Sunda

Last night we went to a new restaurant - Sunda. We had a gift card which was a wedding gift (thanks Phil and Rebecca!), so that made the night extra fun. Sunda calls its type of cuisine "New Asian", and the menu was vast. It was hard to decide what to order with so many choices, but we ended up sticking with small dishes and sushi.

First course, by recommendation of our waiter: Roasted Duck Hash Salad (glazed duck, daikon cake, frisee, crispy egg) and Boo-Dah's Style Grilled Ahi Tuna and Pork (with chile vinegar, mango, sweet onions).




These ended up being our favorite dishes of the meal. The duck frisee salad was really excellent. You can't really see under the egg, but there was a lot of shredded duck meat and little glazed daikon cakes about the size of croutons. The pork and tuna salad was an interesting combination but worked really well. The pork was actually pork belly, and the dressing was spicy and a great complement to the mango.

Next we ordered the Rock Shrimp Tempura (with glazed walnuts and creamy honey aioli) as well as yellowtail and tuna sashimi.




The shrimp ended up being our least favorite of the night, but it was still very good. The creamy sweet aioli got to be a bit rich by the end of the dish, but the pairing of shrimp and walnuts was a good one. The sashimi was perfect. I'm usually partial to the tuna, but the yellowtail was actually my favorite. How pretty is that little tuna rose?

We ended the meal with two rolls - spicy tuna, and the Dynamite roll (I think...I can't find it on the menu online). The special roll had crab, scallop, shrimp, and probably 4 other ingredients I'm forgetting, in a "dynamite" sauce. They dimmed the lights in the restaurant before this last course and my photos of the rolls are really just not good enough to post. I am usually a sucker for specialty rolls with all kinds of creative ingredients, but I actually liked the plain old spicy tuna roll the best. It was truly spicy - which sounds stupid, but most places serve spicy tuna rolls that really aren't so spicy. This one had a hotness that took a few seconds to kick in, and it was great.

All in all it was a great meal and I hope we can go back soon.

On a totally unrelated note, we went for a few drinks yesterday afternoon at the Clark Street Ale House. They have a back patio that recently opened for the season, and since it was so beautiful yesterday we went to have a couple beers outside. This bar is extremely dog friendly, and it turned into a dog party on the patio.




Those are a couple of the sweet guys we were hanging out with at the bar. There was a dog-related mishap (not involving us) while we were there, and I'll just say if you're ever at this bar don't leave your jacket over the back of your chair, or leave your bag on the ground.

Joe's

Last night we went with my mom and dad to Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab. Long name for a restaurant, but it's an offshoot of Joe's Stone Crab in Miami. Peter and I went a couple months ago and have been dying to go back. You might have seen their stone crabs on the Food Network show The Best Thing I Ever Ate...this was Bobby Flay's favorite (the one in Miami).



Naturally, we had to order the stone crabs as an appetizer. They're pretty to look at - coral color with black just at the end of the claw. They are so soft and meaty, and come already cracked for you. What more could you ask for? The claws come with Joe's Mustard Sauce, which I don't think really tastes like mustard, but whatever it is it's good. Here's how they're described on the menu:

Fresh stone crabs are found in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. They are hand harvested, one claw at a time, and thrown back to the sea. Joe Weiss, and his wife Jennie, discovered this unknown delicacy in the early 1920s, and soon after, began serving them in their restaurant in South Miami Beach. Now, the familiar "crack-crack-crack" can be heard here in Chicago and Las Vegas, as we treat you to the finest stone crabs in the world.




My dad also got a crabcake, which I had a bite of - golden, crispy, salty, big pieces of crab, and HUGE.



Next up, my mom and I split a vegetable salad. Yes, on the menu it's just called a vegetable salad. Lettuce, grape tomatoes, radishes, green beans, edamame, corn, onions, and some sort of dry and crumbly mozzarella.



I also split an entree with my mom. The portions are big and last time I went I couldn't finish my piece of tuna. One of the specials last night was bone-in halibut which had been caught within the last 24 hours. Sold! Bone-in halibut sounds weird, but the waiter explained it was like a t-bone rather than little fish bones. The halibut was prepared just with salt, pepper, and lemon. The seasoning was perfect and the fish was so fresh. This picture is just my half of the fish...now you can see why we decided to share.



Peter got scallops, and my dad got parmesan crusted flounder which was also a special. No pictures of those, though - I can only hold everyone's food hostage for so long during my photography sessions. For sides we got sauteed spinach and fried green tomatoes. LOVE fried green tomatoes. They're definitely not something you come across often, and we had them the first time we went and it was an easy decision to order them again.




And finally, dessert. They have the option of half slices of pie, so we ordered half a slice of their famous key lime pie (here's the recipe), and half a slice of banana cream pie with foster sauce. Bananas and I are not friends, so I couldn't tell you how that pie was. But the cream part on top with candied nuts and foster sauce was good. I really love key lime pie, and this one is out of this world. It's the perfect balance between sweet and tart, and the graham cracker crust is superb.



To end the night - a nightcap at Bernard's in the newly opened Elysian Hotel. This hotel just opened a few months ago and it's absolutely beautiful. Although I do have a bone to pick with them, last call at the bar is at 11:30. What?! We barely made it in time to order a drink. But it's a really beautiful bar with great service.