Red Lotus: Billy Ngo Makes Dim Sum Cool

Red Lotus Kitchen and Bar
2718 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95816-4314
(916) 231-0961


Red Lotus is the latest Midtown venture of Kru chef Buu "Billy" Ngo, whose fascinating riffs on Japanese food have won him a not-inconsiderable following at his J Street sushi joint. Red Lotus represents Ngo's decison to apply his creative hand to dim-sum, an Asian food genre that hasn't quite managed to transcend the old carts-and-Cantonese-verbal-abuse dynamic. (Course', that's part of dim sums charm for some of us infidels, but, regardless). The menu features a bunch of old dim-sum standbys updated for the late-night hipster army, alongside some specifically Ngoesque dishes. The result is a fun and undeniably interesting evening out on the J street strip, albeit with the ambience of P.F Changs done through some sort of hipster filter. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes we want to eat upscale dim sum in a nice clean place where no one will shout at us in machine-gun bursts of Cantonese while we desperately attempt to hold onto chicken-feet with plastic chopsticks, okay? Is that really so wrong?

(Good lord, the entire culture is obsessed with hipsters, my generation is obsessed with hipsters, we engage in hipster witch-hunts although it is entirely a given that we are all hipsters, that our status is both unchangeable and endlessly embarrassing. How sad.)


Green papaya salad with ika, carrot, mint, water cress, and fish sauce (6.50)

This is the kitchen's version of the dearly beloved som tum. It's a lovely palate-cleansing dish, but this ultra light version was barely there, both in terms of portion size and taste. I really do hate to use this phrase in polite company, but perhaps Red Lotus should contemplate kicking it up a notch. You know how we do.


Silken organic tofu with baby shrimp, avocado, snow crab, rice puffs, wasabi, sweet chili sauce, and a soy reduction (8.00)

Silken tofu doesn't exactly get most folks palms sweaty, but this was the standout dish of the evening. The creamy block of tofu melded perfectly with the salty baby shrimp, the sweet snow crab, and the creamy avocado. The various sauces on offer mean that every bite of this "salad" is different from the next, producing a real adventure in texture and taste. The soy reduction sauce should rightly be sold in bottles so fans can spread it on anything they desire, from fairy cakes to pliable Argentinean pool boys. Delicious.


Spiced beef marrow bone with Chinese red vinegar, Sichuan pickles, mustard, and crispy five spice flatbread (11.00)

Marrow bones have experienced a helluva revival thanks to the ongoing Offal Revolution, and Red Lotus is serving up the tastiest version I've found in Sactown. The fatty, chunky interior is seasoned with five spice and cooked until bubbly and delicious, served with various accompaniments and condiments. You're supposed to spread the marrow on the flatbread crackers and doctor it up with pickles, vinegar, and mustard, but I'm perfectly happy to denude these bad boys straight. You are doing it/Red Lotus wrong if you fail to order this dish. (I'll be in my bunk. With the marrow bones).


Salt and pepper soft shell crabs (11.00)

Salt and pepper soft shell crabs are beautifully presented in this dish, and they tasted pretty good too. Lightly fried and obviously fresh, I enjoyed the creamy and spicy sauce pool the little crustaceans were served in. They came out hot, which is the usual horrible and depressing downfall of soft-shell crab dishes.


Chinese broccoli in garlic oyster sauce (7.00)

Chinese broccoli sounds fairly pedestrian but is among the foods closest to my heart - the sort of thing I seem to cook on a tri-weekly basis to devour in front of my laptop in my college apartment. (Good lord, those days are over). Red Lotus serves it up with a soulful and extremely strong house-made garlic oyster sauce, and the result is pretty old-school Chinese delicious. Avoid if you're not the sort of person who does backflips for in-your-face servings of oyster sauce.


Mongolian glazed oxtail (7.00)

Oxtails are done beautifully in Chinese cooking, and these sweet-glazed oxtails were a lovely specimen of a classic dish. Very rich and very meaty, these guys justify the foodie world's recent and single-minded allegiance to less-charismatic animal parts. Tasty.


"Yee Sang" thinly sliced albacore with popcorn shoots, Chinkiang vinaigrette, and crispy garlic (12.00)

I think the Sacramento City Council actually shuts down your restaurant and breaks your knee caps if you fail to include at least one raw tuna dish on the menu. It's true.

Regardless. This was a perfectly fine Raw Tuna dish, and the addition of popcorn shoots (whatever those are) lent it an interestingly grassy flavor-kick. There's more interesting stuff lurking on this menu, though.


