Asian Archives - Page 3 of 4

Sweet Basil Thai Cuisine-February 16, 2013

February 17, 2013

Philip and I have been eating at Sweet Basil for years. Odd that I haven’t reviewed it yet, right? Actually, we went to Sweet Basil shortly after the inception of Chattavore in May 2011 and I started writing a post, but it was the end of the school year and that just isn’t a good time for me to do much of anything. The post never got finished and thus is now referred to as “the lost post”. When I updated my tags and created my recipe and restaurant index last month, I finally deleted the poor, forlorn post. Still, Sweet Basil deserves my love so finally we ended up back there yesterday. There was no planning ahead on our part; we had no idea where we were going when we left our house but after a marathon shopping trip to the School Box to spend some of my classroom money, it was close and sounded good to both of us.

At three in the afternoon, you may have expected it to be dead but it wasn’t. Not that it was packed out or anything, but there were several other tables occupied. We were immediately seated, though, after taking quick note of the lunchbox special including soup, salad, a spring roll, and chicken Panang curry (there may have been some other things but I didn’t notice). The tables were set with a plates, ornately folded napkins (which the server unfolded and placed in our laps), dinner menus, and a sushi menu. This is a phenomena that I wish someone would explain to me. Sweet Basil has not always served sushi and I am assuming that they started after Rain Thai Bistro opened and started serving sushi. I’m sure the sushi is good and I’m sure these places serve it on popular demand, but these are Thai restaurants. If I want sushi I’ll go to a Japanese restaurant. Why does a Thai restaurant need to serve sushi? So confusing. But I digress.

Anyway, we’ve kind of fallen off the bandwagon of using our Adventures in Dining Guide for every blog post. We did it last week but sometimes you just aren’t in the mood for the restaurants found there. Lucky for us, though, there was a Kids First coupon for $5 of $25 here at Sweet Basil. Yippee! Usually we order some spring rolls (crispy fried spring rolls served with tamarind sauce) but Philip was drawn to the basil rolls today so we decided to order those. The basil rolls are not fried. They are made with rice paper wrappers filled with thin rice noodles, a thick stack of sweet basil leaves, lettuce, and a single piece of shrimp each. They were served with a sweet and tangy plum sauce. Fresh and delicious, these made me want to make some unfried spring rolls at home. Look for a blog post soon(ish). We will order these again. At some point we would like to try the golden basil cups, crispy basil leaves with a shrimp, chicken, and corn-based filling.

This is one of those places that every time I go, I think “I need to branch out and order something other than the usual” but I just can’t bring myself to do it. I always order the Pad Thai. I think I ordered the lunchbox special once and, while I liked it, I found myself longing for my beloved Pad Thai, so I decided that branching out probably isn’t worth it. When I ordered the Pad Thai, the server removed my plate because they serve their Pad Thai in a large dish that’s kind of like a plate/bowl hybrid. The Pad Thai is typically served with shrimp, but the server asked me if I wanted shrimp so I assume that sometimes people order it with chicken, beef, or pork, or meatless. I definitely wanted the shrimp. Pad Thai is not spicy hot so it doesn’t have a chili pepper denoting the spiciness level, but you can request it with additional spice. Of course, I did not. The medium-wide rice noodles are stir-fried with a sweet & sour sauce with eggs, tofu, green onions, and shrimp, served with mung bean sprouts, chopped peanuts, and a lime slice for topping. Perfection. It’s unlikely I’m going to start ordering anything else here any time soon.

Like me, Philip always orders the same thing: Panang curry. Usually he orders pork, but today he decided to order beef. Panang curry is a one-chili-pepper spicy dish but Philip decided to up the spice factor to two chili peppers (which harkens back to the time we ate at Thai Smile for lunch years ago and the guy behind us ordered his curry with four-chili-pepper spiciness. Whoa, man. Crazy.). The time that I ordered the lunchbox special it came with chicken Panang curry and I found the standard one-chili-pepper spiciness to be too much for my wimpy taste buds, but Philip has a much higher heat tolerance than I do. For someone with a high tolerance, this curry doesn’t really start out spicy but the spiciness builds as you eat it. The server brought out a plate with the curry on it as well as a container of plain sticky white rice, which she scooped onto the plate that was preset onto the table. Panang curry paste is made with chili peppers, cilantro, Kaffir lime rind, and a variety of other exotic and not-so-exotic spices and seasonings, then mixed into a coconut milk based sauce and served with stir-fried sliced meat and peppers (green and red bell peppers). Philip ate most of it and declared at the end that he could finish it but he wouldn’t.

