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Review: Heat Shabu Baru

A shabu shabu place? In Sacramento!

I have dined at over 100 shabu places around the world. Heat Shabu Baru is better than all but one, and that meal, in Tokyo, cost me more than 20 times what this one did.

The concept behind shabu shabu is simple. It's Japanese fondue. Pick up some meat or veg, cook it in the steaming broth, dip it in sauce, and eat. It's deceptively simple. The problem (and when it's good, glory) of shabu shabu is that the restaurant has to be dead on with the cooking broth and the quality of the meat and vegetables. Mess up on either, and there's nothing to cover it up.

The first thing we noticed about Heat is the absolutely fun decor. Check out these funky lamps!

Heat has the best deal in town. All you can shabu AND DRINK for $41. The drink part covers beer and sake. You can have any beer that they have on draft, which tonight consisted of Sapporo, Kirin, Shock Top and Bud Light. The sake is their house sake, which is excellent. Check out the cool bottle they serve it in. In my joy I forgot to get a good shot of the sake shot glasses which had a picture of a Japanese girl in the bottom of the glass!

This is the cooking pot. The dark broth is miso and the white one is pork bone (tonkotsu). Both were extremely tasty. Each type is also available in a spicy version, which we didn't get since it was Designer Girlfriend's birthday and she forgot to wear her asbestos suit.

Shabu vegetable platter! Shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, corn, bok choy, tofu, spinach, fresh ramen noodles, and some other stuff I can't remember.

The first meat that showed up was American wagyu beef. Very tender and flavorful, especially after a dunk in the miso broth and then the ponzu sauce. Check out that marbling.

A halfway cooked piece of the American wagyu that I yanked out so Actual could take the picture. Honestly, I see some grey, that's probably cooked enough for me.

New Zealand lamb. Not corn fed, so it actually tastes like lamb. Amazing.

Heat has actual Japanese Kobe beef on the menu. It's not part of the all you can shabu deal. Either they were being nice to us or the waitress grabbed the wrong plate, because we got some. Check this stuff out! For those of you that are familiar with Kobe, I would say this stuff was an A-5 score BMS 9.

Absolutely crazy marbling and flavor. Completely melt in your mouth tender. This meat doesn't even look like it came from a real animal. $27 a plate a la carte. Totally worth it.

Dessert is also included! Tonight it was green tea ice cream with strawberry mochi. It was so good that the girls actually finished theirs and mine, even though they were completely stuffed from the meal.

This is definitely a RUN, don't walk, RUN THERE RIGHT NOW review. Oh my meaty goodness.

Sacramento: Anthony and Yung have decided to absolutely spoil you and open Heat Shabu Baru in your town. Enjoy it now before everyone else figures out how good this place is and you have to wait 3 hours for a table.

Heat Shabu Baru
2416 18th St.
Sacramento, CA 95818

916-930-9888
www.heatshabu.com

 

 

 

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Review: PK Sushi

So, can lightning strike three times in the same place?

PK Sushi occupies the same location as our previous two favorite sushi restaurants: Wave and Sakuran. Sakuran disappeared a few weeks ago and PK appeared in its place.

One new twist is that PK is following the big trend of offering an all-you-can-eat deal. These have been popular on the East Coast for years and are finally (and yay for my pocketbook) becoming popular here. 

The deal is, for around $20 (slightly cheaper at lunch, slightly more at dinner) you can order pretty much whatever you want. You incur extra charges if you don't eat something you order or if you order something using a very expensive ingredient. Over two very lengthy visits to PK so far, that hasn't happened to me. Just use common sense when ordering :)

We headed there with our usual compatriot: Designer Girlfriend. She had an anonymous diner tag along.

I guess I've been there enough that the owner and head chef, PK, recognized me. Haha! That's him in the middle. The other sushi chef, Jin, is there on the left. 

 
 

Although I was happily drinking my Asahi, PK decided that the table needed some cold sake. He brought us a bottle of Pure brand sake. This stuff was the booooooooooooooooooomb! I think I'm going to buy a bottle every time I go back. Nice clean flavor. As a side note, did you know that when sake is served hot it's usually because the sake is crap and heating it hides the crappy diesel-like flavor of bad sake?

 
 

Even the edamame is pimped out here. The bowl in the back is regular garden-variety edamame. The bowl in the front is their spicy edamame with peppers and garlic. I could have consumed 20 bowls of the spicy edamame, well, if not for all the sushi that was coming!

 

The first sushi course out was salmon nigiri. Check out those huge bands of succulent, omega-3 laden salmon fat. This stuff was amazing. Note that the rice part of the sushi is just right. Quite a few of these all-you-can eat places try to stuff you with rice by offering zero sashimi dishes and overdoing the rice content of every kind of sushi. Not PK.

 
  

Pepperfin. This seems to be on every sushi restaurant's menu these days. Simple combination of any kind of whitefish, peppers, soy, yuzu, and sesame oil. Most places use their crappiest whitefish in these dishes. Not at PK. Whatever fish they used in this had perfect texture and tasted great. I can't stand sushi places that cut corners... which would be most of them, and almost all of the all-you-can eat places. Thank goodness PK opened, because I was warily eyeing a few months of sushi abstinence.

 

Don't like raw fish? PK has you covered. In addition to a multitude of fully cooked rolls, PK offers many other cooked Japanese dishes on their all-you-can-eat menu. You can stuff yourself with teriyaki, or have some tasty Korean BBQ. We got some of their tempura, which was excellent.

 

...or how about some delectable crab stuffed mushrooms?

 
   

The next four rolls are the BMW, M3, M5, and Oh Yes. I don't remember which is which. All four were awesome. I'm trying to talk him into letting me design some rolls for his menu. The first one would be a Lady Gaga roll studded with edible LEDs. Or maybe a Justin Bieber roll filled with cheese. The possibilities are endless!

Or maybe a Yod roll that's sauced with bitters ;)

 
   

 
 

Here's rolls #3 and #4 of the BMW group. In the upper right corner is a deep fried California roll that found its way to our table by accident. It was actually pretty tasty.

