Lansing Food News

Lamai Birday is TODAY!

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:42:00 +0000

I missed that it was Lamai's birthday!

She has her usual Thai Sukiyaki feast. This "cook it yourself" dish is tasty and spicy (although not for everyone's tastes, so go easy at first.) I just had a little shrimp and scallops version for take out lunch. She also has cake and her lovely garlic and carmelized ribs. Here's a post on Lamai's other dishes, which are also available today.

In other news, I see the little place a few blocks down where Tacqueria Del Rey (and many other restaurants) used to be seems to be setting up to be a little grocery store. If the rumor is correct it will probably be a middle eastern place, but we'll have to see if it will have a bakery or deli associated. (They just put an ice machine outside, so it will probably be a decent convenience store for the neighborhood too.)

Drive bys - July 26, 2009

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:17:00 +0000

All news of Mexican restaurants this time:

*Ramon's is Back! For fans of the old Ramon's in north Lansing, there's a sign on a big red house on West Saginaw that says they are back (and you can see that they have a bbq outside too). The house is a block or two west of Pine St, or a couple of blocks east of the Lansing El Azteco. (Between Butler and Sycamore, but on the north side of the street.)

*Famous Taco has returned to the location right next to the South Precinct of the Lansing Police Department in South Cedar St. This was great location for us before, and I am looking forward to it.

*Sadly, one of our readers has confirmed that Tacqueria Del Rey closed its doors just yesterday. It was probably hard to compete with El Oasis so close by. We will miss this. (Same reader says there could be a middle eastern place moving in soon. The east side has the Jerusalem Bakery and the grocery/deli that moved into the old Lopez Bakery - but I think there is room for something more. We'll see if this location is really cursed or not.)

This is the time of year when our favorite little places suffer. The MSU audience is out of town. Many people go on vacation. Be sure to give some business your favorite small restaurant. Keep them in business!

The Bad Economy Has Gone Too Far

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:54:00 +0000

I'm getting used to trying to make do with less. I'm getting used to the products we buy costing more, or having less in the package.

But today I decided to have S'mores. I expected the candy bar to be smaller (it wasn't). The marshmallows are just as usual....

But the brand name graham crackers are now smaller than the candy bar in all dimensions! (Yeah, yeah, I know, the candy bar always used to be a little long, but you could fix that with a quick nibble.)

The flavor and texture balance is all wrong! This is an outrage! (You'd think Hershey and Nabisco could get together and deal with the downsizing of America with some proper coordination. Heh! No respect at all for the gourmets of this universe!)

I'm now going to have to get out my cleaver and start hacking at candy bars to get it to come out right.

Drive-bys: Recent Summer Food

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:23:00 +0000

A couple of quick bits about various places for not-good-for-you but good for your soul treats:

Fried fish and shrimp and onion rings: my favorite is Olympic Broil, which is in the old drive-in on Seymour Street in northwest Lansing. (Technically it's at 1320 N Grand River Ave, just north of the intersection of Grand River and Grand River. Below that intersection, the street is called Seymour. For those of us on the East Side, it's on the way to the airport.) They have great batter dipped fish and onion rings, as well as the usual burgers and fries and shrimp baskets and some Greek specialties.

However, I also just tried the place called just "Fish and Chips" at 2418 E Michigan Ave, a few blocks west of Frandor. Their cod was pretty ordinary fast foodish, but the perch was great. The chip were greasy but big and thick, and though I didn't try the shrimp, I took a quick bit of their cocktail sauce and found that it wasn't just ketchup - there's real horseradish in there. I'll be checking out the whitefish and catfish later on, and give you a better review. Oh, and the hush puppies I had with my order were good too. (Which is not true of the last time I was there many years ago.)

And ICE CREAM!

The soft-serve ice cream place in Old Town formerly known as Tate's Freeze is open again under the name of Arctic Corner. It's at 314 E. Grand River Ave. - that's the southwest corner of East Grand River and Center St., kitty corner from the soul food restaurant that used to be Vernadine's (and the old Lamai's before that). Here is a rather sloppy but thoroughly enjoyable Turtle Sundae that I had during a recent rainstorm.

Of course, when it comes to old fashioned soft-serve, you can't beat the Tasty Twist at 1307 E. Grand River Ave. in East Lansing. We always stop for a small cone dipped in chocolate whenever we actually have room left in our stomachs. I don't have a picture because you can't set the cone down to take the picture as easily as a sundae. (Okay, that's an excuse, usually I'm too busy eating the cone to take the picture.)

Tacqueria Del Rey

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:09:00 +0000

Editor's Note: Alas, it appears that Tacqueria Del Rey has gone out of business. I think they were probably just too close to El Oasis. If you'll note in the comments below, a reader believes that a middle eastern place may move into the location.

Tacqueria Del Rey has opened up on Michigan Avenue, where Mexico To Go used to be. While they don't have a lot of variety yet, they have that real tacqueria taste.

They tell me that this is their first restaurant, and the menu is still evolving. This means they didn't have a take out menu for me the last two times I stopped in, so I can only tell you about what I remember.

Good juicy carne guisada, which sometimes can be had as "lonches" - or a Mexican sub sandwich. (You can have any filling on that that you can have in a taco, but I recommend the guisada, because the juiciness goes with bread best.) I enjoy the pulled chicken, and I usually get a tostada. It supposedly comes with ground beef, but the beef they've put on it for me is seared and chopped - yum.

Sometimes they have Pan Dulce in the bakery counter as well. These big, lightly sweetened rolls have a colorful outer layer of a sweeter topping - still bread but more sugary. Pan dulce come in different shapes, but here they are mainly snail shell shaped.