I was terribly sad that I didn’t have room for dessert. Perhaps next time I will go back on my word and have some soup and a Thai salad (with peanut dressing) so that I can have space for some sticky rice with mango or maybe some coconut or green tea ice cream. Not this time, though. I also am dying to try Thai iced tea, which is sweet with condensed milk, but I’m thinking that maybe that’s one of those things I’m going to have to make at home because it’s unlikely I’ll ever pay to purchase it in a restaurant. Anyway, before the coupon, our total was $31. The server was quick to take our coupon when she cleared the table, bring back the check, and run our credit card. They also kept our water glasses filled and they are always very, very friendly. The ladies at the table behind us even got their picture taken with one of the servers! We love Sweet Basil and so far it’s our favorite Thai food in Chattanooga (while we’ve only reviewed one other, we have tried other Thai restaurants prior to the existence of Chattavore), though we have heard great things about a couple we haven’t gotten around to yet. Stay tuned.

Sweet Basil Thai Cuisine is located at 5845 Brainerd Road, Chattanooga, TN 37411 (across from the Wal-Mart complex). You can call them at 423-485-8836.

India Mahal-February 9, 2013

February 10, 2013

Several months ago, I wrote about the BLT pizza that I ate at a restaurant named Kudzu Grille on Philip’s and my first date. Yesterday was the fourteenth anniversary of that day! While we don’t really “celebrate” the day (as all of the anniversary glory belongs, of course, to the anniversary of our wedding in July), we always remember it. Eating at a new restaurant, drinking coffee at Rembrandt’s, walking on the bridge, wondering what the coming days (months, years…) have in store. The excitement of a new relationship…which, in our case anyway, eventually gave way to the excitement of a longterm (i.e. lifelong) relationship, but the kind where holding hands and talking about when we first met (at Chuck E. Cheese’s, where I was convinced that he hated me for months before we eventually became friends-we didn’t date until much later) never gets old. Or just hanging out on the couch and pretending like the rest of the world doesn’t exist, which is what we do most nights.

Yesterday, though, we actually hung out with a friend, our old friend Rachel, who took the photo below. We had planned to have lunch with Rachel last Saturday but then the snow kind of threw off those plans so we ate at Subway with her after church on Sunday in about twenty minutes because I had a photo shoot to do. We had to have a real lunch with her! I can’t remember what, but something had gotten Philip thinking about saag paneer, which I made one time after seeing Aarti Sequiera make it on her Food Network show Aarti Party. This dish consisted of making my own cheese from whole milk & lemon juice, which you know I’m always game for, cutting it into cubes and frying it then combining it with a spicy, creamy spinach mixture. Only her spice measurements lit me on fire and I had no idea that was going to happen. I think I ended up having a grilled cheese while Philip happily ate the spinach bowl of death.

Anyway, as I was saying….Philip wanted some saag paneer, so we had to decide where we were going to go for said dish. There are three restaurants in Chattanooga that we are aware of (perhaps there are more, please tell me if you know of any!) that serve Indian food, and they each serve a lunch buffet daily. This had us a little suspicious because we are not buffet lovers, but we eventually decided to give it a go. We decided on India Mahal because (a) to our knowledge it’s been around the longest; and (b) we had a buy one get one free coupon. We’d been seeing India Mahal for years (it’s been around since 1995) but I was always afraid to try it (truth be told, I’m not a super-adventurous eater. I was a junior in college before Philip and my roommate convinced me to try Chinese food.)…but we’d been talking about it for a long time.

The restaurant wasn’t super-crowded but it wasn’t dead either. The man who greeted us at the door, whom I assume was the owner, seated us in a booth and shook our hands (he shook Philip’s hand again as he was paying). One thing I read over and over about India Mahal is that the owners were extremely friendly and remember people from previous visits. As people came in, it seemed that the man knew several of them. They definitely have some regulars.