 
 

And now, for the really fun stuff. This is what resulted when I asked PK for a "spicy salmon roll". Mindblowingly good. Note that in this as well as the rest of the rolls, they've used the proper amount of rice. I've been to quite a few all-you-can-eat places where the rolls looked like something out of an adult movie from all the extra rice used to attempt to fill me up.

 

The best thing of the night. This was PK's response to "make me a spicy scallop roll". I can't even begin to describe just how good this roll was. When I asked PK what to call this roll on the Chomple review, he said "Something PK just made up". So here you have it. The Something PK Just Made Up Roll. You can ask for it, but I think he'll just make something else up. Which is a good thing, because that man is a genius.

 
  

Although this is like using Patron in a spring break margarita, I ended my meal by making a sake bomb out of the Pure sake and the rest of my Asahi Super Dry. It was ungodly, tremendously good. Hey PK, put this on the menu as the Premium Yod Bomb. Please?

 

Obviously this gets our RUN, DON'T WALK, RUN THERE RIGHT NOW rating. This place is crazy good and an even crazier value. 

PK Sushi 
2168 Sunset Blvd. Ste 100 (across Pleasant Grove from the Safeway)
Rocklin, CA 95765 

Review: Amerikan Ichi Sushi

This review started with a conversation that a year ago I would have considered improbable to say the least.

First, let me tell you about my (almost) father-in-law, henceforth referred to as Daddy Actual. He rides a Harley. He's from a farm in Nebraska. Chinese food was banned in the Actual household for years. He thinks curry is an odd creation that's not exactly meant for human consumption. 

He likes barbecue. He makes killer barbecue. His indirect smoker is larger than the engine bay of our Prius.

As far as we knew, the only thing that he had ever ordered at a Japanese restaurant was chicken teriyaki. And that's only if someone made him go to a Japanese restaurant.

So it was a complete shock to me when we were discussing heading up there to go out to dinner, and these words came out of his mouth:

"How about we go to my favorite sushi place?"

What???

Daddy Actual shouldn't have a favorite sushi place. 

Just like I don't have a favorite gym. Or a favorite Olive Garden. Or a favorite place where I like to get waterboarded by security contractors.

We figured any sushi place that could make Daddy Actual happy had to be a great place. So we all went.

Now, we weren't sure what to expect. Daddy Actual knows good food, but does he know good sushi? And this place is in Placerville, and the odds of a good sushi place (by Chomple standards) in Placerville are about as high as finding a good soul food restaurant in Dubuque.

Amerikan Ichi is stuffed into a very small space in a strip mall. To the left there's a day spa. Of course, in Chomple World, this is a good thing. All the best grub comes from strip malls.

 
 

Amerikan Ichi is as small on the inside as the outside makes it look. Sushi bar has seating for about 15, and there are a few tables. The place was packed, which was a great sign. An even better sign was that the three chefs behing the bar were happily chatting up the patrons as they made sushi. Later on in the evening, a couple sat down next to us and didn't even bother ordering anything. The chefs knew what to make for them.

They have a steal of a deal. Order as much as you want for $22. Check out the rules of the all you can eat. I'm very glad that they say all this up front for people who have bad manners. When customers act stupid, the rest of us have to pay more for our food. I couldn't back up far enough to get a picture of the entire all you can eat menu. Probably 100+ items to choose from.

 
 

Apologies as I was too busy eating and don't remember what half of this stuff was with any sort of detail. It was that good.

This roll had fish and cream cheese inside, and was topped with more fish, some crunchies, onions and unagi sauce. They used just enough sauce.

 
 

Godzilla roll. Tuna and yellowtail (and more that I'm forgetting) in the middle, then deep fried, then topped with two spicy sauces. I usually can't stand deep fried rolls but this thing was amazing. Very happy that on this as well as the rest of the rolls, the chefs at Amerikan Ichi don't oversauce. Oversaucing sushi is a bad bad trait that runs deep in most sushi restaurants.

 
 

While the four of us were contemplating our next move, one of the chefs made us this platter of mussels baked in a mayonnaise based sauce. These were so good we forgot our plans for what to order next. Thanks a lot, chef dude! ;)

 
 

Some sort of rainbow roll derivative. Had two different kinds of tobikko. Girlfriend Actual was about to die from fish roe happiness. 

 
 

Don't remember what this was, other than it had spicy crab and tasted amazing.

 
 

This is my Fuji Mountain roll. Huge. Packed with fish. Yummy. Similar to the roll we had earlier with the crunchies, except this one subbed out cream cheese for more fish. At this point I was cursing bringing a 50mm prime to a crowded sushi bar. Can you tell?

 
 

This is Actual trying to eat a piece of the Fuji Mountain. It sort of collapsed on itself. In a good way.

 

And now, the real curiosity of the night. Amerikan Ichi's Tropical Roll. Deep fried banana on the inside, with mangoes and strawberry sauce on the outside. I didn't try this one as I can't stomach rice used in a non savory application. Clan Actual said it tasted great. Kudos to Amerikan Ichi for being creative and still managing to deliver a tasty product. With most sushi places, you have to pick one or the other (or sometimes, end up with neither).

 

Because I can see the "WTF, REALLY?!?" look on your face, here's a cross-section shot of the Tropical Roll.

 

If you order off of the regular menu, you can get this large arrangement of sushi. Definitely a welcome change to the usual sushi boat. I want to order one of these with served with some sake bomb "trolls" underneath. 

 

The best thing I ate all night, week, and month. Maybe for this entire culinary quarter. Spicy raw scallop hand roll. The scallops were hyper fresh and would have been amazing on their own. Add a simply sublime spicy sauce and this whole thing is so off the hook it probably bent the hook out of sheer awesomeness. Also available in a cooked version if you so desire. I may go back, order a dozen of these, and call it a night.

Note: That is Actual's hand. My fingernails only look that nice in the ten minutes following the nice Vietnamese lady at the salon telling me that I squirm too much and not to come back.

 
      

Final course! Tobikko with raw quail egg. Or as I unceremoniously call it, "The Eggo".  Rich beyond belief. Any lingering hunger I had in my body was defeated Mortal Kombat style. Do not start out with this course if you're planning on having a long run at Amerikan Ichi's all you can eat.

 

RUN, DON'T WALK. RUN THERE RIGHT NOW.

