The last time I was here, it was my first time at eating soup-y dumplings. I was spoiled. Some consider these the best.

I next had them in Hong Kong, filled with “hairy crab meat,” and while they were clean-tasting and good, I still longed for the version at Joe’s.

We had to wait over an hour outside to get in. You get a number, then wait to be called. The numbers started in the high 40s, and we were number 201. Was it worth the wait for Joe’s?

If you don’t want to try their other dishes, I recommend 3 baskets of dumplings for 2 hungry persons. We were pushing it hard with 4; and having eaten one each of the crab and pork varieties, I’d wager you get 1 of the crab and 2 of the pork. Tea is nice, but I really liked a nice cold soda with this. Helped cut the “fat.”

Eating these is a challenge to westerners; a gelatin “soup” is mixed in with the meat. You don’t want to pierce the wrapper; instead, use the tongs to place the dumpling in a soup spoon that you’ve already blessed with some of their ginger sauce. Place the dumpling on the side; let part of it hang off. Bite into this, and get ready, to suck in the soup into your mouth. This is both adventuresome and potentially painful if you’re not ready—at the start these things are hot.

But the richness of that broth and the meat inside, the ginger sauce, well, yes, it was worth it. These are divine little gifts, each one worth space in our lives to savor.

Unfortunately, you’re seated with strangers, the room in the restaurant was all taken up with the bustle of customers, and it’s not a haven for relaxing.

But the dumplings are exquisite.

After Hong Kong I’ve ordered them many times, including in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Maybe I have more of the world to see; nothing yet has beat Joe’s for me.

I might add that we got a few broken this time; I’d almost prefer a slightly safer (and thicker) wrapper. But the flavor was spot-on delicious.

Located on Pell Street in Chinatown.

You’ll also find they have another (original) location in Flushing, midtown NYC, and now a budding franchise in Japan.

During a recent visit to Charlottesville, I had the opportunity to try Peter Chang’s for lunch. We tried three things, and enjoyed each.

• Eggplant and Chicken Lunch Casserole
• Bamboo Fish
• Soupy Dumplings

The eggplant dish was probably the most typical; it had great flavor and was very satisfying. The bamboo fish was fried crispy in a delicious coating; it was coated in spices and salt and had a particular flavor with heat. I can’t put my finger on the exact combination of spices, but it was outstanding. The texture was perfect and the heat added with fried chilies was great.

The soupy dumplings came last, despite being advertised as an appetizer. Thankfully they told us which dishes took longer to prepare. These were large; larger than what we’ve encountered in New York or San Francisco. And while they weren’t the best we’ve had, they were still good and something I’d order again.

I’d heard interesting things about this restaurant, and now I can confirm… quite exciting and delicious treats may be had here! It’s located in the Barracks Rd. Shopping Center, closest to exit 124 if you’re coming west from Richmond.

What the restaurant lacks in decor it makes up for in variety. Among the treats are Chinese soupy buns (the best I’ve had in Richmond outside my own home), beef chow fun (wide noodles), and eggplant with basil. Young, professional Chinese folks in the community seemed to fill the dining room on my last visit, a telltale sign that the restaurant is doing something good.

The only curious aspect of this new place is the choice of a sushi bar. While some Americans may confuse one Asian person for another, or even the cuisines, I’m not sure how successful sushi is in a Chinese (here, with an emphasis on Cantonese cuisine) restaurant. We’ll see. So far, the Chinese part has been promising.

Ever feel like dim sum cuisine for dinner? These folks have it.

Just about everything we ordered here was tasty and delicious. Plan on ordering a lot of little dishes, as the bite-sized pieces of most things won’t fill you up alone. While we had some confusions with the service here, I blame the foreigners (us) moreso than the servers.

Just don’t expect any fanciful drinks from the bar — unless you can clearly articulate how to make your favorite drinks. I’m only sad I missed the live music by visiting on a Sunday evening.

We were a bit late for lunch during the week, so most of the items we got were ordered specifically, not off a rolling cart. Among the best dishes were the shrimp-stuffed eggplant, turnip cake, and shrimp-chive fried dumping (these seemed to be dumplings that had gone south, perhaps, and been smooshed against a griddle—who knows, they were still tasty).

Ultimately, we’d learned somewhere in the past this was the place to go, but the combination of a long wait and a severely dated interior probably would have us looking elsewhere next time.

It’s not to say you won’t find some tasty items on their menu.

The area has several high-profile Chinese eateries to explore. I’m glad I’ve crossed this one off my list; it will take several more visits up to D.C. to declare any sure winners. Likely Rockville, MD will be in the cards soon.

This weekend we made soupy dumplings, a favorite that can be eaten for any meal of the day. A shrimp, pork, and gingery mixture gets mixed with a flavorful aspic in a Chinese dumpling wrapper before getting steamed. Watch below to see details on how they’re made.