Also, to go with your meal, don't forget the Jarritos, Mexican pop. I particularly recommend the tamarindo flavor to relieve your mouth if you go too heavy on the hot sauce.

Tacqueria Del Rey, 1825 East Michigan Avenue. (517) 977-0148.

Thai Food from Lamai's Kitchen

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:31:00 +0000

I've spoken before about Lamai, but I haven't written a real review. (Well, I waxed poetic about Lamai's Pad Thai a long time ago.) One of the reasons is that I keep forgetting to get great pictures. Sorry about that. I'm too busy eating.

Thai Food From Lamai's Kitchen is not the sort of place you go for the great atmosphere and the perfect service. But it's the sort of place that elicits passion in her customers. At her old place up in north Lansing, she often didn't have any employees, so the customers would wait on each other. One day, we even were given menus and water by the heath inspector! Everybody, I mean everybody, was eager to pitch in and keep Lamai in business.

It's just that Lamai is a great cook. And since the customers were always waiting eagerly to serve themselves, she opened her Michigan Avenue restaurant as a buffet.

Don't expect stereotypical Thai food here. It's authentic, but it's also one hundred percent Lamai. She's like a Thai grandmother, determined to feed you well, no matter what the ingredients. (And at times, if she's not too busy in the kitchen, she will come out and nag you about being too thin, or not trying the best stuff on the buffet.)

The first part of the buffet contains a selection of Thai salads, including her specialty Thai Fresh Eggrolls (pictured here). These are a little like the Vietnamese "spring roll", which is not fried, but wrapped in rice paper. Lamai's version, though, is filled with a lovely, light Thai salad, and are amazingly good with her special Fresh Eggroll Sauce. (Almost like a sour lemon syrup. It's yummy.)

She has a number of great salads, my favorite of which is made with browned Chinese Sausage and Cucumber. And then there is the ground turkey seasoned heavily with lime and herbs. Oh my. Or the Green Apple and Carmelized Onions with Cashews.

She usually has a rich and sour soup of some kind, either a spicy and sour Tom Yam, or a rich and spicy Tom Kha Gai. On Fridays, she has a seafood buffet, and seafood Tom Yam is really really really tasty. Watch out for the large chunks of lemon grass in any of her soups. Lemon grass tastes great, but it's woody.

On the buffet proper, she usually has a couple of kinds of noodles, including her famous Pad Thai. Some stir-fries (I recommend the Ginger Chicken - which is the dish with mushrooms, green peppers and peapods), and miscellaneous dishes that occur to her. She has taken to making her own version of the stuffed eggplant in garlic sauce that you see at dim sum places. Hers is heartier and except on friday, usually stuffed with pork rather than shrimp.

At the end of the buffet she usually has a couple of choices of rich and spicy Thai curries -- usually a red chicken curry with bamboo shoots, a Penang Beef which is stewed in sweet coconut milk and some third dish often with green beans.

She also has her own unique version of Crab Rangoon -- not a sweet and goey as you find other places. And without crab. She uses carrot and green onion, and it tastes even better than crab so don't complain.

On Thursdays, she replaces some of the dishes with Vegetarian versions, and on Fridays, she has a Seafood buffet that has the most amazing little rounds of fried shrimp that you will ever taste. (Have them with the fresh eggroll sauce - heavenly!)

Thai Food From Lamai's Kitchen is on Michigan Avenue at Fairview (right next to the Gone Wired Cafe). Yeah, it is sometimes hard to park around there. Suck it up. The weather is getting warmer. You can park on the neighborhood streets and walk a little. And she's now OPEN SUNDAYS. (Note, she closes between 3pm and 5pm every day.)

Thai Food From Lamai's Kitchen, 2033 E. Michigan Ave. (517) 267-3888.

Everyday Restaurant - Dim Sum Weekends

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:44:00 +0000

It seems like I've been hearing from lots of people about Everyday Buffet, a Chinese restaurant in Brookfield Plaza in East Lansing (located where the old Chinese Family Buffet used to be). I kept hearing the food is very good, and seems to cater to the Asian crowd. (And their non-buffet menu is full of great looking varieties of noodle dishes, which is a good sign.)

I finally decided to try it on the weekend, when they do a dim sum buffet. I definitely had a good meal out of it. (I don't know how their weekday lunch buffet is.)

The main problem here is the same as all dim sum buffets: not all dim sum is suitable for a buffet. The bao (steamed bbq pork buns) were a little tough and dried from sitting on the buffet. The squid/octopus was very tough for the same reason. The flavors for both were great, though. And there was the usual mislabeling of some dishes. (Like the sweet rice dumplings -- the meat-filled was labelled as sweet bean paste, and the sweet bean labeled as meat. Just remember that the triangle shape is almost always a dessert flavor, and the football shape is meat.)

But there is a lot more on the good side. Because it's a buffet, you don't have to have a bunch of people there to try a variety of flavors. You can have a little taste or a big bowl of the congee as you please. (They had four flavors, plus fried crullers to go with it, and the lightly sweetened red bean dessert soup too.)

You can see in the picture that my plate was piled high. The dark gravy on upper left is from the stewed beef brisket, which I considered the start of the show. Tender and lots of flavor. The greens were Yu Cai, I think, which is a slightly bitter green, but it tasted great with the other ingredients. The water chestnut cake (hidden under the big bao on the top) was very tasty. The turnip cake was good (not as good as Little Panda, but better than Golden Wok). The shiu mai and pan fried dumplings were decent, but not exciting. I really liked the fried taro dumplings, filled with meat (not pictured). Taro looks kind of like a hairy football when fried. And the pie guo - or stewed bits of sparerib in garlic sauce, was very tasty.

