Grub Crawl - West Colonial: Da Sun Ramen, Seoul Soon Tofu and Pho 54 *MT Travel Notes

I tried these place on West Colonial (50) yesterday at lunch. The first is in the Westside Crossings Mall (Chinatown). The next two are in the Lotte Market (see Taglish review). I've been meaning to try the other food stalls at Lotte. Then Covid hit and I wasn't keen on things related to Asia and then other things caught my interest. But, now I'm going to knock those off and the two ramen places in Chinatown sooner rather than later. I did half this go round. One more trip should do it. However, I saw they were building a place called East Garden in Chinatown near 888 and I think I espied a new one near the road called Shanghai Lane. It may just be a new facade? But, I think it's new. This may cause me to make a third trip. I saw that the market at the Crossing had closed.

Da Sun Ramen.- We all no my thoughts on the subject. The fact that two new ones opened here last year (almost next door to each other) and that one replaced a previous ramen purveyor I had already suffered through, didn't help put these in the urgent pile. But, here we are. Ramen isn't all they are about. They offer more than that. A sizable izakaya (no drinks) menu. Things like okonomiyake (although they said they were out), karage, udon, etc. I had curry ramen (I thought you'd like that instead of the other dishes) because it is so boring and I had to do something to shake things up. I couldn't really recall having this many times if ever. It made it less dull. They dice the pork into little cubes. Egg is extra. Noodles were a bit over cooked. Not a terrible lunch. It cost $10. The employees seemed Chinese. The pork tasted and looked like how a Chinese cook would approach it. I actually preferred it to the big slab the Japanese give you. The place looks bad. The walls and light fixtures are alright. The tables and chairs are a horrendous mish mosh. They took down pictures and left the hangers on the wall. Dozens of them! There is a bad mural on one wall. They have cheap photos of the dishes along the walls. One tv was just buffering.  The napkins are like restroom paper towels. It's just sloppy. There seemed to be one cook and one order taker. The order taker delivered my food then went straight into the john for a dump. Too long for number one. That added to the ambiance. It seats about forty. Two Americans were there when I entered. One left his bowl uneaten. They opened a year ago. Do I need to spell it out?

Seoul Soon Tofu - Soon means soft. They do six tofu pots. There is another Korean stall here and they try and differentiate. I won't go into the differences. Both have hot pots and stews and other things. They have a lunch box on weekends. I tried sweet and sour pork ($14) because I didn't want another stew or soup after ramen. Plus I had never seen it before on a Korean menu. They said it was similar to the Chinese version with some twists. They were: the sauce was brown with cucumbers, cabbage and some thin circles of tofu or mushroom in it and thin strips of breaded pork. They gave me a liter of the sauce. I used a tenth. Whatever came along with the vegetables I scooped out of it. I can't imagine using the whole thing. More sour than sweet. The pork was too long. It needed to be cut in half. It was ok. A little tough. It came with white rice an two bon chon (bad kim chi and slices of some yellow colored sweet pickled root vegetable that was probably radish). It was over priced. I ate this for dinner.

Pho 54 - I waited forever for a pork banh mi for $5. I thought I was going to report that it was the worst in the city. I ate it this morning and the time in the fridge hardened up the pathetic roll (from Publix or WD) and it wasn't that bad. Still may be the worst. But, not in a landslide. It was half sized though. Tiny roll. I don't love grilled pork banh mi. I don't order the non-traditional ones much. This was one of those. They only have this or chicken. It was ok. One piece of gristle. Butter. Veg. They also sell 6 pho, 6 rice dishes and 6 noodle dishes. Three people in the booth. An order taker that seemed more interested in eating her own lunch, a boy cleaning tables and an older lady cooking. 

*I saw a place off 434 on near I-4 that said Fig's Steakhouse. Not sure how long that has been there. I think Todd English has places called Fig. Nor sure if they are related.

