Little Asia

My final foreign meal challenge was Vietnamese. There are tons of Vietnamese restaurants all within 4 miles of my house. I decided to visit the one closest as I drive past it often and always say "we need to go there". It called Little Asia and serves Vietnamese, Chinese, and Thai. This time my husband joined me. Which makes it more fun as he is way more adventurous when it comes to eating. Great call, Betsy. The food was scrumptious. We ordered the Com Suon Cha (Vietnamese), Grilled pork chop, steamed round pork cake. Side note they no longer served the steamed round pork cake, they replaced it with a pork spring roll. The pork chop was cooked perfectly and the seasoning was mouthwatering..The side sauces for the pork chops were savory but not needed because the pork chop was seasoned so well. The pork spring roll was tasty. We also ordered a chinese meal, The Kong Pao Chicken. While we have had Chinese food before we wanted to try something new and spicy. While it was a spicy it was tolerable. The Kong Pao Chicken is mixed peanuts, carrots and celery. I mix all my food with my rice before I eat it, well this time my hubby made me try the chicken without rice. I'm so used to the rice that it felt weird, in a good way. That good feeling was short lived as my mouth was on fire. I'm still glad that I tried it all by itself. Thanks hubby. The order also came with a Dumpling soup. That soup hit it out of the park. Once you bit into the dumpling it melted in your mouth. The broth was ridiculously good. It was so fucking good that I ordered a large. We couldn't stop sipping on the broth. The waitress was friendly. The decor was modern and it was clean. We made sure to tell the waitress and the cooks how good the food was. We enjoyed our meals so much that we are already planning to go next week for lunch. I end this challenge with a record of 2-2. A tie, I'll take it. I had loads of fun on this challenge. Now on to my birthday Month, only the best month ever August.

The Jerk Pit

The decor and front door. You gotta have the Bob Marley picture.

 

For my third foreign meal, I chose Jamaican. I visited The Jerk Pit. Which I must disclaim I've visited before but I did not have a meal. My hubby had a beef patty. I ordered The Pit Pocket, which was "Bite sized bits of grilled chicken breast, marinated with our special Jerk Sauce, with tossed salad inside a Pita bread, Potato Salad on the side."  I also bought a Genuine Jamaican Pineapple Soda. They should just call it Pineapple flavored sugar. Now as for my meal that was fucking delicious. The chicken and potato salad was seasoned really good.  The pita was overflowing with chicken and salad, so you do get your money's worth. I would definitely eat there again. I'm so glad I finally had a good meal. I'm now 1-2 On to the final foreign meal.

India K' Raja Restaurant

I told the waitress this was my first visit and with my check I got a survey. I believe in surveys and most of the time I complete the. I did today. 

The decor and the buffet.

Sorry for the bad pics, I was trying to get quick pics as it was a buffet.

I visited India K' Raja Restaurant today and had the lunch buffet. The decor was boring and predictable. It was clean and the buffet had a lot of options. Not that I was looking forward to it but I decided to try everything. That was a total of 19 foods. While the food was not gross or nasty, I just didn't like it. The seasoning was bland and the texture of certain food was not to my liking. Which surprised me as I've heard that Indian food has a lot of spices and most meals are spicy. I didn't experience neither. The food that was warm and I like my food hot. I tried Goat for the first time and it tasted like beef stew. Even though I don't like okra, mushrooms, spinach or chick peas, I went ahead and still ate the food. Nope, wont be doing that again. The only thing I enjoyed was a dessert called Gulab Jamun. It's equivalent to a dumpling covered in sugar syrup. Nothing against the restaurant as most tables were filled and people continued to come in, it's just not the type of food that I enjoy. So far I'm 0-2. Lets hope my new destination Jamaica will be tastier. Until next time.

The Crazy Greek

I got a late start to my July challenge and this time it was not due to procrastinating. We headed out on  our anniversary (July 4th) to have a Greek lunch and due to the holiday both restaurants we visited were closed. Then I only had a week to prepare for my hubby's birthday surprise, which was our family visiting from NYC. He was genuinely surprised and we had a great weekend. Now that the celebrations have come to an end, I had my first Greek meal. I visited The Crazy Greek restaurant. It was empty when I arrived, which made me a tad bit nervous. I asked the friendly waiter/cashier what should I try and he recommended Moussaka. I noticed the Combination Greek Platter on the menu and after an explanation of Tiropita & Spanakopita, I decided to give it a try. 

Moussaka: layers of potatoes, eggplant, spiced ground beef, topped with bechamel sauce.
Tiropita: layered pastry, filled with a cheese-egg mix.
Spanakopita: layered pastry, filled with spinach, cheese-egg mix.

It looked yummy but If I had to rate it from 1 to 10, with 10 being out of this world delicious. I would have to give it a 2. The bechamel sauce had the texture of Jello. I don't like the texture of Jello. I could not figure out where the potatoes were because I could not see or taste them. The ground meat was not spicy and had no flavor. The eggplant was blah. No bueno. I did however enjoy the Tiropita & Spanakopita. It tasted like a flaky turnover instead of being filled with fruit, it was filled with cheese and spinach. Overall nothing to write home about. My next restaurant adventure will be Indian.

July Challenge; Four Foreign Meals

Flags left to right: Indian, Greece, Thailand, Vietnam, Jamaica, Ethiopia, Korea

I've always been curious about meals from around the world. I've just never made a real effort to try for fear of going out my comfort zone. The only time I try new food is because my husband ordered it. He is way more adventurous. That will be no more. I have picked seven countries and plan to eat a meal from four of them over the course of July. I didn't randomly pick this countries, I've seen a few restaurants that I've wanted to visit. Now it's time to make it happen. My taste buds are looking forward to something new. Now off I go to decide which restaurant I will first.