Dining, Reviews

That building is cursed

Chaucer’s Sushi and Grill

During the Christmas weekend, I met DH for dinner in Frisco next to Stonebriar Mall for an adventure in dining. While there were plenty of chain restaurants that set up shop in the mall parking lot and surrounding strip malls, there was always that one restaurant that seemed to close its doors every 6 months or more. Last time, this building housed an upscale steak house; today, it was Chaucer’s Sushi and Grill. Remembering that Chaucer’s had an Addison outpost we hadn’t yet visited since we last lived in North Dallas, I figured Chaucer’s might be worth a gamble.

Chaucer’s seemed to retain the elegant, formal atmosphere of the previous tenant, which meant adult, family-unfriendly surroundings. However, several plasma screens adorned the walls, tuned to sports and newscasts. A sushi bar was partitioned off the main dining room behind some glass, and for the most part, it was quiet and subdued.

Unfortunately, the service left much to be desired. I remember standing in the lobby for about 10 to 15 minutes, staring at an unattended stand. The hostess finally swept in, apologized, and led me to a table. When DH finally arrived to join me, our waitress took some time delivering menus and refreshments. And for a sushi place, the lack of non-Asian servers sounded an alarm.

I’m not saying that white people can’t sushi, but it’s a sure sign of Americanizing the menu. While there were no steaks on this Chaucer’s menu, many of the options seemed rather unoriginal and uninspired. Much of the “grill” options didn’t extend past the teriyaki concept. We did attempt a calamari dish, but the accompanying cocktail sauce just didn’t pair up nicely with the lightly fried squid. We asked the waitress for an alternate sauce, but she fumbled on the advice. We suggested the traditional mayo sauce that came with dumplings, which she obligingly supplied. After the appetizer, DH and I turned to the sushi menu for a challenge.

We ordered our traditional salmon sashimi, smoked salmon nigiri and mackerel nigiri, which upon delivery was executed wrong. The salmons got mixed up, but the sushi chef acknowledged his error and corrected it. Unfortunately, they didn’t deliver all the sushi at the same time as ordered, because DH makes it a point to eat his sashimi with all his rolls.

Nothing really stood out in the bevy of special rolls, though I will have to say 75% of my choices were too spicy for DH to enjoy. He did mention that he liked his tempura roll, but we both felt that one of their house specialties drowned in too much crunchiness. The lone standout happened to be their combo volcano roll, topped with shrimp, scallops AND crawfish. Again, it suffered from too much onion and heat, which left DH wishing for something else.

When we ended the meal, and the bill finally came, both of us wished we had hit up the Cheesecake Factory just across the street. We used it as a reason to escape the dessert options, since we had a somewhat mediocre dining experience overall.

My rating: 1.5 stars
*1/2

Dining, Reviews

Lunch at Ali Baba

Ali Baba

2103 N Central Expressway
Richardson, TX 75080
Phone: 972-437-1222

I’ve been wanting to try this place ever since my coworkers raved about their buffet. Finally, I was able to persuade another coworker to go check it out last month. The Mediterranean buffet offerings were almost overwhelming, and unfortunately, not very newbie friendly. The lack of labels meant I ended up collecting only the most recognizable kebabs, rice, falafels and hummus offerings. Luckily, everything I sampled was was good, and I kept coming back to the rice and lamb kebabs. A super-crunchy falafel did have some heat, but it was rather bland in the flavor department. I wished the grilled chicken had more flavor, and I did hope the hummus had more of a garlicky punch to them, but I was satisfied regardless. Worth going back to, when the place is less busy during the hustle/bustle of lunchtime.

My rating: 3.0 stars
***

Bites and Finds, Dining

Name that dim sum!

Every time I find myself in an Asian market/strip mall, I look for a bakery serving authentic sweets. In particular, I look for that delightful confection/dessert that seems to have various different names depending on the ethnic background of the bakery. Once upon a time, I thought these light, sugary-peanutty-filled deserts were known as mochi. But my Hawaii trip in 2006 and some treats brought home by a traveling Taiwanese friend educated me that the name commonly referred to the Japanese preparation of this dessert, sans coconut powder dusting. While I found the chewier Japanese-style mochi delicious in their own right, they could not compare to my all-time favorite Chinese sticky rice balls. So I turned to Google to discover the correct name, pronunciation, and label of this fabulous dessert. “Glutinous rice balls” and “sticky rice balls” directed me to the Wiki page on the subject. Why, those sweet filled dumplings must be called tangyuan (or tungyuen), right? Not so, for the name denoted a syrupy or soupy preparation for the sticky rice ball. And I don’t remember dipping my spoon into a bowl for these particular sticky rice balls. Zongzi? Not the same either, as it recalled the Filipino snack known as suman, a sticky rice dessert cake steamed in banana leaves and topped sugar and/or coconut. (Omg, I LOVE suman!)

I scoured the Chowhound forums looking for some clue, but these hounds’ ethnic food experiences were clearly lacking. Back to Google again, as we tried searching for “dim sum glutinous rice balls peanuts” which led us to discover this illustrated page on all good things dim sum. There it was, pictured near the bottom of the page, snuggled next to ma-lei-chann and ma-dau-go…Nor-maai-chi. Google made sure to supply an alternate spelling, nor mai chi. Also known as: coconut snowballs, a Cantonese dessert.

Another pleasant discovery while browsing that illustrated dim sum page: I finally found out the name of that deep fried sticky rice dumpling that we all loved and knew as “the football” due to its obvious shape. We used to order it all the time at the now-defunct Lucky House and at other dim sum spots in Richardson (aka Maxim’s, Hong-Kong-Royale-turned-Kirin-Court) and referred to it most commonly as “deep fried shrimp pie”. Turns out it’s also known as: ham sui gok, a combination pork dumpling.

Dining, Recipes

Cheesy garlicky mashed potatoes

I neglected to post my turkey roasting experience this year, but needless to say, this year the turkey went without much drama. I did add a new ingredient to unify the Thanksgiving meal, and it made a much bigger impact on my gravy and mashed potatoes than the turkey itself. The star ingredient: Swanson’s Chicken Broth with Roasted Garlic.

I attempted to use 5 cans Chicken Broth to brine the turkey, but the flavor got too diluted when I added about 6 quarts of water during the brining process. Therefore the 1.5 cups of garlic salt and 1 cup of brown sugar I added was unable to fully flavor the turkey during the nearly 24 hours that it sat in the fridge.

However, the Roasted Garlic broth added an entirely new dimension to mashed potatoes. I emptied 4 cans into a pot, brought it to a boil, and added slices of red, skin-on potatoes. After they softened, I drained and reserved the broth. I then placed the potatoes in a metal mixing bowl and proceeded to mash them over a low heat. I added butter, chopped rosemary, and shredded cheddar, making sure the cheddar melted into the mash. The result: a fantastic cheesy garlicky mashed potatoes dish.

The reserved broth went promptly into the gravy. Granted, I had to supplement the gravy with more regular chicken broth. I made this year’s gravy with a flour base (unlike previous years in which I used cornstarch as a thickener). My whisk saw plenty of kitchen action this year as I made a roux-based gravy that thickened nicely over low-medium heat. I threw in some mushrooms, eggs, and turkey giblets that resulted in the thickest gravy I’ve ever made. Now if I could only learn the secret to cooking up a translucent gravy…