**Travel Notes - Bozeman, MT: Got stuck in bad weather. Negative 20 at night. Snow. Clouds. Went for Big Sky Ski Resort or Bridger Bowl. The weather wasn't good enough or they were out of tickets all week. Bridger is only $60. Big Sky was up to $200 with tax. Too outrageous for me. Pretty though. Flight (one stop) was $215. Ok hotels (I forget that I get a 20% or so discount when I use Expedia or Booking because I've reached certain thresholds - adjust you pricing as needed) could be found in the $70's. Rental car cost $250 for the week. I also get discounts here. So, here goes a list of what turned into a week of eating out. I'll go in order. Burger Bob's - bacon, egg cheese burger. They had an article from USA Today or something that said Top 50 Best Burger in America. Not even close. Lapa Grill and Soup Shack. An ok bison taco and pork chili verde. In a beer bar. Jam. This was Yelp's number one reviewed (I'll put the numbers in as I go on). A breakfast/lunch place. Not number one. I had a weird dish of beet and root. It was a hash with yellow and red beets in it and two overcooked poached eggs. The beets don't work in a hash. They also tossed on a side salad of lemon dressed arugula that didn't work. I also had butternut squash soup that was ruined by the inclusion of ground pork sausage. Didn't marry. I had a good pizza from Red Tractor Pizza. I had good sushi (and local beer) at Dave's Sushi. Well, the yt and surf clam were good. Salmon and tuna were a little pasty. I had good fried chicken at Roost (on 3D). Mashed potatoes were really good. Had some some good whiskey, rum, tequila and vodka at Bozeman Spirits Distillery. I had good beer at Union Hall Brewery. I had an ok burger at Back Country Burger Bar. Ok thai at Rice. Average lamb gyro at Revelry (#2). And better pear, parsnip and brie soup. Although, they didn't know which herbs and spices worked well. They put some chives in the soup. They clashed. That type of soup needed spice not herbs. Similar problem with the gyro. I had good orecchiette with spicy pork ragu at Blackbird (#4). The menu was sparse though. Alot of pizza (supposedly because of Covid). And they seemed a bit impressed with themselves. I had a good Grizzly Killer breakfast of "the biggest (it wasn't) chicken fried steak you've ever seen" with three eggs and hb at Main Street Overeasy (#7). Dave's and Roost were in the "most reviewed" top ten. I also had some pretty good walleye tacos in Big Sky at Cafe 191. They also had a market that was ok called Heeb's. I saw some interesting dried mushroom packages from a company called Terra Dolce. I'm not a fancy market shopper, so, maybe they aren't so unknown. If you weren't aware, Bozeman is right above Yellowstone. Good in all seasons. University town. Ended the state mask mandate that week. Some localities still wetting their pants. Including Bozeman. Female mayor. So, you know... Some were wearing them outside. Some not. 

Grub Crawl - Orlando: Aardvark, Kathi Rolls (Closed) and Taino's Bakery

  I tried these place today at lunch. None of them is truly in an area that can be identified with a pithy nick name, so, I'm going to group them together. They are kind of near each other. The first is on Ferncreek off Michigan. The second is on Curry Ford near the Hourglass District. The third is just off 436 on Lake Underhill. I was just driving around today and kind of had some of these on my mental list.

Aardvark - This was a general store that became a bottle shop that became a restaurant/bar. They said they changed the chef a year ago. I went for a burger and ended up with a riff on a cheese steak (Okeechobee Dip.) I probably should have stuck to the plan. The cs was brisket and leeks and mushrooms. The four strips of medium thick sliced brisket were tough. Too tough to rip with your teeth. It needed knife and fork effort. It tasted like they boiled it after smoking. That or they boiled it first and then smoked it. Or they did some cheating with liquid smoke. The leeks were cut like scallions. They charred them too. Smoke on smoke wasn't double the fun. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I received one quarter of a small mushroom. The bun looked and tasted like a Publix special. Plus it was too voluminous for the already high sandwich. If you didn't need a knife for the meat, you would need it to cut it down to size. Try a new bun or scoop out the middle. Or press it.  It came with limp fries and a jus. Not au jus. A jus. Because we all know au jus means - with juice. Both were salted and peppered too much. Other than that, it was a delight. It cost $15. The menu had about a dozen choices. Two were interesting. A grouper Manhattan. Bitters (orange I think) and a cherry something or other. And grilled asparagus (an app). They had bar snacks and chicken and some other meats. A sirloin was like $24. That was the high end. The beer selection was mostly local. Kind of average. Maybe the fridges have more choice. The wine menu was a bit more unusual. Especially the reds. Seemed like a 3X mark up. They also sold kegs. The place is square. Window up front. Bar in rear. Three booths. The rest tables. A patio. Maybe seventy seats in total. Two others were there at 11:30. It opens at 10. 

