Foodle

Is it safe to talk about salads yet? The Maurice salad at Pine Hall on the 12th floor of Hudson’s Detroit is not like the 20th century version of the classic dish that you may have grown up with, and that’s a good thing. More in my column in today’s @detroitnews 🥗🍸🏙️ @pinehall @hudsonsdetroit Link to all recent #detroitrestaurant coverage in bio Less

If @wingrestaurant_hk has a dish that threatens to become its shorthand, as the chaud-froid egg has for L’Arpège, it’s the spring roll. Yes it sounds reductive until you realize it is, in fact, a vehicle for sea cucumber, which lies cocooned inside a wrapper so swollen and brittle that it splinters beneath a cleaver, giving way to something trembling and uncloyingly rich. At sister restaurant Vea, the chef Vicky Cheng crisps the sea cucumber itself and cushions it in French saucing; here, the crispness migrates outward.

This distinction took me longer than one dinner to understand, which is why I’ve waited a year and three seasonal menus to write about Wing. Chinese restaurants can be tricky to judge from a single visit, and this one asks you to embrace the philosophy of a Hong Kong-born, Canadian-raised, French-trained chef who learned much of Chinese cuisine’s professional grammar later in his career. You should. While many of these flourishes show (well) at Wing, just as compelling were dishes with less spectacle: sweet peas against dried bamboo and salted pork; or asparagus resonant with green Sichuan pepper.

The dishes that do announce themselves are no less memorable too: gently-smoked, intensely-aromatic sugarcane pigeon; dry-aged crispy chicken honed through over 80 trials; a crystal century egg glowing amber over springy Okinawan peanut jimami tofu; and steamed tilefish prepared traditionally but whose scales are pelted with hot oil, shielding its silky flesh with a crisp skin that somehow refuses to soften. Does everything reward that scrutiny? Though the oft-served king crab with cheung fun has its pleasures (sweet crab, richer sauce, appealingly chewy rice rolls), it reveals nearly everything it has to say in the first bite.

No matter: three meals in, I’m less interested in whether Cheng is “reinventing” Chinese food than in his instinct for where to intervene. It’s why sea cucumber can be transformed without smoothing away what makes it difficult; why choy sum can carry as much weight as lacquered pigeon; why now, more than ever, Wing has become one of the Hong Kong restaurants I measure others against. Thank you to those who paved the way. Less

Got multiple reports and messages all saying the same thing: the new Coastal 38 in East Roswell is really good, and almost nobody knows about it yet. Mrs. Grubber and I checked it out ourselves, and we agree — it's a winner. Time to make sure Atlanta hears about this one. 🦀

@coastal38restaurant just opened at Connexion at Holcomb Bridge (1570 Holcomb Bridge Rd) in East Roswell, sharing the center with Bask Steakhouse, From the Earth, and Chef Wu, in the former Cylantros spot. Quick clarification before anyone gets confused: Coastal 38 has zero connection to the unmitigated disaster that was Coastal Bar, Grill & Chill, about four miles west on Holcomb Bridge — which has since closed. Similar name, nothing else in common, so don't let it scare you off.

Turns out two of my favorite crab cakes in the area are now just a few doors apart. Bask, already known for its steaks, quietly crushes it with seafood too, crab cakes included. Coastal 38's jumbo lump crab cake was finely ground with a bit of filler, which actually gave it some extra flavor, and it came out nicely crisp without going overboard. Anyone else compared the two yet?

The she crab soup was excellent. Don't let the photo fool you, there's plenty of crab in the bowl. It's not as rich or thick as a Charleston-style she crab soup, and it doesn't have that classic orange roe color or a heavy sherry presence. If you're used to the Charleston version, go in expecting something a little different. It's still a great bowl of soup on its own terms. Have any Charleston transplants tried it yet? Curious how it stacks up for you.

The menu calls the sauce on the chicken and shrimp pasta "silky," and that's accurate. The "island vibes" description had us bracing for heat, but it's mild, not spicy-hot, just full of flavor. The sauce runs thinner than a classic Italian-American version, but it was very tasty.