The buffet was a couple of tables set up with a cold unit and warming (chafing) pans. Each item was labeled with the name and a description. I was immediately disappointed by the fact that there were no samosas (Indian turnovers stuffed with spiced potatoes and peas) on the buffet….I had been hoping to try them for quite some time. I will have to make them at home….perhaps to share with you? Anyway, I was not disappointed by the naan bread, which is a traditional Indian flatbread cooked in a tandoor oven till it’s crispy and bubbly. Like the best pita bread you’ve ever eaten. I could have eaten nothing but this amazing bread, but I held myself to two pieces so I wouldn’t be miserable when I was done.

I had read up prior to venturing to India Mahal to find out what dishes were safe for someone with mild tastebuds like mine to eat in an Indian restaurant. I was happy to see chicken curry (according to their menu, boneless chicken cooked with onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, and fragrant spices) and chicken makhni (also known as butter chicken, described as boneless pieces of tandoori chicken cooked in Oriental spices with tomato gravy and butter). Neither dish was hot, but both were deliciously seasoned. I loved the flavor of the tomato gravy on the makhni but thought that the chicken in the curry tasted fresher than the butter chicken.

As far as vegetarian items, there were many options and I definitely could have easily made it out with a full stomach without eating a single bite of meat. I was frightened of the saag paneer since the menu describes it as “spicy spinach cooked with pieces of fresh homemade cheese” so I just put a tiny spoonful on my plate, but it was definitely within my heat range and was delicious. I ended up going back for a larger serving, along with more of the vegetable biryani, basmati rice cooked with vegetables, nuts, and spices….similar to fried rice but not. It was amazing and I didn’t even bother with the plain basmati rice (by the way, basmati rice is nuttier than plan old white rice). The channa masala-chickpeas cooked with tomatoes, onions, and spices-were quite tasty but I especially loved the eggplant and potatoes (I didn’t write down the name and it isn’t on the menu) cooked with tomatoes, onions, and spices. It sounds like an odd combination but it really works. There was also a vegetarian dish called dal makhni, made with black lentils, but I did not try this one.

Clockwise from top (starting with the bowl): raita (cooling yogurt sauce with cucumbers and mint), chicken makhni saag paneer, channa masala, potatoes & eggplant, vegetable biryani, naan bread, and curry chicken

Philip was extremely excited about the desserts: kulfi badam pista (basmati rice cooked in sweetened milk with raisins and almonds) and gulab jamun, deep-fried balls of dough soaked in syrup. He loved the rice dish, as he is a huge lover of rice pudding, but I wasn’t really a fan. I don’t know what it was….perhaps the fact that it was made with basmati rice which infiltrated the flavor, or maybe there was some rogue spice that I didn’t care for in a sweet dish. Philip described the gulab jamun as “like deep-fried Munchkins”, which was an apt description. He filled the bottom of his bowl with syrup that he then slurped from the bowl (I was having flashbacks to his Cracker Barrel maple syrup drinking days) and said it tasted like cotton candy. I was dying to have a mango lassi but decided to save my sweet tooth for some ice cream that we got at Bi-lo last night (I’ve had an ice cream craving since December and my beloved Nana’s is closed for the winter).

The only thing that might border on a complaint or suggestion that we had was that our friend pointed out that, while the food definitely wasn’t cold, it also wasn’t piping hot….the danger of sitting in a chafing dish, I suppose. I want to go here at night so we can order off of the dinner menu. The total for two lunch buffets plus a fountain drink was $23.09. If you like well-spiced food with a friendly atmosphere, I would definitely recommend India Mahal.

India Mahal is located at 5970 Brainerd Road, Chattanooga, TN 37421. You can call them at 423-510-9651. They serve a lunch buffet daily from 11:30-3:00 and a dinner menu from 5-10. You can like them on Facebook.

Totto Sushi and Grill: December 28, 2012

December 30, 2012

One of Philip’s friends was in town for the holidays last week so we spent a couple of evenings with him. The first evening was spent at The Honest Pint, eating pommes tots and feckin’ awesome bread pudding (that’s really the name in the menu) and the second we decided to head to the North Shore-in the rain-to check out Totto.