Kathi Rolls - In the spot that was another Indian place for a minute. I believe it was called Forever Naan. There were articles from The Weekly and (probably) The Sentinel on the wall. The OW was dated April. So, it has been open at least that long. I assume they both jizzed on the place. My tikka kathi roll has only been picked at so far. That is because it lost the contest. What I did sample was undercooked and from bad parts of the chicken. Maybe a nuke job tomorrow will firm up the meat. The sauce also seemed more deep red than your standard tikka masala. The paratha bread was ok. It cost $9. Probably worth half that. This appears to be a street food of meat kebab out of Kolkata. I wonder if that was looking at when I tried the Moroccan stall at Apna Bazaar? The stall next to it that ignored me. They also sell different versions of this (ie lamb) and in bowls. A few other Indian snacks. It's a small place. Mostly hallway. Framed amateur phots of India. Four tables up front. Two are hightops. The two floor tables were occupied. A bunch of people were picking up or getting it to go. 

Taino's Bakery - I saw this when I went to Meatball Stoppe months ago. I thought it was just sweet treats (which aren't usually very good from Latin countries) plus it was always too late whenever I was driving near here. So, it didn't get did. Glad I forced myself today. It's a huge (and apparently popular) Puerto Rican bakery and eatery. They have a big breakfast and lunch and dinner menu. Cheap too. Some full breakfasts were only $4. I had the Taino Especial for $7. The most expensive one. It was ham, pork, chicken, steak and swiss cheese on a roll with lettuce, tomato, onion and potato sticks. Pressed. French dressing. With a side. I chose tostones. They were good. The steak was so tender. The Aardvark brisket could be the box spring. This would be the mattress. The chicken and pork were pulled. A little hard to make out. But, good. The ham was ham. Cut in small squares.Good bun. Buttered. Huge portion. Like three Kathi rolls or one Kathy Najimi. They also sell: a dozen other sandwiches, snacks, mofongos, jibaritos (green plantain "bread"), salads, cremas, burgers, baked goods and something called a mallorca that seems to be a sweet roll sandwich bread. I think a $14 mofongo is the high end. Most things are a fraction of that. The place takes up three store spaces. They have three counters to order at. Seats inside. White color scheme. They have three other locations. Two in Kissimmee and one on Goldenrod. The original was opened in 2006. Not sure if this is it. probably not. They said this location has been there for over ten years. They said they are open until 6pm. The sign on the door reads 5pm. They open at 6am. Probably a discovery like the Americas and Columbus. Well, I'm claiming it in my name for all Oppressors. Try not to embarrass me when you check it out. Easily the best of the day. And at less than half the price than one of the competitors and around 50% off the other. Needless to say that it (the sandwich) no longer exists in it original form. The internet says taino means a person from the Caribbean. Could just be some persons (non-binary of course) name. Hot staff. Very binary. Turned my zero into a one.

*I forgot one food item I saw in SC. Fried peanuts. In the shell. At a market. In a bag like chips. They fried the whole thing. Didn't try them though. Forgot to go back and pick them up before I skipped town.

**Saw that Wa Sushi was at 436 at Red Bug Lake Rd. Buffalo Wild Wings area. Plus new Mexican opening on 436 just passed the train tracks. Has been various buffet places, etc.

