Wokano

[Andrew Fenton]

Today's City Paper has an interesting review of Wokano, a Chinese restaurant at 11th and Washington. (If it's the space I'm thinking of, it used to be an okay Mexican restaurant-- Rio Grande? Rio Bravo?-- and then a Chinese seafood restaurant which I never tried.) Anyway, it sounds like a good spot for Chinese eats without compromise:

  Many folks, for example, are accustomed to being served meat that's neatly processed — off the bone or, at a minimum, visually distanced from the animal it came from. Wokano's duck tongue, however, is not served that way. Twenty or more 2-inch blades of muscle — bone-in and lightly sautéed in soy sauce — canvassed a large plate. You couldn't see any taste buds, even if you looked closely. But there was no mistaking it: You were about to eat a miniature tongue, one that looked remarkably like your own.

Yet if you marshalled the courage to hold the base of the tongue and used your teeth to scrape the meat from the bone, you were treated to a unique blend of earthy and intensely gamey flavors that were well-balanced by the accompanying bed of sweetly acidic pickled daikon radish and carrot. Likewise, if you popped a nugget of the sautéed frog into your mouth without realizing that the light breading concealed a collection of small bones, it could be off-putting. But if you nibbled it, instead, like a densely packed chicken wing, you found that its somewhat fishy and gamey flavors were actually quite mild and unintimidating.

Well, that piques my interest! (Also, tongues have bones? Who knew? But there you go.) Anybody been to Wakano?

[ThicketDan]

Duck tongues marinated in wine also on the special menu these days at Dim Sum Garden. Highly recommended for those enthusiastic about unusual fare- I took a chance on a plate last weekend.

[Greg Ling]

R.I.P. Ducky

[mattohara]

Andrew that's right in my neck of the woods. I'd be happy to check it out whenever you want. I've only spent time in the other plaza on 7th street. The Korean BBQ place in there is inexpensive, delicious and they load on the food, btw.

[brescd01]

As a matter of fact I did try it and it is considerably better than the seafood restaurant that preceded it. I do not think I selected the best dishes for my wife and I, but everything was well-prepared. I did not think the mao po tofu was good, but otherwise everything was high-quality Cantonese. I got a little too adventurous for my own good, with several fresh fish and shrimp dishes. Next time I will try steak and chicken. But overall, very good and the waiter took a long time for me to get my order right. I recommend trying it, especially if you hate Chinatown traffic, as I do.

Edited November 25, 2008 by brescd01 (log)

[Andrew Fenton]

Well, after all that I couldn't not try Wokano, right?

First things first: there are two menus. It's not that one is in English and one is in Chinese, either. There are just two menus: a bright and shiny one with your General Tso's chicken and wonton soup, and a smaller, slightly grubby one that has all the offal-y good stuff.

I can't remember all the dishes we ordered-- if only somebody would post pictures to remind me-- but standouts included:

- the black chicken and ginseng soup. This wasn't like anything I've had in a Chinese restaurant. Very light broth, almost underseasoned (a number of us added salt) with a slight medicinal flavor from the ginseng. It's a very simple soup, basically just the chicken and ginseng, and tastes like something your bubbe would serve you when you're sick, if your bubbe were Chinese.

- very good Peking duck. I don't know where I'd rank it relative to other local ducks, but this one was very good.

- deep-fried spare ribs. These are basically Rib McNuggets: you can actually hear your arteries creaking and hardening as you eat them. But so tasty! They'd be a great bar snack: the alcohol would both help clear out the grease and loosen your inhibitions about eating them.

- pork belly hot pot. Did I mention that this dinner was sponsored by AstraZeneca, makers of Crestor ? At least, I deserve some sort of royalty.

- the duck tongues, which, honestly... didn't taste like too much. Still, it's good to order them along with the Peking duck, just so that you can say you used every part of the duck. You know, like the Indians.

There's a lot more on the menu worth exploring, though I may skip a crazy $400 dish, loaded with dried abalone and other fine seafoods. (I'm guessing it's the Chinese equivalent of that foie gras cheesesteak they were serving at Barclay Prime.) They also do dim sum; I'd like to try that one of these days.

