Category: Asian

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El Charlatan – Socorro, Texas (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

Everyone should have a friend like Steve Coleman, the erudite owner of Steve’s Food Page. Not only is he a great guy and a lot of fun to spend time with, he’s a superb host and tour guide.  During a two-day sojourn to “El Chuco,” Steve not only showed us the sights, he gave me a much-needed lesson about history New Mexico and Texas share.  He explained that during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, members of the Isleta Pueblo in New Mexico were displaced to El Paso along with Oñate and the Spaniards.  Today, descendants of those Native Americans reside in a Native American Pueblo in the Ysleta section of El Paso just about three miles from El Charlatan, our…

ArizonaAsianFusionRated 23Vietnamese

Cyclo Vietnamese Cuisine

Gil Garduno

Justina Duong’s effusive personality, easy elegance and chic fashion sense could fill a room–and they often did.  From the moment Justina launched Cycle on Chandler Avenue, the captivating chef and hostess extraordinaire didn’t just have guests.  She had an audience, a throng of admirers (mostly men).  She had peeps. Charming, gracious and attractive, the belle femme made guests feel at home, becoming as much a draw as the wonderful cuisine on her menu.  I had expected to once again enjoy banter with Justina when visiting Cyclo for the first time in a few years only to learn Justina sold the restaurant four years ago.   With Justina no longer there to capture the rapt attention of her guests, I noticed…

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Pho Nho – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Foodies are a passionate–some would say even snobbish–lot. The most passionate among them are sticklers for authenticity and provenance of ingredients and preparation methods.  The plebeian among us who don’t know quite as much had better not represent inaccuracies as truths (much as politicians do) or even use culinary terms incorrectly lest we be excoriated.  Tieghan Gerard, a well-intentioned blogger, learned just how passionate savvy foodies can be. Tieghan, the creator of the popular food blog Half Baked Harvest found herself in hot water when she had the audacity to misrepresent a quick noodle soup recipe.   More specifically, she dubbed her recipe “chicken pho,” a faux pas on may levels and for many reasons.  Readers were quick to point…

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Pho 79 – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

When the temperature dips and the Land of Enchantment’s ubiquitous winds howl with a vengeance, savvy diners revel in the knowledge that they can luxuriate in the familiar warmth of a steaming, swimming pool-sized bowl of aromatically alluring pho. Few things in life are as comfortable as snuggling up with a simple and no frills bowl showcasing a rich, spicy, nuanced broth with tangles of rice noodles, fresh herbs and vegetables and a veritable meat fest (rare steak, tendon, brisket, meatball). It’s the single best way to warm up from the inside-out on a bitterly cold day. With nearly forty Vietnamese restaurants gracing the Duke City, diners have no shortage of purveyors to frequent for this preternaturally pleasurable elixir. The…

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Fun Noodle Bar – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

By definition, many, if not most noodles are fun.  No, not fun as in luxuriating in a tub filled with ramen (albeit non-edible, synthetic noodles) with real tonkatsu (pork bone) broth.  Yeah, that really is a thing in Japan.  Nor does my contention that noodles are fun have anything to do with the Simpsons episode in which Bart was threatened with “forty whacks with a wet noodle.”  It doesn’t even have anything to do with the Beach Boys classic “Fun, Fun, Fun” song.  It especially has nothing to do with those buoyant polyethylene foam “noodle” tubes people bring to swimming pools. In a classic example of Gil style “swerve,”  Fun refers to Chinese noodles made from rice flour or some…

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Thai Street – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

By chronological standards, Thai cuisine–especially as we know it today–is relatively new to the world culinary stage.  Culinary historians believe Thai cuisine may be as young as 1,400 years, coinciding with a mass migration of people from regions of China.  These settlers dined mostly on seafood, herbs and plants prepared mostly by stewing, baking and grilling (over time, stir-frying and deep-frying also became popular).  Large domestic animals such as water buffalo and oxen were too valuable to slaughter for food.  As such, meat was used very sparingly though considering the settlers’ propensity for seasoning, a small amount of meat went a long way.   While Chinese–particularly Szechuan–dietary practices were the most significant early influences, the introduction of other ingredients and…

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TIKKA HUT PIZZERIA AND KABOB HOUSE – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

“I’ll give you three guesses to tell me what tabula rasa means,” I challenged my friend and Wordle phenom Carlos.  “That’s easy,” my erudite amigo proclaimed, “Tabula Rasa was a silent screen actress in the 1920s.”  “Close,” I replied, “but you’re thinking about Tallulah Bankhead.”  “I was just kidding,” he demurred, “Everyone knows tabula rasa is a Mediterranean salad.”  “You’re getting closer,” I joked, “but the Mediterranean salad you’re thinking about is tabouli.”  On his third attempt, Carlos gave me the right answer: “I’m drawing a blank.” Tabula rasa, in fact, translates from Latin to “blank slate.” In psychology as well as in epistemology (theory of knowledge), tabula rasa refers to the idea that we are solely the product of…

AlbuquerqueRated 23Vietnamese

Saigon Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

According to some stereotypes, when you eat Chinese food, you’ll be hungry an hour later.    That stereotype is known as the “Chinese food paradox.”   One of the culprits behind that stereotype is rice, a very starchy food which metabolizes quickly.  Others blame monosodium glutamate (MSG) when hunger creeps in shortly after finishing a meal. Italian food is also shrouded in stereotype. “The trouble with eating Italian food,” according to British writer George Miller, “is that five or six days later you’ll be hungry again.” With Italian food–at least Americanized Italian food served in some of the ubiquitous chains–portions are often enough to feed a village in a developing country.  A plethora of pasta, tons of tomato sauce, mountains of…

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Bamboo by Kulantro – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Hawaiian pizza, black licorice, blue cheese, anchovies, candy corn, cilantro…these are among the pantheon of foods Readers Digest says everyone either loves or hates. And by “everyone,” Readers Digest includes such culinary glitterati as Julia Child who expressed her loathing for for cilantro in a 2002 interview with Larry King.   The towering chef  proclaimed she detested cilantro, saying it has a “dead taste” to her.  Food Network personality Ina Gartner is even more blatant:  “I just hate it,” she related in a Munchie’s podcast.  “To me, it’s so strong and it actually tastes like soap to me, but it’s so strong it overpowers every other flavor.“ Why then do some people have such a profound cattiness toward cilantro? According…

AlbuquerqueAsianNew MexicoRated 25Vietnamese

SAIGON CITY – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

My brother in blogging Ryan Cook describes his first day in Vietnam: “So, my first stop in Vietnam was the capital, Hanoi. My honest first impressions… what the hell have I let myself in for. Seriously…The roads are chaos! The ride from the airport to the hostel was basically 40 minutes of holding my breath and cringing. How someone wasn’t killed in front of my eyes was a miracle! However, this is something you later don’t even bat an eyelid at after a day or two. Throughout the country, the roads are all complete lawless chaos…BUT it works! Everyone is so insane on the road, the chaos works. I did not see a single accident in my entire journey –…

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Cafe Nom Nom – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

“Nom nom.” It sounds innocent enough. Parents–yes, including parents of four-legged fur babies–utter it in baby talk intonations to get our children to eat something, especially when that something is “good for them” but doesn’t actually look or taste good. Nom nom was, of course, the favorite expression of Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster as he ravenously devoured a plate or six of cookies, a fusillade of crumbs flying from his chewing mouth. Grade school teachers use nom nom as an example of an onomatopoeia, a word that imitates a sound. My friend Michael Gonzales, the dynamic owner of Rio Rancho’s Cafe Bella uses it to describe great new restaurant finds. English majors recognize it as an expression used to convey…