That's right, folks. That's two RUN, DON'T WALK reviews in as many posts. I guess the food gods are making up for the month of McNuggets I endured earlier.

Now I'm waiting for Daddy Actual to recommend a curry place :)

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Review: Ficelle

The best places we eat in the name of Chomple seem to be the places where we can't believe we found what we did where we did. A full rijsttafel serving Indonesian restaurant next to a pizzeria. A world-class sushi joint in a Rocklin strip mall next to a yogurt place and a place selling wraps. A so-authentic-it-burns Szechuan place behind a yarn store in a part of town where Arby's is considered culinarily adventurous. A traditional style curry joint that you would absolutely miss if you weren't paying attention on the walk from It's a Grind to the sushi buffet. 

So we found ourselves in the car for an hour-long ride to Winters, CA. As far as Northern California is concerned, Winters is pretty much the middle of nowhere. 

We were promised wondrous tapas and great drinks by reader Special K. It's great, she said. It'll blow your mind, she said. Just make the trip, she said.

The three of us arrived to find another group of diners also lost as to how to find Ficelle. We found it tucked into the back half of a long building that also houses a coffee shop. One hilarious thing is that they have a door that's not the entrance, that opens (or would open if it weren't locked) right on top of one of their tables. I witnessed no fewer than three different groups try to open the door, to the shock of the couple who were at that table eating. And I mean, that door was smack in the middle of that table. Are you people so hungry that you can't tell it's not an entrance?

This is their main tapas menu. I hear it changes seasonally but certain very loved items stay pretty much year round so as not to cause some sort of customer riot.

 

To the right is their specials menu which changes more frequently. So, let's just say that unless you're a picky eater with an attitude problem, you aren't leaving this place hungry.

 

The first course they hand you right at the counter. Bread with ajo, their family recipe garlic aioli. I would say this stuff is more garlic with salt added for color :) Amazingly, stupendously great if you love garlic. Special K mentioned "The ajo is for you and your date to both have some, otherwise kisses are out of the question for the night!"... well, she was right! But in a good way. I want to know what kind of garlic they used, as I've eaten raw garlic straight before and it didn't taste as garlicky as this.

 
 

While I sipped on my IPA from their great beer selection, Actual and Designer opted for their sangria. This stuff is worth every penny. Most restaurants that serve sangria use some nasty combination of box wine and canned fruit. Not here. They used good wine and perfectly ripe berries. It still amazes me how many restaurants haven't picked up on the whole "buy good ingredients and keep it simple" theme. This place happily gets it.

 

Actual and Designer wanted the salmon fillet salad. I was completely dumbfounded as to why they wanted to order something so pedestrian sounding when there were so many options that sounded better. A salad with a piece of salmon? Even Olive Garden pulls that dish off well. I grudgingly ordered one anyway, since the two of them complain incessantly about how they never get to order anything they want.

Lo and behold, some salad and a salmon fillet is exactly what we got.  Except, not really. The salmon was infinitely more flavorful than what most restaurants call "salmon". Most of the salmon I've had served to me in the past year (outside of a sushi restaurant) has been something that could have easily been replaced with a lump of orange Play-Doh. The vegetables were fresh. The dressing was ridiculously good. I take back my previous statement. Olive Garden does NOT pull this dish off well. Ficelle does. (And thank goodness for that, as I find it hard to believe that Olive Garden pulls anything off correctly other than ice water.)

 
 

Actual and Designer were not yet done outvoting me on ordering dishes that I had absolutely no interest in. Next up they opted for the brie with golden raisin-apple compote. Really? You haven't seen enough of these "brie topped with something sweet" concoctions at pretty much every single dinner party held since 1980? To me, this dish is indicative of the Rachael Ray "I put something on something else and I cooked omg it's so easy" pathos. It's like prosciutto and melon. It's good, but calling it cooking, and paying someone to do it for you, is a bit zany.

That being said, I had to eat my words on this one too. The brie was served at the absolutely perfect temperature. Hey, chefs in Northern California that serve brie dishes, please come to Ficelle and learn what the proper serving temperature for brie is. It is NOT supposed to have the texture of Velveeta like I normally experience when I'm out dining and someone orders brie. Ficelle seems to be the only place that gets it right. The fruity compote was equally amazing. Once again, Ficelle's chef (or chefs, it was my first time there and I haven't met everyone yet) didn't go overboard on sugar which meant the flavor of the raisins and apples really came out. 

 
 

This was followed up by another Actual and Designer request: the sliders. Now, when even Burger King starts selling mini burgers the trend has died out. Every single restaurant on earth has some sort of mini burger creation they want you to try. And sadly, most of them are just mini burgers, meaning:  the sad part is, most of the places that serve these aren't burger places. You wouldn't buy a burger from them. You didn't go there to have a burger. So why are you ordering burgers because they're cute?

By now you're expecting that I had to eat my words on this one too. And you would be right. Ficelle's sliders are made with juicy beef and the patties are stuffed with cheese. Then on top of the patties they put a house spread that I can only describe as "Big Mac Special Sauce, delicious version". Eating my words has never been this delicious.

One billion bonus points to Ficelle for using white bread buns instead of brioche. Brioche is so 2009.

 
  

Next arrival was their Basque-style garbanzos with sausage. This cassoulet-esque dish smelled divine and tasted even better. The garbanzos were infused with the flavor of the sausage and the sausage actually picked up a hint of garbanzo flavor. This was served piping hot and I burned my tongue multiple times because I couldn't stop eating it and was too impatient to even blow on the spoon. I was willing to risk injury on this one... that's how good it was. There was much spoondueling as we fought over who got the next bite.

 

Pasta time. We ordered their wild mushroom ravioli. Now, I don't know what kind of mushrooms went into these but they were intense. I've spent way too long eating at places that feel that mushrooms are there for texture and not flavor. Not here. Also the cheese on top was so rich that three of these probably would have singlehandedly filled me up. If you have been bemoaning the state of pasta mediocrity in your life, you owe it to yourself to get to Ficelle and have this stuff.

 

My favorite dish of the night: braised short ribs served with rice and ranchera sauce. But first, a small PSA about braised short ribs.

