuce and cucumbers and the ground chicken part consisted of; chicken (duh), basil leaves, green onions, lime juice, chiles, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves and cilantro. Very tasty combo, throw in the rice and there was no room for dessert. Which was a shame because I really wanted to try either the mango and sweet sticky rice or the fried bananas and ice cream but it was not to be.

That #3 on the spicy scale turned out to be just about perfect for me as 4 or 5 would probably have made me cry and the two likely would have made me focus on how I could have handled hotter. As it was I felt the burn on lips and tongue as well as a tingling in the scalp. Before I finished the meal a bead of sweat ran down my cheek. It was hot enough to make my mouth sensitive to the other flavors but not so hot as to be painful.

If you are sensitive to spicy go you an do what I heard another staff member recommend at the table beside me. Go for the one and they’ll bring you spices to tweak it to your level.

My lucky streak continues and overall I’d have to give this place high marks on the food and the staff. Below is a link to the website and don’t forget to check out Tell Me More.

Sunrise Thai Cuisine

Seoul Food

Posted on February 6, 2016 by culina23_wp

Korea

After a bit of searching for Korean restaurants Pepero in Matthews, NC was the place I settled on for this weeks passport stamp. It’s not much to look at. When you walk in, to the right is the restaurant area and to the left is a Korean market. The fact there was a market was one of the deciding factors in picking Pepero. There are two seating areas side by side, one apparently the original and the other a more recent addition to accommodate more folks. I was seated in the older section which just reinforced the “it ain’t fancy” vibe but it was very clean and my table had recently been bused and you could smell the cleaner. Points for that.

There were only a few people there when I arrived but it quickly filled up and honestly I was heartened to see and hear the majority were Korean. If they were choosing to eat here I figured that was a good sign the food was authentic. There were some interesting choices on the menu but I settled on the Seafood Pancake from the appetizer section and the “Bul go gi dup bop”, Korean BBQ beef and rice. As you can see from the shot below it came with several sides.

I’m not sure what all was in the seafood pancake but I did detect shrimp and squid. It was good and the pancake texture reminded me of a potato pancake. The beef was thinly sliced and chopped and was marinated in a slightly sweet sauce and had green onions and sesame seeds sprinkled on it and the rice was chopstick friendly sticky rice. The sides were kimchi, some kind of greens, pickled cucumber with some mild spicy sauce, bean sprouts and what I think was tofu, at least it had that consistency. The vagaries of restaurant in a market lighting didn’t do the food justice in these pictures. Up close and personal it was quite appetizing. Oh there was soup at the beginning also. This was a lot of food and against my normal nature I brought food home. One reason I had to leave a little room was I knew this was available just outside in the market and I had to try it.

If you can’t read the package it is an ice cream sandwich in the shape of a fish with vanilla ice cream and red bean paste. The “cookie” was the same material they use to make the cheap ice cream cones you get in the store. Normally I hate those things (waffle cones rule!) but in this case it was great, easy to hold, no leakage and did I mention shaped like a fish. Who wouldn’t want to try that? For those going “red bean paste, are you serious?” it was tasty but never fear they did have versions with strawberry and chocolate.

I had to stop in the market and just wander around looking at all the things I had no idea what the hell they were. I did see Korean Spam which made me smile and more varieties of seaweed than I thought possible. I did buy a couple of other things I’m going to try later. Some because they shared the name with the restaurant and they had chocolate. The other was because it is a sweet potato cookie, how could I not.

Overall verdict is this place is worth going back to visit. If you want good Korean and plenty of it I’d recommend it. They don’t have a web site but you can Google them. Pepero in Matthews, NC.

Next week it’s a road trip to Columbia for Lebanese at Arabesque with friends.

Tell Me More

Culinary-Passport

Experiencing foods of the world locally

Category Archives: Asia Pac