Fun Playing with Asian Food at the Cleveland Asian Festival 2011

On Saturday, May 21, Bob and I partook of the second Cleveland Asian Festival. Spanning a full two days in its second year, the festival offered many attractions other than the food, including a Lolly the Trolley tour of Asiatown, kids' activities, crafts, non-food vendors, and cultural performances. I came mostly for the food, centered around this outdoor food court set up in the Asia Plaza parking lot:

We arrived just before noon, and photographed most of the food vendors before partaking. The choices weren't easy to make, and we left around 5pm completely sated.

This freshly BBQ'd chicken skewer was one of last bites we actually ate, but one of the most succulent.

It was a delight having not one, but two Filipino food booths at the festival. We didn't sample any food from Ono Turo-Turo, but our friend Stuart did and he said it was fabulous.

We enjoyed our plate from the Laotion table. The spring roll was hot and crisp and the papaya salad spicy and redolent of fish sauce.

Is there anything so sublime as freshly grilled pig (with lots of skin, at our request)! The side sauce added a uniquely Filipino perspective to the simply grilled meat. These guys said they might consider opening a Cleveland-area restaurant; we hope that they do and we'll be first in line to try it!

Map of Thailand had these "demo" plates at the ready:











The following goodies were served up by Pearl of the Orient:

We were most impressed with Otani's portable sushi station, designed to keep the sushi safe despite temps in the 80s.

The following is from Koko Bakery - Cleveland's leading Asian bakery and my preferred source of bubble tea. Happily, they were offering Taro Bubble Tea, which is my favorite! No photo of it; we were too thirsty.

We took an assortment of potstickers home from Koko's stand, and enjoyed them for dinner:

Next to Li Wah's table, its sister restaurant East 30th Street Cafe offered an eclectic selection ranging from spring rolls to pizza! The restaurant serves dim sum at all hours, sushi, pizza, and other Asian and fusion items.

Li Wah's offerings

Udupi, located in Parma Heights Ohio, has been on our "to try" list for some time, but we've just never gotten there. Our loss - until today!

In addition to the steam table items, Udupi offered made-to-order Dosa, or stuffed crepes - this was one of  the highlights of our culinary tour this afternoon. First, batter is poured on the grill:

The batter is then shaped and flattened:

As the crepe crisps, a potato-and-pea based filling is deposited in the center:

The finished Dosa is served with two dipping sauces - one spicy with chili, the white one creamy with yogurt and garlic. 

We seem to have been won over by Indian flavors on this particular day - Jaipur Junction, of North Royalton Ohio, has also been on the "must try" list, and we were glad that we finally did:

Basmati Rice


Butter Chicken




Samosa


Potato Cakes - Tava Tikki


Chick Pea Curry


Cold Chick Pea Salad

The smells of the foregoing tormented us - which to choose?

Chick Pea Curry over Tava Tikki, topped with two Chutneys - the made-from-scratch potato cake held up beautifully under the wet toppings and still crunched; a perfect contrast with the creamy chick peas and savory  toppings. 

Har Gow and Shao Mai Dumplings

This next item was a free sample shared by one of my favorite Asiatown haunts, Korean restaurant Ha Ahn. 

Bibimbob from Ha Ahn

I snapped this dessert item (rice flour balls stuffed with bean paste and rolled in sesame) on the table to the right of Ha Ahn, which I am told was Asia Foods (re-located last year to Asian Town Center at 3820 Superior Avenue). They looked scrumptious!

These next photos aren't of food, but of the Home Depot booth, which provided the cutest mini-aprons to the little ones, and treated them to a lesson in crafting!

And here is a look at the children's fun zone - I believe that a wristband purchased for a nominal fee provided all-you-can-play access for the minis:

These sculptures celebrating the Year of the Rabbit lined East 30th Street:



My favorite sculpture:




Chris Nguyen of Superior Pho Narrates Our Trolley Tour of Asiatown


Mame Daiko Performs Japanese Drumming

The third edition of the Festival will take place May 19 & 20, 2012, for the Year of the Dragon. As a Dragon myself (the most auspicious sign of the Asian Zodiac), I hope to be able to attend again next year. We enjoyed a day full of great food and fun, playing with too many choices from the Cleveland-area Asian food community, and immersing ourselves for a few hours in Asian culture. The Cleveland Asian Festival is highly recommended for fun playing with food and a nice splash of culture.

Fun Playing With Pasta in Solon

Something new has been added to Solon's main drag, with the opening of Dino's of Solon in the old Anthony's/Blue Fig/Lu-Lu's spot at 6372 Som Center Rd, Solon, OH 44139. Dino's is the latest installment of a small, locally owned group of restaurants/caterers based in Willoughby. Dino's relies on a fairly standard Italian-American-Red Sauce type menu. If this is what you crave, you will also find plenty of old-fashioned touches and quality ingredients prepared well and served with a smile. The website for the Solon restaurant isn't fully operational yet, but may be found here.

Bob and I wandered in Thursday evening, which turned out to be only their second day in operation. The space is bright and airy, and the smaller front dining room is ideal for those with mobility issues. The tables were mostly occupied when we arrived a bit before 7pm; a line for tables formed shortly after we were seated. There were a few small service hiccups, but nothing I wouldn't expect from a restaurant in its second service. 

We were started with a basket of warm rolls. Though the menu says they are made in house, they struck us as the pre-fab brown and serve variety - but still nice. 

We both opted for pasta; each entree would be preceded by salad.

House-made Vinaigrette

We loved this dressing - redolent with fresh herbiness and perfect balance among the components.