Incidentally, the place I first had these treats was at Joe’s Shanghai restaurant in NYC Chinatown. Folks there told us Joe’s surpassed what they normally got in San Francisco (I’ve tried them on both coasts, and Joe’s is still my favorite). See what Joe’s Shanghai has to say about this soupy dumpling:

The meal started with some Chinese-inspired beans in a spicy sauce with candied pecans. We ate these with chopsticks.

My appetizer of mini pork belly wontons were each delicious. They came with shavings of spring onion and delectable saucing.

The entrée was very saucy: short ribs served over dual purées with Indian spices. It was sweet and only mildly spicy. The texture and flavors were incredible.

My dining companion took to the halibut that came with both white and brown rices. While already a buttery fish, it came with a delectable sauce that was hinted with vanilla.

Chocolate dominated our dessert selections, but drama comes with the ordering of the chocolate soufflée. Chocolate sauce, ice cream, and whipped cream all get added to a perfectly-prepared chocolately, eggy creation. I love this dessert and this one pushed the envelope in the gluttony department.

The Source may just be your place for upscale, tasty dining while in D. C.

The evening’s 6-course tasting menu was augmented by 3 additions, including a mushroom amuse bouche, a lamb course, and an extra dessert course, spicy with ginger gelée and a pear canelle.

The mushroom “fritter” against a mushroom purée was the essence of delicious mushroom. It was a tease. It was served with a rhubarb “spritzer,” which at first sip, I described as “happy in a glass.” The second course was not as bold, but was equally as delicious, featuring young lamb.

The regular menu’s selection began with a Cured Aiguillette of Ivory Salmon. This included flavors of cherry and hyssop, and the tiniest dice of chive. It was pure, raw, and deep-flavored. “Ivory” refers to its color: instead of pink, it was mostly white. This course was refreshing.

The braised veal tongue with a blue crab beignet was interesting. It’s the first time I’ve eaten tongue. Served over an asparagus salad, the tastiest part was that hot crab beignet. It was delicious. Also special was the perfect cooking (and texture) of the asparagus.

The grilled Maine lobster was our favorite course, featuring house-made choizo sausage, young fava beans, and a so-called tomato broth. This broth was poured after service (the lobster coming upon a bed of bread), around the centerpiece, but was by far one of the most tastiest liquids upon which I’d ever supped. I can’t believe it was “just” tomato, as I exclaimed, “something died to make this broth so delicious.”

That’s why Ziebold is a chef, I just a cook.

The pan roasted ribeye of prime beef was good, but not overly exciting. One piece was well-salted, the other was not. The sides, which included mushroom-flavored onions and “potato tobacco” was delicious—both winners. The wine pairing here, a Spanish tempranillo was a perfect match, a rather luscious wine.

The cheese cart visit was most pleasing. Each diner can choose their own personalized tour of cheeses. We both especially liked one that had three milks (cow, sheep, and goat) that had a texture reminiscent of whipped cream. Spicy nuts and nubs of sweet fruit pastes added more dimension to the cheeses themselves.

The meal unfortunately ended on a sour note, specifically, a dessert they call City Zen Piña Colada, with flavors of pineapple and coconut. The pastry is described by the menu as a “chiboust,” and by the waiter as a “kind of soufflé,” but I found it disappointing. The wine pairing, however, was perfectly suited to the tropical, sour flavors, a 2005 Linden Petite Manseng from Virginia.

All in all, my trip to City Zen was rewarding and delicious. In comparison to the master Thomas Keller, these dishes were more bold. But like Keller’s cooking, a lot of detail went into each dish: its flavor profiles, its texture. Excellent bread service (including the famous buttery parker house rolls) was included, with two Pennsylvania butters. One was soft like melting sweet ice cream, the other with a salty punch.

This is a special place that deserves mention alongside other great restaurants in the area, not to mention across the country. While every detail on my visit wasn’t utter perfection, some perfection still goes a long way. Enthusiastically recommended.

To start, we ordered their avocado spring rolls. These fried rolls, stuffed with avocado, came with a green, sweet dipping sauce and the pepper confetti on the plate gave it the same vibe as the similar appetizer available from the Cheesecake Factory. While the flavor profile was fine, it missed the more sophisticated taste the CF’s offering gives. The CF’s appetizer has a very clear flavor profile with more spice and more flavor. It screams: “southwest.” This offering was bland in comparison.

Second, we ordered two fish entrées and two orders of the beef Pan-Asian noodles.

The fish dishes seemed to go over well. The pan asian noodles, not as much. The beef on the dish was dry, stringy, and cooked way too long. The noodles chosen were Udon. These noodles are primarily found in soup-based dishes in Japanese cuisine. I have no problem with new interpretations on things like this, but the texture here of soft, squishy noodles against large chunks of second-class beef you had to cut with a knife wasn’t ideal (I’m not opposed to cutting meat with a knife, but the essence of many Asian dishes is the already bite-sized pieces of protein). The dish was bathing in a sauce which gave it the global flair, but flair took the night off. This dish was one of the sweetest, most carb-loaded dishes I’ve ever eaten. Granted, I didn’t burn the thing off in a calorimeter, but I’m guessing a triple stack of pancakes with blueberry syrup and whipped cream at I-Hop may have had fewer carbs than this dish. It was simply too sickening sweet.

