Asian Archives - Page 16 of 21 - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog

Albuquerque Closed in 2014 Gone But Not Forgotten New Mexico Vietnamese

Pho Hoa – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoMay 3, 2013July 17, 201811:18 AM

Though it ended in 1975, the Vietnam war was still very fresh in the minds of Americans when I enlisted in the Air Force two years later. Many of my senior colleagues had served in Vietnam and regaled me with tales of their adventures. It wasn’t man’s inhumanity to man they took away from the experience, but the goodness of people brought together by exigent circumstances. It is very telling of the high character of my colleagues that despite the ravages of war, they had fallen in love with Vietnam: its people, culture and its food. Several of my friends sponsored Vietnamese families fleeing the beleaguered nation. One of my friends told me the beauty of Vietnam was best seen…

Albuquerque Closed in 2020 Gone But Not Forgotten Sandwich Vietnamese

Sai Gon Sandwich – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoMarch 16, 2013March 21, 20239:51 PM

If ever there was a culinary Kobayashi Maru (for the non-Trekkies among you, that’s a no-win scenario), it might well be naming the best sandwich (or best food of any kind) in the world. Imagine the challenge. There are potentially hundreds of thousands of delicious candidates, many worthy of acclaim as the very best in their block, city, state or province…but the world’s an awfully big place. A lifetime might not be enough to sample but a few thousand sandwiches. Any sandwich you select would undoubtedly be disputed vehemently. Surely, you say, no authoritative source exists which would possibly have the temerity, much less breadth of knowledge, to name just one sandwich as the very best in the planet. Such hubris…

Albuquerque Rating: Very Good Vietnamese

2000 Vietnam Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoMarch 2, 2013April 4, 202611:04 PM

JERRY: “By the way Newman, I’m just curious. When you booked the hotel, did you book it for the millennium New Year?” NEWMAN: (smug) “As a matter of fact, I did.” JERRY: “Oh, that’s interesting, because as everyone knows, since there was no year zero, the millennium doesn’t begin until the year two-thousand and one. Which would make your party one year late, and thus, quite lame.” It’s likely only Jerry Seinfeld and a few chronologically savvy people even know that “2000” and “the Millennium” are not synonymous. When it first launched and for years thereafter, a popular Duke City Vietnamese restaurant was actually named 2000 Millennium Restaurant, a semantically incorrect term. Today, the name on the marquee reflects the…

Japanese Rating: N/R (Not Rated)Sushi

Sushi Xuan Asian Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoJanuary 19, 2013April 6, 202610:29 AM

Nay-saying economic analysts who perpetuate the notion that even neighborhood monopolies would take advantage of a captive market don’t know Carter, chef-owner of Sushi Xuan Asian Grill. Rather than taking an oligopolous stance as owner of the only restaurant in the entire West Mesa to serve sushi, Carter knows he’s serving his friends and neighbors. As a West Mesa area resident for more than ten years, he wants to serve them only the very best and would never remotely conceive the notion of gouging them. Having been trained by a master sushi chef, Carter plied his knowledge and training in a number of sushi restaurants throughout the Duke City before launching Sushi Xuan. He prides himself on the high quality,…

Albuquerque Chinese Rating: N/R (Not Rated)

Yummi House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoDecember 15, 2012April 6, 20269:01 PM

Years ago, I had the misfortune of working with a technical writer who couldn’t spell his way out of a paper bag. His punctuation was pathetic, his vocabulary vacuous and his writing peppered with malapropisms (the incorrect use of a word by substituting a similar-sounding word with a different meaning). Some comedians have made an art out of malapropisms, but there wasn’t anything funny about this terrible technical writer. How he passed English classes at a state school which will remain nameless, much less become a technical writer, is beyond me. Fortunately it didn’t take our employer long to realize the right thing to do about that writer was to let him go. In mock tribute to our departed former…

Albuquerque Closed in 2015 Gone But Not Forgotten Rating: Excellent Vietnamese

Kim Long Asian Cuisine – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED 1 JULY 2015)

Gil GardunoNovember 24, 2012March 31, 202611:24 AM

Growing up on a relatively unsophisticated Northern New Mexican diet featuring such staples as beans, tortillas and chile could hardly be considered a training ground for gastronomic appreciation. Though I thoroughly enjoyed my mom’s cooking it was hardly with the realization that I was feasting on one of America’s very best regional cuisines. Frankly, in the 1960s, only someone with prescience would have thought New Mexican cuisine could eventually garner worldwide acclaim. My siblings and I actually thought we were deprived because we weren’t eating Wonder bread sandwiches, pizza and Big Macs. Similarly, my friend and Intel colleague Huu Vu who grew up in Vietnam had no realization that the simple foods on which he was raised would someday be…