They also had a few regular non-dimsum dishes, such a Singapore Noodles and a shredded pork and pressed tofu dish that I have liked at other places. They also had the now usual selection of sushi and fruits on the salad bar.

And... they have a scale, so it appears you can buy take out buffet by the pound. (Always a plus in my book.)

Everyday Restaurant, 1375 East Grand River Ave, East Lansing. (517) 337-1882.

Omi Sushi - Stylish and also Down to Earth

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:41:00 +0000

Omi Sushi is the Japanese restaurant right down town in East Lansing, tucked in between the alley and the creamery. The decor is ultra-modern, but not snooty, and that describes the overall style of the place. They have the usual fusion sushi and appetizers, as well as entrees that come more from the casual end of Japanese cuisine.

For our first foray into the place, we went for a selection of appetizers and sushi, just to get a variety.

The Ebi Shiu Mai (shrimp dumplings) are tender and fresh, and attractively presented.

This picture shows, from back to front, Avocado roll, Kampyo roll, Shrimp Tempura Roll, and what may or may not be Spicy California Roll. This turned out to be a great selection for variety of textures and flavors. The avocado and kampyo provide a refresher between heavier rolls. The avocado is silky and rich, the kampyo a lightly sweet and tangy crunch. The tempura shrimp had a nice crunch, with a touch of fried flavor.

But the hit of the night was the California roll, but I don't know if you can order it exactly as we got it. See, we ordered Spicy California Roll, and they started to give us ordinary California Roll. At the last minute the waitress realized the mistake, and the sushi chef squirted this creamy spicy sauce on it. I don't know if it was supposed to be served that way, but it turned out to be a perfect touch.

Finally we had the Vegetable Tempura Appetizer. It was very well prepared, not too oily, nor too much batter. It was also attractively presented (as everything at Omi is) as a little castle of yam, green pepper, onion, broccholi and asparagus, topped with a little tempura-ed sheet of nori (sushi seaweed). I love tempura, but usually I am burping up the batter all night. While I left with a pleasant taste in my mouth, there was no "revisiting" of the meal later. My digestive system really liked this.

We're definitely going back, and will likely try the regular entrees next time. Many of the dishes on the menu are known for being variations of Japanese home cooking (such as the kasuzuke -- a marinade of the flavorful dregs of saki), but they are still presented in lovely ways. And I'm told the noodles are great here too.

Omi Japanese Restaurant, 210 MAC Ave, East Lansing. (517) 337-2222.

El Azteco - The Great Old Standby

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:06:00 +0000

This blog has gone far too long without a mention of El Azteco. "El Az" as it is often called, has been in East Lansing for almost as long as I can remember (and I won't give away my age by telling you how long that is). And although this restaurant has moved and expanded, it has not changed. The food is still messy and a little inconsistent, but tasty as all get out and very filling for a reasonable price.

The tortillas and chips are fresh, and salsa only comes in hot. If you want something a little milder (or even if you don't) order up a bowl of their cheese dip, which is a light, creamy combo of sour cream, cottage cheese, regular chees and green onions.

My favorite meal is a la carte: a Guacamole Tostada, Chicken Taco and Rice. The Guac Tostada is a fried tortilla platter, slathered with hot beans and melted cheese, then covered with guacamole, lettuce and tomatoes. It's messy and difficult to eat, but OHHHH it's good. The chicken taco is made with pulled chicken meat, stewed in a medium colorado sauce. (Watch out, it's hand made, and sometimes you might find a bone in it.) Soft corn tortilla, lettuce and tomato.

The rice is really good, but vegetarians should watch out -- it's made with chicken broth. Otherwise, non-meat items are suitable for ovo-lacto vegetarians. (Vegans would be better off heading for Altus.)

El Azteco is also famous for its enchiladas, which come in many varieties. My favorite is the Enchiladas de Jocoque -- which are filled with a creamy cheese mixture much like the cheese dip, and soaked in spicy red sauce. Other's prefer the Blue Corn Enchiladas, which I think come with their Chili Verde. (A Chili Verde Burrito is also a special item here.)

Other special dishes are the Botana, which is something like a cross between nachos and a guacamole tostada - a plate of chips slathered with hot beans and cheese, then piled high with guacamole, lettuce and tomato. And then there is the Topopo Salad, which has all of the above plus chicken and peas and other things. This one tends to be piled so high, it's like a hay stack.

The East Lansing location has a rooftop patio which is open in good weather, and there is a second location downtown, which has more of a local working class bar atmosphere.

(And to all those who hit my blog from Google searches on "el az taco" or "elaz taco" those are local slang names for the place. This is the restauant you are looking for: The Aztec, El Azteco.)

El Azteco, 225 Ann Street, East Lansing. (517) 351-9111 El Azteco, 1016 W Saginaw St., Lansing. (517) 485-4589

Fiesta Charra - Fresh Food, Fun Decor

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:57:00 +0000

When you enter Fiesta Charra on Grand River, east of East Lansing, the first thing you will notice is the colorfully painted chairs. The whole place is decorated with such colorful scenes. It promises a bright, flavorful experience, and Fiesta Charra delivers.

They have a full Mexican menu, but I have to admit I keep ordering the fajitas. They are too good to pass up. You can get beef, chicken or shrimp, or a combination of all three. You see the combo version here, which was good, but I have to say I liked the beef best -- thinly sliced shreds, seared on a fajita iron with onions, tomatoes, and peppers and a wedge of lime. The chicken is good, but a little plain for me, and the shrimp is great, but shrimp seared on the grill just doesn't highlight the flavors to best effect for me. (This is a personal preference, not a comment on Fiesta Charra.) There are more shrimp dishes on the menu that look good, if I ever get past the fajitas.

