Baguette Box
October 7th, 2009
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Posts Tagged ‘Pan-Asian’
Marazul
November 27th, 2007
Marazul was the first restaurant to open in the 2200 Westlake Condominium. Executive Chef Bruce Dillon takes the concept of fusion to heart. The food is supposed to be inspired by the Pax Brittanica era. I’m not a history buff but I do understand that you’ll find influences of Cuba, the Caribbean and the Indo-Asian territories in that type of cuisine. Simply put, it’s an Asian Latino menu with an obsessive Rhum Bar with roughly 40 varieties.
I had heard and read mixed reviews regarding Marazul, which made me that much more excited to try it. The first thing you’ll probably notice is the restaurant is very, very cool looking. Whether it’s the waterfall in the entrance or all the wonderful curves, you’re in for some interior decorating eye-candy.
Also, I want to get this off my chest… I found the “small plates” much more flavorful and inspired than the entrees. Alright, that feels better. The first appetizer my girlfriend and I tried was the Crab Sushi. This was definitely the most beautiful dish of the evening and the most inventive. A soft and warm plantain (type of banana) is wrapped around rice and topped with shredded fresh crab. What was the easiest way to eat this? Take the crab off the top and break the sushi roll in half, and then take a bite of sushi and a bite of your roll. The plantain is warm and firm but not crunchy and is a sweet compliment to the fresh seafood.
The next dish was the Jerk Port Pot-stickers. Although they appear to look like traditional pot-stickers — gyoza, dumplings, etc — these pack a highly Caribbean taste. The pork inside the pot-sticker is ground very thin and is served with a guava plum dipping sauce. The unexpected flavor made this dish quite satisfying.
While the Havana Style Pad Thai was tasty there was not much substance to it as compared to the previous dishes. Also, the menu mentioned that it contained coconut curry sauce and you should be aware this sauce is nothing like the pad Thai you’re used to. The curry sauce caused a clumping effect with the noodles.
The Churrasco Skirt Steak scored points for creativity and presentation. Pieces of skirt steak were served on top of bok choy surrounded by a Latin Hash (think small cut up potatoes with spicy herbs). Also, the steak was topped with chimichurri — I’m not sure exactly what that is but it was delicious and made the steak’s flavor pop. Even so, I didn’t like a couple of things about this plate. The first was I found the three chunks of steak a bit odd and hard to manage on the plate. I would have much preferred one whole skirt steak. And second, the bok choy didn’t add anything to the dish. The bitter flavor of this veggie took away the spiciness and tang of the steak.
I did have a very refreshing cocktail called Nelson’s Blood. This was made up of white rum, cranberry, orange and pineapple juices, lime nutmeg and a cinnamon stick. Sure, it looked a bit girly with its pinkish color and cinnamon stick but it was quite uplifting and energizing on the hot day that it was.
The next time I go to Marazul I’m going to stick strictly to the small plates. Another great thing about them is, besides their flavor, none of them are more than $10. I would advise you to grab a few friends and head over for a relaxing drink, a few small plates and enjoy the evening.
Chillies Paste
November 26th, 2007
When I think back on the year that I lived in Fremont I can’t help but recall being surrounded by Thai restaurants. There is already a surplus of Thai restaurants in Seattle, but Fremont must be the capitol of Thai food in this city. Believe it or not, the entire year I lived there I never once made it to Chillies Paste. It was only when an ill-planned grocery store trip brought me back to the Fremont area that I gave Chillies Paste a shot.
The first thing I noticed when walking inside the house-converted-to-restaurant was not the striking orange walls but the beautiful pictures of the food. I’m considering firing myself as the seattlefoodster.com photographer and hiring their guy or gal.
I started off with Kong Kra-bok, shrimp wrapped with a thin wonton wrapper deep fried and served along side a sweet chili sauce. The presentation was on point, however I found these delicate starters difficult to eat for a couple of reasons. The first is that they are piping hot and the second is that the tails are still connected to the shrimp so you cannot really tell where the shrimp ends and the tail begins beneath the wrapper.
The next dish was the Pork Garlic Fried Rice. Although it looks slightly plain you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find tons of flavor and, of course, garlic in this dish. The only complaint here was that there was cilantro mixed throughout the dish and it was a tad hard to pick out.
The last dish up for tasting was a Thai favorite of mine, Pad See-Eew. This consists of wide stir-fired noodles with meat and veggies in a soy sauce. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with this dish. The noodles, meat and sauce were very bland and lacked flavor. The veggies, although they looked fresh, tasted a bit stale and overly starchy.
I really like the décor and style of Chilles Paste but the lackluster Pad See-Eew may force me to think twice before returning. The main problem for me is that while I really enjoyed two of the dishes, the third one was awful. All that said, I’m fairly certain I will give it one more shot and probably try something new and different to gauge the quality of their dishes.
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