Quest for Asian Cuisine
Once again, this past Sunday, Mrs. Base10 and I ventured out to another Asian restaurant in our quest to sample every Asian cuisine (in New York at least). I was particularly intrigued by Philippine food which is Asian with Spanish influences much like Vietnamese cuisine is Asian with French influences. (But don't fault the Vietnamese for this!). Sunday's trip brought us to a Philippine restaurant called "Ka In Na" at 64-23 Broadway in Woodside, Queens. The name of the place translates to "lets eat!" and although the management is still learning how to run a restaurant, this place has a lot of promise. It's a small affair with no more than twenty tables and is family run so the service is friendly. We had lumpiang shanghai to start--fried spring rolls. While they were okay, they seem to be the same type commonly served in Vietnamese restaurants, but for $4.50 for a serving of twelve, they are a bargain. In general, the dishes are very inexpensive. (The most expensive item on the regular menu was $9.50 for "sizzling steak" and most dishes were about $5). While not huge portions, our choices were filing. We opted for two noodle dishes and two meat dishes. The pancit bihon, apparently a staple Philippine noodle dish, was very good, but you can pass on the Philippine style spaghetti (how can you not try something with that name!) since the red sauce tasted suspiciously like Ragu. Our meat dishes consisted of adobong manok (chicken in a soy sauce based sauce) and a stuffed squid special. The chicken was pedestrian and a little overcooked. The squid was roasted and stuffed with a pork blood sausage and served with a brown sauce. Since I am not a big blood sausage fan, I passed on this but Mrs. Base10 loved it and saved some for lunch the next day. While I think this restaurant has to work on a few things, it gives you tremendous value for your dining dollar. In spite of some weak points, we will return to eat there.
- posted by Base10 @ 2:41 PM