I can't remember the name of another dish we fully enjoyed -- I think it was something as simple as "Chili Verde". It was pulled pork served in a flavorful green chili sauce, and it made a nice counterpoint to the fajitas.

Both dishes are served with beans and rice, and your choice of homemade tortillas. (I prefer the corn, but if you can't make up your mind, they will serve them half and half.) Also, a platter of lettuce, sour cream, picante sauce and guacamole for you to dress your own meal.

The chips are fresh and tasty, and they come with not only the usual salsa, but a cool sour cream salsa -- maybe Ranchero style? It's a little sweet and very creamy, and it makes for an interesting break from the usual.

Fiesta Charra is in the same strip with Oriental Mart, just east of Coral Gables at 2800 E Grand River Ave, in East Lansing, MI 48823. (517) 333-6768.

Drive-by, January 30, 2009

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:50:00 +0000

Mexico To Go on Michigan Avenue closed a while ago, but there is a sign in the window that looks like it says "Coming Soon - Taqueria (something)".

Hong Kong Sichuan -- Even More Heavenly Dishes

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 04:02:00 +0000

Before I continue my tour of the menu at Hong Kong Sichuan Food, a note about the Lazi Chicken that we haven't tried yet. Fuschia Dunlop mentions this dish in her blog. I definitely want to try this soon.

Aside from the wontons I mentioned last time, you might start your meal with a noodle salad.

Z01Sichuan Noodle Salad
Spicy, tasty. The sharp and earthy flavors of many Sichuan dishes, red and black pepper, toasted garlic. The Spicy Chicken Salad (Z04) has similar flavors as the Sichuan Noodle salad, but with sliced chicken and more green onions.

Z07 Shredded Vegetables Salad
Tofu and veggies with cellophane noodles in a salty tangy sauce. I think overall I like this one a little better, but it depends on what else I'm ordering. If I plan on ordering a lot of spicy dishses, I go for this one. If I am ordering less spicy entrees, the Sichuan or Spicy Chicken is a good starter.

M26 Ziran Lamb (Muslim Lamb with Cumin)
There is a lot of middle-eastern influence in Muslim areas of China - kabobs, flat breads, lamb dishes. Sichuan does not have a large Muslim population, but neighboring Hunan does at least a little, and this is a common dish. It's lamb, stirfried with green peppers and onions and seasoned with a lot of cumin. Cumin is the spice that gives chili powder and taco seasoning that unique flavor. It's common in the middle east and India, and is quite strong in this dish.

M37 Crispy Eggplant with Hot and Sweet Sauce
This one is addictive. Thin sticks of eggplant are battered in a thick but fluffy batter and deep fried, then served with the "hot and sweet sauce". The batter is not at all dense, and this dish is just plain luxurious.

The "hot and sweet sauce" isn't actually hot at all. It's got garlic and maybe ginger in it. It's similar to another famous Sichuan sauce that you may already be familiar with under the name "garlic sauce." Odds are, if you order a broccholi in garlic sauce, the sauce will be yuxiang or "fish fragrant" sauce. (Which means it goes good with fish, the way steak sauce goes good with steak. It is not made of fish, nor does it have the fragrance of fish.) It's aromatic and a little sweet and sour, and very friendly to western tastes. The other eggplant dish comes with this sauce too, and there is a Yuxaing pork on the menu.

M04 Double-cooked Side Pork
If you've ever had Double-cooked Pork before, it probably was quite different than this. This is the authentic way to make the dish, and it is very very rich, and many Americans will find it too fatty.

It's made with side pork -- one of the cuts of pork from which you make bacon. This rich, melt-in-your-mouth cut is usually simmered to render out some of the fat, and then sliced and stir-fried. Hence the name "double-cooked".

M06 Steamed Side Pork in Soy Sauce (Button Pork)
This dish is also made with side pork, and it's a nice showy kind of dish you can nibble from. The Chinese characters for this dish are "button pork" and that probably refers to the way it is presented. A bowl is lined with slices of side pork, and then filled with salty preserved Sichuan vegetables. It's seasoned with soy sauce at some point, and then steamed. The bowl is then inverted and the dish is served like a "button" on a plate.

Button Pork a little salty and fatty for western tastes, especially as a main dish, but it's a great side dish, and surprisingly good for leftovers. It's so flavorful, you can just chop a little bit up and put it over rice to make a very tasty lunch.

I have not tried the Korean Noodle Soup, nor the main dish version of the Hot and Sour Soup -- but friends have and both are highly recommended. Both are spicy. The Korean soup is a seafood soup and friend noted that the squid was so perfectly cooked, it wasn't rubbery. That's noteworthy.

Hong Kong Sichuan Restaurant, 315 S. Homer St. (south of Frandor, near Kalamazoo St -- behind Bake n Cakes), Lansing Mi. (517) 332-5333.

****
Read previous reviews of heavenly dishes at Hong Kong Sichuan:

Heavenly Sichuan Food
Hong Kong Sichuan, More Heavenly Dishes

Lion Dance at Golden Wok

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:48:00 +0000

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year. It's the year of the earth cow! Golden Wok had a performance of a lion dance this weekend, and we were lucky enough to have made a reservation for other reasons. Here's some video.

See you tomorrow for more Sichuan dishes....

Posting Schedule

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:32:00 +0000

Watch for new posts on Tuesdays for the time being.

