Cleveland's Asian restaurants

[ricain]

Thanks for posting this Edsel. I'm not familiar (yet) with the restaurant and it looks lovely.

Back to Wonton Gourmet again. Three of the four in our party had already been here, so we decided to order a few things we hadn't tried yet.

Edited June 16, 2008 by ricain (log)

[NancyH]

Great photos, Edsel! And a great meal. Best turnip cake I've ever tasted - crispy on the outside, and pudding-like on the inside. Delicious dumplings. I loved the Black Pepper Sauce the best.

I've got some additional photos on my blog. Wonton Gourmet is a Cleveland treasure!

[edsel]

I just want to point out that the photos on Nancy's blog give a much more accurate impression of the food at Wonton Gourmet. I'm not sure what the heck happened to the colors in my photos...

Next time we try the frog.

[NancyH]

Benefit for Annie Chiu

Annie Chiu, Chef and Proprietor of Sun Luck Garden, which is discussed on this thread, has just had emergency heart surgery. I just received this notice about a benefit to help her and her restaurant (which is temporarily closed) get through this difficult time.

"Takin' it to the Streets for Annie Chiuwww.friendsofannie.com

Cleveland's best chefs are hosting a fund raising party featuring street food inspired small plates to support one of their own.

Annie Chiu, chef/owner of Sun Luck Garden, one of Cleveland's most celebrated restaurants, just underwent emergency open-heart surgery and her restaurant will be closed during her recovery.

"Takin' it to the Streets for Annie Chiu" will be held at Sergio's Saravá at Shaker Square on Monday, July 28, 2008, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. A $50 donation gets you a ticket. Come sample the chefs' creations plus a selection of fine wines. A cash bar will be available, as well as fabulous silent auction items and live music provided by the Joe Hunter Trio. All proceeds go to the Friends of Annie Fund.

All contributions are being accepted online at friendsofannie.com. Each $50 contribution gives you one ticket for the July 28 party at Sergio's Saravá. All online contributors (in any amount) will be entered in drawings to win one of 12 restaurant gift cards, generously provided by the participating chefs

Please join us to support this great cause!

For further information, contact the event organizer, Sergio Abramof at 216-295-1200 or visitwww.friendsofannie.com

Participating chefs include:

Karen Small, Flying Fig

Doug Katz, FIRE

Paul Minillo, Baricelli Inn

Heather Haviland, Lucky’s

Jonathan Bennett, Moxie/RED

Sergio Abramof, Sarava

Ryan Alabaugh, Sergio’s @ University Circle

Eric Williams, Momocho

Ruth and Marc Levine, Bistro 185

Matt Halan, Lolita

Rocco, Farenheit"

I'm planning to be there - Annie is a Cleveland treasure!

[torakris]

Nancy,

Thank you so much for letting us know about this! Annie did such a wonderful job for our Heartland Gathering meal last year.

I would love to go as well, would I be able to join you guys?

[NancyH]

Bob and I attended the "Taking it to the Street for Annie" benefit Monday. Since the food wasn't Asian, I'll start a new thread for the photos and report.

The good news is that Annie is recovering from quadruple bypass with relatives. We wish her the best.

[edsel]

It's been a while since I dined at Ty Fun in Tremont (mentioned earlier in the topic). I joined some friends there last night for a feast that was was absolutely delightful. A friend arranged with the proprietors, Sonny Tingpatana and Greg Binford, to give us a sampling of delicious Thai dishes. The actual menu was left entirely up to Sonny - whatever he thought appropriate.

We started out with chicken wings which were very flavorful but not as spicy as I expected (more about that later).

Sonny told us that this was his father's recipe. I guess Dad likes cilantro. This was a great start to the meal.

Next up, a chopped pork dish served as a lettuce wrap.

I think Sonny told us this contained pork liver and intestines. It didn't taste particularly organ-y, but it sure was good. (This brought up a discussion of things he's hesitant to serve on the regular menu. Apparently one of his favorite dishes has a Thai version of blood sausage. I told him I'd be glad to try it). This dish was fairly spicy and highly aromatic, with Kaffir lime providing the high notes.

A stuffed bitter melon soup followed. Sonny told us that the bitter melon was blanched to tone down the bitterness. This dish had a palate-cooling effect.

Then came a flurry of dishes served in quick succession:

Duck and eggplant curry. This had two types of eggplant (Thai and Indian). The coconut-based sauce had a nice touch of Thai basil.

Beef with broccoli, baby corn, and flat noodles. Rich flavors, not terribly spicy.

Red Snapper, served whole. This was fried crisp and served with lots of vegetables. My only (minor) complaint would be that the fish cheeks were cooked to the point of being dried out. (My friend Nancy noticed that too, with a note of sadness ) The rest of the fish was moist and tasty. Again, I was surprised that the sauce was not especially hot.

Crisp tofu with vegetables. Several of my friends remarked on this dish being quite delicious, despite their usual indifference to tofu. The tofu was pressed before frying, so it had a dense, meaty texture. The sauce was silky and lightly flavored. Again, not especially spicy.

Ground chicken with green beans. The beans had just the right level of crunch. Nice!

I've mentioned several times that some dishes were less spicy than I expected. All were nicely seasoned and very aromatic, but only the ground pork lettuce wrap dish really had a heat level that made me take notice. I don't mind a bit of heat, but I don't seek it for it's own sake. I'm much more interested in a balance of flavors, textures, and aromas - which this meal provided in spades. A couple of my dining companions prefer a higher level of heat, and at their request a dish of nam prik nam pla was provided. Sonny told us: don't ask for hot sauce, ask for prik nam pla, which is sliced bird's eye peppers with fish sauce. Delicious! (and HOT!)

This was a most enjoyable meal. The unanimous verdict was that they should do special tasting menus on a regular basis. I know many of my friends (not just those of us who were there last night) would be delighted to try whatever Sonny decides to cook up.

_{Photos link to a Flickr set if you want to see larger images.}

[tino27]

Great write-up, Edsel! I also attended the meal Edsel described (and in fact, my rendition will be coming out on my blog -- see my signature -- on Thursday morning, 2/4). While I agree that things weren't as spicy as I personally like them, I think on the whole the flavors were incredibly well balanced. Interestingly enough, I had no idea that the pork in the cold pork salad with lettuce cups was made from liver. It tasted just like pork to me.

If you live in Cleveland or are driving through, definitely put Ty Fun Thai Bistro on your Places of Interest list.

[edsel]

Tom, I may have misunderstood what Sonny was saying about the pork dish. Perhaps he was talking about a different version. The one we had didn't taste like it had liver or intestine in it. If it did it was well disguised.

[NancyH]

Sonny definitely said that there was tripe in the pork wrap dish. I thought he said liver also. I think you can see a bit of the tripe in this shot:

He also indicated that even after eating with us at Wonton, he was a little nervous about going too heavy on the spice. I expect we'll need to do this again! I'll be blogging about it shortly.

Here's a wing close-up:

None of our photos seem to really show it - but there was a red glaze over the wings; not sure what it was, but that was a special aspect of it.

[torakris]

I'm so jealous! everything looks so wonderful. I have added yet another restaurant for my trip this summer.

[tino27]

NancyH, to my taste buds, the sweet glaze on the chicken wings reminded me a lot of the sweet chili sauce that is sold under the Mae Ploy brand name. And with that much sugar, it would certainly caramelize into a nice glaze when cooked on.

Boy, those were really good wings. I really loved them being paired with the fresh cilantro.