We ate semi-outdoors on the “patio.” It was a nice breezy space, but one that was fraught with loud noises, loud conversation, and smoke from the bar. Service, from drink orders through the entire meal, was disappointing. I ordered a cocktail after the waitress’ third trip to our table, only to watch her spill it all the way from the bar to the table. It left a puddle on the table, and the entire glass, from rim to stem, was covered in the sweet drink. No napkin, no offer to wipe it off, etc.

Food service to the table was very lacking. Food is just plopped on the table. For me, it was put on top of my silverware. The look on faces when they put it down is like they don’t know what to do… no one says, “Enjoy,” or announces what the dish is. One of our diners didn’t get served his dish: they forgot to put the order in. The waitress came by to apologize 20 minutes later, 5 minutes after the dish actually arrived.

The Kona’s menu takes cues from the sushi bar which is a fixture in the main dining room. The decor certainly is interesting and has invitation to it, but I found the menu a little limited.

The prices here are typical for a chain restaurant that’s trying to aim for a more creative dining experience. The noodle dish went was between $13-14, and fish entrées were in the $20-25 range.

Sadly, this is one meal that left me disappointed. I’ve resisted going until they had some experience under their belt, but the experience gained so far is lacking. You can eat far better in Richmond at some of our great local establishments, and I’m certain better service is to be found almost anywhere. I have to say I don’t think this service issue was any one person’s fault, but rather poor training or management across the board.

But, alas, I hear people like the happy hour. Your mileage may vary.

For dessert, we made the Ina Garten apple tart. Not Asian, I know, but it was requested and it was tasty. This time around we used puff pastry dough.

The rice cooker was used for course #4: fried rice.

This rice, with green peas, chinese sausage, and aromatics, was pretty good. Alongside was course #3, 5-spice baby-back ribs.

A glaze with sesame oil and honey added depth to the aromatic flavors in 5-spice powder.

The first two courses were tasty too, from the David Chang brussels sprouts with fish sauce/mint dressing to the Lantern-inspired pork dumplings with applewood smoked bacon.

We all had different “favorites,” so I think the meal was a success.

Happy New Year!

The basic idea is to roast them until they turn brown, mix them with a Thai-inspired dressing, then punch them up one notch with flavored puffed rice for crunch. Mint, cilantro, spice, and sweetness… a great combination for a cute little vegetable.

On the side was a veggie fried rice, complete with egg, peas, and broccoli, flavored with ginger, garlic, and mushroom-flavored soy sauce.

Chinese in the know know (say that a few times, why don’t you?) that the better food nowadays is in other areas of Washington, D.C., not Chinatown. Rockville, Maryland, typically is cited as the best place for “authentic” and “excellent” Chinese cuisine.

Yet, somehow we ended up trying Szechuan Gallery Restaurant, which is, squarely, in Chinatown. They were offering dim sum selections.

The place is not big; the dining room is divided into a “front” and “back” area, each one holds about 8 tables. Dim sum items come and go as they are prepared in the kitchen, and pretty much represented typical fare: steamed buns (sweet and savory), turnip cake, scallion pancakes, shumai, the so-called “sho long bao” or soupy dumplings.

Service was friendly, but not terribly efficient. Not one of their dim sum offerings was stellar. Aside from soy sauce, no other condiments are offered.

A mixture of Chinese and white patrons filled the dining room. Perhaps their menu is more appealing; we waived the right to order off the menu, in search of the dim sum. Better luck next time.

See, the Full Kee holds you captive. The relationship has been a little love-hate over the years. You can ween yourself off of their dim sum specialties for so long, then you travel to a far more cosmopolitan city, and eat dim sum there. Whatever good or bad you have, the treats at Full Kee welcome you back. It’s “down home” dim sum, like you have come to appreciate it.

This time around the service took an all-time low. You see, if you go for dinner, service can be lackluster. You just don’t feel like people want you to come back. They probably recognize us, and know we’ll come back. They don’t have to win us over.

So, during a weekday lunch, service was painfully slow. We ordered dim sum items, as there was no cart service. While other tables got served, we kept drinking water and tea. We finally asked. “You ordered so many fried items, it takes longer.”

No, only two, and you can bring out that which gets steamed right away. Okay, I didn’t say that, but I was thinking it strongly.

Finally, the first items come out. Fried shrimp roll (egg roll). Yuck. It was stone cold. I waited for fried items, and it comes out cold? It’s chewy and nasty. Sorry, wouldn’t eat that.