I've been doing some blog housekeeping. I have fixed a few things about the Google id that owns this blog. (Unfortunately I can't seem to fix the fact that it now claims that all the old posts were authored by "pitchlady" which is my script reading and synopsis service name. Sigh.)

Feedburner is now a part of Google, which may affect RSS and Atom feeds, however I suspect it won't be a problem for this blog. What might be more of a problem is that I hope to update the template to the new Blogger formats sometime soon. This will allow things like an "older posts" button at the bottom of the page.

I will warn people before I do anything drastic that might affect your subscriptions.

In the meantime, I have created a new blog for folks who want to learn more about Reading Chinese Menus. That blog will be much less demanding than this one, in terms of the preparation I need to do for each post, so in some ways, that's a reward for posting here. I'll post to that blog on Fridays.

Hong Kong Sichuan -- More Heavenly Dishes

EastsideFoodGeek@gmail.com (The Eastside Food Geek) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:04:00 +0000

We've been eating at Hong Kong Sichuan Restaurant regularly since they reopened as an authentic Sichuan place in November. At first they had their real food on separate menus from their Americanized dishes. At one point they even had three menus, one entirely in Chinese. I went to the trouble of translating the whole darn thing, and found that Calvin Trillin's assumption is correct: the best dishes were on the Chinese menu.

But the owners noticed that non-Chinese people were interested in the good food, so they now have a unified menu in English and Chinese. (They didn't translate a few dishes that westerners are highly unlikely to like, like certain dishes with blood cubes and tripe.) They also have a lunch buffet again, but I don't know if it's the same dishes they had before or not. I expect it is probably their more westernized dishes, but their buffet was always good before and I have no reason to think they aren't now.

I already told you about the MaPo Tofu and Green Bean with Pork.

N01 Pork Wonton with Spicy Sauce
These luscious wontons in a spicy Sichuan flavored soup is my favoriate takeout dish. These are, ironically, not as hot as "sichuan wontons" are in other restaurants around town. However, other places seem to just drown them in hot oil and maybe a little garlic. Here they are in a soup of many nice seasonings, like the Mapo Tofu I mentioned in the previous review. (It's about as hot as an average hot and sour soup in town, not the hottest.)

M09 Dry Stir-fried Beef
Spicy, salty with toasted garlic. The chunks of celery really go well with the flavors here.

M18 Jumbo Shrimp wth Sichuan Sauce (aka Tasty Shrimp, or "Strange Flavor" Shrimp)
"Sichuan Sauce" here is a very special sauce that translates something like "strange flavor", but what it means is more like "intriguing flavor". The point of this sauce is to balance all flavors lightly and perfectly -- sweet, sour, salt, hot and rich aroma.

IMPORTANT NOTE: authentically prepared shrimp dishes include shells and heads... and all the flavor in a dish like this tends to be on the shell. Therefore, if you don't want to eat the shell, ask that it be prepared without shells. This is true of the other jumbo shrimp dishes on the Authentic Chinese Dishes menu.

M20 Gongbo Chicken with Peanuts
I don't have a picture of this, which is too bad. This is the classic Sichuan Dish on which Kung Pow Chicken is based. Diced chicken and celery, with aromatic seasonings, stirfried with chunks of dried hot peppers and peanuts. Like other dishes here, this is more subtle and aromatic than the Kung Pow you'll find in your average midwestern Chinese restaurant. Since the spice resides mostly in the hunks of red pepper, you can modify the heat or not by eating them or leaving them. (And they add a great flavor.)

(On another note: another famous Sichuan dish is Lazi Chicken -- or spicy little chicken. Chunks of chicken, with bones in, seasoned and deep-fried and served with piles of dried peppers on top. The peppers are there for aroma and add some spicy oils to the chicken, but again, you don't have to eat them. We have NOT tried this dish here. The only caution for westerners, aside from the potential heat, is the tiny bits of bone in each piece. You probably can't get this dish without bones, but you could always ask.)

More dishes next week....

Hong Kong Sichuan Restaurant, 315 S. Homer St. (south of Frandor, near Kalamazoo St -- behind Bake n Cakes), Lansing Mi. (517) 332-5333.

****
Read more about those heavenly dishes at Hong Kong Sichuan at:

Heavenly Sichuan Food (previous post)
Hong Kong Sichuan, Even More Heavenly Dishes (next post)

Drive-bys, December 5, 2008

pitchlady@gmail.com (Pitchlady) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:48:00 +0000

Peking Express is under new management, but their food is still good and authentic. We recently had a duck feast there, and the only difference I observed was that the mandarin pancakes are no longer the kind made with boiling water dough -- but they are still thin, lovely and steamed, and about the best in town. They have added some Korean dishes to the menu.
Tres Amigos is no longer a "Tacqueria" but merely an "Express". They have simplified their menu to more ordinary dishes. Fans of their main restaurants will probably like it, but those of us who miss the variety of authentic flavors will have to go to the taco stand at Francis and Michigan Ave - El Oasis.
Spartan Gyro is not only gone, but the restaurant that took its place is gone. Sigh. East Lansing is a tough place for great little restaurants.
Watch for upcoming reviews of Ai-Fusion, a sushi place which satisfies our itch for the kind of flavorful rolls that Midori used to make, and Fiesta Charra, which has great fajitas and will satisfy those who like Aldacos. (Also more about the Sichuan food at the former Hong Kong.)

Heavenly Sichuan Food

pitchlady@gmail.com (Pitchlady) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:04:00 +0000

I had to come out of hibernation to tell you about something really magnificent that may be only temporary. The restaurant on Homer that used to be known as Hong Kong is yet again under new management. They're running the place for a little while as a "trial" to see whether there is an audience in Lansing for very authentic Szechuan food.