I guess there was initially a little confusion about seating because it took a few minutes for anyone to come to our table to take our drink order. Our server was very friendly, though, so all was forgiven. We ordered our drinks and an order of shrimp spring rolls, which were wrapped in rice paper and fried crisp, served with white sauce and an interesting pile of carrot shavings or curls or whatever you want to call them. The spring rolls were quite tasty and fresh tasting and the white sauce was yummy, a little bit sweet. I’ve never had a spring roll served with white sauce but I liked it, although I did get a good laugh, as I always do, at the fact that white sauce is now served everywhere. I guess it’s a big hit with the locals. I hear it’s mainly a Southern thing…..yes, let’s perpetuate the stereotype that everything we eat is fried and laden with mayonnaise. But it tastes good, so what can you do?

The menu is arranged into “grilled” entrées (hibachi-cooked), katzu, which is bread-crumb coated and fried meat or vegetables (both grilled entrées and katzu are served with miso or chicken broth soup and and iceberg salad dressed with creamy ginger dressing), udon noodle soups, and Bento boxes (which showcase one of the grilled items plus soup, salad, rice, tempura, fried beef dumplings, and a California roll). There’s also a sushi menu, of course, but I’m going to break this down for you: I like sushi. I do. I eat it-yes, the cooked kind and the raw kind-but I don’t do it all that often and I don’t feel like I know a whole lot about sushi to be telling you about it. So I skipped the sushi menu. Forgive me, please.

I contemplated the grilled teriyaki chicken but ended up asking for the beef Bento box. Our server suggested that I try the bul-go-gi beef, spiced Korean-style beef that had been cooked with green onions and carrots (and apparently some garlic too, because though the taste wasn’t overwhelming while I was eating it, it was pretty strong afterward!). I asked for fried rice and miso soup, which I have had once, at a restaurant in Myrtle Beach. I hated it then but I was pleasantly surprised by this slightly salty soup with tiny chunks of tofu (I can take it in small doses) and seaweed that gave it a mildly fishy flavor (but not in a bad way). The salad was good….I’m never that impressed by the greens in these salads but this one was at least cut into small chunks as opposed to big, icy cold chunks that you can sometimes get at other restaurants, and the sweet, creamy ginger dressing was very good.

The Bento box was served with a fairly large portion of the beef, which I liked but I have no comparison point (Taco Sherpa does serve bulgogi from time to time so I’ll have to give it a try there sometime) but the owner of the restaurant is Korean so I’m going to assume she knows what she’s talking about. It was just a little spicy-not overwhelming at all. I really liked the fried rice…it had a flavor that I’ve never tasted in a fried rice before. I couldn’t quite taste it but this was some of the best restaurant fried rice I’ve had. Again, I can’t really be a judge of the California roll…honestly, I would never order a California roll off of a sushi menu because I’m not a lover of crab….but it was all right. The fried beef dumplings, made of ground beef fried up in wonton wrappers, were crisp and slightly spicy. I loved the tempura-two pieces of shrimp, a slice of sweet potato (yes, sweet potato-it was good!), zucchini, onion, and red pepper. It was just as good the next day, warmed on a preheated (to 450 degrees) baking stone for 10 minutes (which also works perfectly to crisp up fries, pizza, etc., etc. Try it…it works. I promise!).

Philip couldn’t resist the call of the grilled (hibachi) filet mignon, cooked in garlic butter (alternately he could have requested it cooked in soy sauce), with fried rice. It was also served with a small serving of fried udon noodles (I did not get a picture of these) and a large portion of hibachi-cooked vegetables (onions, green onions, red peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, and zucchini). He ordered his filet medium rare and it was perfectly cooked. It never ceases to amaze me that hibachi chefs can cut a piece of red meat into tiny pieces and manage to perfectly sear the outside while keeping the inside from cooking to a dull grey pallor. That’s talent. The filet was really delicious. The vegetables were also quite good, nicely seasoned, and the fried noodles were soy saucey and sweet.