Many of you have probably consumed short ribs recently. They seem to be on the menu everywhere, either has a standalone dish or more likely, as a topping for pasta. There is a reason for this, and it's not a good one. Ever heard of a retort pouch? If you're in the military you've unfortunately had a meal out of one. Retort pouches are basically the same thing as a metal can, except made with a coated plastic pouch instead. In a military MRE, your entree comes in a retort pouch. Lots of ready to eat camping food comes this way too. Don't think anything is different because it's in a pouch. You are eating canned food. The only thing that changed was the can.

A few years ago, a food company that I will not name figured out that braised short ribs tasted almost perfect (to them, anyway) when cooked and then put in a retort pouch. Braised short ribs used to be the domain of only the most dedicated restaurant kitchens. Now, anyone could serve them, straight out of a pouch that didn't even require refrigeration. Airline caterers picked up on this trend first, followed by a lot of lazy chefs.

So if you've had braised short ribs served to you in a restaurant recently, chances are those short ribs were cooked in a factory months ago. And I don't care what they say, they do NOT taste the same. When does canned anything taste the same as the fresh-cooked version?

If you would like to indulge in braised short ribs that are actually cooked in the same month as your meal, head to Ficelle (I would say cooked the same day, but I know crazed chefs that braise for over 24 hours). Their short rib dish is amazing. The flavoring is perfect, the texture of the meat is silky (well, as silky as braised beef can be) and the rice on the bottom soaks up all the flavors. This dish was so good that we sent Designer up to the counter to get more food and stealthily nommed what was left. Sorry! 

 

Eggplant stack. I abhor eggplant. Designer doesn't like eggplant. Actual is sort of neutral.

I didn't try this one. Designer and Actual said it was pretty good, They fought over whose pieces had more of the balsamic reduction which both of them said was foodgasmic. Two people who don't really like eggplant thought this was a good dish, so if you actually like eggplant, you'll find this one phenomenal.

 
  

Grilled lamb served with orzo pasta. I'll let the picture speak for itself on this one. It smelled so good I forgot to take a picture. I was halfway through it before Designer or Actual got a single bite. It was at that point that I finally remembered to take a picture. Very tender and absolutely bursting with flavor. One of those dishes that are so good I break my own "No touchy until snappy" rule.

 

Actual and Designer ended the meal with a slice of Grand Marnier chocolate cake. Like the rest of the dishes, the chefs at Ficelle understand that overdoing things is not very tasty. We've had a great many versions of this exact cake, and most of them are either so heavy on the chocolate that it just tastes like an orange brownie, or so heavy on the Grand Marnier that the cake tastes like a straight up shot of the stuff in cake form. This cake was very well balanced and was a great way to end the meal.

 

We're obviously going to give this place our "RUN, don't walk, RUN THERE RIGHT NOW" rating. It's been over a month since we had anything worthwhile to write about or review here. This was a spectacular way to end that horribly bland dry spell.

Make sure you check their website for their hours. They are limited and sort of strange :)

http://www.ficelle-restaurant.com/

  

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Review: Ruen Thai

Ruen Thai, I'm sorry to say, I really liked your restaurant.

Why am I sorry? It's simple. Every Thai restaurant in town that I like ends up going out of business. It's a curse.

My favorite place in town used to be Muang Thai restaurant, which was hilariously located in something that looked like a converted Pizza Hut. The owners were Thai and loved joking around with me about just how horrible my Thai was. The husband ran the front of the house and his wife ran the kitchen. 

This restaurant will always have a special place in my heart because it was the place that convinced Actual that she actually liked Thai food. I didn't know this when I met her, but Actual hated Thai food. She had tried a Thai restaurant in Davis and hated it, then tried a Thai restaurant in Hawaii and hated it more. The first time I met her family, we ate at a restaurant called Thai Basil in downtown Sacramento. It was downright disgusting. My curry tasted like vomit.

We wandered into Muang Thai on a whim, and I knew after talking to the owner that Muang Thai was the real deal. Actual discovered that she really loved Thai food. We ate there maybe 40 times over the next year, even having Actual's birthday party there. It was my favorite Thai restaurant in America.

One really funny thing happened one day at lunch. We were having a quiet meal when a white lady in scrubs came in and sat down. The owner went to go take her order.

"I want meatball curry."

The man just shot her a blank stare. 

"You have meatballs right? You have curry right? Make me a meatball curry!"

The man took a deep breath. "You want meatball... and curry?"

"Yes."

The man looked around the dining room, then back at the woman. He nodded. "Yes, we can make." He walked back into the kitchen.

He yelled out the order to his wife.

[in Thai] "Lunch special... yellow curry, add meatball."

Two long seconds of silence. The sounds of cooking coming from the kitchen had stopped completely.

[female voice, in Thai, loosely translated] "WHO THE F*CK ORDERED THAT?!?"

[male voice, in Thai] "Some white lady."

[in Thai] "Figures. I assumed as much."

The woman at the table did get her meatball curry and she seemed to like it.

A couple weeks later we went there for lunch and it was permanently closed.

When Muang Thai closed, we discovered a new Thai restaurant right around the corner from our place named Tara Thai. The owners here were Thai too. And the food was stupendous. We ate there lots of times. We even had Actual's birthday party there.

Are you sensing a pattern yet?

We got takeout one night from Tara Thai and the food was disgustingly bad. A couple weeks later we went in there for dinner and it was equally bad. We noticed that the owners were no longer Thai. Too bad. We stopped going.

About a year later, Actual needed a venue so she could hold a meeting for her group. Out of options, she decided to have it at Tara Thai. It turned out that the third set of owners were from the Isaan area between Thailand and Laos. If you know Isaan people, you know these people can cook some fiercely delicious food. They even had a special menu on the wall of Thai and Isaan delicacies. We ate there all the time.

Then we went back and it was now Dara Thai. New owners. And the food was back to blah.

So, Ruen Thai, I very much like your restaurant. Please stay in business. Thanks.

Originally, tonight we were going to go downtown for mama's pupusas. But a few days ago, Designer Girlfriend mentioned that she had never had Thai food with us, so we decided to go to Ruen Thai instead. Actual and Designer were happy with our dinner choice.

