I have a strong tendency to get into food ruts. When I love something and find a place that makes it well, I balk at trying it at a new place. Especially when I’m craving it. Zach and I were craving dim sum this morning, but decided to be adventurous and try something new, since we’re always eating at Sun Ya. I had heard good things about Jumbo on Rainier, so we went to check it out.

While pulling into the parking lot I noticed that it shared space with a furniture/wedding store. Please note that it’s a combined furniture and wedding gown store, not two separate stores. As we approached Jumbo, there was a sign directing us to the “main” entrance, which happened to be the furniture store, so I got to see the most gaudy furniture I’ve ever seen in my life. I felt like we had been transported to a Boca Raton retirement community. I was giddy because it was just so bizarre.

We walked into the restaurant and it was a cavernous space. As we were being led to our table, I almost crashed into a cart because I was trying to see what was being served across the room. It looked an awful lot like Fried Nothing.

Fried Nothing was my favorite dim sum item when I was a kid. When my grandma would take me for dim sum, she would order in Chinese, so I never knew what it was actually called. My brother and I dubbed it Fried Nothing because that’s basically what it was. I was trying to tell Zach what I saw, but all I could manage to do was point and gesture wildly because I was too thrilled to talk.

We were seated on the edge of the dance floor, just slightly to the left of the disco ball, but to the right of the fancy lighting system. While we waited for the carts to come we speculated on what the night life at Jumbo was like. I guessed scary.

We ate all the usual suspects: steamed hum bow, baked hum bow, ha gow, meatballs and eggplant with shrimp. I really wanted to love this place—mostly because it was so kooky, but I just couldn’t. The dim sum was average at best, with the exception of the sticky rice; it was the best sticky rice I’ve ever had, but it certainly didn’t warrant driving that far south or suffering through the other mediocre food.

We were getting full, but the Fried Nothing cart still hadn’t come. I refused to leave until we tried it, so we waited. And waited. I tracked the cart around the room, sighing with frustration when it looked like it was headed towards us, then (sigh) took a turn and went in the other direction. Finally the cart came. The Fried Nothing was served with jook, but I talked the woman into just giving us the Fried Nothing because I’m super picky about jook (I only like the stuff my family makes). I asked the waitress what it was called, so that I could finally request it at restaurants. She told me it was a Chinese Donut. Oh. I was disappointed that it wasn’t more exotic sounding, but I had to admit, that’s exactly what it was.

Imagine a long and skinny churro-shaped donut that’s not sweet at all, and a little greasy. On my first bite, I was disappointed. I wondered why I had been so enthralled with them when I was a kid. One my second bite, I changed my mind. It was Fried Nothing! Why wouldn’t a kid (or any sane adult) love it? We ended up eating the entire plate of donut (which was a lot) and each bite kept getting better. Just as we finished the platter, I saw someone coming out of the kitchen with a fresh batch of donuts. I was stuffed, but so tempted to order another plate to see how they taste when they’re hot (I’m guessing heavenly).

So overall, I was happy with our Jumbo experience, but only because I will now be able to order Fried Nothing at Sun Ya.

(I just found a great link on Foodgoat that covers the all important topic of Fried Dough Around the World. It’s the best site ever.)

After reading an article in The Stranger about the fried chicken at Takohachi, I decided I needed to make another visit. All I had to do was say “I was thinking about eating at Tako…” and Zach immediately agreed to tag along.

Even though we know the portions at Takohachi are gigantic, we ordered the Shrimp Tempura Maki as an appetizer. This was not a typical preparation of maki, as the rice was almost soggy and heavy with vinegar. My guess is that they do this to keep the rice from drying out, because I don’t think many people order the sushi. Kind of a catch-22…

Zach had the broiled saba, again, and it was delicious—although it was a little saltier than usual. I ordered a combo plate (read: enormous plate of food), because I wanted to try the fried chicken AND the croquettes, which a friend had recommended. Here is what came with my meal:

Miso – Good, but a little too mild for my taste.

Fried chicken – Little nuggets of golden-brown, fried chicken with a crisp panko coating. I had an unfortunate first bite that was mostly fat, but subsequent bites were delicious. Usually I prefer dark meat, but in this case the white meat was better—really moist and juicy with a great texture. The combo plate came with a Tonkatsu sauce, which was good, but next time I want to try the spicy teriyaki sauce.

Croquettes – Slightly larger nuggets, this time filled with ground beef encased in mashed potatoes then breaded and fried. They were strangely good. I was fascinated with them because they reminded me of something from my childhood, but I couldn’t place it. Maybe mom’s meatloaf and mashed potatoes? Hmmm.

Bizarre Salad – A green salad topped with a concentrated mayonnaise dressing and then toped with… drum roll… two slices of deli-style ham. For some reason Zach loved this, I just though it was weird.

Fried Rice – I had read quite a few rave reviews about the bacon fried rice at Takohachi, so I decided to try it. It was, uh, well… interesting. Yes, it tasted like bacon and was very smoky, but it also was quite greasy and tasted inexplicably like coleslaw. I was so focused on trying to figure out what made it taste like coleslaw, that I didn’t really spend much time enjoying it. I may order this another time just to make sure it wasn’t an off night.