[I_call_the_duck]

Yeah, still waiting for these elusive photos that someone had to snap those beauty shots before we could even dig in.

The soup was labeled tonic, so in hindsight, we should have ordered the black chicken stew. Since I don't have a bubbe but a (Chinese) mom, I liked it--it was soothing.

The duck tongue tasted like...tongue...only duckier. I'd rank the Peking duck good, but I prefer Sang Kee, where they have the thin crepe-y pancakes, and also give you the duck meat.

Pork belly, what's not to like? It was a little light on the preserved vegetables, which were a little milder than usual.

You forgot the dumplings, which were pretty tasty.

There must have been some shark fin in that crazy $400 soup too. Mom told me that good dried scallops can run about $80 a pound. Abalone ain't cheap either.

The staff was super nice. Our waiter didn't blink an eye when we asked him for the other menu, and answered all our questions.

I see dim sum in the near future. Maybe they have those fry carts. Mmmm...fry carts.

Edited December 11, 2008 by I_call_the_duck (log)

[Tim Dolan]

- pork belly hot pot.  Did I mention that this dinner was sponsored by AstraZeneca, makers of Crestor ?  At least, I deserve some sort of royalty.

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Care to elaborate on this at all? How spicy is it? Sounds like the perfect thing to get on a rainy, miserable day such as today. I'm on a mission for some type of good, spicy, hot pot/soup type of thing for later on. I've ran STH into the ground, time to try something different.

[Andrew Fenton]

- pork belly hot pot.  Did I mention that this dinner was sponsored by AstraZeneca, makers of Crestor ?  At least, I deserve some sort of royalty.

←

Care to elaborate on this at all? How spicy is it? Sounds like the perfect thing to get on a rainy, miserable day such as today. I'm on a mission for some type of good, spicy, hot pot/soup type of thing for later on. I've ran STH into the ground, time to try something different.

←

As ICTD mentioned, it could have benefited from some more preserved vegetables, but it was tasty! Just very fatty (I know, pork belly: who'd have thunk it?). It's definitely worth trying, especially on a wet, cold day.

[philadining]

Black Chicken "tonic" soup

Stir Fried Duck Tongues

Pan-Fried Dumplngs

Deep-Fried Spare Ribs

Peking Duck

Snow Pea Leaves with Garlic

Pork Belly with preserved vegetables

Overall, I think I'm in agreement with my dining companions, I thought everything was quite good, and I liked that there wasn't any drama getting things from the traditional menu.

The soup was on the mild side, but as was noted, it was supposed to be a healthful tonic, so it's no big surprise that it wasn't super-intense. The chicken had a nice flavor though.

The duck tongues were fine, not really all that weird, but not especially delicious either. Decent snack, I'd eat them again if they were in front of me, but I'm not going out of my way to get them either.

I thought the fried dumplings were excellent.

The Deep-fried ribs were very nicely done, the batter was perfectly crisp and not greasy, but overall I felt like they needed a little something, a dipping sauce maybe? Perhaps we should have been drinking beer.

I thought the Peking Duck was quite good, right up there with the best. I used to be in the thin-pancake camp, but I've been seduced by the soft squishy buns... And I like this style of presentation that leaves more meat on the crispy skin. The Sang Kee style is good too, and I do like having the second course of stir-fried duck, but having a bit more meat in the buns is nice too. Hey, it's nice to have alternatives, and this is a good one!

The sautéed Snow Pea leaves were really great, very garlicky, not too soupy like some places make them.

And I'm going to divert from the crowd a little: I thought the pork belly clay pot thing was a little blah. The tangy preserved vegetables were very good, but there weren't enough of them, and although the pork itself was very tender and tasty, the sauce was just sort-of... brown... I've had better versions of this in Chinatown. Not bad, just bland.

Despite that last comment, I like the place overall. Service was good, the space is pleasant, there's a large, interesting menu. Yes, we must check it out for dim sum.