 
  

The ambiance at Ruen Thai is great. Unlike many Asian restaurants, the tables are far enough apart to be comfortable. The restaurant is super clean. And the part that made me really happy: they have the requisite "Thai Restaurant Hut".

 
 

Designer started out with a Thai iced coffee. It was cold and delicious and had a flavor that Designer will still remember as she lays in bed awake at 3AM from all the caffeine.

 
 

Appetizer course! We got the usual Angel Wings. Chicken wings stuffed with noodles, pork, and mushrooms, then deep fried. Amazingly good.

 
 

It's written into her employment contract that I'm not allowed to eat with Actual at a Thai restaurant unless she gets her bowl of tom kha gai. This version was exceptional. Unlike the sickly sweet versions that Thai restaurants seem to be very fond of, their version has the perfect blend of coconut and lemongrass. So very good. 

 

Som tum, or green papaya salad. With carrots, fish sauce, and a crazy amount of pepper. Because of the way it's prepared, the dish starts out pretty mild and gets spicier as time goes on. At about 10 minutes you're dealing with serious heat. Past that, it can get dangerous if you're not into spicy food. The som tum at Ruen Thai is fresh and crispy and had just the right amount of heat. For me at least :)

 

Pork kra pow. Basically a stir fry with Thai Basil. 

Designer initially refused to eat it because she said she hated the texture of bamboo shoots. I had to convince her to try this dish with the promise that these were good bamboo shoots and not the tree bark variety that seems to be favored by Chinese restaurants. She tried the dish and loved it. Woohoo!

 

Panang curry with beef. Like the soup, perfectly balanced and not turned into some sort of candied dish like other places. I appreciated that it tasted like curry and not the inside of a Reese's peanut butter cup. Tasted super great on rice.

 
    

Finally, dessert time. You know what's coming: mango with sticky rice! Well, not really. Mangoes aren't in season. Some lower quality Thai restaurants will serve it to you anyway. The good ones like Ruen Thai will tell you that mangoes are out of season and they won't serve it until they can get the good stuff. So they substituted mango ice cream for the mangoes. The ice cream was phenomenally good. Actual and Designer inhaled this entire plate in 90 seconds flat.

 

Congratulates, Ruen Thai. For better or for worse, you're the only Thai restaurant in town that I actually like! Please stay open!

 

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Review: La Islita

Do you like seafood?

Do you like Mexican food?

If so, stop reading right now and go to La Islita. RIGHT NOW. Come back and read this later.

Still here? Just got back from eating there? Okay. Here we go:

HOLY CRAP.

One of my Mexican friends has been trying to get me to go to one of their other locations for years, but we've never found the time. I feel really stupid not having gone for this long... I could have been eating this food for a long time now. 

The location in Citrus Heights is their third location and I'm sure will be just as successful as the other two.

This is the exterior. Check out all the signs with various specials written on them. Note that they have pozole and menudo EVERY DAY. That's dedication.

 

Upon entering we encountered one of the owners, Juan. This guy rocks! He knew it was our first time in his restaurant and gave us a five minute crash course:

• Traditional Mexican seafood restaurant
• These are mostly his family's recipes
• His chef is crazy brilliant and turns out some crazy good dishes
• His chef is from a different part of Mexico and they have heated discussions about whose interpretation of certain dishes is the best... but the diner benefits as all the good stuff makes it onto the menu regardless  
• The best selling dish is the house special shrimp (I forget the exact name)
• The next best selling dish is his langostinos preparation
• He's very glad we're there to enjoy their food
• He imports his favorite hot sauce from Mexico and calls it the "anti Tapatio"

Sure enough, his favorite sauce was on the table, staring down the Tapatio all "what are you looking at, ese?"

 
 

So we sat down and got ready for some crazy good food. We were rewarded... greatly.

Instead of chips and salsa, La Islita serves a shrimp ceviche with tostadas. I would have paid for this as an entree at any other restaurant. Juan says next time he will bring us chips and salsa as his chef has a special blend of salsa based on a recipe he brought from his hometown. I can't wait.

 
 

While ordering, Juan mentioned that they serve his mama's pozole and menudo every day. For those of you that do not consume these two wonderful soups (you should), most restaurants will only make these on the weekends as they are reputed to be wonderful hangover cures. It makes sense, as a lot of work goes into making this stuff and if not enough people order it you've wasted a lot of time.

Designer and Actual mentioned that they had never tried pozole. Juan couldn't let this one slide and brought out a bowl of pozole for them to share. I am a pozole veteran and this was easily the best pozole I have ever had. The broth was nice and thick but not greasy, something you can only accomplish by carefully cooking a bunch of high collagen animal parts. The hominy was very flavorful and the perfect texture. We could have ended our meal here and it would have been one of the best meals we've had this year.

Turns out, Actual has had pozole before. Just not pozole this good. Designer, as with many other things, is now ruined on pozole forever as her first was impossibly good. I'm not kidding. I've had at least 200 different pozoles in the US and Mexico and this was the best one. We didn't try their menudo but I'm going to guess it's just as good. 

Also, while the pozole contains all of the usual pozole ingredients (Google it), Juan's kitchen will serve you what I call a "gringo-style" serving of pozole that is all hominy and meat and doesn't contain any scary animal parts that you aren't expecting. 

Like all of our favorite restauranteurs, Juan at La Islita realizes that he needs to let you try all of their best dishes, as you will get hooked and dream about them until you come back and order some more. Mission accomplished.

 
 

Next up, a dozen oysters. At La Islita, you can order them plain or "preparado". Now, their oysters are extremely fresh and are spectacular on their own. The "prep" version adds octopus and shrimp ceviche. Juan only uses Gulf and Mexican shrimp, and you can totally tell by the splendid texture and flavor of these shrimp. We couldn't even hazard a guess as to how they prepare their octopus, but it was tender and delicious.  Spectacular doesn't even begin to describe these. A fancypants restaurant could serve ONE of these to me and I would be impressed. A whole dozen for $20? Good lord.  

 

This is a closeup of Designer's first oyster, which she deemed the prom queen of the bunch.