Bovine Steakhouse, Winter Park *SC/GA Travel Notes

I tried this place in the old Park Place Gardens locale on Park Ave last Thursday (8 days ago) for dinner. They are only open for lunch on the weekends. If it weren't for this, I might have tried them earlier. I stopped by in the Spring and wasn't really impressed by the menu or the prices either. They are from the 310 group. This is supposed to be a Chicago style steak house. Another concept that isn't my bag. I came for a fly by at the bar of steak tartare. Covid (or public sentiment) made the place wide open. So, I "upgraded" myself to a mini booth at the bar. The back is big and really nice. I didn't realize it was there until I sat down. I probably wasn't in the mood for the formality even if I had seen it before hand. The menu (small) had a thing or two of value. I adjusted my plan and started with a salmon tartare at $14. It was ok. Not a ton of flavor. Nice plating. Some kind of black rough rock bowl. Three toast points. A cucumber base layer. Mustardy vinaigrette dressing. Micro greens. Some  "American" caviar. I saw a show once on caviar from Florida. I wonder if they source it from there? The toast points overwhelmed the salmon. The caviar wasn't very good and isn't needed. The steak tartare was better. A rough chop. Not straight out of the refrigerator temp beef. Micro greens, capers, raw egg on top (nice color yolk). Beefy flavor. It came four roasted blue cheese toasts that were good (so much cheese) on their own, but, overwhelmed the beef. I like my acts to be solo acts when they can be. I don't think they need to hide their ingredients. Then again, I don't think pizza needs ranch dressing. The portion here was also more generous than the salmon. 2X. Same plating. The rest of the menu is mostly grilled meats. I think the ribeye was $68. It has been a while, but, I remember a ribeye at Linda's La Cantina was only like $24. The cheapest beef cut was over $40, I think. A teeny 4oz filet. Chicken was the cheapest thing. $32?. I forget. Two roasted vegetable entrees were the low water mark. A semi-reasonable entree was prime rib. I think it was only $24. I've never liked it. It was always too slippery for me. And it was always something of a joke to my family. The thing at the country club buffet that the families who thought dining at a country club was a special night out thought was the height of opulence. The place was dark in hue. Brick. Polished wood. Some gilding. A rectangular narrow bar area in front. A large square room in back. A glass wine closet. The selection seemed ok. There were six people at the bar. I think two or three tables of two in the back. Service was fine. Dressed up. They spaced the delivery. They made a point of it though. I wasn't aware that spacing an app and an entree has now become something you have to request. I believe they have been open for a full year. It isn't bad. They probably need to bring back (if they ever had one) a burger lunch service and drop the price on every beef option by $20. It was exactly the wrong kind of place to open at the wrong time. The expense account diner may never return. They need to think more Houston's (or Ruth's Chris) than Charlie Trotter's. Even if the meats are the best they can be from coast to coast, it still something anyone can do at home. And people in WP have their favs already. I don't even think they had aged beef. H Steakhouse at Dr Phillips has a visual aging room and other gimmicks. And I think they are cheaper. 

*Travel Notes - SC/GA: Some notes on a trip to SC and GA. I started at Hilton Head. Good burger at Wayback Burger. Bad breakfast at Hilton Head Diner. In Charleston, I started with dinner at High Cotton (because of Samantha Brown). Ok she crab soup. Tile fish with sweet potatoes and squash "special" that wasn't. Tile fish must be in season. It looks cute. I though it was code name for monk fish for some reason. They said it was also a name for wreck fish. It isn't. That is a grouper like fish. I had lunch at the number one reviewed place (high on "rated" too) on Yelp. Poogan's Porch. It was good. Fried chicken (they said it was their thing) with great mac and cheese and collard greens. I had a caramel apple from Savannah's Candy Kitchen. Alex Guarneschelli said it was the "best thing she ever ate" on that tv show. I had dinner at Fig (Samantha Brown again). It was good. Sashimi of King Mackerel atop of rice middlins (a half rice thing you need to research) and sorghum popcorn (saw that on Bourdain or Zimmern in Ethiopia). Salmon roe and radish also. Least fishy mackerel I've experienced. Also, beef tartare in swordfish (not tuna) tonnato on toast. Cooked veal is usually paired with this sauce. And tile fish collar "chowder" fish cake with lardons. I bypassed the number one place (Husk) because I didn't like the menu the prepared for that day. Another restaurant had a sign recommending these places if they were too busy. Nice of them. I didn't research. Leyla, Blossom, Magnolia, Grill 225, Jim 'n' Nicks BBQ, Basil, Slightly North of Broad, Oak Steakhouse and 82 Queen (supposed birthplace of she crab soup). I had a mushy bbq pork sandwich at Duke's BBQ. I stayed at a place called Indigo Inn that was convenient. I spent a night at the Sanctuary on Kiawah Island. It can be $550+ for a bad room. It was $270 with tax this time of year. Nice place. PGA is at their Ocean Course this spring. If you want a look on CBS. I grabbed lunch the next day just outside that area at Kin Folk. It is on Johns Island. I had pulled chicken sandwich with Alabama white sauce. It's mostly a hot chicken place. I went to St Simons Island mostly for the barbeque at Southern Soul Barbeque on a friend's recommendation). It was worth it. I had a huge platter of good brisket with potato salad (very good) and mac and cheese (a little mushy). I grabbed a grilled cheese and cheeseburger at a one off fast food opportunity called Frosty's. There are two fancy hotels on SSI. Cloisters on Sea Island ($314+) and Lodge at Sea Island ($294). I stayed at a Hampton Inn that was $98 with tax and they gave me a $16 food credit. Sea Island is really part of SSI. I was more impressed with SSI this time around. Only one fancy place per trip though. There is also a spot on HHI called Inn and Lodge at Harbour Island. It was $140. 10% resort fee though. Georgia let you dine with no masks. Charleston had a mask mandate throughout the city that wasn't being enforced. No restaurant capacity limits though. None of the areas were very busy.