As other items finally came out, the waitress became confused. She was offering our items to other tables. Then she pleaded with us to take a stuffed eggplant plate. “No thanks. Really. Just bring us what we ordered.”

“What was that, again?”

When we left, they did refund us two items that never came out. What a disappointment.

I hate to see places that have the potential to make good food go south with either bad management or bad service. I can’t say that I won’t go back, mind you, but too many more episodes like this, and I won’t have any choice.

They offer a more traditional dining area “for sushi” orders, and the larger part of their dining room is available for Teppan table dining. The fold-out fan style menus feature different proteins that can be ordered (steak, chicken, combinations of meat and seafood) that determine your dinner price. The cook comes out, fires-up the hot grill, and does a little fancy noisemaking and saucing to prepare the meal. You get fried rice, the protein, and some vegetables. It was all very typical, I have to say, nothing different from the other places in town that have been doing this already (Osaka, Kabuto, etc.).

The prices were unreasonably high. I paid $27 for my steak dinner, for supposedly “filet mignon.” The waitress repeated it like a French chef as she wrote it down, but what came out and got sizzled before my eyes was hardly “filet mignon.” It didn’t taste like filet mignon. The tableside dinners come with some type of soup (broth with 3 mushroom slices, wow!) and a bad-looking ginger-dressing salad (the lettuce was not iceberg, but was not good).

The meal was fine, I guess, but very pedestrian. Our total bill was $67.00 before tip, which included one sushi roll we ate as an appetizer. This was disappointing. The tuna on top had no flavor and looked to be an unnatural red color (neon, really). The roll was bathed in some sickly sweet sauce. Yuck. There’s nothing I can imagine more un-Japanese. Again, it appears this place is run by Chinese.

We won’t be back. A pack of girls out for a birthday dinner (probably in the 5th grade) had a great time behind us. If you want to impress the kids, this place will suffice. But for any type of fine or authentic dining, choose elsewhere.

All I heard on the way home was: “For that money, we could have eaten at Dd33!” Indeed.

Ingredients:

• Asian-flavored firm tofu
• Garlic
• Vegetable Oil
• Red Bell Pepper, sliced thin
• Scallions, chopped small
• Chinese cooking wine
• Peanut Butter
• Fresh Ginger, grated
• rice vinegar
• red chili flakes
• sambal
• brown sugar
• soy sauce
• salt
• snow peas or sugar snap peas
• thin pasta spaghettini

Procedure:

Make a “sauce” out of cooking oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, fresh ginger, pinch of chopped scallions, chili flakes, sambal olek, and peanut butter in a food processor. Mix with warm, cooked pasta. Cool pasta down by placing in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

Flash-sauté the red pepper, tofu, and garlic in hot oil; add chinese wine and reduce; take off heat, and mix in with blanched peas (3-5 minutes in boiling water) into the noodle mixture. Mix well, and return to refrigerator.

Take noodles out of the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before serving. Toss with reserve scallions and enjoy.

For a variation, add sesame seeds and toasted sesame oil to the mixture.

You might like first to read about Moshi elsewhere:

• Style Weekly
• Adventures in Food and Fashion
• Read, Drink, and Be Merry

It’s been hot this weekend, and we were looking for a place that was cool. After arriving, we were ushered upstairs at Moshi Moshi where… it was still warm. Granted, the restaurant indoors had far less humidity, but the inside was still… balmy, in that bad type of way. I am sensitive to temperature, and it likely didn’t bother other diners. The dining area is small, but it was kind of fun being upstairs. The decor is minimalist, with wood tone throughout, and the atmosphere, despite what I read in at least one of the links above, was quite casual. The bar downstairs and the comfortable vibe would make it a great place for a “bite” to eat—thinking appetizers, sushi rolls, and a few drinks—if you were in the “neighborhood.”

Destination restaurant? I’m not so sure.

I am not sure I’ve ever sat so long at a restaurant deciding what I wanted to eat. This was not the fault of the waitstaff, they were plenty efficient. I just couldn’t figure what I wanted. I think I’d want one thing, then… change my mind, because it had something in it I didn’t like, or thought would be bad. Among our party we tried the calamari appetizer (good sauce, crunchy tempura batter, not sure what was inside mattered—could have been anything with the same taste), spider roll, spicy salmon roll, avocado roll, miso soup, two different steak entrées, seafood with mixed vegetables, and raw tuna with fried avocado wedges in a citrus sauce.

I don’t care for fusion food’s authenticity; it’s not authentic, period. But it can be delicious. The sauce I had with my steak entrée was good; I cared less for the taro root “whisps” on top. And while i was served rice, I would have preferred something like… wasabi potatoes. The citrus sauce with the fried avocado was great, but I’m not sure there was enough sauce for all the supposedly “seared” tuna on the plate. As one diner said, “That tuna was supposed to be cooked, but it didn’t come inches near any source of heat!”