 

And now, the best shrimp dish on Earth. They start with butterflied but unpeeled shrimp that are deep fried for ten seconds then cooked in their crazy good mystery sauce. The ten second deep fry means you can eat these peel-on. The shells after the flash fry are like soft shell crab shells. And they taste FANTASTIC. If you don't like the texture of the shells, you can peel them off and the shrimp still taste awesome. But, as Juan said to us, "you can get a version of this with peeled shrimp anywhere else; if you want the special version where you can eat the shells, you come here."

Actual says that that shell-on, the texture is just like popcorn shrimp.

 

Last up, the superstar of the meal. Remember what I said about smart restauranteurs that give you samples of their best stuff to make sure you get addicted? THIS WAS IT. These are whole roasted langostinos that are split in half then covered in the best sauce I've had as long as I can remember. You suck the combination of the sauce and the natural langostino juice off each piece then eat the tail. Simply phenomenal. I'm coming back for a full order of these as soon as possible. And no, none of you can share. GET YOUR OWN.

I felt luxuriously gluttonous after this dish. If you know me, you know just how hard that is to accomplish.

 
    

RUN, DON'T WALK TO THIS PLACE. This is easily one of the best restaurants in Northern California, along with the other two locations.

Here are the girls with Juan. Sorry for the blurry picture, but after 4381 shots on one charge my battery grip finally died, so I had to take an iPhone picture like I used to way at the beginning of this blog.  The guy in the hat is the International Mexican Chef of Mystery. Juan, I don't know what you pay this guy, but he's totally worth it.

 
 

GO THERE NOW!!!

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Review: A Southern Komfort Cafe

We're really not on a barbecue kick here at Chomple, I swear. We just keep ending up at barbecue places. Like magic.

Honestly, we should have eaten at A Southern Komfort Cafe a long time ago. We pass it every single day on our commute. Unfortunately, their location is in the middle of a stretch of Auburn Road with such poorly timed lights that we've rarely stopped anywhere in there because of fears that we may actually be trapped there forever. 

Traffic lights be damned, we finally went.

Having been featured on not one but two news channels, I expected the place to be full of people, but it wasn't. That's a complete shame. Where were the rest of you eating dinner? I'm guessing somewhere entirely not as yummy.

Shame on you. More for me. Then again, I think these guys can make plenty for everyone.

This is their menu wall. This is proper decor for a neighborhood barbecue and soul food place. Note the lineup of best barbecue in Citrus Heights certificates. They deserve all of these.

 
  

We were lucky enough to show up on Fish Fry-Day. Catfish, red snapper, and tilapia are on offer. We would take advantage of our good luck.

 
 

This is my plate of soul. Clockwise from the upper left:

• Louisiana hot link sausage. Really spicy! Just like I like it. Now would be a good time to mention that their sauce is FANTASTIC. Sweet at first, with a building bite. There's a reason their website is www.itmustbethesauce.com, although... it's not JUST the sauce. The meat is pretty spectacular too.
• Pork spareribs. By a longshot the best ribs we've had in a while. We're not sure how they cook their ribs, but the meat itself had a ton of flavor. With their sauce on it these ribs become out of this world. Unlike most ribs these days, they have not been cooked to death. "Fall of the bone" ribs aren't really a positive quality. If you've cooked ribs to the point that the meat falls off the bone, the meat is probably mushy and has lost most of its porky texture. The ribs at A Southern Komfort Cafe are cooked just right.
• Collard greens. Tender and savory, not overly salty or fatty. Good, and good for you. Better for you than most collard greens which seem to be less greens and more pork delivery device. If you're eating greens, they're probably a side dish to some pork, you don't need more pork in your greens!
• Spicy rice. I have to have my daily rice!

 

A closeup of the ribs. I want to lick my screen right now. Designer Girlfriend could not join us for dinner as she was cramming for an ARE exam, so we brought her some ribs. According to her, these are spot on for ribs she used to eat as a child at a local restaurant, and she had never been able to recreate the experience until now. The best kind of food experience evokes an intense childhood memory.

 

Actual's plate. Tr-tip on the left, mashed potatoes and gravy on the right . The tri-tip was less tender than others but see my previous comment about the sad tendency of barbecue places to cook things to death; this stuff had great texture and a ton of flavor. And, of course, their stupendous sauce on top.

The mashed potatoes were described by Actual as "almost as good as my brother's". That's high praise. His mashed potatoes are pretty breathtaking.

 
   

Actual's second side dish was a bowl of black eyed peas. Deliciously salty and smoky. I could eat a half gallon of these in one sitting, I suspect.

 
 

Around this time a plate of fresh cornbread came out. We had earlier ordered garlic bread as they had run out of cornbread, but they decided to bake us a fresh batch. It was so good. Not too sweet, not too soft, just right.

 
 

Last item to arrive was Actual's fish. Cornmeal battered red snapper, straight out of the fryer. Crunchy on the outside, tender and steaming hot on the inside. Like all southern style fried fish, served with the proper and really only allowable condiment: Crystal hot sauce. They do soul food by the book here.

 

Finally, our leftovers box. You know what I always say about how your leftovers from a great restaurant will look better than your actual food from a just ok restaurant?

 

If you like ribs or fried fish and live anywhere near A Southern Komfort Cafe you need to go right now. It's not very often that I feel truly stupid for waiting so long to go to a restaurant. I feel that way today. That's ok though, I have plenty of chances to make up for it, one luscious rib at a time.

Note: they are cash only

  

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Review: Dickey's Barbecue Pit

We're finally done with all the Fancy Food Show coverage, so back to our normal Chompling!

I am so glad Dickey's BBQ Pit is here. Seriously, I started screaming when I first saw the bright yellow Dickey's sign go up. Ever since I moved here from Dallas, I have been unable to find unable barbecue anywhere. Before Dickey's, my only source for barbecue was Actual's Dad. Although he enjoys making us barbecue, I'm sure he's already tired of my constant pleading for tri-tip and ribs.

If I remember correctly I actually used to eat at Dickey's once a week back in Dallas. They had a location across the street from my place and I would stop there all the time to indulge in more meat than any individual should probably eat unless they are Michael Phelps. I eat more reasonable portions now. Promise.

