Asian Archives - Page 5 of 21 - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog

Albuquerque Asian Chinese New Mexico Rating: Very Good Seafood

East Ocean Chinese & Seafood – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoMay 25, 2024April 5, 202612:01 AM

In 2022, Freddie Wong posted a TikTok video that went viral on several social media platforms. In the video, Wong, purports to find the most “authentic” Chinese food by utilizing restaurant review website Yelp in a unique way. “The easiest way to find authentic Chinese food, assuming you’re living in a major metropolitan area, is to go on Yelp and to look for restaurants with three-and-a-half stars,” declared Wong in his TikTok video, which garnered an astonishing 7.2 million views in only two days. “Exactly three and a half, not three, not four. Three-and-a-half stars is a sweet spot for authentic Chinese food.” Again, the assumption is based on living in a major metropolitan area where there are a preponderance…

Albuquerque Japanese New Mexico Rating: Good Sushi

Sushi Gen – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoMay 17, 2024April 3, 202612:56 AM

Years ago while at Intel I co-managed an enterprise project with Nora, a diminutive Vietnamese lady who later left the company and moved to San Diego. I expected her to say she her move was prompted by a desire to be closer to family or to her childhod home. Instead what she most looked forward to about relocating to San Diego was the availability of all-you-can-eat (AYCE) sushi bars. Her answer validated why she and I worked so well. We had a very symbiotic relationship and were able to land our project not only successfully, but better than any other Intel site had done. We both loved Asian food of all types. Nora left Albuquerque a couple of years before…

Albuquerque Dog Friendly Japanese New Mexico Ramen

Kawaii Boba Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoMay 10, 2024April 3, 202612:01 AM

I have a confession to make. I just don’t get anime…and can’t figure out the pokemon craze. That’s a rather starting admission for an Information Technology (IT) professional to make. Maybe I need help? After all, for your stereotypical male IT professional, anime and pokemon are just steps in the typical progression of IT affectations. They’re the logical graduation that follows a rather unhealthy obsession with Princess Leia and all things Star Wars. Which reminds me, I found Star Wars silly and boring. Since I’m airing dirty laundry, I may as well admit I’d just as soon watch paint dry as play a video game. Any video game. Nor do I ever celebrate Pi day (March 14th) and my…

Albuquerque New Mexico Rating: Very Good Vietnamese

Pho #1 – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoMay 6, 2024April 4, 20262:28 AM

Beef. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my pho spoon can reach. Okay, I’m no Elizabeth Barrett Browning, but if I were to count the ways I love beef, the count might stop at seven–as in the special seven courses of beef offered at Pho #1. Serving the Duke City for more than two decades, Pho #1 makes an audacious claim by virtue of its name but it’s a claim with which loyalists will agree. It’s an International District gem that continues to thrive in a neighborhood some diners eschew. With more than one-hundred items on the menu–not including the seven courses of beef–Pho #1 offers…

Albuquerque Asian Fusion New Mexico Rating: Very Good Santa Fe

Jinja Bar & Bistro – Santa Fe & Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoApril 14, 2024April 5, 20264:56 AM

Fusion cuisine. The term often makes the most stodgy of purists cringe. Even those among us with the most liberal of palates have been known to cower at its mention. All too often, fusion cuisine is a loosely defined excuse for restaurateurs to unleash any number of unnatural flavor combinations upon the chaste, unsuspecting taste buds of diners seeking a memorable meal. Like a shotgun culinary marriage, felonious acts have been perpetrated in the name of fusion, with disparate exotic ingredients forced together by the imagination of sadistic chefs. It would be impossible, however, to dismiss fusion cuisine entirely. In one respect or another, much of the food we eat is a product of fusion. There is no one national…

Albuquerque Chinese Closed in 2026 Gone But Not Forgotten New Mexico Rating: Excellent

China Luck – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoMarch 19, 2024March 31, 20265:06 PM

A few years ago, The Daily Meal, an online resource which purports to produces more culinary content than any other resource published a feature entitled “Chinese Food You Won’t Find in China.” The list was replete with many popular favorites you’ll find at virtually every Chinese restaurant in America: General Tso’s Chicken, Crab Rangoon, Fortune Cookies, Chop Suey, Sweet and Sour Pork, Egg Foo Yong, Orange Beef and even Egg Drop Soup. Many of these dishes were, in fact, invented in the United States. You can’t accuse Americanized Chinese food of being subtle. Brash, gaudy and maybe even over-the-top, but never subtle. In fact, the flavor profile of Americanized Chinese food is generally so gunked up with MSG, sugar, salt…

