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.

Ototo Den

When Den Deli put up their sign saying they were closed for remodeling, more than a few people were worried of what would be become of this upscale fast casual spot in the trifecta of sushi den and Izakaya.  Luckily on my first visit to Ototo which focuses on spanish influenced japanese tapas (thats my take at least), I left impressed and was no longer depressed about the demise of Den Deli.  It was a slow sunday evening,  and we decided to sit at the "sushi bar"  in front of a cold case of cheeses and rounds of cured meats.  Now to the meal.....

The Waygu beef carpaccio lay over roasted hen mushrooms and drizzled with a truffle soy sauce was certainly fresh and tender.

The Egg in a Jar has been the source of all blog discussions since Ototo opened.  This creamy mixture of truffled mashed potatoes, diced serrano ham, caviar, steamed egg in a mason jar is served with diced red onion and tarragon mixture and delicious delicious grilled ciabatta.  I had conflicting feelings about this dish with so many flavors and the mashed potatoes added an odd texture to the dish.  In terms of dipping toast points into a creamy sauce, i prefer Cholon's Kaya Toast (check out that review from Dec).

The star of the dinner was the warm lobster salad, which was incredibly fresh and poached to perfection.  The lobster was sitting atop of a small thin layer of mashed potatoes (both hidden) garnished with grapefruit, tossed mache salad, pistachios and some sort of aioli.  An interesting garnish of thinly fried potato strips hit my tongue with a suprisingly sweet note and really pulled together this amazing dish!

We ended our meal with the tonkatsu ramen, the only remnants from the former den deli to make the new menu.  With sliced pork shoulder, bok choy, bean sprouts and soft hard boiled egg. the ramen was sitting in a steaming bowl of flavorful soy broth which helped round out this excellent meal.  We skipped the dessert and I settled for a half scoop each of pumpkin cheesecake and chocolate ice cream at Pajama Baking Company.

Plate Score: 9

Cholon

I truly apprecitate restaurants that embrace fusion cusine (think Zengo and TAG), so I was particulary excited to finally dine at Cholon, which opened in LoDo in early october to rave reviews.  5280 magazine even named it one of its top ten best new restaurants of 2010!  Headed by a  NYC trained chef,  the interior of the restaurants was sleek with an exposed ceiling and kitchen and hand crafted wood tables and bamboo accents.  As we scanned the menu, our waiter handed us a weekday prix fixe option which turned out to be an amazing deal.  It was a steal, $55 for two people considering that an entree is already in the low twenties.  We decided on the kaya toast, pork belly dumplings, butternut squash soup, braised lamb shank, chinese sausage fried rice and one and a half desserts (i'll explain soon enough).  Everything was served family style (thank the Asian cultures!) and was delicious, even the "bread basket" was unique

This is a puffed rice cracker with sesame seeds, served with a spicy tomato jam.  The tamarind (a sweet soy glaze) lamb shank served with roasted peanuts, asian pear and butternut squash puree was flavorful and fell off the bone, but i kind of wished there was more of a sauce for the meat.  The star of the show was the Kaya toast with coconut jam and egg cloud.

It is actually hard to describe the flavor, but the toast (what i assume is brioche) was glazed with some type of lightly sweetened condensed milk, neither of us could taste the coconut.  The "egg cloud" was an emulsion of sorts with a slight saltiness that complemented the sweet flavors on the toast.  My description might seem unappetizing to many of you but if you go to Cholon, you MUST order this!

The dessert was a chocolate molten cake with salted peanut ice cream and homemade marshmallows.  We (well my roommate mostly) complained that the ice cream was too much like eating peanut butter and to quote her, "little man's ice cream would kick this ice cream's ass."  She is a serious ice cream connoisseur.  I on the other hand sweet talked my way to a delicious replacement scoop of vietnamese coffee ice cream.  Sweet ending to fantastic deal!

Plate Score:  8.5