Keren Restaurant

I'm always up for trying something new.  That's just a part of my adventurous spirit.  But sadly, I haven't been doing much adventuring lately.  The harsh realities of a working professional seem to always hamper the way I want to live.  But now that I have returned, I think it's time to bring back that spirit.

I have always known that there is a large Ethiopian population in the DC area and plenty of restaurants to reflect it.  But for some reason, I have never been able to have the drive to do so.

Even though the restaurant is classified as an Eritrean restaurant, much of the menu is similar to classic Ethiopian fare.  There are also salads and some breakfast items that seem kind of Westernized.  There are also some Italian style entrees as well, harking to Eritrea's colonial past.  For those who aren't that adventurous, maybe a cotoletta or fried meat cutlet over pasta would be good.  

I ordered the Keren Special with my dining companion. This traditional spread is perfect for sharing with 2 or 3 people.

I like this style of food as it contains a plethora of vegetables and some meat placed in the middle of the injera bread.  There are lentils, house salad, cabbage, potato and carrot, spinach, and chickpeas.  And plopped in the middle is some tibs or meat stew cooked with spices and onions.  And from what I've heard, it can be really spicy especially when berbere is added.  This version however, is not the spicy kind.

It is served with more injera on a separate plate.  This flatbread is made of teff flour and has a slight sour taste.  The injera is the main utensil for this kind of meal.  You just rip a piece and pinching any variety of the stews and veggies into the bread and eat it.  Once you run out, you can start eating the injera soaked with the stew.

Even though it was one order, it is certainly enough for 2 people to share.  Hell, I nearly bursted at the seems near the end.  It was probably the bread because it makes you fat.  I feel much more satisfied now that I have been able to experience what I have been missing out for so long.  I'll be looking out for more food from the Horn of Africa region.

1780 Florida Ave NW
Washington, DC 20009

Raku

I love Japanese food.  Sadly, I almost never have the opportunity to have this since there are hardly any authentic Japanese restaurants near where I live.  What is amazing is that Las Vegas' Chinatown has a decent amount of these restaurants.  In one particular strip mall, there are 4 Japanese restaurants.

Raku is a small izakaya with a limited but exciting menu.  The small menu contains a variety of cold and hot small dishes along with a plethora of grilled items, an izakaya staple.  They also have a daily menu with sashimi of the freshest and most carefully sourced fish.  Not only are the fish carefully sourced, but so are the other offerings.  You know what that means?  It's gonna be a hella good meal.

Let's begin.

Poached Egg with Uni and Ikura

Farm egg, salmon roe, and sea urchin all in one bowl.  Mix that altogether with the mountain yam, and you got yourself a menage-a-trois of eggs.  

Raku Tofu

This is made in house and served with katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), green onions, and ginger.  Add a dash of the house brewed soy sauce, and there's no way you would ever want to go back to mass produced tofu.  This tofu has a fuller body, meaning a greater mouth feel and creamier taste.

Yes, I said Raku makes their own soy sauce.  This sauce is not as salty and has a fuller bodied taste.  There's a theme going on here.  

Kanpachi

Sashimi of the freshest Japanese amberjack belly and loin.  To cleanse the palate, there are pickled chrysanthemum flowers instead of ginger.  There's not much to say regarding the flavor, as it's a mild white fish.  But, where the quality and dedication comes in is the use of the pickled flowers.  Mild pickles paired with a mild fish; how did I not know that?

And now, some chargrilled skewers.

Kurobuta Pork Cheek

Kurobuta means black pig in Japanese.  These pigs are raised in Kagoshima prefecture in the Western part of the country.

The cheeks here have a very good fat to meat ratio.  The charcoal grill creates a nice crust on the outside, giving the pork a nice bite.

Duck with Balsamic Soy

The dark soy sauce and slightly sweet balsamic make a nice mellow sauce that doesn't overpower the duck.

Salmon with Ikura Oroshi

Despite it's complex name, it's a very simple dish of grilled salmon with grated radish topped with ikura.

To be honest, there isn't a whole to say about some tiny skewers as they are that simple.  But this next dish got me talking.

