why isn't there a southern disneyland?

i've passed by crawfish king more times that i can remember, but never thought of actually going there because i hadn't read any reviews, nor was my curiosity great enough to convert me. however, after telling one of my friends about it, he absolutely HAD to get fist deep in crawfish boil.

this place is like a cajun disneyland: zydeco music, plastic shellfish and rope fishing nets on the wall, dock pillars, buoys hanging from the wall. it was a little bit much for me. all this artifice, but how's the food??

the menu is pretty simple. fish and chips. po'boys. "cajun platters."

the real deal is the boils. you can order shellfish and other assorted seafood from the fresh board by he pound to create your optimal mix of seasoned, steamed goodies. supposedly there's one piece of corn per person and quartered potatoes aplenty (lies!), but we only got 4 measly chunks of potato. too bad, too, because they were the best vehicle to soak up the insane garlic and spices.

i think we got one pound of prawns and three pounds of crawfish. the server advised that 1 lb per person would be plenty. i don't know about that, sir.

the condiment six pack included ketchup, mayo, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and, of course, some "special sauce." as you can see, the table setting is trying to be "authentically" low-brow with a butcher paper table cover, roll of paper towels at every table, all disposable cutlery, and paper boats for any crawfish boil detritus. i was also displeased to see the "boil" arrive in a plastic bag that was ceremoniously cut tableside.

now, i wouldn't say i'm obsessive-compulsive about environmental soundness, but all this waste seemed irresponsible. everything can be thrown away. why? in such a conscious city as seattle where even our takeout is monitored, how can this wastefulness fly? c'mon, crawfish king.

the boil. we ordered it as spicy as possible, and the heat level did not disappoint. i quite enjoyed it, and as it mingled with the butter and seafood juices, the burn developed more and more as i continued to eat. you have the choice of "rajun cajun (original)" or "the big easy (the house sauce)" flavors. these really make no sense, but when pressed, our server said that the main difference is that "the big easy" has garlic. needless to say, we got pretty easy.

although the crawfish were challenging to eat, the flavor was amazing. it might be a little on the salty side for the sodium-sensitive, but i thought it was perfectly intense; rife with old bay, file, chile, black pepper, garlic, and thyme. mmm.

thanks for the cajun adventure, crawfish king!

outside of my dimsum comfort zone

it's pretty much ridiculous how long i've held onto these pictures waiting for the "right" moment to post them on le blog. now it's been weeks and weeks since my last post, and these damn pictures still haven't been written up! well it's about time. i won't flatter myself into thinking that you've been waiting for the newest k&s update. lolz.

my coworker and i always talk about chinese food. we work on the opposite side of downtown from the ID, but we had a serious craving for dimsum. since the new hong kong restaurant has free parking in a vastly empty garage, G decided it would be the perfect choice. also, since neither of us had been there before, we thought it was a great opportunity to steer away from the usual jade garden, which was sure to be at least an hour and a half.

the new hong kong restaurant used to be called the new kowloon restaurant. i assume there was some shuffle in ownership, hence the immensely creative redubbing.

G and i arrived early to ensure adequate parking and to beat the lunch rush. we arrived around 11:45, and the place was nearly empty! we had service basically waiting on us hand and foot...one person with water. another with tea. yet another asking if we would like to order anything besides dimsum. very strange. we started off with shrimp-stuffed eggplant and shrimp tofu. they were both pretty good, though not the bang-bang like top gun. i think my biggest hang up was the sauce on the eggplant. i'm used to a more salty, preserved black bean flavor than what NHKR offered. boo.

next came pineapple buns, baked bow, and curry beef pastries. the pineapple buns were awesome. the pineapple stuffing baked perfectly with the dough to create an almost custard-y magma core. yummmmz. however, the same density that made the pineapple buns great made the baked bow heavy. i tried some of the bread, and it was leagues away from the light, slightly eggy dough i have grown accustomed too. there were no complaints, however, from S, for whom we picked up an extra three bow. G loved the curry beef. the pastry was buttery, light, and flaky. they sure looked tasty.

we also picked up some steamed bow and nor mai gai. the steamed bow was pretty standard: fluffy, spongy breading with a sticky, salty-sweet filling. it's difficult to eff these up. nor mai gai is my dimsum barometer (just as a chile relleno is my mexican measuring stick). the rice should be sticky, but not squishy; very herbal from the lotus leaf steaming; and full of delicious pork/lop xiang/dried shrimp/mushrooms, though not in an evenly-distributed, heterogeneous mixture. oh, and steaming effing HOT. NHKR's nor mai gai was decent. the texture was nice, and the filling, too, was quite meaty (which i picked out for G), however, there wasn't a strong enough lotus leafiness flavor. top gun, how do you do it!??! you've ruined me!!