Grub Crawl - International Drive: Kingdom Sushi and Turkuaz

I tried these two spots in a strip mall on Kirkman and I Drive two Friday's ago at night. They aren't open for lunch. I tried to sort out Hidden Sushi (which didn't look so hot and is just a Brazilian style sushi spot), but, it had a waiting list going.

Kingdom Sushi House - They said they have been open for two years. I didn't notice until a few months ago. I kind of expected them to be not so great. I was right. They do Brazilian style sushi. That means (if this is representative) lots of salmon, a little ahi and lots of junk. The menu pricing is bizarre. A hand roll was like eight dollars. Ceviche (tilapia - eww) was only around $5. Some other ordinary things were in the teens. My plate was only $20 and amounted to 34 pieces. And I think what little nigiri they did were like $6 for an order of two. Other platters had similar items and cost more. My platter (King 30) was all salmon. The salmon was pasty. I guess they gave me 4 extra pieces. It began with a fried roll cut into eight pieces. Then came a platter with: four pieces from a salmon and cream cheese roll, ten slices of sashimi, an eight piece salmon on the outside roll topped with piped whipped cream cheese and finally four pieces of nigiri (I didn't eat them all because I pealed off the salmon and it was gross underneath). The nigiri was the worst. At least two of the pieces must have been a day old. The rice was a brick. The rice on the "fresh" ones was still bad. They don't know how to make sushi grade rice. Or how to keep it. The rolls had way too much cream cheese per unit and the combined force would make a lactose tolerant stomach queasy. The pasty sashimi didn't help. The regular cream cheese and salmon roll also suffered from bad rice (hard and crusty). I informed them of my sentiments (at the end of the meal) and they swore the rice was made that day. I strongly disagree. I think they make these items in bulk and then plate them like a party catering business. And it's FIFO. If some don't get sold, they get refrigerated and sold the next day. Or the next. If anything is fresh, it is because they ran through the pre-prep supply. The platter came out way too fast for it to have been made to order. Like two minutes from ordering. The best thing was the garlic flavored edamame that they served as an amuse bouche for free. Service was fast. It had a mainly Latin looking crowd. 50-60 seats. About half full. Not much on ambience. A mural on the wall was the big expenditure. Low ceilings. I'd skip it. You can go to an all you can eat place and spend less and get more choice and probably fresher items. Now I'm scared to go to Hidden Sushi.

Turquaz Turkish Cuisine - They are in the corner location aside Kingdom. I've been to a multitude of places that have died there. They said they have been here for three years. That is even more surprising. I must have a mental defense mechanism that shelters me from this strip mall. I just ordered falafel to go to knock them off the list. The place is beyond pathetic. It's dark. Most of the space is outside on a patio next to a pool hall. There were two tables of two dining. The falafel was weird. They looked like marsh mellows. They must roll a tube and then snip them off. They were dry and had no flavor. Probably old. It came with some tomato slices, onions and pickled cabbage salad. And a small container of hummus. It cost $8. Inside there is a mural and some Arabic themed light fixtures and a DJ area. It has the same old menu and prices. You can live without it. It means Turkoise.