Yay Chinatown

As many of you know, I now work in International District. And as such, I eat out a lot. It’s pretty freakin’ sweet. I mean, I imagine that one day I’ll tire of the cheap, delicious, plethora of Asian cuisine I have to choose from everyday. But for now it seems pretty inconceivable.

Usually during my lunch hour I go out to eat with my co-workers. We ocassionally hit up a burger or sandwich joint in Pioneer Square, which is also nearby, but more often than not I find myself in the streets of Chinatown trying out a new restaurant.

Growing up, my family would go to Chinatown in Seattle maybe once every other month (and even more so on the holidays) and I became pretty familiar with the area. However, we always only frequented the same restaurants, namely House of Hong and Four Seas for dim sum; Ho Ho Seafood Restaurant for their twenty-course meal; or back in the day, King Cafe. As such, there is much of Intl. District I have yet to explore, namely its many restaurants.

Here’s a list of new places I’ve been to in the last two weeks or so. I’m averaging about two new restaurants a week:

• Ocean City Noodle House* – a.k.a. “that sketchy noodle house”. Big bowl of dumpling egg noodle soup for $4, really tasty stuff. The other day we went there and my co-worker and I split a plate of chow fun noodles for $6.95 and still had leftovers. Just don’t mind the splash guard.
• Tropics – Thai place where it looks shady outside but pretty trendy inside. No complaints here. My tongue isn’t all too refined when it comes to Thai food, it all tastes the same to me really.
• V-Garden – Their lunch menu combo dishes are of two varieties: dishes that are $3.50 and dishes that are $4.95. This comes with some entree (like stir-fried scallops), steamed or fried rice, and soup. Hellz yeah. That’s all I really have to say about that.
• Pho Hoa – Last week David met up with me in Intl. District where we drank bubble tea and played Chinese chess. He wanted pho, so we headed over to Pho Hoa with Angie. It’s good pho. It’s also a chain and rather nice inside, which is kinda weird from your basic pho place. I mean, photos on the menu? All your waiters wearing matching Pho Hoa polo shirts? While a buck or two more expensive than your usual Than Brothers, it was good.
• Shanghai Garden – I went here once a few years ago with the Kung Fu guys, but I had forgot about this place. It’s your standard Chinese restaurant but they have a few dishes I’ve never heard of, like crispy beef in strawberry sauce. Curious. In the end I stuck to the black bean chicken.
• Kau Kau BBQ Market – I went here with Val for dinner after work one day and ordered their BBQ meat. It was real flavorful (but super fatty). With rice my dish cost under $5 and I even had leftovers. I’m seeing a trend.

Hm. Am realizing that I’d probably need another list for all the other restaurants I’ve tried during my lunch hour at places in Pioneer Square or downtown. But I need to wrap this entry up and hit the shower. I just got back from Capoeira practice and I told Jules I’d stop blogging and start getting ready for dinner. Woops. Oh well, you get the picture.