Juicy Deep Fried Ajitame Chicken

This is the highlight of the night.  Dark meat chicken is laid on a bed of spinach which is sauced with the chicken jus.  When they say juicy, it's more than true.  Never had I had fried chicken that is so succulent and moist.  I can't imagine what is was like when the chef cuts into the batter.  Must have been like a tidal wave of juice coming out of it.  

This meal is among of the greatest that I have had in Vegas.  Flawless ingredients and technique combined with simple end results make this place a true gem.  Compared to most places in Chinatown, this is on the higher end of the spectrum.  Even though I was treating my family, my dad somehow still ended hitting up the curry place next door for what he calls "real food".  He means stuff that fills you up, of course.  But I guess it's just a generational difference here.

Like many of the places in Chinatown, Raku is open late.  Like 2am late.  From what I heard, it's for this reason that it's popular with restaurant employees, especially the chefs.  And for good reason.  Even though, this is the kind of place that would be pretentious and trendy if on the Strip, it's quite casual.  Just look at the food.  It's simple.  The presentation is traditional and minimalistic. It's a great place to get away from all the intensity, complexity, and noise that define the restaurants that dot the Strip.  This is what food should be like in a more perfect world.

5030 Spring Mountain Road
Las Vegas, NV 89146

KJ Kitchen Chinese Cuisine

Despite all the gambling, bright lights, and clubbing going on, Las Vegas is a great food destination.  There are great places on the Strip as well as off the Strip.  Last year, I made my first trip to Chinatown, a series of strip malls located around Spring Mountain Road.

The main attraction here are the unbelievable amount of restaurants around here.  Most of the restaurants serve Chinese food, but there is also Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai available.  Unlike where I live, where each strip mall has maybe 1 Chinese restaurant,  there are multiple eateries in each mall in Vegas.  The strip mall where KJ is located has 4 other restaurants.

On this particular night, my family and I decided to drive out to find a new restaurant.  The best way to gauge it was by whether there was a decent crowd inside.  We noticed that this place was packed, so we decided to give it a try.

After having been to a few restaurants in this area, it's safe to assume that it's customary that pork and dried vegetable soup is always served to start.  But there is an unusual addition in this.  Yes, those are chicken feet in the soup.  It adds a little bit of viscosity to the soup due to the collagen and cartilage.

Deer with Ginger and Scallion

What? A Chinese restaurant serving venison?  That's exactly what's going on here.  Cooked in the same way as beef, this is one amazing dish.  Even though the vegetables mask the smell of the meat, the taste is still uniquely venison.  The meat has a deeper and gamier flavor compared to beef.   was so happy to see this on the menu coming back from Utah, a place with so much game available, only very few are available during the winter time.

Frog in Clay Pot

These aren't just frog legs; it's the whole body.  The amphibian is decapitated, gutted, and hacked up before being placed in the clay pot with onions, shiitake mushrooms, Chinese sausage, oyster sauce, and soy sauce.  The Chinese name of this dish comes from the sound it makes while cooking.  There are legs in here but there is also the body on the bone.  This part of the frog contains different portions of the vertebrae, which requires much care when eating.

With this and last year's trip to Vegas, I have still only scratched the surface of this fine Chinatown.  And this is certainly a hidden that I won't forget.  I mean, where would anyone find venison served at a Chinese restaurant?

5960 Spring Mountain Road
Las Vegas, NV 89146

Hong Kong Pearl Seafood Restaurant

I have always known that there were good Chinese restaurants in Northern Virginia.  I personally never went to any of them.  Why?  There are many reasons I guess.  The driving distance is a significant factor.  I don't like to think that I'm too lazy to get down there.  But I think that the biggest reason is that there are similar restaurants near where I live, so there's no need to drive an hour to eat the same thing.

Living near some great restaurants makes it really easy for me to shelter myself within Montgomery County.  There really is no need to venture out as you probably can't get a much better variety that is here.

I ended up here on chance, while driving from Pentagon City to Tyson's Corner.  When I first laid eyes on the area, I was surprised that it is situated near a strip mall complex dedicated to Asian restaurants.  Not only Chinese, but Vietnamese and Korean were there among others.  I was impressed with the variety.  It could certainly give anything in my neck of the woods a run for the money.

This is a very large restaurant, which usually means that it would hold major events on any given day.    It so happened that there was a wedding reception that night, closing the main dining.  Good thing there is an auxiliary room even though it was only half the size.