Two elements raised this salad above what I'd normally expect in a place like Dino's - first, it wasn't chilled to Mister Freeze temperature and second, the lettuce was actual head lettuce that had been washed and torn to make salad, not poured out of a food service bag. You can see it and taste it, and my question to the FOH person who stopped by to check on us confirmed it (she said her mother, one of the owners, is on a mission to eliminate bagged salad from the face of the earth, to which I say, bravo!).

The menu describes two types of house-made pasta - spaghetti (which I do not believe is the default for side orders; spaghetti is also listed twice as an entree, with the house-made at a slightly higher price-point than the dried) and cavatelli. I asked our server - which do I want? She recommended the cavatelli.


Lasagna

This was Bob's entree.  The menu does not tell you that the pasta sheets in the lasagna are fresh pasta and not dried - but fresh pasta it is! This is a straight-ahead version of the classic, topped with just the right amount of house-made sauce. The only criticism we had of this dish (and mine as well) was a bit of blandness to it - it wanted some salt and pepper, or other seasoning, to wake it up a bit. Dino's does offer an optional garlic-marinara sauce; we need to try that next time. The default tomato sauce is a family recipe that is made in-house.


Cavatelli with One Meatball



My dinner likewise lacked seasoning, but the freshness of the components jumped right off of the plate. The house-made pasta was cooked to the perfect level of doneness, and the flavors of pork, veal and beef shone clearly through the meatball, without fillers to block their way. As you can see, Dino's does not over-sauce their pasta dishes as so many other places do. Overall, Bob and I enjoyed playing with Dino's food and we will return to play some more (I need to try the pizza). Dino's is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, at very modest prices. The space is very casual and friendly, with a full bar and outside dining also available. Welcome to Solon, Dino's!

Fun Playing With Smoked Prime Rib at Fat Casual BBQ

We've been hoping to return to Fat Casual BBQ almost since we last walked out their door on Halloween, 2010, but we just haven't been able to manage it. Until Friday night, when one of the Usual Instigators suggested an 8pm meet up to sample the latest creation of Chefs Walter Hyde and Scott Slagle and their amazing crew: smoked prime rib. Let me say that again: smoked prime rib. 

I don't think I've had prime rib since my brother got married, about 18 years ago. Honestly, it's never been one of my favorite things, because it's rarely done well (almost had a joke there, folks). Until now. 

Our group of six assembled at one of Fat Casual's simple tables, and we each ordered the same: smoked prime rib. And some sides - whatever Chef wanted to serve us. The made-from-scratch sides came out first, family-style:

Red Skin Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Cole Slaw

A Less Blurry Look, From Our First Visit In October

Mac N Cheese

A Less Blurry Look, From Our First Visit In October

Warm Sweet Potato Salad

Silly, Isn't It - But I was Steadier on Halloween, So Here's A Clearer Look

Though they do seem to have added some bacon since then, haven't they?

Deep Fried Potato Salad -  From May 13, But You Don't Want to See the Container Shot

Each of these sides, made in-house from real ingredients (locally sourced whenever possible), delivered hearty flavors and textures. And the Deep Fried Potato Salad really surprised - served cold, you'd expect it to be limp, but somehow, there was still a crispy edge to the taters. 

But Fat Casual is all about the meat, baby, and tonight would be no exception.

This, my friends, was a simply perfect hunk 'o cow - prepared like none I had tasted before. Rubbed with a secret, but subtle seasoning, and smoked low and slow for hours - this plate (and the five duplicates enjoyed by my companions) reduced our normally gregarious group to muted moans of melt-in-your-mouth pleasure. I urge you to make your way to Fat Casual (Friday night only, if you are looking for Smoked Prime Rib) and get you some of this!

BTW - those who ate them raved about the locally-sourced pickles. I did sample the radish sandwiched between them, and the brine was indeed lovely, but unfortunately for me, the radish tasted like, well, radish. What I lacked in pickle love, however, I made up for with house-made horseradish sauce love:

OMG - the perfect accompaniment to a perfectly prepared hunk 'o cow.

The horseradish sauce matched the beef so well, in fact, that I had trouble thinking of a good use for the jus, which was far too good to waste, but not really needed to enjoy the juicy, tender beef. Mashed potatoes to the rescue! I recommend the combination.

As we enjoyed our beef, Chef Walter appeared with tastes of Fat Casual's Beef Sausage, which used to be made in house, but is now cranked out by a local purveyor, to Fat Casual's recipe. This taste was served with warm BBQ cabbage, which accented the mild sausage just so.

Chef Walter freely admits that he's more into the freestyle of cooking than the formulas involved in baking. That does not stop Fat Casual from turning out very satisfying desserts - we sampled the Piggy Pudding:

Creamy and redolent of blueberry - how could we not love a dessert called Piggy Pudding?

As it's name suggests, there is nothing fancy about Fat Casual (unless you count the finesse involved in their meat preparation, which is low, slow, flavorful and perfectly textured, and their house-made sauces, which we didn't even get to on this prime-rib dominated evening, but which I thoroughly enjoyed on my last visit). Dress comfortably, preferably in a top that is somewhat expendable, since this type of food can be a little messy! Bring your friends, and anything you might wish to drink that isn't on the menu, and prepare to be wowed by the simple pleasures of beautifully seasoned and smoked meats and house-made sides and sauces at incredibly wallet-friendly prices. If you don't have five others to share with, as we did, the Smoked Prime Rib plate pictured above is available only on Fridays and comes with a side of redskin garlic mashed potatoes, au jus and horseradish sauce for an unbelievable $12.99. Also available (with advance order only) is smoked fried chicken - which I simply must try!

Fat Casual is open Wed -Sun at11:00 am, and closes at 8:00 pm Wed and Thurs, 6 pm Sun and 10 pm Fri-Sat, unless they run out of food earlier! Fat Casual is located at 223 E Highland Rd, Macedonia, OH 44056, call 1-330-748-4690 for more info; the website is here.