How authentic? Well, the first indication is that they don't have any signs in English. The sign outside is in Chinese, and translates basically as: "Sichuan Food." (The three red peppers are actually in the shape of the character for Sichuan, which is "three rivers".)If you don't look Chinese, they'll give you a menu of typical Americanized dishes. If you want the good stuff, you'll have to ask for the Sichuan food menu. Those are mostly in Chinese, but they have at least one copy of that menu with English too. The problem is that the English isn't very descriptive. ("Boiled Pork." Hmmm.) The waiter was eager to help us find what we would like, but it took a little persuading for us to get him to tell us what HE would like. He recommended the Ma Po Tofu.

Oh my god. It was the best Ma Po Tofu I've ever had in my life.

No really, this was so good...well, one of the reasons I haven't been posting here is because I have been under extreme stress at the day job. One bite of this and all my troubles went away. This Ma Po Tofu was Xanax-good. It was "listening to Orson Welles speak" good.

The tofu was silky soft, stewed with chopped pork seasoned with toasted garlic, ginger and at least three different peppers. (Dried red pepper, pepper oil and Sichuan peppercorns, which are related to black pepper, but tastier.) Yes, it was hot, but no hotter than most hot and sour soups in town. (Less numbing than some, actually.)

We chose, as a less spicy balancing dish, the Pork With Green Beans. This was marked as spicy, but the waiter says it wasn't, and he was right. There was a sprinkling of toasted dry pepper along with the toasted garlic. The beans were fresh and perfectly done. Once again, the chopped pork acted as a seasoning, rather than a main ingredient. The salting, the seasoning, everything was just exactly right so you could taste and smell each element.

The waiter also pointed out a platter of deep-fried chicken pieces, sprinkled with peppers. We'll undoubtedly try that on another visit. I can't wait to try the Twice-Cooked Pork, which is a favorite of mine. There are also less familiar dishes that we'd like to try. The Fish With Preserved Vegetables soup is a famous Sichuan dish, which he also recommended. Preserved veggies usually give a slight sour taste to the broth, milder than hot and sour soup. There were also cellophane noodles in the bowl, it looked like.

If you are eager to try it, but aren't sure you know enough about Sichuan food to order properly, you might look up a book by Fuchsia Dunlop called "Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking", which is much more than a cook book. More of culinary cultural history with recipes and stories and techniques.

There is a Chinese saying: "China is the place for food, but Sichuan is the place for flavor." True words of wisdom, if this place is any indication.

Hong Kong Sichuan Food is at 315 S Homer St, Lansing. (South of Michigan and north of Kalamazoo, near Frandor, behind Oadies and Bake 'n Cakes.)
****
Read more reviews of Hong Kong Sichuan Food at:

Hong Kong Sichuan, More Heavenly Dishes
Hong Kong Sichuan, Even More Heavenly Dishes

Weekend Dim Sum

pitchlady@gmail.com (Pitchlady) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:34:00 +0000

Go out and get some Dim Sum this weekend.

Although I still lean more toward Little Panda as my favorite dim sum place, Golden Wok has many bragging points... not the least of which is that on the weekend, when they have the carts, they can go wild with new varieties.

A couple of things we had recently:

Water Chestnut Cake looks kinda odd and foreign to Western eyes, but it's not really that exotic. I suspect most would like it. It's a very thick gelatin, lightly sweet and faintly vanilla, with crunchy chestnuts inside. It's also been pan fried, which might seem odd, but it's GOOD that way. The cart lady said it was very refreshing for summer, and she was right. (Those cart ladies usually are.)

Custard Filled Fried Dumplings. These lovely delights are a lot like our favorite sesame balls. The wrapper is made of sweet sticky rice flour -- so it's very chewy, crisp on the outside from being deepfried. Inside it has a nice light custard, not too rich or too sweet. It's thick so that it doesn't all goosh out when you bite into the chewy wrapper. I don't know if the black sesame seeds on top are always a sign of a custard filling, but you can always ask.

Barbeque Pork Pastry. These are just a different shape than the ones I mentioned in the Dim Sum Primer. (They often play with different shapes at Golden Wok.) I like this shape best, because the ratio of meat to pastry is good in every bite.

Mango Chicken. Sorry no picture -- I didn't have my camera with me the day they had these. They brought it out JUST as we were completely stuffed and getting ready to leave, but they looked too good to pass up. It was made of strips of chicken and mango, wrapped and breaded in coconut, then deep fried. They were creamy, and rich, but not too sweet. I want to try them again when I'm not too stuffed.

Here is Maude Cat doing an impression of what we looked like after coming home from Dim Sum that day:

The down side of eating dim sum from the traditional "roving cart" method, is that it encourages a Competitive Eating mentality. You don't want to miss anything, and it all looks so good.... you end up buying and eating more than you intended. This can be okay if you are going straight home afterward with leftovers, but if you are, say, going to a movie, you must exercise a lot of self-discipline. That or leave time to run home and put the leftovers in the fridge before curtain time.

(BTW: Sesame balls or the custard-filled dumplings mentioned above are primo snacks to smuggle into a movie. Just remember that they are deep fried so they'll get some grease on your fingers -- though no more than popcorn will -- and they're a little sticky. My recommendation is to bring a ziploc bag for the smuggling part, and make sure you have a napkin. Oh and, uh... Mango Chicken ISN'T a good snack to sneak into a theater.)