Pork and shiitake dumplings "Siu Mai" with soy cured salmon roe (6.50)

We decided to have some siu mai for dessert, served in the traditional and adorable little bamboo steamer. The kitchen brings out vinegar and Chinese mustard in twee serving devices for these little guys, which tasted no different from other dim-sum parlor siu mai I've had. This is by no means a bad thing.


Billy Ngo has done a fine job of domesticating dim-sum, turning China's beloved Sunday morning-scrum cuisine into refined bites suitable for both J Street-crawling foodies and those hipster palates only slightly dimmed by endless, endless packs of Pall Malls. (If you've been to China, well, you've seen how they smoke). The menu is interesting, and due to the restaurant's extreme youth, will doubtless be changing in interesting ways over the next year or so. If Ngo's creativity and competency at Kru is any indication of Red Lotus's upcoming trajectory, the future is bright indeed.

Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates: Artisian Tastiness in Sacramento

Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates
1801 L Street Suite 60 •
Sacramento, CA 95811
P 916.706.1738

Artisian chocolates, if you haven't noticed (you poor soul) are everywhere. Valentines Day is impending, love is in the air, and Whitman's Samplers with frilly lace on the front just ain't going to cut it if your paramour happens to be a true blue foodie. Thankfully, Sacramento's own Ginger Elizabeth chocolates provides a delightfully convenient (and tasty) solution to the dilemma. Well, if you live here, that is.

Ginger Elizabeth herself - who first began her chocolate wholesale company as a merestripling of 24 - often mans the boutique on L Street during opening hours, and can be seen feverishly making, packaging, and promoting the goods. The retail store sells super high end hot chocolate (including a Oaxacan spicy variety), coffee, baked goods, and an assortment of other chocolatey delights.


From left to right: hazelnut praline, toasted coconut, raspberry, palet d' or (dark chocolate), chewy lavender caramel, orange jasmine tea.

And what chocolates they are. Sure, the uniform square shapes may not possess as much visual hot-damn as some other fancy chocolate makers, but the intense and original flavors within those little cubes will make up for any perceived lack. (And I rather like the slick long boxes they come in). Elizabeth makes everything from scratch and carefully infuses her ganache centers with various flavor essences, avoiding the use of preservatives. That means they don't keep: eat em' when you get em'. These puppies aren't cheap, however: a six piece box goes for $12.00.



I particularly enjoyed the chewy and floral salted lavender caramel, the intensively tropical passion fruit (a perennial favorite in this family) and the highly complex and perfumed Orange Jasmine Tea. But you're not going to get a nasty white nougat or rock-hard caramel in this assortment, thank God.

Pho Hien Vuong: Lotus Root Salad, Mysterious Snail Soup

Pho Hien Vuong
6835 Stockton
Ste 400
Sacramento, CA 95823
(916) 391-8538

Pho Hien Vuong is one of Stockton's multifarious pho joints, located right across the street from the (dearly beloved) SF supermarket. I am not entirely sure if I can identify anything in particular that differentiates the space within, other then that it is clean and Nickeloden cartoons are usually playing for the benefit of little-kid diners. The food, however, is quite tasty, and the menu provides some interesting selections that don't always make the cut at other Vietnamese eateries.



A lotus root salad with shrimp and pork. Delicious, light and fresh, and presented extremely attractively. This is one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes - something about the interplay of sweet tangy fish sauce dressing, crunchy lotus root, shrimps and pork is just the perfect thing, even more so on a good hot day. Which it wasn't when I ate this, but, ah, no matter.



My dad went with the perennial classic of beef stew, complete with the tendony bits that give him so much pleasure. A nice rich beef broth, with a good amount of flavor, and plenty of miscellaneous "stuff."



I always seem to order the same thing here: the special noodle soup, with snails, crab, ground pork, and some other miscellaneous stuff (including congealed blood cubes, which i am distinctly ambivalent too). The soup has a gamy, seafoody, delightful flavor that is rather hard to find in another dish, and is elevated any ore with the addition of shrimp paste/sambaal/large amounts of hoisin. I am a big advocate of Soup With Stuff In It and this really fits the bill.


Pho Hien Vuong is a nice option for a good Vietnamese meal if you're out hunting for weird Asian food products on Stockton, or just need some snail-and-crab soup in your life. Check it out.

Tuli Bistro: How Cool are You Feeling?

Tuli Bistro
2031 S Street
Sacramento, CA 95811-6819
(916) 451-8854



Tuli Bistro is a relatively new entry into Sacramento's dining scene, a place that has gained a not inconsiderable following among Sacramento's food geeks. Chef Adam Pechal's largely small-plates menu attempts to rely on sustainable, local ingredients, and the laid-back, neighborhood ambiance makes a pretty solid attempt at attaining midtown coolness. Signage is minimal: you better know it's there, or you'll miss it. This is probably instrumental in insuring the place remains cool. I couldn't say.



