Pei Wei My Way

Pei Wei
www.peiwei.com

I have long enjoyed Pei Wei's inexpensive cups of thai won ton soup at the Las Vegas airport. Priced at $3, these cups are hard to beat. Their flavoring of the soup is dead on, they always serve it with some fresh green onions on top, and they give a hearty serving of wontons I've found.

Priced outside the airport, you can get a cup for over a dollar, and a bowl for under $4 at Pei Wei. Their restaurant design is sleek and clean on the interior. Almost like a chipotle - meets gastropub - meets pf changs.

Tonight I ventured out into the world of normal Pei Wei fare. I tried the dan dan noodles with chicken. The noodles were different then I had imagined. They had a thick soy-based sauce on them. They came with crumbled up chicken sprinkled on top. Cucumber was topped to the side of one side of the dish and sprouts to the other.

Given the amount of sauce they piled on, I would not order it again. However, if I could instruct the chefs to halve the amount or put it on the side, then I may try another of their noodle bowls.

Sugar Feesh

Sugarfish by Nozawa
http://sugarfishsushi.com/

Jiwo dreamed of sushi and we dreamed of Jiwo's sushi. After watching Jiwo Dreams of Sushi we felt compelled to go get sushi. But not just any sushi. We wanted the clean prepped, mimalist, knock-your-socks-off-tasting sushi.

And we went to sugarfish marina del ray. I ordered one taste creation of their "trust me" along with the special of the day - a scallop dish.

The food was indescribably good. It came out ordered item after item, and we received anywhere from two or more of a given item with sauces (two of several sushis, two hand rolls, edamame, and sashimi). It was a taste treat! Everything was very fresh and flavorful - we needed little-to-no soy sauce to enjoy our meal. The fish went along with the decor and was prepared in a clean, minimalist style. The taste of the various fishes was the highlight of the show.

The place was remarkably busy. Lots of people fit into a small area. It was well-calculated. We got there at 5pm and by 6pm they were at capacity. Many people came in to do take out while we sat and were served.

I would definitely recommend this restaurant for "date night." Anyone looking to share a "trust me" would be well to split it. It's a beautiful array of items and should leave both parties full.

Who is Nozawa anyway?

If I had to personify the food served at this restaurant, I would describe it as shaved head, no facial hair, mute, warrior-of-a-brain bedazzler. Someone who delights from the inside. That's sugarfish. :)

Craft House cheers with local beer tastes

Craft House

http://www.crafthousebrews.com/

I arrived at Craft House at 6:05pm on a rainy Friday. The place was packed! It was standing room only, with one table open. Perfect for me and my three friends wanting a meal!

Our waitress was very pleasant, and she was super knowledgeable about the beers, having tried many of them. She also knew what was what in terms of flight offerings.

 We came in thinking pumpkin beer would be on draft and that the selection would be ample (since they have 40 beers there). Unfortunately there was only one pumpkin ale on the menu. It was from Cumberland Brewing Company and hinged more on bitter notes than sweet swaths of pumpkin spice notes that most pumpkin ales lean on.

I ended up getting a honey blonde ale that turned out to be darker than I expected but was a wonderful buy. It lasted me through my meal. My friends got cougar bait and that pumpkin beer, respectively. The menu of 40 draft beers included only local area beers (Kentucky, Indiana). A pleasantry to see!

I think the vibe of this place is just right – it’s dark, lots of lights shine everything from a list of the beers onto the wall to scenes of Louisville and abstract designs onto another wall. It retains some of the feel of “dark star” tavern with the booths that line the right wall.

As we waited for our food, our neighbor’s special of the day, which was a rib-eye with wine sauce, wafted over. It smelled incredible!

My friends warned me not to get the cheese curds appetizer – too rich. In hindsight I wish we had gotten them. The more cheese, and the more pimento cheese in particular, in life, the better. Instead, we shared the mac n cheese as an appetizer. It’s a stove-top made creation with some panko baked on top. Nothing to write home about – it’s wet, and has a good crunch. But low on flavor and cheese. Me and another decided it wasn’t worth it (granted I make an incredible mac n cheese! – I’ll have to do a post for that on my other blog - http://claireeatstheworldrecipes.blogspot.com/).

I’ve decided to try a new thing in my blog. I’ve decided to describe a person at the restaurant I review in the vane of the food that I ate and saw there. So here it goes…

Chip was 42. He looked like he wanted to come there alone, but being with his wife made him appear happy. So there he was. He had dressed as if he was from a hipper crowd. The fleece and slightly-more-sophisticated-than-polo dress top made him unique. His colors didn’t. Soft blue tones did little to set him apart from the other polos of the hour.

He even wore a barre. The barre suggested he had more going on in his head than there actually was. And his mustache! His mustache dripped down towards the floor. This made him real. You could find figments of lunch, or yesterday’s beer crawled into a crevice of his often-trimmed horseshoe. Oh yes. A mustache was him.    

So from these two paragraphs… what did I eat? “Foie gras?” you ask. Steak et frites?

My main dish was a grilled turkey panini with tomatoes, pimento cheese, bacon, and parmesan aioli. It was good – especially the turkey. Fresh cut and flavorful, but not too dry. The bacon was a little bit overkill on the umami front. My dish came with a side salad that looked as if dandelion shavings from the street blew onto my plate. There were very few leaves in my “spring mix.”

My friends all got salad. How lame and unfulfilling! (Just kidding!) A panzanella salad to my left and a quinoa salad to my right. Both salads came with abundant toppings and were gorgeous. The panzanella had plump olives of all kinds and large croutons sitting on top. The quinoa had sliced beets (my favorite!), pecans, and goat cheese.  Also, my friends shared a mushroom reuben on rye bread. They couldn’t talk enough about the bread! However, my friend left off a lot of her meat (perhaps too much was piled on… it looked kinda like mystery meat!).The menu items were all reasonably priced (~$10).

Our waitress disappeared for a few when it came time for the bill.

As we left this busy, soaking, trolley hop Friday seen at 7, the place was packed. Lots of people drinking and waiting, but mostly older folks and bros. It became too loud to talk and we were glad to finally climb outside again.

Oh, and it should be called Craft Haus.