Gastrolust

Dish: Bitter Melon Beef Chow Fun Place: Happy Times Bistro, International District Price: $7.50 On the plate:Pan-fried noodles with slices of beef, bitter melon, green onions, mushrooms, carrots, and black bean sauce. Supporting cast/What to do: Your main decision with this mein dish is what type of noodles you want. Choices include rice noodles, rice [...]

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New Year celebrations may be behind for most people, but I’m still looking forward to my favorite of the year: Chinese New Year. It’s about a month away, and as with Thanksgiving day and Christmas day, I’ll likely spend it in a Chinese restaurant in Seattle. Or, more likely, Bellevue, as that’s where the better [...]

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Yesterday, Serious Eats posted my roundup of “10 Terrific Tofu Dishes in Seattle.” An excerpt: I probably wouldn’t have connected the words “tofu” and “terrific” twenty or thirty years ago. Before I’d been exposed to the wide array of Asian cuisine, tofu was merely a meat substitute that I considered bland and boring. Now I [...]

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It’s been nearly two years since Taiwan’s Din Tai Fung opened its second restaurant in the United States, in Bellevue’s Lincoln Square Mall. Locals went crazy, celebrating the arrival of the trademark xiao long bao (soup dumplings). People lined up for hours just to get a seat at a table. I went close to the [...]

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Dish: Szechuan Cold Noodle Place: Szechuan Chef, Bellevue Price: $5.99 In the bowl: The menu says nothing beyond the dish name. So I asked my server, and she explained that the sauce is made with garlic, green onions, vinegar, chili oil, and soy sauce. Supporting cast/What to do: Eat before it gets cold? No such [...]

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Dish: Pandameinia Place: Pandasia, Interbay Price: $9.50 On the plate: Per the menu: “The ultimate chow mein: assorted vegetables, shrimp, chicken, beef and two flavors of homemade noodles.” Supporting cast/What to do: Just dig in and explore the noodle dish. There’s truly a bit of pandemonium in Pandemeinia, as there are so many ingredients to [...]

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Dish: Ants on the Tree Place: Sichuanese Cuisine, International District Price: $6.95 On the plate: Per the menu: “Stir-fried vermicelli noodles with ground pork, green onions.” Supporting cast/What to do: Last time I ate these noodles at Sichuanese Cuisine, I asked for them to be super-spicy, but was disappointed with the tameness. This time, I [...]

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Dish: Sweet and Spicy Beef Noodles Place: Lucky 8′s China House, Capitol Hill Price: $9.95 On the plate: From the menu: “Thin egg noodles with beef, garlic, and sweet chili sauce.” You’ll also notice bamboo shoots, onions, carrots, water chestnuts, celery, and green onions on the plate. Supporting cast/What to do: You’ll find soy sauce [...]

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It’s rare that I eat dinner alone in Seattle. But two weeks ago, my partner had gone to Tokyo ahead of me, and I had eaten everything perishable out of the refrigerator, leaving only condiments and beverages. It was my last night in town, I was by myself, and I was busy, hungry, and desperate. [...]

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I remember the first time I saw a blueberry bagel. “That’s a Christian bagel,” my dad bemoaned, adding, “Or a stale doughnut.” We both believed a bagel should be simple—either plain, seeded, or maybe onion. Me…I’m a sesame man. And I’m a New York Jew, or at least was born that way. As such, I [...]

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