ramblings of a Seattle travel, food and photography hound
Amid the current craze to start ramen restaurants, it's refreshing to find a restaurant that serves only soba. Sobaya (restaurants that specialize in soba) are not common in the States, though many Japanese restaurants have it on the menu among their other offerings. Seattle has a sobaya (and izakaya) in the form of Wallingford's Miyabi 45th, which began business... Continue Reading →
Despite the name's association with businesses Chinese, especially with 99 Ranch Market its anchor store, The Great Wall Shopping Mall in Kent also houses restaurants of other Asian nationalities. There are Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese restaurants inside, besides Chinese ones. Among them is a Vietnamese, or more accurately, a Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant, Húe Ký Mì Gia, that also calls... Continue Reading →
At around lunchtime, we were enjoying the Fremont neighborhood sights along Phinney Ave N. The question of where to eat was settled when we knew that Revel was just up the street. It is one of two restaurants operated by chefs Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi whose mission it is to fuse Asian and Western... Continue Reading →
I pondered whether to submit yet another review of Pestle Rock, the outstanding Isan Thai restaurant in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, but a couple of unusual dishes (unusual for us who live thousands of miles from Thailand) tipped the balance in favor of it. The original post was a lunchtime meal; the other a... Continue Reading →
One of the under-appreciated Japanese restaurants in Honolulu has to be Jimbo, which specializes in udon. The buses and people lining up in Waikiki suggests that Japanese tour companies favor Marukame Udon, which features make-your-own udon, a concept that has been picked up by U:Don in Seattle's University District. Jimbo is located in a part... Continue Reading →
We'd been going to Shanghai Café for a long time, shortly after it first opened in (I believe) 1998. So that's almost fifteen years that we've patronized what has become our go-to Chinese restaurant. Over the years, we've brought friends here. Almost without exception, they too have enjoyed the food. My daughter and son-in-law, both... Continue Reading →
For dinner, we headed over to Saigon Restaurant and ordered bún (☆☆½). It would have been a very good version if the noodles had been drained adequately after being removed from hot water. The result was a pool of water at the bottom of the bowl that diluted the nuoc cham that we like to pour over... Continue Reading →
Bamboodles makes its own bamboo stick noodles from a technique developed in China by a master named Hu Min in the early twentieth century. The chef here learned his trade from one of Min's disciples. The kneading of bamboo stick noodle dough is done by the master who straddles (actually, it looks more like a... Continue Reading →
On this visit to Southern California, we read a review in the Los Angeles Times of Kam Hong Garden, a Chinese restaurant in Monterey Park that specialized in making its own noodles. Here, they offer four kinds of pasta: hand-pulled (la mian), knife-cut (bai mian), hand-shaven (dao xiao mian), and flat noodles that are wider... Continue Reading →
One person, the proprietess of Wonton City, runs the entire operation: preps, cooks, waits and cashiers. Who we presume to be a daughter occasionally helps out. In a tiny space in the Lake Hills Shopping Center, having no more than 10 tables, she serves noodles and congee (rice porridge) at very reasonable prices. Of the... Continue Reading →
zoomeboshi 