The miso soup, everyone agreed, was… disappointing. It was watery, it had difficult to chew and eat chunks in it (not sure what of, perhaps some kind of fried onion?), and even adding soy sauce to the soup didn’t make it palatable. Should have opted for the salad, although it was typical, chunks of iceberg lettuce with a sweet gingery dressing.

The sushi items were not bad, in fact, while my steak was tasty and cooked well to perfection, I liked the rolls best. I detest these 5-10 ingredient rolls with so much sweet sauce on them that are more and more popular nowadays. These had a good quality mouth feel with the rice, and good texture. Flavor wasn’t bad, either. Yet, some of the rolls wrapped in nori were falling apart; the nori “peeling away” from the roll. I’d never seen this before.

While some in my party said they’d like to return to Moshi Moshi, I can’t say it would be high on my list. No one thing won me over: the restaurant was relatively quiet, the bar list didn’t have any exotic cocktails (but did have a pretty extensive sake collection), the decor was plain, the aforementioned temperature warm, and while some of the food was above average, other parts of the meal disappointed.

Again, service was good, but not superlative. Three of us got our entrées at once with the help of an extra waiter, but the fourth had a 4-minute wait for his. Don’t you hate that, when hot food is delivered, and you can’t eat because you are waiting in kindness for others to get theirs? When the waitress returned, she asked how everything was. Good manners would have dictated a non-response since none of us should have tasted anything yet, left waiting.

I’m glad I tried Moshi Moshi, as it had escaped my normal radar. If I am in a Japanese mood again and find myself in Carytown, I can’t say I won’t go back… but now I know what to try more of, and what to avoid.

There are not too many weekends that I don’t find my way down at Vietnam-1 on Broad Street (adjacent to Horsepen), ordering one of my favorite noodle dishes, including this one, the infamous N6 (pork dumplings). I always add a touch of soy sauce, bean sprouts, and if I’m in the mood, slices of potent jalapeño.

The first is based on a recipe I watched on TV with my very favorite female cook, The Barefoot Contessa. It takes a real woman not to bat an eye when she pours on more butter.

This recipe was served cold. She used pasta, I used Japanese buckwheat noodles. You boil the noodles first, then rinse them under cold water.

The “sauce” is a combination of:

• rice wine vinegar
• oil
• peanut butter
• garlic/chili paste
• soy sauce
• scallion
• ginger, garlic

You add “crunchy vegetables” in addition to the sauce. In this case, it was chopped red peppers and blanched sugar snap peas. It was refreshing and delicious.

Despite an under-saturated picture, the Italian recipe was even better. I used fresh pasta (courtesy of my favorite pasta-maker, Gianni Cavanna), and made up another batch of oven-dried tomatoes. 3 hours, 200 degrees.

Add garlic, good EVOO, salt and pepper, and a healthy dose of grated parmesan cheese. Don’t forget a little chiffonade of basil, and you have some basic, good eating with classic-good flavors.

Eat Noodles!

But every so often, the taste is both comforting and satisfying.

I keep hearing about Japanese restaurants not being “the real thing,” and I’m psychologically disappointed to be missing out on what might actually be. With a trip to Japan out of the question in the near future, I’m always on the look out for more authenticity.

While in D.C., I noticed that Makoto scored on Washingtonian Magazine’s top 100 list, and after reading reviews promising authenticity, I had to try.

We arrived promptly at 8:57 PM, 3 minutes early for our reservation. I heard if you arrived 15 minutes late, they’ll charge your credit card (given at the time of reservation) $70. Well, you can imagine I was disappointed having to wait some 25 minutes for my seat. Be sure to wear “proper attire” whatever that means, and socks, as you have two options: wear your socks, or wear their slippers; no shoes are allowed.

We chose the “dinner” menu which was $60/person for the basics in what they term 7-10 courses, it depends on the nigh and the mood of the chefs. You can also upgrade certain items (I did two fish upgrades), and you can also upgrade your beef, should you choose it, to Kobe (Waygu). I didn’t do that; it was $20 alone for that upgrade.

The first course was interesting: a real sea shell filled with broth, mussel, and bamboo shoot. The broth was the most satisfying in terms of flavor; the other items were a bit bland. But it got you prepare for sure with tuning your mouth to more subtle flavors. Yeah, and it was flaming too.

The second course was a trio of items, including raw shrimp, calamari (with heads), and a vegetable dish. This was one interesting; I liked the wasabi sauce on the calamari and the sweet shrimp the best.

The best course was next: the sashimi.

This was the best tuna I’d ever eaten: it was creamy, flavorful, and like the best candy (although not sweet). Freshly grated wasabi (not horseradish) was presented, and it is far more mild than what you might be used to.

A bowl of very lightly flavored vegetables with beef. Subtle, for sure, but you appreciate the “raw” or “naked” flavors of these items. Intellectual.