And now, a Californian Public Service Announcement from Girlfriend Actual:
Dear fellow Californians, what is served here is Texan barbecue and not Californian barbecue. Californian barbecue has a highly seasoned dry rub and requires no sauce for consumption. Santa Maria tri-tip and the baby back ribs served at most Californian non-chain barbecue places are good examples of the Californian barbecue ethos. Texan barbecue has very little seasoning on the meat itself (except for the sausage varieties) and relies on the sauce for the flavor. Both are great in their own respects, but you need to realize which you're eating lest you be disappointed.

 
 

One thing to gleefully note up front is that Dickey's charges the correct price for barbecue. Their two meat platter is $9.50. I'm not going to name names, but I have tried more than a few barbecue places in the area. Most of them suck. Those that do not suck, instead decide to make me sad by charging INSANE prices for their products. If your food sucks or you're way overpriced, I'm not going to bother mentioning you on Chomple. I barely have enough time to tell our readers where all the good places are, much less spend time whining about crappy restaurants. 

Thanks to hitting the yumminess per dollar target dead on, Dickey's is the first and only recommended barbecue restaurant on Chomple. 

This review spans two meals, both lunches. First was takeout and second was dine-in.

 
 

We've determined that the Roseville Police Department has to have an entrance test for their officers to see whether or not they can identify delicious places to eat. We frequently run into the Roseville PD eating at the same places we do. This may sound silly, but I definitely feel safer knowing that the local police officers had a delicious and wholesome lunch rather than chowing down on junk food. We've actually discovered a couple good restaurants in town after we drove past and saw a bunch of police cruisers parked up front and decided we should stop and see where they were all eating.

So, seeing this out front of Dickey's was a great sign...

 
 

Here's their menu. Check out the completely reasonable prices. Not pictured is their special deal for January and February where every Monday you can get $1 pulled pork sandwiches. Also, kids eat free on Sundays with the purchase of an adult meal.

 
 

Freebie #1: soft serve. It's real soft serve too, not the crud that most people have to call "frozen treat". If you have kids, this machine is a godsend.

 
 

You sauce your own barbecue at Dickey's. Sauce choices are original, sweet, and spicy. This is a welcome change compared to other barbecue places as most of them tend to severely oversauce their products. The sauce is in a warmer so it's always at the correct temperature to go right on your food before you eat it. 

Right next to the sauce is Freebie #2: dill pickles. GOOD dill pickles too.

In the background to the right (not really visible) is the drink area, where they serve proper brewed unsweetened and sweet tea made from Luzianne tea leaves. I'm an unsweetened iced tea addict and Saucy loves sweet tea. We'd come here for the tea alone.

Note Girlfriend Actual feeling the "ooh warm" surface of the sauce area.

 
 

Do yourself a favor and get your drink in the $2 32oz Big Yellow Cup. These things are high quality and very reusable. I am willing to wager 1/3 of the households in Texas keep a stack of these things for general use. Plus they're nice and bold, and great to carry around when you want to tell the world "I had kick ass barbecue for my last meal, what bland, boring crap did you eat?"

 
 

This was our sauce and freebie collection from day 1 when we got takeout. 

 

My day 1 takeout. Clockwise from upper left:

Jalapeno beans- just ok. I don't really like jalapenos though.

Green beans and bacon- PHENOMENAL. This portion was probably 50% bacon. Go Dickey's! If you want something healthier, you can order this side "heavy on the green beans" like Actual does. More bacon for me!

Chopped brisket- AWESOME (Almost-Father-In-Law: it's not as good as yours. Don't disown me. Please. I love your daughter. Sometimes we have to get brisket from other people, okay? It happens. Carnivores have NEEDS.). This stuff is great in a sandwich, but I don't really like bread so I just eat it freeform. Dickey's chops their brisket to order. That is very important, as chopped brisket if left to sit just turns into a disgusting mess, no matter how good your starting product was.

Hot link sausage: just ok. Flavor was tremendous (Dickey's is well known for their stupendous hot link sausage) but I think this batch got overcooked. I think this was just a fluke though... will try it on the next trip. 

 

The above meal, after I covered it in Dickey's spicy barbecue sauce. OM NOM NOM!

 
   

Day 2. This is my pulled pork and virginia ham combo with fried okra and barbecue beans. Everything was amazing, but the okra really made me happy. Fried okra is hard to find here in norcal, and fried okra this good is hard to find anywhere. This stuff tasted like it came right out of the fryer.

 

Actual's platter. Check out the mac and cheese and the "heavy on green beans" green beans and bacon. She got the their old recipe polish sausage which was spectacular.

 
  

And here is her portion of sliced brisket that has been sauced with their original sauce. I didn't even get to try a bite of this. Thankfully I had the monster camera in burst mode so I got enough pictures taken before the brisket was happily consumed. 

 
 

And a word of warning: the residents of Roseville have all heard that Dickey's is now open. The lunch crowd can get huge. Don't let this dissuade you: it's the true sign that the food here is GOOD.

 

I am so glad a Dickey's opened in my neck of the woods. If you love barbecue, quit eating it at all the overpriced places in town and PLEASE stop eating it at the megachain restaurants where the only good thing about their barbecue is the catchy jingle.

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Review: Oz Korean BBQ

Written by Saucy Girlfriend. Poorly white balanced photos by Yod.

I had only been to Oz Korean BBQ once before and it was amazing.  All you can eat meat for under $20 a person is always a good deal.  Last time, I had good drinks and food and service was great.  I had a great time cooking on their grills and the fact you can order till you just can’t eat any more was wonderful.  Unfortunately, this time was not so wonderful. 

 

Let's talk drinks... who wants to go to a restaurant and explain to the bartender how to make your very basic drink?  Within 10 minutes I realized that the bartender was a stand in for the original bartender that had called in sick. We had a party of 17 and we are not the most patient group.  Most of us wanted mixed drinks that the stand in did not even come close to knowing how to make correctly.  But we felt bad and decided to help, until three drinks and half hour later, we all decided to go to beer.  

 
 

 

But that didn’t stop our great mood, we were ready to cook away and enjoy the wonderful food.  My mouth was watering while I waited and waited for our meat to come to the table.  The wait seemed like forever.  The waiter apologized for the delay and left swiftly.  We found out later that there was only one waiter to our huge table of 17.   He was having a very hard time keeping up with our group. 