Albuquerque Rating: Very Good Vietnamese

Viet Taste – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoFebruary 26, 2024April 4, 20264:32 AM

In the “gobble and go” pace of contemporary American life, it’s sometimes difficult to remember what you ate during your last meal, much less recall the sensory experience of that meal. When that happens to true gourmands, they will actively seek a memorable dining experience in which all five senses are invoked. One of the best restaurants in Albuquerque in which to have such a sensory experience is almost any Vietnamese restaurant. One such example is Viet Taste which opened on April 4, 2007. Even more than most Vietnamese restaurants, Viet Taste exemplifies comprehensive eating, the most sublime form of Vietnamese cooking and eating. This style of eating involves all five senses. In comprehensive eating, you eat with your eyes…

Albuquerque Asian Chinese New Mexico Rating: N/R (Not Rated)Seafood

ABC Cajun Seafood & Noodle House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoFebruary 4, 2024April 6, 202612:01 AM

Although popular myth attributes the introduction of pasta in Italy to Marco Polo, pasta’s origins in Lo Stivale can be traced back as far as the 4th century B.C. That’s when the Etruscan civilization-which existed in the Tuscany region from the 8th to the 3rd century BCE–began the centuries old love affair between Italians and pasta. Culinary historians agree that pasta’s earliest roots begin in China, during the Shang Dynasty (1700-1100 BC), where some form of pasta was made with either wheat or rice flour. Pasta also appears to have been part of the ancient Greek diet in the first millennium B.C. Africa also had its own form of pasta (made with the kamut crop). Despite being first to create…

Albuquerque Asian New Mexico Rating: Very Good Thai

Thai Heritage & Vegan – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoJanuary 26, 2024April 4, 202612:01 AM

Who among us hasn’t learned at least one thing about Thai culinary heritage from The Big Bang Theory? In a 2011 episode, for example, we learned that according to Thai tradition the last morsel of food, the greng jie, goes to the most important person in the room. At least that’s what Sheldon tells Penny when she reaches for the last remaining dumpling. Thanking everyone for the honor, she devours the dumpling. Sheldon’s retort: “I’ve seen pictures of your mother. Keep eating.” Some of us learned that Thai food is meant to be eaten with forks not chop sticks though in Thailand, they don’t put the fork in their mouth. It’s simply a tool to put the food on a…

Closed in 2024 Fusion Gone But Not Forgotten Mexican New Mexico Rio Rancho Seafood

Poké Serrano Asian-Latin Fusion – Rio Rancho, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoJanuary 13, 2024February 4, 202512:01 AM

Ask most people what comes to mind when they think about Hawaiian food and the likely answer is Spam®. No matter how much the Aloha State’s tourism department does to showcase the state’s diverse and exciting culinary culture, the stereotype that Hawaiians eat Spam® for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in between meals is engrained in many of us. Because Hawaiians do consume seven-million cans of Spam® per year (with a population of 1.42 million residents in the Islands), it begs the question “Is it really a stereotype if facts bear out the fact that Spam® is so immensely popular in Hawaii.” Not everyone who spends time on the sandy beaches is as svelte as portrayed by media. Widespread obesity…

Arizona Dog Friendly Fusion Rating: Excellent United States

Alter Ego – Tempe, Arizona

Gil GardunoDecember 30, 2023April 6, 202612:01 AM

Ever since my wonderful 94-year young mom was no longer able to prepare and host lavish Christmas Day dinners at her home, my Kim and I have been “snowbirding” it with annual trips to the Valley of The Sun. Every year I try to surprise my Kim with a better than the previous year’s Christmas dinner at some fancy schmantzy restaurant. Last year it was at the magnificent Zinc Bistro in Scottsdale. The previous year, we dined at Roy’s Restaurant, also in Scottsdale. Our inaugural Christmas dinner in the Phoenix area was at the Fat Ox, a James Beard nominated restaurant in Scottsdale. All served us fabulous (albeit very expensive) meals. My criteria for selecting a restaurant includes, of course,…