My Landlubber wife went with the chicken breast and gave a special shoutout to the mashed potatoes. Mrs. Grub also recognized some other diners in the room. They'd only made it through apps by the time we left, but they were already raving too.

Heck yes, time to spread the word. This one is worth the drive fro Less

I knew almost nothing about Afghan food beyond what you see on television. I assumed it would run close to Pakistani cooking. How wrong I was.

Afghan Kabab Village sits on Al Maktoum Road in Deira behind a gold sign the length of the building. It boasts five hundred covers, so our waiter tells me, running about seventy per cent on a Friday afternoon. It has been open over a year and I cannot find a single person who has written about it. Something is filling that room, and it is not the press.

I suspect it is this: ten or so of the hundred-plus dishes here are actually Afghan. The rest runs to Yemeni mandi, Hejazi bukhari rice, Punjabi korma and dum pukht, Levantine hummus and a page dedicated to Gulf seafood. The receipt is headed Afghan Kabab Al Mandi and Al Bukhari Restaurant L.L.C. Three cuisines in the licensed name versus Afghan alone.

That is not a criticism and I suspect it is the whole answer. The Afghan name gets you noticed on a street of restaurants. The rest of the menu is what the street actually eats, so the street will come.

Upstairs you leave your shoes at the step and eat barefoot and cross-legged on carpets. On a Friday after prayers it was almost entirely men, in groups, ordering the same plates. I did not know how to be there. Whether to fold my legs or stretch them, whether looking around registered as curiosity or intrusion.

The uncertainty was mine and, hundreds of reviews later, it was welcomed.

The mutton pulao is better than anything that comes out of my kitchen, the grains separate and fine, a sweetness rolling in from carrot and dark raisins. Every other karahi I have eaten arrives eye-swellingly hot; the charsi karahi here leaves a thick, hearty gravy and mutton you gnaw off the knuckle. The palak is greener and more pungent than any spinach I know.

Lunch for two, wildly over-ordered, came to 211 dirhams.

Full review live on Substack and EatGoSee, including the two Afghan dishes the menu files under Desserts and the enormous screen playing footage of people walking around Copenhagen, which nobody could explain to me. Link in bio.

Have you eaten Afghan food before? Tell me where to go. Less

This highly-rated Cantonese restaurant has even earned a Michelin star. Today, I visited without a reservation and was seated by the window, enjoying a stunning view of Tokyo's skyline at twilight.◇ AGATE JPY 22,000■ Chinese Cabbage Soup■ Large Prawns with Mango Mayonnaise■ Goldfish Scooping: Egg White Chawanmushi, Goldfish Dumplings, Braised Taraba Crab with Black Fuji Farm Eggs■ Steamed Okinawan White Coral Fish with Scallions and Ginger■ Stuffed Pigeon Wings from Guangzhou■ A medley of mushrooms: Yellow Mushrooms, Elm Mushrooms, Kinugasa Mushrooms, Tea Tree Mushrooms, White Wood Ear Mushrooms, and a Steamed Soup with Korean Ginseng from Kagawa Prefecture■ Simmered Live Ezo Abalone with Yamato Chicken in Oyster Sauce, stuffed Winter Melon■ Simmered Shintori Greens in Chinese Cabbage Soup■ Hong Kong-style Braised Spare Ribs with Eight Treasures Black Bean Sauce, served with Coconut-scented Taro■ Roasted Peking Duck with Kujo Green Onions and Hong Kong Noodles■ One dessert from four options (Comparing Modern and Traditional Almond Tofu)■ Hong Kong-style Sweets◇ Drinks (Sparkling Water, Coke, Mango Juice)Additional service charge of 15%.From dishes featuring luxurious ingredients like prawns and abalone to gentle herbal soups, every dish was beautifully presented and delicious. The chawanmushi designed to resemble goldfish scooping was particularly playful and unlike any I had tasted before. The staff's service was impeccable, as expected from a top-tier hotel. Dining in this sophisticated space while gazing at the Tokyo skyline was truly satisfying. It was a great meal! (*^^*) Less