Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.
Mai Lee's Bun Bo Hue
For some time now, I have been attempting to do the impossible: eat every single item on Mai Lee's menu. That's 202 menu items, plus the Chinese menu. I've had a fair amount, but I'm still nowhere near done. At the current pace I'm going, I should finish when I'm 35. I have two favorite dishes at Mai Lee, and the weather dictates which I'm ordering any given day.
Warm days call for the crepes (#54) filled with pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts. Cooler days require a big bowl of #17, bun bo hue (boon bo hway). What is this mysterious soup and why you should stray from your usual bowl of pho? Think of it like this: pho is Vietnamese soup on Rookie mode, bun bo hue is when you turn it up to Pro. The anchovy based bun nuoc leo, #21, is dialed all the way to All Star. I haven't even gotten there yet.
The way I've been getting through the menu is by letting Qui pick for me. A few months back, we were going through the menu and he was naming dishes he was sure I'd tried, and when he said #17, I was all like, "I have not tried that."
And he was all, "What?"
And I was like, "Yeah. No idea what that is."
He disappeared to the kitchen and returned shortly with a bowl that smelled like Christmas (in Southeast Asia). The light beef broth is heavily scented with lemongrass, the smell and taste I equate most with SEA eating, but is complimented by the wintry mix of cinnamon, cloves, and star anise. Oh, and annatto seed and fresh pineapple, as well. Add the fire of chilies and tender slices of meat to that, and you've got yourself one of the finest bowls of soup that you'll ever eat. You've also got a pantry worth of ingredients, liquified.
If you don't eat beef, you can request a chicken version instead. I'm guess Qui's team can even pull together a vegetarian option (but I can't promise anything).
I hate to say it, but I don't think I'll be going back to pho any time soon.
Mai Lee
Here we are with another edition of Whiskey & Soba goes to Mai Lee, St. Louis' best Vietnamese restaurant, and tries stuff he's never had before.
Things kicked off with a top secret off the menu item: salt and pepper frog legs. Owner Qui Tran knows my affinity for all things with their salt and pepper dipping sauce - you must try the S&P calamari, soft shell crab, and/or shrimp - so when he asked if we'd be down for S&P frog legs, the answer was a resounding yes. Don't fear the frog legs. They taste just like chicken. If I blindfolded you like we were in 50 Shades of Grey and fed you bites of chicken and frog, you'd never know the difference.
Salt and Pepper Frog at Mai Lee
Forget about the French-influenced Vietnamese dishes - give me more of these Jewish-Vietnamese dishes! This is a Southeast Asian latke. The #50 Banh Tom Chien is made of shredded sweet potato is wrapped around shrimp then deep fried. Like most Southeast Asian fried dishes, it comes with lettuce to wrap around it. That way you can pretend it's not bad for you!
Banh Tom Chien at Mai Lee
I always poll Twitter before I head to Mai Lee since everyone has different favorites. One of the more intriguing recommendations was for #145 Dau Hu Sot Ca, a vegetable and tofu stir fry served in a tomato sauce. Tomato sauce? Vietnamese restaurant? I was hesitant about ordering this, but Qui assured me it was good and, as usual, he was right. This is killer. I've never had another Asian dish with a similar sauce.
You've seen this off the menu special in previous Mai Lee posts: it's the seafood charred rice. Get it.
Dau Hu Sot Ca at Mai Lee
Seafood Charred Rice at Mai Lee
#121 Tom Rang Muoi is a dish that would be perfect after a long night of drinking. Shrimp are stir fried with butter, garlic, onions, and scrambled eggs. It may sound strange and may not be the prettiest dish, but it is addictive.
A friend and Mai Lee expert insisted (in the same way Tony Soprano "insisted") that I try the often overlooked Chinese menu, so I picked General Tso's Chicken. This was the last plate to arrive at the table but that didn't stop it from being swallowed up instantly. The quality is much higher than your typical American Chinese restaurant, which is to be expected, and it has these monster slices of ginger in it. I come from a long line of ginger fiends, so that definitely gave this dish some bonus points.
Tom Rang Muoi at Mai Lee
General Tso's at Mai Lee