The worst course was the crunchy fried soft-shell crab. This was awful, in my estimation. It was too crunchy, lacked crab flavor save for one bite, and was bitter in taste. The flavored salts on the edge of the plate were novel, but the dish was a failure in my book.

Next was a cooked fish dish: salmon in Yuzu (think lemon) and two seaweeds. I never care for seaweed; the green stuff was fine. The fish was flavorful, but overall, I wanted at this point for flavors to be getting stronger. This lacked punch in the strong flavor department.

Much better was the (small) 3-piece sushi course. Each piece was delicious, especially the last. My dining companion remarked at this point it wasn’t the best best he’d ever had, but all the seafood here was very fresh.

Next we diverged: he had cooked yellow tail tuna, it came charred on one side, rustic style. I had the beef with mushrooms. The flavors and texture of the meat were sublime. True art here.

Next to last was a small bowl of soba noodles. The broth I had was incredible, as I chose mushroom flavor. I could have eaten much more. The small mushrooms were hard to eat with my chopsticks.

The final course was light: fresh, cold ice, sweet, with the subtle flavors of aloe and yuzu. It was fitting to the aesthetic of the meal.

Despite all the variety, you don’t leave stuffed. I should mention the dining room is extremely small and tight (maybe 26 diners total would fit) but service is very attentive.

What I ultimately didn’t like about the experience were service related. The wait for a table. Being rushed-out at the end. I should not get a bill before I finish dessert. Come on. And while parties finishing earlier were offered an opportunity to order more food, we were not. “Time to go,” they must have been thinking. We were the last seating of the night.

Oh well, they won’t see me again. But don’t let that stop you—I think the experience was good enough and adventurous enough to warrant an entertaining, authentic meal with the myriad flavors of Japan.

While Umi features sushi as the star, for my first visit, I steered away from the seafood and instead tried one of their signature entrées: Plum Duck.

Before I get into the food, I wanted to make a few comments about the entire experience at Umi (or perhaps umi). The décor, fit and finish of the restaurant, etc., are on a higher-end than what you most likely expect from a new restaurant in a strip mall. Perhaps it is the “Bistro” portion of their name that elevates things. From a modern, lit bar area, to the dark wood floor, to the classy branding of the name on the wall and menus, Umi Bistro seems poised to be aiming at more cosmopolitan diners.

Being seated was an odd experience. I said as much to one in my party. “That was odd.” “Yes, it was,” he said. The server who showed us to the table lacked the experience that the atmosphere suggested. She stood in the way of us all being seated trying to hand out all the menus. Why they would have so many menus is beyond me… one for drinks… one for “special entrées” (some of which were sushi platters where it all looks like sushi candy wrapped in sweet, colorful sauces all over the plate), and then a real, honest-to-goodness menu. Variety wasn’t to be found in the menu. Instead, one of those check-off sheets for sushi contained all the real stuff: the special rolls, the uni (sea urchin), the eel rolls, etc., etc. So ordering was a sticky process when you had one copy (each) of the drink menu, the specials menu, and the sushi sheet. They gotta work on that.

That aside, their Umi Breeze drink was potent and refreshing. The plum duck I ordered was fine (the duck was plentiful and delicious) and was served with rice.

You can see from the photo it had a nice presentation from the kitchen. It wasn’t particularly starchy (with just a small bowl of rice), but I would have liked a different vegetable underneath other than cucumber. The waitress told me it was a favorite of hers, and the plum sauce came “straight from Japan.”

I know you cannot see it on the plate, but it reminded me (as did the presentation) of something you’d see in a fancier New York restaurant. Just like the bar, the floors, and the gradient of blue to black color on the walls… impressive, but dig deeper, and you began to tell it wasn’t the “real thing.”

The plate: the big rim around the plate wasn’t absolutely clean. It wasn’t dirty, per se, but it wasn’t spotless. It had residue on it, and lots of non-shiny spots, like it had come out of a dishwasher that wasn’t stocked with Cascade. Residue, for sure then, a small detail that I’d expect corrected for an otherwise tasty dish that was little more than duck and cucumber with a sweet sauce poured over top for $26.

I like Japanese cuisine, especially when it’s done right. For just opening, Umi wasn’t bad at all. The wait time was fine; the dining room was filing up by the time we left, and I left with the attitude that I’d like to return and try more of their menu. (Incidentally, our dining companions enjoyed their sushi.)

But if I might proffer any advice, it would be in the areas of detail. The small things can separate you from average to extraordinary.

1) Work on the customer experience at entry. 2) Simplify the menus and ordering. 3) Fix the hot/cold water control in the bathroom. 4) Ditch the paper napkins. This place deserves cotton.

I’m going to reserve my ratings until a future visit takes place.

Salad

The dinner started out with a recipe I found from my Williams-Sonoma Entertaining cookbook, then I augmented it to my own tastes. The key to the whole thing is a creamy dressing made from chive oil, blended in the blender, where champagne vinegar makes a nice dressing, with the addition of EVOO and fresh-cracked pepper.

