Eat, Play, Run

Hong Kong: The Yellow Door

I won't bury the lead. The Yellow Door is the best Chinese food I've ever eaten. There really isn't even a close number 2. The Yellow Door is the Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky of Chinese food, all rolled up into one.

The restaurant serves their meals on a prix fixe menu. For starters, we had eight dishes. Eight!

• Sliced pork with spicy garlic sauce. The pork was sliced paper thin, to the point it sort of melted in your mouth. So very good.
• Corn with lemon leaves. Served chilled,this was also very good. But, have you ever tried eating corn with chopsticks? It's like running a marathon... with one leg tied behind your back.
• Boiled Shanghai Beans in distilled liquor dregs. Yeah, that's the name. I like to call it edemame in tasty, sour sauce.
• Pickled egg with caviar. This should've been the best dish. But, it was actually the worst. The pickled egg was cased in sort of gelatin, with the fish eggs on top. The whole thing didn't really work for me.
• Fried spare rib with cumin. Or as Kenwyn called it, cumin with fried spare rib. The cumin was definitely strong, but the little bits of spare rib were great.
• Salad of shredded potato with spicy sauce. The potatoes were shredded thin, almost like hash browns, and served with a wonderful spicy sauce. Not sure if I liked this or the sliced pork best.
• Deep fried shrimp with bread. Oh those Chinese. We call it breaded deep fried shrimp. The breading was light, providing just the right amount of crisp to the shrimp.

After the starters, our main dishes came out one at a time. The first dish was called Soup of scallop and flowering Chinese. Awesome title, right? It also tasted the awesome. The broth had only a subtle taste of scallop. We couldn't figure out what the "Chinese" was but, it too was very subtle. Almost serving to just add texture to the soup.

Chicken and shredded leeks with spicy sauce was next up. The chicken breasts were juicy, yet firm and loaded with flavor. The spicy sauce was hot, without detracting from the flavor of the chicken. This too was an excellent dish.

The next dish, the smoked pork ribs with honey and tea leaves was heavenly. For me, this was the highlight dish of the meal. The meat literally fell off the bone. The honey/tea leaf sauce was unlike anything I've ever had. The flavors were just so good. Thinking about it now, it brings a smile to my face.

It's half-time. We just hit the halfway point of our six main dishes. Kenwyn was doing a nice job pacing herself, but Doug and I pretty much licked eat of our plates clean. Doug even picked at Kenwyn's.

OK, on with the meal. Fried prawns in Sichuan sour and spicy sauce. Shocking, but another winner. I know I'm supposed to try to be critical of the food, but it was all so damn good. In this case, the sauce was just perfect. I liked that they stayed away from a traditional sweet and sour sauce.

Stir fried squash with ginger. If you gave me 10 guesses as to what I was eating, I would've never guessed squash. I would've been hard pressed to guess in 25 guesses. But, you guessed it, it was very good. Sometimes ginger can be overpowering, but not here. It added to squash, bringing a fresh flavor to the forefront.

Shanghai stuffed duck. As the final dish, I think this was supposed be the piece de resistance, but of the six, it was actually my least favorite. That's not to say it wasn't a decent dish, but compared to the others it came up short. The stuffing completely overpowered the duck. The duck itself was only so-so, so maybe that was on purpose. On the plus side, the duck was very juicy and tender.

After the six main courses, were brought out a meat dumplings with chicken soup. After the 'big show' it seemed kind of tiny, but it was very good. The dumpling, excellent. I guess it was actually a nice to finish off the meal.

Finally, for dessert we were served "Sweet soup of glutinous rice ball." I prefer that my desserts include the word "chocolate," still, for a Chinese dessert, it was good. The little rice balls were kind of fun to eat. The sweet 'soup,' which was served hot, was also pretty good.

Overall, I couldn't have been more satisfied with meal. I told Doug and Kenwyn that they should've saved Yellow Door for last, because nothing else can really compare.

Downtown: Wild Ginger

Wild Ginger is my favorite restaurant in Seattle. Yes, there was a time I liked it more, but I'm not sure if that was because the food was better or if my palate has become more refined. Eat enough meals at Nobu and Lupa, and you're bound to set a higher standard for your food.

Since returning to Seattle, I've eaten at Wild Ginger three times, with three different sets of visitors. All three meals scored big points with my friends, two visiting from NY and one from LA.