Albuquerque Closed in 2016 Gone But Not Forgotten New Mexico Rating: Outstanding Vietnamese

May Hong – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoSeptember 1, 2012March 31, 20262:39 AM

In late 2002, long-time proprietor and friend James Nguyen sold May Hong. Fortunately he kept this wonderful jewel in the family, selling it to his lovely and talented sister-in-law. Best of all, he didn’t relinquish ownership until fully ensuring she could perfectly prepare the recipes that have made May Hong one of the two or three best Vietnamese restaurants in the Duke City. That short list, by the way, includes James’ second restaurant Cafe Dalat. May Hong (along with Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant) is somewhat of an anomaly in that it’s not located anywhere near Albuquerque’s tightly-knit Vietnamese neighborhoods, most of which seem to be concentrated on the city’s southeast quadrant. Though situated on bustling Montgomery Avenue, you’ll forget the cares of…

Albuquerque Rating: Good Thai

Orchid Thai Cuisine – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoJuly 28, 2012April 4, 20268:58 PM

Sydney, Australia has “Thai Tanic” and “Thai to Remember.” In Manila, The Philippines, it’s “Thai Kingdom Come.” Arlington, Virginia boasts of “ThaiPhoon.” “Thai One On” is a Salt Lake City favorite. San Francisco diners frequent “Thai Me Up,” while in Mildenhall, England “En-Thai-Sing” is all the rage. Then there’s “Beau Thai” in Portland, Oregon; “Bow Thai” in Margate, Florida; and “Once Upon a Thai” in Chicago, Illinois. When it comes to Thai restaurants throughout the English-speaking world, it’s a wordplay wonderland. Urbanspoon lists some eighteen Thai or Asian fusion restaurants in Albuquerque specializing in or which include Thai food, none of which evoked once a pun a name. Now operating for more than ten years (it launched on May 10,…

Albuquerque Closed in 2012 Gone But Not Forgotten Vietnamese

Miss Saigon Bar & Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoJuly 7, 2012July 17, 201812:38 AM

When it closed on Broadway in 2001, the three-time Tony Award-winning musical Miss Saigon had been seen by some six million people during a running of 4,092 performances, making it the sixth longest running show in Broadway history. Outside of Broadway, Miss Saigon was opened by 26 theater companies worldwide, translated into eleven different languages and played in 23 countries throughout the world. The epic musical even had an eight performance run in Albuquerque’s Popejoy Hall in 2003. During of our inaugural visit to Miss Saigon Bar & Grill in July, 2012, the restaurant was celebrating an eight month run of its own. Though it may not be playing to turn-away crowds…yet, there are some indications this is a restaurant…

Arizona Closed in 2019 Gone But Not Forgotten Rating: Excellent Thai United States

Mint Thai – Gilbert, Arizona (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoMay 15, 2012March 31, 20268:41 AM

You might assume that because of my unabashed online promotion of culinary adventures, I would be the classic prostheletizer seeking to convert to the joys of more adventurous dining all lost and wayward souls who frequent chain restaurants. Alas, when traveling with colleagues who are either pedestrian about their dining preferences (they eat to live) or are wholly resistant to trying anything new or different, I tend to defer to their lifestyle choices. It beats listening to comments such as “yech, how can you possibly eat that?” and “that’s not in any of the food groups I know.” The offshoot is that I eat in more chain restaurants than you’ll ever hear me admit to (I don’t write about them for…

Albuquerque Asian Chinese Closed in 2015 Gone But Not Forgotten Thai

Sengdao Bar-B-Q Asian Cuisine – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoMarch 28, 2012July 17, 20189:34 PM

Despite my (then) near eidetic memory and a sesquipedalian lexicon, it was my bumpkinly naivete my friends in Boston found most surprising (and amusing) about me. By having absorbed Encyclopedia Britannica (before the internet and Wikipedia were a twinkle in Al Gore’s eyes), I had as much or more “book knowledge” about Boston as any of them did, but became wide-eyed and mesmerized at seeing all those sights and cultures which heretofore existed for me only on the printed page. My friends delighted in introducing me to things you’d just never see in bucolic Peñasco, New Mexico. They also did their best to shock me (though for sheer shock and Wes Craven movie fear-inducing value, nothing was as shocking as…