Our most recent foray into Asian restaurants was to Charlie Chiang's, a grand old Chinese place on Eye Street east of 20th (we end up in this neighborhood alot because it's near Leo's gym). This is one of those old-style Chinese restaurants that is very formal and where the waiters are attired in black tie, vest, and trousers and white shirts and aprons.
We started with two different types of dumplings, one a traditional pork-filled fried dumpling and the other the house specialty "szechuan dumpling," which were interesting small dumplings wrapped in what appeared to be won-ton and served floating in a bowl of oyster sauce, garnishing with frizzled scallions. For main courses, Leo had some kind of noodle dish (I forget which one) and I had something called Yu-Shiang pork, which was a tasty stir-fry with pork slivvers, onions, mushrooms, and other vegetables. They also brought me a cute, little, alumimum, sleekly designed, covered bowl full of some nicely tender and fresh rice.
Their dessert selection is limited to various kinds of ice cream, so we opted to stick to our diets and abstain.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Nooshi (Oodles, Noodles & Sushi), Washington, D.C.
We had a lot of fun the other night at Nooshi (Oodles, Noodles & Sushi), a big operation with an affilliated take-away location next door, in the 19th and L Street area. We'd gotten a delivery menu in the mail, so Leo immediately wanted to try it out. The busy dining room is expensively decorated in a very sleet, Asian modern design. Our table had a hammered copper top encased in clear, smooth resin, and one whole side of the dining room featured banquette seating.
I was in a sushi mood, so I started with a very nice seaweed salad that featured five different types of seaweed, each dressed differently with miso, sesame, vinegar, and other dressings. My main course was the "sushi grand" platter, a big round box with luscious tuna, salmon, whitefish, mackerel, yellowtail, eel, surf clam, and shrimp sushis, plus a good sized California roll in the middle. The gari (pickled ginger root) was very fresh, and was not yet fully pink (that is a good thing).
Leo started with the sonomono, which is a cucumber and seaweed salad with shrimp and octopus in a vinaigrette dressing, then had a main course of mee goreng, which is a Malaysian-style fried egg noodle dish with bean sprouts, carrots, cabbage, scallions, shallots, fried tofu, and pork, all with a lot of hot spices. It was very artfully arranged and had a yellow, curry-looking appearance, but I don't think it was a curry, since I tasted one of the carrot coins and didn't detect a curry flavor. For dessert, he had a ginger crème brulee that he pronounced divine. I had a wonderful, huge bowl (more than enough for two!) of fresh strawberries, bananas, mango, and pineapple which I'm going to guess were doused with something like a ginger ale, and there were a couple of little pieces of lemon grass in the mix that I chewed on for an explosion of lemon grass taste, but which were probably just in there for flavor, since the stalks were too woody to actually swallow.
It was a great evening, the waiters were all very attentive, and I'm sure we'll end up back there again sometime.
I was in a sushi mood, so I started with a very nice seaweed salad that featured five different types of seaweed, each dressed differently with miso, sesame, vinegar, and other dressings. My main course was the "sushi grand" platter, a big round box with luscious tuna, salmon, whitefish, mackerel, yellowtail, eel, surf clam, and shrimp sushis, plus a good sized California roll in the middle. The gari (pickled ginger root) was very fresh, and was not yet fully pink (that is a good thing).
Leo started with the sonomono, which is a cucumber and seaweed salad with shrimp and octopus in a vinaigrette dressing, then had a main course of mee goreng, which is a Malaysian-style fried egg noodle dish with bean sprouts, carrots, cabbage, scallions, shallots, fried tofu, and pork, all with a lot of hot spices. It was very artfully arranged and had a yellow, curry-looking appearance, but I don't think it was a curry, since I tasted one of the carrot coins and didn't detect a curry flavor. For dessert, he had a ginger crème brulee that he pronounced divine. I had a wonderful, huge bowl (more than enough for two!) of fresh strawberries, bananas, mango, and pineapple which I'm going to guess were doused with something like a ginger ale, and there were a couple of little pieces of lemon grass in the mix that I chewed on for an explosion of lemon grass taste, but which were probably just in there for flavor, since the stalks were too woody to actually swallow.
It was a great evening, the waiters were all very attentive, and I'm sure we'll end up back there again sometime.
China Doll, Washington, D.C.
A rather unfortunate restaurant we recently visited was a place in Chinatown called China Doll. We went specifically for dim sum, so we were directed upstairs to the dining room there (the downstairs appeared to be much more casual). Rather than bringing a cart around for diners to select their tidbits, China Doll has them select items on a paper menu and then brings them to the table, which Leo tells me is the way it is done in the more elegant restaurants in Hong Kong. I dunno. I kinda miss the cart, cause it's always fun to try new things just cause they look intriguing.
Anyway, Leo ordered us an assortment of dumplings, a big plate of gai lan (Chinese broccoli), a big plate of chow fun (fettuccine-like pasta), and, finally, he talked me in to ordering some chicken feet.
Chicken feet are interesting. Obviously, there's not any muscle or meat to speak of on them, so I think the primarly "food" value is from the skin and the associated brown cooking sauce. The remaining foot bones, though, are attached to one another with cartiledge, and if one has the patience to suck and gnaw on bones for a while, you can extract some flavor from the cartiledge and then spit out all the little tiny foot bones.
The gai lan was great, being cooked to a tender-crunchiness and dosed with a garlicky oyster sauce. The fried dumpling were okay, but I thought the steamed dumplings were a little sticky from being over-steamed.
The chow fun was disappointing in several ways, first because the wide noodles were overcooked and clumpy and secondly because we found a piece of a metal brad or big staple in the food. What's worse, Leo and I both ended up feeling queasy and unsettled for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Anyway, Leo ordered us an assortment of dumplings, a big plate of gai lan (Chinese broccoli), a big plate of chow fun (fettuccine-like pasta), and, finally, he talked me in to ordering some chicken feet.
Chicken feet are interesting. Obviously, there's not any muscle or meat to speak of on them, so I think the primarly "food" value is from the skin and the associated brown cooking sauce. The remaining foot bones, though, are attached to one another with cartiledge, and if one has the patience to suck and gnaw on bones for a while, you can extract some flavor from the cartiledge and then spit out all the little tiny foot bones.
The gai lan was great, being cooked to a tender-crunchiness and dosed with a garlicky oyster sauce. The fried dumpling were okay, but I thought the steamed dumplings were a little sticky from being over-steamed.
The chow fun was disappointing in several ways, first because the wide noodles were overcooked and clumpy and secondly because we found a piece of a metal brad or big staple in the food. What's worse, Leo and I both ended up feeling queasy and unsettled for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
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