Our total before tip was about $48. Definitely not a “regular” stop by any means. We did have enough leftovers to eat for lunch the next day, and, like I said…if you know the right reheating tricks, even tempura can be good the second day. Sometimes getting two meals softens the blow of a meal that cost a little bit more than you were anticipating. We enjoyed the food at Totto quite a bit and it was nice to be able to have a hibachi-cooked meal without the fanfare and having to sit with people you don’t know that comes at most hibachi restaurants (I mean, sure, it’s fun from time to time, but Philip and I avoid Ichiban unless we are going with a group because we are really antisocial and don’t want to sit with a bunch of strangers). They also serve a lunch buffet during the week and have an all-you-can-eat sushi special for lunch for $11.95. There is a 1/2 off drink special daily.

Totto is located at 330 Frazier Avenue, Suite 124, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-508-8898. Check out their website: http://www.tottonooga.com/index.html and like them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Totto-Sushi-Grill/166745636787345.

Panda Chinese Restaurant-November 29, 2012

December 2, 2012

So, I had to get my local restaurant dining out of the way early this week. Last night was the Ladies’ Christmas Dinner at my church so I knew there was no way I was eating out for lunch without having to do the rubber band trick on my pants by the end of the night (it works for non-pregnant ladies too, my friends). I decorated a table, ate some delicious brisket, and may or may not have donned a hood that made me look like a sheep, black paint on my nose, and a graduation robe as a judge in the Sheeple’s Court. But I digress.

My table….

Since it was a weeknight, there was no way we were going out of Hixson for dinner. That’s just not how we do it. We are homebodies for real, guys. We flipped through our ever-shortening list of Hixson/Soddy-Daisy choices till we landed on Panda Chinese Restaurant, across from Abba’s House and next to Sick Boys Ink (our tattoo shop of choice. I’m not kidding.). It’s not the national chain Panda Express, by the way. Panda Chinese has been around forever with its Chinese food & frozen yogurt sign, but somehow neither of us has never eaten there.

We were greeted by a very friendly lady who seated us, gave us menus, and took our drink orders. She was minding the entire dining room as well as the cash register and balanced it all pretty well. There were several other tables occupied but I definitely wouldn’t call it “crowded”. Several people came in to pick up to-go orders while we were there as well. Anyway…she delivered our waters along with plates, silverware, folded napkins, and a bowl of fried wonton strips. Help me. I could eat nothing but fried wonton strips as my meal, so I was happy. What is it about this crispy little puffy fried strips of dough? They aren’t salty or sweet or anything like that but man are they delish. Love.

As is the protocol in Chinese restaurants, the menu was gigantic. We briefly considered one of the “family meals” which included soup, eggrolls, rice (fried or steamed), and two entrees to be shared, but the entree selections were limited (sweet & sour pork and garlic chicken OR beef & broccoli and shrimp with lobster sauce) and didn’t necessarily include the things that we would have chosen to order otherwise. Instead we ordered off the menu, taking no less than ten minutes to decide what to order. We skipped the soup but each ordered an eggroll, holding our breath until I cut mine in half to see if it contained pink meat, which frightens me. Beyond belief. No pink meat, just normal-colored ground pork, cabbage, and pepper fried up in an eggroll wrapper. Simple and delicious as an eggroll should be.

I decided on the cashew beef, which drew me in with the promise of mushrooms, water chestnuts, and cashews all on one plate. Sounds good to me. The meat was thinly sliced and tender, the vegetables nicely cooked. The sauce had a gravy-like consistency and didn’t taste too salty, though I will address the seasoning in a minute. The fried rice was rather plain, just some long-grain rice fried up with some egg (no carrots, peas, etc.), but tasted pretty good. It was a huge portion so I had the leftovers for lunch on Friday and really liked it better the second time around, especially since I mixed the rice into the beef mixture instead of eating it on the side.

Philip got the sweet and sour chicken since he judges Chinese restaurants on how well they do this dish. The sauce was not as thick and corn-syrupy looking as sweet and sour sauce often is, and he didn’t think it was as sweet as what is usually served in most Chinese joints. The chicken was nicely fried, the breading not as thick and doughy as you might expect, and the vegetables crisp-tender. He really liked it, although of course anything fried is rarely better the second time around.

