Kitchen Chick

Dim Sum at Great Lake Chinese Seafood: Article in Current, Photo Tour here

For February, we took Current readers to Great Lake Chinese Seafood (corner of Packard and Carpenter, entrance on Carpenter) for dim sum.  It's an old favorite of ours, though we've never written up the dim sum before.  Read about it at ecurrent.com (and vote for us if you like the article) and check out the rather large array of photos below!

Remember that you can click on any of the photos to see a larger version -- and you'll want to with some of these!

Great Lake has both a dim sum menu (check off the dishes you want them to bring to your table) and -- on weekends only -- a series of carts that come around with things that aren't on the menu.  In the captions below, assume everything's available from the menu unless it specifically says it's only on the carts.

Our table, maybe 2/3 through the meal.  In foreground: deep-fried custard buns, curried baby squid.  Just behind them, left to right: Chinese cruller in rice roll, pan-fried sticky rice, shrimp dumplings.  Behind that: crispy taro turnover, shrimp and garlic chive dumplings (I think)... and it's getting too blurry to tell.

The specials cart!  Front to back, then left to right: stir-fried Chinese broccoli, baked hot dog buns (better than it sounds!), sesame balls, baked BBQ pork things, chicken turnovers, and fried squid tentacles in the back.

Fried squid tentacles!  Cart only; get them when they're fresh and they're amazing.

Baked BBQ pork things.  (From the specials cart.)

Rolled rice noodles with XO Sauce (a Hong Kong thing, this is a prepared sauce made from dried seafood).  (From the specials cart.)

Steamed BBQ pork buns.  A dim sum staple, and Great Lake does a good job with them.

Quick Bite Tour: Nagomi Sushi & Noodle

Salmon on the Beach (front and back), Zen (middle). Salmon on the Beach normally comes with cream cheese, but we got it without and thought it was fine. (We don't "get" cream cheese as a sushi roll ingredient.) The Salmon on the Beach is glazed with a spicy honey-sauce and torched. The Zen is topped with a sliced jalapeño and white tuna, with eel sauce, and tempura shrimp inside.

Thanks to reader Faye for the tip on Nagomi Sushi & Noodle, on Plymouth Road in the same small strip mall as Bagel Fragel. Nagomi has been open just one month, which we consider to be a little too soon for a full review, but we enjoyed our meal and wanted to share.

Nagomi may be new, but they have very experienced chefs.  Noodles and sushi rolls at affordable prices are their strength, and they have some unusual rolls not seen at other restaurants. A number of the rolls include cream cheese (we don't like this in sushi), but you can request them without the cheese. For the noodles, the owner recommends their miso ramen in particular.  (We'll have to try it on a return visit.)

There are basically two kinds of worthwhile sushi restaurants: those which are best for bare-bones traditional sashimi and sushi and those which are best for creative maki rolls.  Nagomi is in the second category, and they do it well. So here's the quick tour...

Nagomi Spicy Tuna and Tamago.  The Nagomi Spicy Tuna is only on the lunch menu, but Faye recommended it and they'll do it at dinner if asked. We thought it was outstanding; it used a solid hunk of maguro covered in their own in-house made chili sauce (sweet, with honey and chili paste, very unusual).  The tamago was nice, and not overly sweet.

Hamachi and Scallion hand roll; not a huge quantity of fish, but nice flavor and well-formed. 

Tori Kara Age (fried chicken) appetizer.  The chicken was perfectly cooked, and the coating very thin and crispy. We thought it could have used a bit of salt as seasoning, but perhaps the expectation is to use soy sauce?

Kitsune Udon, featuring the same sweet tofu skins used to make inarizushi served up hot in a bowl of udon noodles. Spice it up with some nanami togarashi pepper blend.

Nagomi's ginger dressing is different from the usual ginger dressing found at Japanese restaurants in the area. With seven fruits in the mix (we're sure of apple and know there's some citrus too), it has a mellower yet more complex flavor.

Nagomi Sushi & Noodle
1754 Plymouth Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
(734) 761-5800
http://nagomia2.com/

Red Pepper Deli: Article in Current, Photo Tour here

Our January restaurant review is up at ecurrent.com. This month, we take you to The Red Pepper Deli in Northville, where (nearly) everything is served up raw. Check out the photos below then head over to ecurrent.com to read the review.

Nori Roll (note the distinct lack of rice)

Beet Ravioli in Red Pepper Sauce (the beet slices were marinated in oil for an extended period to make them pliable, then sandwiched around a cashew-based "cheese" filling). Rather good, actually!

Lentil Soup, one of the very few cooked items on the menu. Stands up to pretty much any lentil soup we've had.

Marinated Portobello Sandwich, on raw bread.

More photos in the extended post...