Pizza Fusion in Downtown DM

Fong's Pizza
Des Moines

Thai chicken pizza with peanut sauce, carrot, celery, onion, and cilantro

cheese egg rolls with mozzarella

Fong's is a downtown institution of sorts for the young, hip and boozy.  Housed in an old chinese restaurant, traditional and fusion pizzas (think thai chicken and crab rangoon) are the specialty with an array of exotic drinks in novelty glasses.

Late Night Korean at Hodori

L: spicy tofu;   R: clear noodles with beef

assortment of panchan

Koreatown, Los Angeles

So happy to have landed here one night (guided by a local).  Korean food has a wonderful tradition of serving a lot of side dishes (panchan) with meals.  Here we have kim chi- spicy pickled cabbage, national food of Korea, and forever tainted by its association with the ONE Jeopardy! question I really wish I could have back.  Anyway, to the right of that you have some pickled sprouts- they do seem to like their pickling over there.  Works for me...

Lucky Dragon

Vietnamese iced coffee

caption

the design aesthetic is . . . not understated, let's say

Gone but not forgotten, Lucky Dragon was a local gem serving up Vietnamese/asian food on the 2nd Avenue corridor.  Much more authentic than the other Vietnamese spot everyone raves about.  The pic is of a banh mi, a Franco-Vietnamese fusion on a bun.  Take a french baguette and paté, mix with pickled vegetables and Vietnamese style pork, and voilá.

what the pho?

A-Dong Restaurant
Des Moines, Iowa

pho (beef noodle soup) with fresh fixins! sprouts, peppers, mint, cilantro, and basil; plus red chile sauce.

Fun fact (or "phuong fact", as I'd say to my Vietnamese friend): a "dong" is defined as "the basic unit of money in Vietnam" (among other things). I asked what the restaurant's name means and that wasn't it, though (I forget what it is exactly but I would've remembered that).
Anyway, After some wandering on the east coast, I finally found myself back in the heartland. Because I came back hungry and didn't have any food at my place on account of my trip, I headed to A-Dong for some pho, a quintessentially Vietnamese dish that consists of beef (and, depending on the exact variety you get, some combination of tendon, stomach, and the like), onions, and lots of fresh herbs served on the side. The pho that day was good, but not amazing. The meat and fixins were fine but I found the broth to be a little plain. The chile sauce livened it up, but still, I was not blown away. I've been a few other times and, again, good but not great. I'll definitely keep hunting for other spots in town that might be further from downtown and a little more authentic . . . (teaser for future post)

Take another little piece of my heart (on a skewer)

Yakitori Taisho
5 St. Mark's Place, NYC


Skewers of bacon-wrapped scallops, chicken, octopus, heart, and gizzard (left to right)

I've always been a lover of strange meats and Japanese yakitori places offer a world of offerings in that regard. Yakitori means "grilled chicken" but is used to refer to the practice of grilling other stuff on a skewer as well. Down in New York's East Village, there is a block that has cramped Japanese places sprinkled in among the other basement-level offerings. Taisho is supposedly the best, and I always thought the place three doors down, Oh Taisho, was a blatant ripofff meant to fool tourists w/ its identical font. Turns out they're owned by the same company. They offer some actual dishes (you can sort of see my friend's yakisoba in the background) but a variety of skewers (generously brushed w/ terriyaki sauce and/or pepper) and a bowl of rice does it for me.

Taste what the fuss is soba about

Soba noodles with grated radish and mushrooms
Soba Nippon- New York City

We start on the road, as the launch of this blog happened to coincide with a trip to the Orient (of the United States).
(that's a joke of sorts. expect a lot of dry humor)
I'll be back in the heartland soon enough writing hard-hitting expose's re: the taco trucks of Des Moines, so my friends among the coastal /"lamestream media" elites may soon lose interest; but in the meantime I have some food to share.
We start in midtown, at one of NYC's premiere soba spots. My original hope had been to write about one of the many high-end ramen shops in NYC but my friend Kleo(whose name has been changed for her protection) couldn't get away for lunch long enough to trek downtown. But soba is still plenty interesting.
Soba are thin hand-pulled buckwheat noodles that can be served cold w/ dipping sauce or hot w/ broth. I chose cold to get the full soba experience. From what I'd seen on "Anthony Bourdain:No Reservations," soba noodles are a big deal b/c of the meticulous, painstaking way in which they're prepared. And you have to respect the fact that they're the centerpiece of the dish and not just an accompaniment to some protein. I tried a few bites plain (no dipping sauce) to get the full experience and . . . I'd have to say something was "lost in translation" (though eating them didn't cause me to exchange longing glances w/ anyone across tiny alleyways). They were good but not transcendent and certainly not worth what this place was charging for them. I fully admit that it might be a cultural thing and that my tastebuds, overstimulated from a Western diet, may not be able to appreciate the subtle grace of the soba. Things got a little awkward when the dipping sauce came into play, as it wasn't immediately apparent how the sauce/garnishes should all be eaten. Still, I improvised the best I could and enjoyed the noodles more with the salt/spice of the dipping sauce (with some radish dissolved in it for even more kick) and mushroom.