just when we thought we were full, a fresh cart of shrimp dishes emerged from the kitchen. how could i pass up ha gow and shrimp potstickers?!? the ha gow was good. often times i have a textural problem with shrimp...it's difficult to explain, but NHKR's ha gow passed the test. and this brings me to my favorite dish of the day: shrimp potstickers. NHKR wraps their shrimp potstickers in bright yellow to differentiate them from the regular pork. i don't know what kind of crack they put in there, but as soon as i took a bite, my mouth filled with bright spring onion and juicy, salty shrimp. it was an OMG moment...unfortunately i was too full by that time to get another order, but i was tempted to take one home.

NHKR has a decent dimsum. i don't know if i would ever return here since i have my favorite only 10 minutes away from my house. if G and i require a quick dimsum fix, though, we'll probably be back.

Honey Court Seafood Restaurant

I don't even remember the first time I went to Honey Court, but I know it was after a late night of drinking and partying. Honey Court is a comfortable, family style Chinese restaurant open until like 330am (Fri-Sat) in the International District. The place is extremely bright, worn down, full of random decor and always fast paced. The restaurant is typically packed with the younger club crowd and local regulars.

After too many happy hour cocktails after work and a run up to a beacon bar we ended up needing to soak up some liquor around 11pm. We stumbled into Honey Court and were greeted by the woman who always seems to be serving whenever you go. She took our order of Hot and Sour soup ($6.95), Barbecue Pork Fried Rice ($6.50), Chicken Chow Mein ($6.95), Honey Court Walnut Prawns ($10.95) and the Crispy Chicken w/Prawn Chips ($7.95). The Crispy Chicken is not pictured...think I was too busy shoving food in my face when it showed up to the table.

The first time I had the Honey Court Walnut Prawns, I did not like them. I am now convinced they are one of my favorite dishes. L. and I even made them for our valentines dinner this year. The cooking process for these is intense, multiple steps and ingredients...which includes mayo. They are so damn good. I am also a huge fan of the crispy noodle chow mein....the noodles are perfect and the sauce is so savory. This is the perfect food to eat when you are hungover or drunk. I will however point out, that it is just as good sober. I liked the rice but it was hard to eat, but it did have a nice flavor. I also enjoyed the crispy chicken, which is just your basic lightly seasoned fried chicken. The soup is also exactly what you would expect, yet it comes out in a huge bowl with enough soup for like 6 people.

Honey Court has over 200 dishes, you will certainly find something you like. I also heard they have a great Dim Sum but I have yet to check that out.

516 Maynard Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104

Mon-Tue 10am-2:30am
Wed-Thur 10am-3am
Fri 10am-3:30am
Sat 9am-3:30am
Sun 9am-1:30am

Store Front Restaurant....Huong Binh!

Sitting in between the International District and the Central District resides a strip mall on 12th and Jackson. The strip mall houses several restaurants and a nice parking lot underneath so you dont have to worry about trying to park on that damn busy street.

A co-worker and myself were on the hunt for lunch and she said she wanted to take me to Huong Binh. Apparently she is a regular and enjoys eating traditional vietnamese food here with her man. The environment was chill and casual. I was impressed by the fact that the food came out very quickly and that it was both fresh and amazing. The fish sauce and hot sauce options are totally on point. The menu has over 50 dishes ranging from noodles, rice and soup.

I went with the charbroiled pork vermicelli plate which consisted of 3 skewers of tasty spiced grilled pork served along side noodles, lettuce, fresh mint, basil and sweet dipping sauce. I started making a huge damn mess putting the pork and noodles in the lettuce wrap but r. told me how to get down with my empty bowl so I didnt look like an asshole.

r. had a variety dish of lemon grass grilled pork skewers, shrimp, pork balls and shrimp covered sugarcane over rice. This also looked bomb.

I plan to go back to this spot when I get the chance. I even had enough food to save some for lunch the next day. All of it cost us under $15.00 with tax.

Open til 8pm. They do not take debit cards yo...so plan ahead.

1207 S Jackson St
Seattle, WA 98144