After living in my apartment building for over two years, I finally met a neighbor. And not just any neighbor; my dream neighbor. Super neighbor, if you will. M is currently a baker, freelance food writer and cookbook reviewer. In her past life, she’s was a travel writer and a chef on a private Alaskan yacht (she’s going to teach me how to make gravlax)! M and I started talking and discovered we had a lot in common. Okay, maybe not a lot… more like one major thing: food. We decided it was high time we got to know each other, so we picked a date for dinner. She suggested Sichuanese Cuisine, which was perfect because I had been meaning to try their hot-pot, which my friend John highly recommends (and by recommends, I mean keeps pestering me to try because he claims it’s the best hot-pot in the city).

Since Zach and I had never eaten at Sichuanese Cuisine before, we let M order for us. I was a little disappointed when M didn’t order hot-pot—and to make matters worse, my friend John walked in just after we did so I was nervous he’d lecture me for not heeding his recommendation. But as it turned out, this was the best Sichuan food I’ve ever tasted, and I will be hard-pressed to order the hot-pot in the future. Not because it didn’t look good, but because the other food was so fantastic. I was stuffed by the end of the night and was amazed that our bill came to $40 (including tip!) for four people.

Sichuanese Ravioli – Tiny, steamed pork and shrimp wontons in a mild pepper sauce. The filling was flavorful and the noodle was perfectly tender.

Pork with Bitter Melon – This is probably an acquired taste for many people, because bitter melon is truly bitter. I happen to love it and thought this dish was fantastic—very bitter slices of melon interspersed with shreds of highly seasoned and delicate, sweet pork.

Dry-Cooked Chicken with String Beans – Even though I flipped out over the pork with bitter melon, this dish was even better. I think this will be the dish I have to order every time—and I may order two of them. The chicken was little chunks of lightly breaded, fried chicken in a black bean sauce and the string beans were spicy and sautéed until perfect and wrinkly.

Chinese Greens – I guess this dish changes seasonally and this day it was tender pea shoots sautéed in a flavorful broth with lots of garlic. Normally I only eat greens because I’m supposed to, but in this case I ate them because they tasted good.

Steamed Rockfish – This was very good, but the least exciting of everything we tasted, probably because I make a similar dish at home a lot. The fish was steamed, then topped with a little soy and oil and tons of fresh ginger.

The pictures came out really weird because we were sitting near the window and everything was backlit with blue neon…

Many thanks to Matt and Tamiko for suggesting the Annapurna Cafe during my “Oh, woe is me, where are all the good Indian restaurants on Capitol hill?“ phase. I had walked by the Annapurna Cafe before and had been curious because they advertise Nepali, Tibetan & Indian cuisine.

The Annapurna Cafe is a basement restaurant, so there is no natural light, but all in all it’s fairly cozy for being in a basement. Per Tamiko’s suggestion we started out with the Goan Style Mussels, “Fresh mussels sautéed in a white wine based coconut curry sauce with roasted garlic, fresh herbs and tomatoes served with naan” ($11.95). They were FANTASTIC; the mussels were plump and juicy and the broth was incredible. It was sweet yet spicy, and rich from the coconut milk but not overly-so. The naan that came with the mussels was crisp and dry, which at first I didn’t think I’d like, but it had such a nice texture and crunch that I enjoyed it—especially when dipped in the curry broth. There was a good three inches of broth in the bowl and we managed to eat it all. It was so good that once we ran out of naan I just started drinking it straight, like soup.

We also ordered the Crispy Lamb Rolls, “Crispy lamb rolls stuffed with ground lamb, onions, cabbage, carrots, yam noodles, garlic, ginger, basil and freshly ground masala and served with mango pineapple chutney” ($4.95). The rolls were an awful lot like a Taco Time crispy burrito. I’m not sure why my brain made this connection, and I’m not even saying that it’s a bad thing either. The rolls were a bit greasy and chewy on the outside and just a touch dry on the inside, but I liked the taste of the ground lamb mixture. I think if the frying oil had been slightly hotter, the rolls would have been perfect. The accompanying pineapple and mango chutney tasted like a slightly spicy sweet and sour sauce and was a perfect complement to the lamb.

The last thing we tried was the Himalayan Curry, “Sherpa’s favorite curry sauce cooked with Szechwan pepper, tomatoes, onions, sweet peas, potatoes and Tibetan herbs” ($8.95, with chicken). The waitress had told us that it was fairly tangy and tried to steer us towards the sweeter curries, but Zach was really curious about the Sherpa’s favorite. I didn’t like this curry very much, but not because it wasn’t prepared well—I just found the tangy flavor odd and not satisfying, but Zach enjoyed it. Next time I want to try some of the more Indian inspired curries because I’m betting they’re fantastic.

Thank you Matt and Tamiko! Your recommendations were right on.