We began with the beet salad,featuring roasted toybox beets, arugula, endive, orange, blue cheese, and a tangerine vinaigrette. I'm a big advocate of the beet salad and this was a nice effort, with an interesting variety of baby beets and a fresh, light flavor from the citrus vinaigrette, the cheese lending matters an appealing funkiness. Nothing innovative here, but very enjoyable.



Our second selection was the wood roasted Smokey Goat pizza, which is (rather entertainingly) rolled out and produced before your eyes if you happen to be dining at the bar. This ain't always a foolproof practice: the guy manning the wood oven managed to char our first one, but hey, we were feeling pretty relaxed. Once the thin crust pizza did appear, it was a nice effort: crispy, nice blackened crust, plenty of zing from the jalapeno, bacon, and goat cheese.



We decided to go with the poultry for our larger plates. First up was the twee titled "Lil' Bucket of Chicken," which is actually exactly what it says it is: a dimunitive bucket of scaled-down fried chicken, produced from a poussin. (Folks, it's a baby chicken. Check your sentimentality at the door). The chicken was pretty darn tasty, however, with a light, flaky, and not too greasy crust. The coleslaw was all right, but the accompanying mashed potatoes were either ironically produced to taste exactly like KFC instant potatoes or actually were KFC instant mashed potatoes, and either way, I'm not thrilled.



Second was wood fired quail with andouille stuffing, Southern greens, and a pomegranate sauce - a pretty tasty dish, with tender teeny little bird meat and a rich interior stuffing. The stuffing did get a spot dry, but that is simply what happens when one cooks things inside of a bird. The greens were good, although I am not entirely sure what was Southern about them.



Finally, we selected the bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. A pretty good effort, if not on par with the good ol' stuff in New Orleans (needs some buttery ass whisky sauce, or some nuts, or something) but the portion was ginormous and the vanilla ice cream tasty. Simple, satisfying.

Tuli Bistro is a swell addition to downtown Sacramento, and is a good, hip place to hang out, eat high-end food, and enjoy a casual, downbeat sort of setting. Sitting at the bar is a good way to go if you enjoy hearing chef banter and seeing the food put together - it's a fun look into the restaurant biz. I'll be happy to return again.

Kru Sushi: Sacramento's Tastiest Raw Fish

Kru
2516 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95816-4815
(916) 551-1559

Kru is Sacramento's upscale sushi emporium, shooting for a crowd more interested in nuanced flavors and a hip ambience then the Mikuni adherents. Instead of gigantic mayonnaise-drenched rolls and sake-choco-tinis, Kru is more interested in producing refined nuevo-Japanese cuisine at upscale prices, in a chilled out (if hipster-infested) setting. The place isn't always 100%, but in my opinion, it's the region's tastiest and most "serious" sushi. Check it out. On this particular visit, they were really firing on all cylinders, and we had a downright delightful meal.



One of the daily specials consisted of monkfish, Japanese mushrooms, and flash-fried piquillo peppers, an extremely Spanish influenced dish. And did it ever taste that way. I was instantly reminded of the copious amounts of monkfish I consumed over the summer in Spain and especially in the Basque country - the perfectly cooked "poor man's lobster" was complimented perfectly by a snappy pan-sear and a soy sauce glaze. Just excellent.



We tried the gorgeous sashimi tapas, the chef's choice of fish. I will say right now I cannot recall exactly what all of this stuff was, other then that it was delicious and extremely attractive. A hell of a step up from the area's usual "sashimi samplers" - shoddily cut merely-okay fish slapped on a plate. Interesting but not overpowering sauces and accompaniments? Good.



Next was the Hawaiian walu and enoki mushroom "parcel" with soy, sake, and garlic, a special that found its way onto the permanant menu due to overwhelming popularity. For good reason. A nice subtle flavor permeated both the fish and the meaty, delightfully alien-like enokis.



A special of pork belly over a wild mushroom risotto. Not particularly Asian, but certainly very tasty, with the tender, uber-fatty pork in confluence with the earthy mushrooms. The risotto was a spot too dense.



Seaweed salad. I cannot not order this stuff, I am afraid. A good version here, though real seaweed dorks should check out Kru's other seaweed salad, which features weird-ass stuff doubtless scraped off the ocean floor.

Kru was spot on during this visit, and I'm certain I'll be returning to sample their interesting food in the future. Whenever I save up my pennies, anyhow. Great sushi don't come cheap. And that's probably the way it should be.