Dinner here is like any major restaurant serving Cantonese food.  There are several dishes along with pre fixe options.  However, this place includes a late night dim sum menu.  Really unheard as that is strictly a lunch/brunch thing.  I guess there is a really high demand for that stuff.  Being with the family, I get a pre fixe for 4 people along with another dish.

Barbecue Plate

A great and decadent way to start the meal.  An appetizer of the chef's choice of meats.  For this day, there was soy sauce chicken and roast duck.  There were remnants of feathers on the chicken skin, which may sound disgusting, but is actually a good thing.  This means that the restaurant uses freshly slaughtered chickens rather the shrink wrapped stuff that you get at the supermarket.  Quality and freshness means everything.

Crab and Fish Stomach Soup

Soup du jour is very traditional for any Chinese meal.  The fish stomach starts out dried and is rehydrated in the cooking process.  There isn't much flavor in it as it is rubbery.  Overall, there is an modest umami flavor.  It is why people sometimes put red vinegar in it to add some extra flavor.

Salt and Pepper Pork Chops

Chinese style pork chops are like munchies for me.  One, they're fried.  Second, they are very flavorful.  The tough part is choosing which style of preparation do I want: covered in a sweet and savory sauce or sprinkled with salt and pepper.  For this meal, I was craving salt and pepper.  These are also cooked with some hot peppers.

Chinese Broccoli

You can't have a complete meal without vegetables.  Not only are these good for you, they also taste good.  Some water and garlic is all that is needed.  It's that simple.

Fish in XO Sauce

                                     

XO sauce is one of the most important ingredients in Cantonese cooking.  It is made from dried seafood, chilies, and vegetable oil.  It primarily enhances the flavor of the fish by giving it a slight spicy kick and a salt cured taste.  There is also celery and snow peas.

Conch Stir Fry

This was not part of the set dinner, but was still awesome regardless.  There are some exquisite ingredients in this dish, such as dried squid and conch in addition to the celery, bean sprouts, lotus root, leeks, and carrots.  Chinese dried squid, or at least the ones that are in this dish, is an artisanal product.  The salt curing provides the backbone of the flavor in the dish.

It's a shame that not many people come here for dinner as it is quite an amazing experience that is just as good as having dim sum in the afternoon.  Sure, there isn't as much variety, but this is also a great side of Chinese cooking.  It's also a shame that I didn't try this place earlier.

This is one of the reasons why I started this blog in the first place: to start my own personal journey to  discover some great and unique restaurants and other eating experiences where I live and travel.  Northern Virginia can match with anything that I have had before.  Now it's time to dig even further.

Seven Corners Center

6286 Arlington Boulevard

Falls Church, VA 22044

Unique Dim Sum Dishes at Royal Seafood Restaurant

Fried Fish Skin

I have eaten dim sum my almost my entire life and not once have I had this, even when I was in Hong Kong.  So, it's a perfect time to seize the moment.  Truthfully, there isn't a whole lot of flavor.  It's really just a fishier and more nutritious style of chips.

Chilies Stuffed with Shrimp

Ok, this isn't the most original dish in the world considering there is just a variation of the more common green bell peppers.  If you're a lover of spicy food, you would definitely want to try this.

Offal Stew

This dish is something that I really miss since moving out of the New York area.  For the uninitiated, it looks like horror movie or shit in a bowl.  But, when done right, this can be the greatest thing in the world.  This comprises of a variety of stewed parts where you can choose which ones you like.  This bowl contains duck feet, beef tripe, abomasum, and spleen among others.

Lobster on Fried Noodles

This isn't really dim sum, but it is something that can be ordered during said meal.  It is traditional at dim sum restaurants to order a large dish at the end of the meal, which usually includes rice or noodles.  Here, there is a one pound Maine lobster fried and sautéed with ginger and scallions served on a bed of fried egg noodles.  The noodles are the key to the dish as they soak up the delicate sauce of and lobster juice.  I will take this over a lobster roll any day.  And not to mention, they cost the same.

Cinnamon Jelly

This is the only restaurant I have seen this being served.  To be honest, I have no idea exactly how this is made.  But I can guess that it is made from agar-agar like many Chinese jelly desserts.  The specs of cinnamon are then placed in the aspic as it is cooking and then it is cooled before eating.