This was the first platter of meat for us to grill. It showed up about 15 to 20 minutes after we ordered. I was so hungry by this point I was ready to eat it all raw. But I am not a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

 
 

 

So all in all, I still loved the food and enjoyed cooking on the grill.  The meat is marinated in sauces that come close to my wonderful marinade.  It melts in your mouth.  But the service was not such a great experience this time.  I’m not throwing them under the bus as of yet, I am willing to give them another try since I like the food so much. 

 
 

Review: Taste of Tuscany

Starting today, we're marking our official reviews as such in the subject line. A few of our readers wanted to know when we were reviewing a place rather than just sharing what we were eating.

Yes, this place has been open since 2008. Yes, it's taken us this long to come here. And yes, we're sort of idiots for waiting this long to check it out. 

But... but... it's not my fault. I'm naturally suspicious of places that are in strip malls. And there are a ton of pizza/pasta places in our area. Could this random place on Roseville Road really be that good?

In a word: yes.

In a few words: OMGWTFBBQ yes. Seriously.

It's not that often that a place makes me feel like a crappy food blogger for waiting so long to show up and try the food... but this place is one of them.

We headed to this place with Saucy Girlfriend, Designer Girlfriend, Naruto Girl, and two others in tow.

We were glad we brought the crew. 

Earlier in the evening, Designer Girlfriend snuck some Italian sparking red into her purse just in case where we went was horrible and she had to booze up to deal with the nastiness. I am proud to say she never had to break into her emergency red wine.

 
 

This is how the place looks from the outside. Very unassuming. Don't be fooled. There is food greatness within. We promise. And, no, the restaurant is not at an angle. I'm just a crappy photographer.

 
 

Right away I noticed that they had some great beers on draft and that pitchers of the good stuff were only $9. Yes, please. Knowing that we had Saucy and Designer in attendance, I opted for a pitcher of Blue Moon. Good choice on my part!

 

Saucy's sister wasn't feeling the Blue Moon but wasn't sure if she would enjoy any of the other beers they had on draft. I suggested the Peroni but she wasn't sure. They were nice enough to give her a sample. She ended up not liking it, although me, Actual, Saucy, and Designer all thought it was super yummy.  

 

Next came the breadsticks. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that Saucy is a bread fiend. These breadsticks were to die for. We would have been perfectly happy to eat a few [dozen] of these things and called it a night. But, as smart Chomplers, we knew that any place that had breadsticks this good had to have even better pizza. Seriously though, the breadsticks at Taste of Tuscany were better than the actual pizza at most places. 

 
  

But, like everything they serve, really awesome isn't enough for the guys at Taste of Tuscany. The breadsticks come with marinara, ranch, or extra virgin olive oil with balsamic vinegar. The bread fiend inside Saucy demanded all dipping sauces, which the Tuscany guys were more than willing to provide. I only tried the oil and vinegar which was psycho phenomenal. Plenty of chain restaurants do this combo and fail miserably. The Tuscany guys provided crazy good EVOO and balsamic. Not that their breadsticks needed it, but the flavor was awesome. This is a good place to mention that their waitstaff is efficient and witty. They dealt with all of our crazy requests and managed to keep bread fiend (Saucy) happy. And before you ask, I tried to name her Bread Girlfriend but was turned down by the rest of the staff.

 

Skater Nephew didn't like it. He felt the combination was too acidic. Well, he'll learn. Eventually. Props to him for standing his ground regarding his palate. Stay strong, bro. We'll find something you like eventually!

 

Saucy's sister ended up being delivered with a pitcher of some phenomenal dark beer. She didn't want a pitcher... only a glass. No biggie though, your intrepid Blog Masta helped her finish it. 

 

Naruto Girl was in a grumpy mood tonight. Since 1992 I've learned to let high school girls go on with their contemplative selves. Even when faced with delicious food, circumstances don't really effectively change. She was feeling pain from an injury she had suffered earlier and we left her alone.

Hopefully she's in a better mood next time we drag her out.

 

The main courses arrived and we were so happy! This is the first pizza. I believe this is the "Local Favorite" pizza.  What I need to point out is that the crust is oval and not symmetrical. This is a GOOD thing. All of their crust is fresh and rolled out by hand! They use very tasty toppings here. The sausage was crazy good and the cheese was exceptional.

 
      

Actual: get a shot of the cheese!
Designer: YES
Me: What... oh... omg. Go real cheese on pizza!

 
 

Designer: back the heck up and get a good shot of the cheese
Me: I'm backing up... hold that pose
Designer: seriously? Argh.... take it in portrait.
Me: WTF SHUT UP!
Designer: Seriously? 
Me: I'm an awesome photographer.
Designer: Uh, no.
Me: CHEESE!

 
 

Pizza #2 was their chicken and garlic pizza. Actual opted for the garlic sauce instead of their normal red.  The basil and red peppers were added after the baking, so you got crunchy red pepper and fresh bright basil in every bite. 

 

Our first pasta dish was a cheese tortellini in alfredo sauce. Very rich and creamy. 

 

Next was the beef ravioli in bolognese sauce. The sauce itself had lots of flavor which went well with the seasoned beef ravioli filling. A fight broke out over these at some point, which was resolved by me eating them.

 

My personal plate ended up with this selection. Any one of these things would have made me happy. Having all three made a great meal!

 

And for dessert: cappuccino mousse cake. Actual and Designer said it was great. I was busy trying to finish our pitcher of Peroni.

 

if you order the cake as part of their special dessert, it comes with port. Actual and Designer enjoyed it. I was still busy finishing the pitcher of Peroni and taking pictures so I didn't get any.

 

Finally we got a visit from the owner Jeremy and the famous Uncle Dave. Great guys!

 
      

They revealed a few things to us that explained why the food was so good:

• No water is added to any of their pizza or pasta sauces
• They prepare dough multiple times per day. Most places only do it once per day. Jeremy says most places do this only once per day because they don't think the average diner can tell the difference between fresh dough and 7 hour old dough. The way he looks at it, if he can tell the difference, his diners can too
• They do special events each month. Fan them on Facebook to make sure you don't miss out!

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