Cholon Take 2

My first trip to Cholon was exceptional and I was equally excited to share the excitement with my good friends Jess and Brigitte, who was in town for the weekend from Chicago. In no rush at all, we sat right by the open kitchen and watched as the owner/executive chef Lon Symensma carefully gave his approval to the beautiful plates that emerged from the kitchen.  We sipped on a bottle of red wine while I also double fisted with a house made non alcoholic beverage made from roasted beets, lime and homemade ginger soda with a beet chip garnish. Sounds weird but incredibly refreshing if you want to avoid the alcohol.

As we discussed our plans for the weekend and how to improve/expand my blog readership (one being include the actual names of "friends" I dine with, second to give the individual plate scores of the different dishes, third come up with a more catchy blog name, suggestions?), we decided on a few shared plates and one entree among the 3 of us.

The Kaya toast was exciting and different like the last time and the pork belly potstickers were incredibly flavorful with the exterior of the dumpling pan seared to a nice crispiness.  (Plate score for both: 9)

The chili crab rolls, which were my favorite, were a refreshing summer appetizer with fresh lump crabmeat mixed with sweet corn, lettuce and diced red bell peppers and wrapped in a rice paper roll, served with a spicy sriracha mayo.  Chili Crab Rolls Plate Score: 9

The lemongrass dressing on the beet salad was incredibly light and the greens were well dressed.  The golden and red beets were well roasted but in my opinion the light sprinkle of blue cheese (which you can't even really see) was confusing for this asian influenced salad.  Salad Plate Score: 8

 The sea bass entree was the most expensive and also the most disappointing.  The pan seared fish was overcooked and the accompanying vegetables were spicy but mostly bland.  Sea bass Plate Score: 6

The chinese sausage fried which I had last time but did not review is served with a soft boiled egg on top that you mix into the steaming pile of rice.  The rice dotted with small pieces of salty chinese sausage  was balanced out by sweet pieces of fresh pineapple.  Like most asian rice dishes out there, this was delicious and quite addicting.  Fried Rice Plate Score: 8

Towards the end of the meal, Lon who is good friends with Angelo Sosa (NYC chef who was a finalist on Season 7's of Top Chef) came by to ask about our meal, I was star struck :)

Cholon Plate Score: 8.5


The pictures are courtesy of Jess' Android.