All in all, I would say that Panda is a pretty good Thursday night Chinese experience (by the way, the total for our meal was $21.85). I’d love to try a real authentic Chinese restaurant, though, because, let’s face it, the food that we recognize at Chinese food in no way resembles what people in China actually eat, or even what the people who own/work at these restaurants cook for themselves. Perhaps I should just go in one day and ask them to cook me what they’d consider “authentic”? Anyway, back to the seasoning issue…while I didn’t think that the food tasted overly salty, I am fairly certain there was MSG in it. You can argue with me all day long that MSG has no adverse effects, and I know that there are many who believe that and that science is rather inconclusive regarding adverse effects from MSG….but I know how my body reacts and I definitely had some bloating. I liked the flavor of the food here enough to go back, for sure….but next time I’ll ask for it without MSG.

Panda Chinese Restaurant is located at 5137 Hixson Pike, Hixson, TN 37343. You can call them at 423-870-9563.

Ichiban Hixson Pike-August 19, 2012

August 26, 2012

Seriously, people. This is getting ridiculous. I am getting so desperate for material that I sat on this post for almost an entire week. I can’t wait until I get back into the “groove” of my job so that I can get back into a regular posting schedule!

Anyway, Ichiban was my birthday dinner with my family. My mom gave me that option of getting a birthday cake or going out to eat, and since I knew that there would be cake at my in-laws’ when we ate with them the same day, I opted for dinner out. We were actually supposed to go to another restaurant, but my sister called called me and told me there was an hour-and-a-half wait so we were going to Ichiban instead. Fine with me. I like Ichiban better than said other restaurant anyway. Plus it gave me blog post material….

If you’ve never been to Ichiban, it’s the whole hibachi experience with the chef that puts on a big show, tossing knives and setting things on fire. I am under no illusions that this is in any way “authentic” Japanese food, but you can’t argue that it’s fun to watch and the food tastes good. We hadn’t been in quite some time because you also get seated around a large hibachi so you often end up sitting with people you don’t know, which Philip hates, so we only go if we are with a group (which isn’t often). My family took up our entire side of the table, though, so we didn’t need to worry about that. In fact, no one else was even seated in the same room as us. Hmmmm.

When you order, you are brought a cup of chicken broth with a couple of scallions floating in it. It’s pretty bland (and not just here…universally so, at least in my experience) but for some reason I slurp it down anyway. Next, an iceberg salad with a bright orange ginger dressing. I like the dressing okay, but the whole combination is a bit watery and I despise iceberg in every form except a wedge salad. I have a great recipe for ginger dressing (which I should share sometime) that I like a lot better than this one and that has the added bonus of the fact that you can use it to top whatever greens you wish.

I decided to get the shrimp and steak combo with fried rice. Philip decided on the filet mignon, also with fried rice. As is usual for us, we asked for our steaks medium-rare. The meal is served with steamed rice, but I always add fried rice for $1.00. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone order it with just the steamed rice! I wonder how much money they make from fried rice??? Anyway, the meal also comes with mixed vegetables-onions, zucchini, and broccoli- that are cooked on the hibachi as well as very finely shredded cabbage that they only give you if you want it (I did). You get the rice first, then the vegetables, and the meat is last. Everything is doused with soy sauce and ginger sauce and cooked with oil and butter (at least I tell myself that the gigantic yellow block they use is butter, not margarine. Please don’t tell me any different. I eat there about once every 4 years and I don’t want to know.). It’s amazing how much the chef can have going on and still get every detail correct, cook the food just right, and crack jokes. Our chef asked my (picky-eater) nephew why he wasn’t eating and if he was on a diet….then he asked my mom how she liked her steak and if he could have a bite. Funny guy. He told us he had been doing the job for eight years.

Ichiban is not an inexpensive place. Meals range from about $13 (I think) to around $25 for the steak and lobster. As with many places that I’ve written about, I consider it a special occasion or once-in-a-while restaurant. Anyway, who wants to go watch that show on, say, a weekly basis (maybe my 5-year-old nephew, who had a gigantic smile on his face the entire time, although he wouldn’t let me take his picture)? Still, we got two nights worth of meals out of it. Speaking of paying…you get fortune cookies when you pay. I learned this week that fortune cookies, though mostly served at Chinese restaurants, are actually a Japanese creation.

Ichiban is located at 5035 Hixson Pike, Hixson, TN 37343. You can call them at 423-875-0473. Visit their website at http://www.yourichiban.com.

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