The salad is a mixture of greens, thin-sliced avocado, orange supremes, and lump jumbo crab meat. It’s creamy. The lettuces are salty, and the rest, sweet.

Bread

I chose a sourdough, and toasted it. I made a special butter from combining salt, unsalted butter, cream, and honey. No one could resist the sweeter honey; the sweetness here balanced well with the crab in the salad.

Ribs

Another variation on beef short ribs, this time, with a Korean twist. The main flavors are soy, garlic, and green onion. I braised them in a spicier version that was a marinade with mushroom broth. At the end, the sauce was thickened and fortified with Xerses vinegar and poured-over the ribs with extra scallions.

Bok Choy

The baby variety was steamed/braised in a mixture of vegetable broth, fresh-grated ginger, and miso paste with honey.

Dessert

We took an old favorite recipe from Ina Garten, and added fresh vanilla bean, rum-soaked raisins, and mounted it all with white chocolate for an extra richness. Italian risotto-style short-grain rice was used, aborio. A warm, delicious dessert.

• Scallion Pancakes
• Egg Drop Soup
• Fried Dumplings
• 8-Treasure Rice Dessert

I used all the right ingredients, but strayed too far on the technique. These were lackluster, for sure. But the sauce I made was delicious. I used reduced soy sauce, balsamic glaze, sesame oil, and garlic-chili sauce to make a nice and thick pancake sauce.

By using too much Crisco, they fell apart easily.

Expert dumpling makers were called upon to fill dumpling wrappers. I never found what was inside; but they tasted great. We added a second sauce for dipping, this one with spicy peppers, more sesame oil, sherry vinegar, and a dash of soy. The special ingredient was Hoisin sauce.

The filling had vegetables and pork inside.

For the egg drop soup, we used a rich chicken stock with cornstarch, ginger, and eggs.

You can garnish the soup with scallions.

We ate the soup and pancakes first, then took a break while the dumplings were cooked.

After pan-frying the dumplings, add water to steam them to complete the cooking process.

Cover them with the sauces we made both for the pancakes, and the second variation, mentioned above.

Finally, for dessert, we made a so-called “eight treasure rice.” This is sweet rice combined with various dried fruits and red bean paste, that is then steamed into a mould shape.

Individual slices/scoops were then served to each guest.

Happy Chinese New Year!

The establishment opened several years ago, and when it did, I was excited. As a Food Network junkie, and a fan of the Iron Chef show, to taste some of this guy’s food was an attractive opportunity. Having occasion to visit Philadelphia recently, I stopped by in a party of four on a Wednesday evening.

First, word must be said about the interior and aesthetic of this place. You walk along Chestnut St. and this is not a “high-end” neighborhood where boutique restaurants are found. The fascia of Moriomoto is an understated modern statement, that blends away. One in our party walked right past; I had recalled the look of the place from the FoodTV special “Moriomoto RAW!” where they detailed the opening and design of the restaurant.

The two green doors leading inside filter out light to the interior. The first thing you notice inside is the smell of sea water. I think they mist this stuff at the entrance; I also noticed sea sounds as we walked in. All this was subtle—not everyone noticed this aesthetic touch—but it was a nice play on our senses.

We were seated in the front of the restaurant. My view, down the long establishment’s dining room was awesome, but unfortunately the opposite view was less intriguing. Throughout the meal, the air conditioner was dripping condensation on one of our diners; his complaints didn’t warrant much resolution, save for a “swabbing” of the air conditioning vent above. We later moved one booth back, switched “directions”, and enjoyed a larger space that sat six for dessert (the two of us who had the better “view” positioned our new seats in the opposite direction towards the door/entrance).

The decor and design is wholly unique and special. Yes, the light colors coming through the glass booths do change color as you dine. This is a big cheesy gimmick, but that’s fun sometimes. Here it works well. The little “candles” on each table, a light fixture that is attached to the table, looked like some sort of sexual play toy. Two diners noted “they had to go.” I don’t think this look was lost on the designers, it certainly sparked conversation and made the environment all the more provocative, depending upon your sensibilities.

The restroom, located front, in a basement, was an interesting area. You go down a hall, and the women’s and men’s are “together,” but split; women go to the left, men to the right. There’s a trough sink, with extremely hot water. It’s not dangerous, but I wonder if the water is maintained this hot to appeal to a Japanese aesthetic of clean? The stalls are made of bamboo, and while the look and floor are interesting, nothing here is too lavish. It’s a bathroom, after all.

Service was a mixed bag. Service was not “attentive.” When you think of good service, you think of course of friendliness, but also promptness. You don’t want to sit there for 10-15 minutes with an finished plate of food, without it being cleared. Also, dishes arrived one at a time, per diner; dishes were not presented in concert with the group. This didn’t bother me, per se, but it made the time when a diner should begin eating frustrating when trying to be polite to others. The one nice touch to service was a thorough explanation of what each dish was, how to eat it, what not to touch, etc. Unfortunately, some of these explanations were lost on the loud acoustic noise in the restaurant.