At Wild Ginger, you order family-style, so it's easy to try many different dishes. On this night we had two appetizers, followed by four main dishes and dessert.

We started with an order of chicken potstickers. I like them because they're simple. Nothing fancy, just a nice tasting dumpling. Our other appetizer is one of the house specialties, the Siam Lettuce Cup. It's a mixture of fish, peanuts, basil, lime and tamarind which you then wrap in a piece of butter lettuce. It's delicious. Over the years, this dish has evolved. By the way, it kicks the crap out of those PF Chang's Lettuce Cups, so don't be afraid to try it if the PF Chang's version has tainted you!

We had a nice mix of dishes for our main meal. I wasn't doing the ordering, so we actually ended up with a vegetable on the table. I know, crazy, right? The Sichuan Green Beans are deep fried, then stir fried in a hot, spicy oil. In other words, this might be the least healthy vegetable dish ever served. But, damn it's good.

For seafood we ordered the Black Pepper Scallops. This is another simple dish. The sea scallops are seared in soy sauce and black pepper. Of the night's dishes, this seemed to the the favorite of the out-of-towners. For having three ingredients, it's very flavorful.

Next up was the Seven Flavor Beef. The seven flavors are: lemongrass, peanuts, hoison, chilies, basil, garlic and ginger rubbed into flank steak. The beef is then quickly dry fried. While the others seemed to prefer the scallops, this one was my favorite. Let's face it, I like beef. But there's so much flavor here, I can't help but love this dish. Overall, t's become my favorite at Wild Ginger.

Finally, we had the other specialty of the house, the Wild Ginger Fragrant Duck. The duck, which is so well prepared, you really don't the accoutrements, is somehow cooked where the flavor and moistness of the duck is there, yet without the normal greasiness. As for those accoutrements, you're supposed to wrap the duck in a lovely, sweet steamed bun, then top with cilantro and a plum sauce. For me, I love the buns and the duck and I just skip the other stuff.

For dessert, we had a strawberry rhubarb tart topped with vanilla ice cream. The rhubarb was very tart, to the point if I didn't swallow it down with the ice cream, it was almost painful. The tart part was good, though. I don't think the dessert stacked up to the meal. I was supposed to quote my friend here, but I can't remember what she said.

Overall, a fine meal. I still love Wild Ginger. I probably always will. The scary thing? They're opening a Wild Ginger in the lobby of the office building we just moved into. Ugh. I can't imagine how much time and money I'm going to spend there!

Pike Place Market: Mee Sum Pastry

Living in the International District, I'm at ground zero for the best Chinese food the city has to offer. Sure there are other places in the area that have standout restaurants, but if you want to go restaurant hopping, you can't beat the Chinese food here.

But, for the best hum bao in the city, you need to try Mee Sum Pastry at Pike Place Market. It's a little stand that faces the Market. At $2.50 a piece, you will hard pressed to find better bang for your buck.

The two types of hum bao, in particular, that I enjoy are the standard barbecue pork and the curry beef. The buns at Mee Sum are sweet and light. On the curry hum bao, they actually bake it with suger (I think) to create a crisp, even sweeter crust.

When at the Market, in between gawking at the flying fish and taking pictures of the first Starbucks, swing by Mee Sum Pastry and I recommend giving the hum bao a shot.

International District: Kau Kau

The International District, which used to be called Chinatown, is an area rife with Chinese barbecue joints. It wouldn't be a "Chinatown" without pork and duck hanging in the window.

My favorite Chinese barbecue restaurant in the city is Kau Kau. Outside of its standard Chinese menu, featuring barbecue, that you can eat dining in, Kau Kau offers up a great to go counter where the butcher(?) will cut up your meat and drop it into a container to take out.

I think I've tried all of the takeout offerings. I've settled on two dishes as my favorites: the barbecue pork and the roasted pork. The duck is OK, but I find it a little too oily.

The porks, however are perfect. The barbecue pork, cha shu, is excellent. I like the firmness and texture of the meat, and the sweet "skin." Dipped in hot mustard, it's the ultimate appetizer or side dish. The roasted pork, siew yuk, is pork done right. The crisp, salty skin off-sets the tender, oily meat.

If you go to Kau Kau, and I highly recommend it, don't leave without trying the roasted pork.  You won't regret it.