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Umai Zushi impresses with bountiful sushi spread
July 29, 2010
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| Five nigiri-zushi and two maki-zushi rolls at Umai Zushi |
Voice-Tribune review by LouisvilleHotBytes
I love Asian food, and I’m a big fan of many of the East End’s excellent Chinese restaurants, including such quality eateries as Oriental House, Jade Palace, Jasmine, Liang’s and the new Peking City Bistro.
I’m less whelmed with storefront chopsticks houses and all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets, though. Not that they won’t fill me up when I’m cravin’ Asian, but to be quite frank, they’re all pretty much the same.
Until now, that is.
The arrival of Umai Zushi Buffet near the outer stretches of Westport Road introduces a new variable to the Asian buffet equation: In addition to the usual Chinese suspects, it offers a bounty of king crab legs and, from the cuisine of Japan, more than 40 sushi and sashimi goodies.
It’s pretty good sushi, too, I’m pleased to report.
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A truly authentic experience at Peking City Bistro
July 21, 2010
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| Shredded pork with dried tofu |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” Not merely the intro line of the original Japanese “Iron Chef,” this fundamental hypothesis goes back to the French gourmet Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s 1825 gastronomic essay, “Physiology of Taste.”
If Brillat-Savarin had examined my dinner at Peking City Bistro, he might have concluded I am a pregnant Chinese woman, a revelation that would come as a considerable surprise to both my mother and my wife.
Intrigued? Pull up a chair, and I’ll tell you the story.
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Village Anchor Pub takes roost
July 14, 2010
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| Myra’s fried chicken at Village Anchor |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
Got milk? Or a Nike swoosh? How about “comfort food with a twist”?
Indeed, what kind of wacky restaurant concept might we expect from one of the nation’s top corporate-relations experts — a man who’s run campaigns for such iconic enterprises as the American dairy industry and Nike — when he comes back home and turns restaurateur?
That would be Anchorage resident Kevin Grangier, former sole owner of award-winning CarryOn Communications Inc. of Los Angeles, New York and … St. Matthews.
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Boombozz has come a long way, baby
July 8, 2010
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| Boombozz pizza |
Voice-Tribune review by LouisvilleHotBytes
If you’ve noticed a little restaurant do-si-do around the corner of Frankfort Avenue and Cannon’s Lane, here’s the story: After Chef Amber McCool closed her Patron restaurant (destined for eventual reopening downtown, McCool has promised her fans), the old Boombozz Pizza moved down the block into the Patron’s old quarters.
So the new Boombozz is the old Patron, across the street from the old Boombozz, which was actually the second Boombozz. Let’s pause for a little history here: Back in the ‘90s, pizza guru Tony Palombino opened the original Tony Boombozz pizza in the tiny St. Matthews building that now houses Kayrouz Cafe. (That’s not the old Kayrouz, it’s the new Kayrouz.) He moved to the Cannons Lane quarters a few years later and has become a fixture there for a decade.
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A condiment conundrum
July 7, 2010
INDUSTRY STANDARD:
Insider Info For Those Who Dine Out
With Columnist Marsha Lynch
I hate it when servers bring me something and try to pass it off as something else entirely, don’t you? Earlier this week, my boyfriend, John, and I were trying out a newish spot in the Highlands. On initial reconnaissance at a new place, I like to find out if the cook can actually, you know, cook, before I trust him to feed me offal or prepare some deadly poisonous blowfish sushi. So we ordered burgers and frites … but like the culinary magpie I am, I was distracted by something shiny that caught my eye from the other page of the menu. Artichoke aioli, it said — and like the magpie, I had to make it mine.
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Indian home cooking at Little India Café
July 7, 2010
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| One of the dishes at Litte India Café. |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
I’d like to tell you about a cozy new place where dining is much like being invited into an Indian family’s home for dinner.
Pop bustles about while Junior sets the table and keeps up a stream of friendly chatter. Mom’s in the kitchen with a clatter of pans and spoons, and wonderful smells come wafting out. Plates bearing aromatic, home-cooked Indian goodies soon start appearing on the table, and the whole family smiles, awaiting your thumbs-up.
That’s basically the scene at Little India Café.
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Taste your Asia four ways
June 24, 2010
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
Speaking of new ethnic arrivals in spaces formerly occupied by other restaurants, A Taste of Asia has landed in the shopping-center space formerly occupied by Tony Boombozz’s North Hurstbourne quarters before Boombozz moved to Westport Village.
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La Colombiana offers up South American treats
June 23, 2010
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| Bandeja Paisa at La Columbiana |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
Our city is blessed with Latino treats. In addition to a flotilla of taquerias, we’ve got landmarks like Bruce Ucán’s Mayan Café with its Mayan fare from Yucatan and Guatemala, and Anthony Lamas’ Seviche with its Nuevo Latino smorgasbord of goodies from Sonora to Tierra del Fuego.
So why do we remain cursed with a widespread attitude among diners that South of the Border food consists of tacos, burritos and guacamole all the way down?
The cuisines of the Western Hemisphere, from Mexico through Central America and down through South America, are as rich and diverse as, well, the cuisines of our 50 states.
Last month, we gained another new flavor of Hispanic America as La Colombiana — the region’s first Colombian restaurant — opened in Lyndon in the shopping center quarters vacated by FireFresh Barbecue.
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Watch World Cup with a posse
June 17, 2010
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
Soccer, the sport the rest of the world calls “football,” is celebrating its quadrennial World Cup (the real World Series) this month as the teams of 32 nations do battle in South Africa.
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