Golden Wok is in East Lansing, at 2755 E Grand River Ave. (517) 333-8322. (At the corner of Northwind Drive, across from Oriental Mart, and near the E.L. Food co-op.)

(Little Panda is on the west side of Lansing, at 5439 W Saginaw Hwy, across from Lansing Mall in the Target shopping area. (517) 323-2450.)

BWL Chili Cookoff Tonight

pitchlady@gmail.com (Pitchlady) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:27:00 +0000

For afficianados of chili (which I am not, so I can't critique anything for you) the Board of Water and Light has it's annual Chili Cook-off at the Lansing Center tonight (Friday 13th) from 5-9pm. They're raising money for the Impression 5 Science Museum and HOPE schalarships.

Five bucks will get you a wrist band that lets you sample lots of chili. (I don't know if there is any other entrance or cover charge, but I don't think so.) There are also beverages and ice cream, live music and a mechanical bull.

Call Board of Water & Light at (517) 702-6735 for more info.

Amici's New York Deli -- Real Pastrami!

pitchlady@gmail.com (Pitchlady) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:51:00 +0000

It says "Hot Corned Beef" in the window, and with a deli, that's always a good sign. Pastrami and Corned Beef are NOT processed meat products with a little extra pepper. They're delicious, rich, piquant meats that deserve the right treatment -- moist heat.

You don't need mustard when you have a hot pastrami.

And both the Pastrami and Corned Beef at Amici's are kept steaming in a chafing dish until the moment they make your sandwich. You can also get the usual turkey, ham, roast beef and bacon. Lots of interesting combos and toppings. They have good deli pickles and they carry premium chips from that Michigan company whose name escapes me. (You know, the yellow bag. They serve them at Roma's too.)

The only thing lacking is bread that can stand up to the hot steam, or the slurpy toppings of a good sandwich. I don't know, maybe Zingerman's has spoiled me for regular bread. I have to admit that I haven't found a place with good bread in Lansing, except for Roma's, where they use a crusty sub bun, but don't have deli bread. (I.e., no sliced rye.) I can only warn you that if you get a hot pastrami on rye for take out, pull open the plastic wrap before you leave, or your bread will wimp out on you.

They are a "premium" deli, and their sandwiches are in the 7-8 dollar range, which is too expensive for a cheap sandwich, but not that expensive for a great sandwich. In my opinion, they would do better to buy better bread (like maybe ...Zingermans?) and up the price a little. Or even offer a better bread as an "extra" for a buck more. (Just don't get Great Harvest, it's really too heavy and moist to be sandwich bread.)

Amici's New York Deli is at 521 N Clippert, in Lansing, across from Frandor.

Bangkok House, good and spicy

pitchlady@gmail.com (Pitchlady) — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:05:00 +0000

If you don't count Lamai (who is a cuisine unto herself anyway) Bangkok House is the main, authentic Thai restaurant in town. The others tend to have a different, lighter, flavor of Thai. Bangkok House is hot, intense and salty.

Their location at Saginaw and North Cedar makes them especially popular for take out. They are close to down town Lansing, and on the way to or from pretty much anywhere. I love to grab an aromatic, garlicky Pad Woon Sen for lunch, usually with an order of spring rolls.

Pad Woon Sen is one of my standards to test out any Thai place. If it's boring, I'm suspicious. (Banyan Tree was an exception to this rule, but alas, they are gone.) It's a cross between a stir-fried noodle dish and a salad. Cooked up fast and hot, but with hunks of tomato and cucumber. The noodles are the clear, glassy bean threads, which are light and jiggly. This dish is usually served with rice on the side (as a Thai salad might be), and the flavor at Bangkok House is intense enough to require that rice. The Pad Thai is also good here (though I like the sweet and sour flavors of Lamai's better). Just remember that they don't really understand the concept of "mild" here -- it's closer to "medium". They do get "not hot at all" though.

Take out isn't all they've got, though, and this is a fine place for a full meal, which is what we had recently:

For appetizer, this is a great place for Satay. For those who don't know, Satay is a Malaysian dish that is commonly served in Thai restaurants in the U.S. It's meat -- usually pork, chicken or beef -- marinated and grilled on a stick. Here they serve it with a little table top grill, where you finish off the cooking yourself. (The meat is cooked, but you need a nice sear for it to taste right.)

It's served with two sauces, a rich peanut sauce made with coconut milk, and a refreshing cucumber sauce, made with a dressing of vinegar, lime and sugar. These sauces go together! You can pour them both over your meat, or eat some of one and then the other -- just make sure you taste them close together, because each really opens up the flavor of the other.

For soup we have the ever present Tom Ka Gai, or coconut chicken soup. It's good here, and we usually ask for some rice to be served with it, because the flavors of the coconut, lemongrass, ginger and lime are so intense.

Finally the Pla Jian. This used to be served as a whole fish, but since Americans don't really like to deal with bones they now serve it as a large fillet, which has been scored, seasoned and deep-fried. It is then smothered in a sauce of ginger, mushrooms, shrimp and veggies, and topped with herbs. This dish is not very spicy -- the main heat comes from the ginger -- but it is very flavorful. It's also a big dish, and with the appetizers and soup, it's enough for two people of reasonable appetite, but if you want something else, you could go for a Yum salad: grilled beef on cucumber and herbs, with a sweet lime dressing -- no pun intended when I say it's yummy. For the adventurous, they have a lot of interesting seafood dishes, and frogs legs too. And for the less adventurous, they have a good selection of the usual curries and noodle dishes.

Bangkok House is located on Saginaw (just across North Cedar from the main Quality Dairy) at 420 E Saginaw St, Lansing, MI 48906. 517-487-6900.

