My dear friend Pipocas took me out for a very nice Sunday lunch yesterday. The original plan had been to go to the new Italian tapas place that I recently discovered, but it turned out that during August they close on Sundays, so instead we went to an Asian fusion restaurant that I’d read about. I’m always keen to try out recommended international restaurants here because after 16 years even the very best tapas can get a bit tedious. And so off we went, promptly getting lost and having to look the place up on Pipocas’s crackberry. But we eventually got there and it looked quite promising. . .
It’s set up buffet style (all you can eat) and a large section is dedicated to foods for wokking. The general practice seems to be to start with the sushi/sashimi and hot foods (Thai, Vietnamese & Cantonese) and then go back for a ‘wok plate’. For this you can choose any combination of meat, seafood and vegetables, bring your plate over to the wok chef, choose your sauce (I think there were six of them), and watch as he whisks up your food. Pipocas and I made up two plates – seafood & veg and meat & veg – thinking to share them. But I was very surprised to see the chef put the food into boiling water (or broth?) before tossing it into the wok. The result, although it looked great (see photo above), was very disappointing. The huge prawns and langostines were rendered tasteless, the squid was so rubbery I had to spit mine out into a napkin and the meat & chicken was unrecognisable. Only the veg came out okay. We ended up leaving about 3/4 of it on our plates. Surely this isn’t how food should be prepared in a wok… when I used to have a wok all the ingredients were put into it raw. Isn’t that the correct way?
Anyhow, in spite of overcooked wok food, it still ended up being a very good lunch and I’d go back for sure. All of the hot food and sushi I tried was delicious, and the noodles were fabulous, so next time I would pretty much make a meal of that and maybe have a veggie wok plate on the side to share.
You can see more photos here…
casa azahar 
I don’t know what the chef hoped to accomplish by putting the food into boiling water first except to toughen the seafood beyond belief. No this is not the correct way. Steer clear of the place in the future.
LikeLike
I have never in my life heard of boiling food before putting it into a wok. I’m with silverstar here; all it did was toughen the seafood. Maybe if you go back you could request that they leave out that step.
LikeLike
The whole purpose in putting the frsh food into a searing wok is to seal in the moisture and have it crunchy and full of flavour. Was the chef Asian? Very odd.
LikeLike
It’ll probably be quite awhile before I go back and I will be sure to ask them to skip the water part. But I’ll mostly be there for the sushi and hot food buffet, which I quite enjoyed.
Yep, the chef was Asian, Anneke – did you see the photos on the tapa blog? Maybe it’s a health regulation thing as the raw food is taken off the buffet cart? No idea.
LikeLike
Do they use the same plate that you brought the food to them on?
If they do, you are more at risk from having cooked food served on the same plate as the raw food sat on.
Chinese buffets are all the rage here. Some have the usual “Chinese” dishes like Chicken Balls, Sweet and Sour Ribs, and Chow Mein but more and more are getting a real mix of the real thing, Western dishes, Sushi, and the “Canadian” Chinese dishes so they cater to all tastes.
They are good value for your money and people with certain food problems can go and eat with the family and not be left out.
Now, we are also getting all you can eat Sushi restaurants which are fantastic, as well as Vietnamese and Thai buffets which serve a mix of other Asian dishes, as well.
I go to Sushi Kan which I like. Though the service isn’t all that great, the food is.
I was reading reviews from people who complained because they didn’t read the very prominent notice in the menu that if you order too much food and can’t eat it, you have to pay extra… First of all, as I said, the notice is prominent and secondly, this is to prevent people from ordering a whole pile of food that is custom made for them and then just wasting it.
Order a bit at a time and you aren’t likely to order too much.
I for one love the food and if I don’t know if I will like something, I order one to start and more if I do like it.
http://www.sushi4all.com/sushi4allhome.html
LikeLike
By “Chinese”, I meant the Canadian Chinese stuff we grew up on which isn’t authentic…. Chicken balls, etc.
LikeLike
That kind of sounds like what we call “Mongolian Barbeque,” except it isn’t cooked in a wok, but on a large round hot plate. You go through a line, and put the various (cold!) raw ingredients on a plate, ladle on your choice of sauce, then the chef moves it around the outside perimeter of the large round grilling plate. By the time it gets back where he started, it’s cooked. It’s one of my favorites and I can’t find it in Northern California. I’ve *never* seen it boiled first, though — sounds unappealing. Anneke, they don’t put it back on the same plate you gave it to them on, but use a fresh clean one, preheated. they also serve it with various asian style salads and some freah hot pocket bread (something vaguely like Naan). Gotta go, this is making me very hungry!
LikeLike