Back at Green Plate Asian Bistro

Even though I have just an average opinion of Green Plate Asian Bistro*, my co-workers seem to like it, so I was recently back again there for lunch a third time.  They say third time’s a charm, right?

This time I ordered the Green Plate Asian Ribs from the Hot Plates section of the menu.  36-hour-Sous vide baby back ribs with House Asian barbecue sauce and white rice, and also a choice of miso soup or house salad with ginger dressing.  I chose the salad in an attempt to be healthy.  (But who was I kidding… look at that slathering of dressing!)

I had no idea what “sous vide” was, but I read “baby back ribs” and was sold.  I later Wikipedia-ed the term and learned that it was a method of cooking whereby the food is put into an airtight bag and placed in a water bath or steam environment at a lower-than-usual cooking temperature for a longer-than-usual cooking time.  This method of cooking allows the meat (or vegetables) to be cooked more evenly and also retain moisture.  Hm, learn something new every day…

Green Plate, Round Two

I was recently craving sushi, so returned to Green Plate Asian Bistro* to sample something different from their (fairly extensive) menu.  Last time, I ordered the Steak Teriyaki Bento Box, and remembered it was pretty good, so I thought I’d try another bento box.  #roundtwo

I ordered the Sushi Bento Box this time, which includes five pieces of chef’s choice sushi.  I was originally going to order it last time but since my waitress didn’t know exactly what the chef’s choice sushi included when I asked her, I ended up ordering the steak teriyaki instead.  After seeing what I was missing out on, I immediately regretted my decision and vowed that I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice!

Khong River House Brings Together Southeast Asian Flavors Along the Mekong River

Lincoln Road is one of the most popular (tourist) destinations in Miami Beach, and home to many great restaurants.  Just steps away from the outdoor Lincoln Road Mall is the Southeast Asian restaurant Khong River House*, which combines flavors from all countries along the Mekong River — you can probably now figure out how the restaurant got its name.  Though it might not look like it, the restaurant actually has quite a bit of seating available inside.  There’s also a special upstairs private room/lounge — with private bar!

I started the evening off with an appetizer, Charred Eggplant Larb.  Dried shrimp, shallots, herbs, lime juice, fish sauce and palm sugar.  Wanted to try something new.  Had never heard of larb.  Of course I had to try it.  What came out was this…

P.F. Chang’s Crispy Honey Chicken Lunch Special

The special thing about a lunch special is that you supposedly get more bang for your buck, right?  Specials usually come with a soup, salad, or taste of an appetizer.  And sometimes even with a dessert afterwards.

I’ve eaten at P.F. Chang’s before, but have never ordered off their lunch specials menu.  After lunch last week, I learned that P.F. Chang’s lunch specials leave a lot to be desired, at least portion-wise.

Given a choice of soup or salad, I went with the former and ordered a cup of Egg Drop Soup.  The soup was all right, a bit saltier than I was expecting — egg drop soup is usually pretty bland — but still decent, okay-fine.

I also ordered the Crispy Honey Chicken entree.  Sweet & salty is one of my favorite taste profiles, and while the chicken tasted fine, I was pretty unamused at the overall chicken to rice ratio!  Look at that mountain of rice, sitting next to a noticeably blunt dune of chicken.  That’s like one bite of chicken for every five mouthfuls of rice!  Very disappointing, Mr. Chang!  *shakes fist*

I consumed all the rice on my plate, and two fortune cookies later, I was still hungry.  In fact, I even left the restaurant hungry!  While overall food quality was decent, I’ll have to think twice about revisiting when I’m in a ravenous mood (which is before nearly every meal)…

From Farm to Grill, Sea to Table at Green Plate Asian Bistro

Noodles, sushi, and meats.  How could a menu get any more complete than that?!

A frolleague of mine recently introduced me to an Asian restaurant she stumbled upon in a suburb of Miami.  Green Plate Asian Bistro* in Doral opened in July 2014 and claims to be “a combination of authentic Chinese, Thai, and Japanese culinary culture with a modern twist.”  Given my inclination towards fusion cuisine, I didn’t hesitate to give it a go.

I went for lunch and tried the Steak Teriyaki Bento Box.  I originally asked for the Sushi Bento, but decided to pick something else since my waitress couldn’t tell me what the chef’s choice sushi was — and I wasn’t in a very risky mood that day.  I was impressed with the extensive menu of bento boxes Green Plate offered.  (Each bento box comes with a choice of miso soup or house salad, a California roll, a spring roll, and seaweed salad.)

Feeling healthy, I started off with a house salad with ginger dressing.  Standard fare, nothing special there — but not that I was expecting anything extraordinary.  I’d give it an okay.

Pan-Asian Potluck at P.F. Chang’s

After a looooong tiring (weekend) day of work, a few co-workers and I headed over to P.F. Chang’s at Mary Brickell Village for a late lunch — or I suppose early dinner, depending on how you want to look at it.  T’was about 4:00p when we got there.  No matter, Pan-Asian is pretty good at any time of the day.  Just sayin’.

Mentally immobilized and physically exhausted, we wanted food in our bellies ASAP, so we flagged the waiter over almost immediately after we sat down at a table.  We hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and I’m sure some of us didn’t even eat breakfast!

As a starter for the table, we chose Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps, the restaurant’s signature appetizer with wok-seared chicken, mushrooms, green onions, and water chestnuts over crispy rice sticks and lettuce cups.  I’d give it 4 stars out of 5, fine.  The red dipping sauce on the left was spicy, but there was a hint of something in there that didn’t play well with my taste buds, so I avoided it like the plague.  Bleh.

We also ordered four dishes to share for the table… a rice dish, a noodle dish, a chicken dish, and a beef dish.  #familystyle