The menus are presented on small white card stock; they open up, of course, but their feel make me think that the menu might change more often than not. Morimoto’s website is not very usable (as it is based on Flash), but you can download the menu (PDF). This will certainly help me identify the dishes, as I did not take notes during dinner.

H20 Cocktail

Biberfan isn’t a big drinker; I know some about wine, but I don’t drink it very often. I am a fan, however, of novelty cocktails, and I really do like Bacardi O, an orange-flavored rum. The H20 cocktail came blue in a martini glass with a wedge of orange. It was very refreshing, not too “alcoholic,” and it gave me the impression of cold water. Cold water, you say? Yes, the citrus flavors were there, but it tasted of really good cold, clean water. Expensive, I think, but I recommend this one.

Oyster Foie Gras

Your plate comes, hot; they’ve heated up rock salt, embedded (or encrusted, if you like) with different aromatics: cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, peppercorns, etc., to keep the oysters hot. Each of three large oysters are joined by small pieces of foie gras, uni (sea urchin), and a teriyaki sauce. This was one unusual dish, but one I’m very glad I ordered. In my notes on the plane ride home, I noted “sublime.” This was a special treat, a mixture of flavors that were certainly unique, and luxurious. It was difficult to eat everything “as one,” but I think if I got it again, I would pick these up, and slide everything in at once. They had a very fresh sea taste; a smokey note, and all these diverse flavors were rich and wonderful. “A party for the mouth.” I could have eaten three more.

Chef’s Combination Sushi-Rolls

For dinner I chose the mid-level chef’s combination of two rolls and sushi. It came on a long platter, and featured one piece each of a variety of fish. The rolls that included spring onion had a gritty feel (at least two), and I’m not sure why. Two pieces of the fish were difficult to chew (one, I know, was squid).

Aside from these notes, the fish tasted of the “sea” in a way I had only previously heard described. Each piece offered a different, yet subtle commentary on clean, discreet flavors. The presentation was nice, and as an entrée this was good. If I ever visit again, I’d order something more “out there” as my companions’ dishes looked far more elaborate. Still, while no sushi expert, I think what was presented was very good quality, and I enjoyed the variety. On special that night was a wild salmon, that was probably the darkest, fattiest salmon I’d ever seen; it was very delicious, with texture and mouth feel, this was a winner when presented raw.

Mango-Shiso Mille Feuille

A dessert masterpiece. White chocolate mousse. Mango. Coconut tapioca. Shards of shaved philo dough. This dessert looks like a fuzzy, furry hat. While not big on color, it was huge on flavor, and a winning essay on texture. This was awesome. True “Iron Chef.”

Wasabi Tiramisú

I love tira mi sú, and here Moriomoto does it with the addition of wasabi to the marscapone. We ordered this, and shared it, to see well, what it would taste like. Our curiosity brought mixed reactions. “I don’t taste the wasabi,” to “I wouldn’t order this again!” to “It’s awful!” I am the one who kind of liked it; the quality of the cheese was good, I thought, and the flavor submitted to our mouths by way of the wasabi paste was certainly interesting, and thought provoking. I might wager that a green-tea flavor was there, or might have been more successful, but the spice was subtle and present. It was certainly unusual, and this whole place goes by that label. Probably not the strongest dessert on their menu, but who knows… I kind of liked it. Your mileage may vary.

Other dishes ordered by us included:

• Calamari Tempura Salad
• Shrimp Tempura Roll
• California Roll
• Ishi Yaki Buri Bop (tuna on rice served at the table in a hot bowl)
• Seafood Toban Yaki (served with yuzu butter)
• Moriomoto Surf and Turf (Kobe short rib and half-lobster tail with assorted sauces)

The tuna-rice dish was an interesting presentation at table; the tuna is placed raw on top of your mound of rice; it’s brought to table in a super-hot stone bowl; the tuna is then “stuck” on the side of the bowl, to cook, and while this goes on, the server mixes egg with the rice, and sauce. Then the tuna is mixed in. This dish didn’t look very exciting (with regards to color), but the show was interesting. We liked it.

The salad was good; good flavors, and the calamari wasn’t chewy.

The toban yaki was a fest for the eyes, and those eyes ought to belong to a seafood lover. A hot broth engulfed several large pieces of seafood, it was joined by baby bok choy.

In total, Moriomoto was a very interesting place to dine. The menu is diverse, and I know each of us enjoyed what we ordered. Improvements might be made on how customers are served and addressed, but having only visited once, I can’t say this is a trend. To lovers of fusion cuisine, and of course to those whom are fans of Morimoto, the chef, I fully endorse a visit. Mr. Moriomoto was not there the evening we dined, but his spirit was certainly there in some unique offerings.

Technorati Tags: restaurant, morimoto