Their menu is listed at Restaurant Database.

Drive-bys, May 10, 2008

pitchlady@gmail.com (Pitchlady) — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:08:00 +0000

Two drive-bys and an update:

*There's a new deli that has moved into the old Mr. Taco building on Clippert, just west of Frandor. (This is a building which is back to back with the Wendy's on Homer.) They have "Corned Beef" written in large letters on the windows. Hmmm. It's also convenient to swing by before work. I'll likely give it a try next week.

*On Michigan Avenue, just east of the ball park -- in the block next to Claras, that has both the city shelter and several nightblubs, there's a little corner restaurant that has a lot of turnover -- there was a Caribbean place, Turkeyman, and Ballpark Franks. Now it has a sign that says "Authentic Mexican Food."

As for an update: I have pictures. Watch for reviews of Bangkok House and Hobies.

Drive-bys, March 29, 2008

pitchlady@gmail.com (Pitchlady) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:17:00 +0000

Sorry I've been away for so long. This will continue until May, most likely. In the meantime here are a couple of notes:

*A reader emailed me to say that Banyan Tree has closed. I am very sorry to hear this. It can be very hard to establish a small and unique restaurant any place where it is affordable to do so. (If anybody heard further news -- good or bad -- please leave a comment.)

*Midori is under new management. They have changed their sushi menu, and though they will make the old rolls if you ask, watch out for anything with cream cheese in it. They use a whipped and sweetened cream cheese that totally overwhelms everything else. (The Futomaki, which did not have cream cheese in it at all before, was like sushi with frosting in it.) However, they have added some great new rolls of their own. We had the B.S.C.R -- baked scallops on top of a bed of California Roll with a little sauce dribbled on top. Very nice. And it looks like the "Lady Roll" has the same fillings as the old Futomaki, but with a bean skin wrapper rather than nori. We will go back, but we seriously miss the old Spicy Shrimp Tempura with good old sour -- and solid -- cream cheese.

RECIPE: Chinese BBQ Pork

pitchlady@gmail.com (Pitchlady) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 02:01:00 +0000

Barbecue pork (or Cha Siu -- which means "fork roast") is a basic ingredient for a lot of Chinese cooking. In a big city, you would be able to buy this lovely red-roasted pork, already cooked, by the pound. You know that taste in fried rice and lo mein and soups, and so many other dishes that you can't quite accomplish at home? It's probably from char siu.

This weekend I finally got the taste right on homemade roast pork. And now I have a freezer full for making char sui bao, or fried rice or soups or twice cooked pork....

The key here is the cut of pork. It can't be a lean cut. I used a Boston Butt Roast, cut into strips. "Country Style" spare ribs, or pork shoulder steaks are also good. The country style ribs are about the right shape and size to get the best surface area to meatiness ratio. (This is also important.)

The second key is the preparation method. You need to marinate the pork in the sauce for a couple hours. (I did about two.) Then when you roast it, you have to be sure that as much surface of the pork is exposed to the hot air as possible. I can tell you from experience that if the meat sits in its accumulated juices, it just isn't the same. In China, they hang the meat in the oven on hooks. Many cookbooks recommend putting them in a pan that has a roasting rack.

I didn't have a roasting rack, or hooks, but I had a pork roast and I wanted Char Sui! So I used a little tender loving care. I separated the pieces of meat so that they were not touching. (In this case, I put them in three small pyrex dishes -- but they probably could have been put in one really big on.)

Since the marinade has sugar and soy in it, the pan drippings are likely to burn. If you have a roasting rack this is easy to deal wiht by simply filling the pan below with water or broth. I simply made sure I watched the oven -- which was at a hot 425 degrees -- and every time I could smell that "pre-burning" smell, I poured in a very small amount of sherry into the pan -- about 1/8 of an inch. I started basting it with a souped up version of the marinade after the first fifteen minutes, and after another five or ten, I flipped the meat over, so the bottom side could get some love.

It probably took 45-60 minutes of roasting, and I turned the oven down later in the process. You could stretch the second half out a long time in a slow oven.

The Marinade (enough for approximately two pounds of meat):

1/4 c sherry (broth or water will do)
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 1/2 tbl. honey (or brown sugar)
2 tbl. hoisin sauce
1 tbl oyster sauce

Put the meat in a ziploc bag or a container where it fits closely, and pour over it about half the marinade. Reserve the rest of the marinade for the basting sauce. (Do NOT use the marinade that has touched the meat! Throw it away! It is full of bacteria and such, and the basting sauce will not be thoroughly cooked enough to be safe.)

Basting sauce:

The remaining marinade
1 tbl oyster sauce
2-3 tbl brown sugar
garlic, ginger or whatever other spices sound good to you.

The sugar and garlic are prone to burn, so you don't want so much of it in the marinade, but it is fine for basting later on in the process.

This marinade, btw, would also be good for chicken thighs and wings. You need something with enough fat if you are going to cook it as dry as the instructions here. But a lean meat would be okay if you cook it slower, and with more basting (and maybe more crowded in the pan to keep the moisture in).

Drive-bys, February 3, 2008

pitchlady@gmail.com (Pitchlady) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:57:00 +0000

*SanSu sushi house in Hannah Plaza has moved. They're in the same building, but they have moved from the back to the front of the building. This is a better place for them, imho. They are a popular sushi joint, and this gives them more room and visibility, since they face Hagadorn Road now.

*Gung Hay Fat Choy! It's Chinese New Year on Thursday! Have a feast this week or weekend, as we end the year of the Boar and begin the year of the Rat.