Five Spice (Iris and 28th, near the Safeway) has a separate menu with non-Americanized dishes. Not stellar or anything, but better than most of the rest of Boulder (a low, low bar).

-----
Five Spice
3325 28th St, Boulder, CO 80301

I bought a bag of key limes at an international market in Langley Park (H&A Market) a few weeks ago. This particular market has half asian products, half Latin, not sure which half was associated with the limes. A bag with enough limes for two pies was maybe $3-4.

That sounds promising! I'll suggest it to my friend, thanks.

I am moving back east on Friday, having one last dinner with a friend on Thursday night. We would like to go somewhere mainly for dessert rather than a whole meal. Any suggestions of a good choice for a last outing? Good puddings would be a bonus, as would location *not* in the downtown area....

Not a tour, because Aurora is just too much of a haul from here, but we did go to Seoul BBQ with half a dozen people. We had a grill table, and iirc ordered bulbogi, short rib, and pork belly on the grill, also chap chae, bibimbap, and the scallion pancakes. Nice array of banchan. I liked the scallion pancakes and bbq, have had better chap chae elsewhere.

Todd, is the new place Golden Bowl Noodle House? Has anyone tried it?

I will make a foray the next time I am at POM.

-----
Golden Bowl
1679 Sunset Dr, Rock Springs, WY 82901

I've been pretty unhappy with the ethnic food scene in Boulder in general, so in some cases this is the best of bad options.

1) Thai - the thai situation is particularly dire. Thai Kitchen (north Broadway, shopping center northwest of Violet) is the current front runner in my efforts to sample all the thai restaurants in the city. Dinner only, shares space with the North Boulder Cafe.

8) Central and/or South American - Pupusas Sabor Hispano (Salvadoran), which has now moved to a larger space slightly further north on Broadway

9) Vietnamese - don't bother with this in Boulder. Get in the car and drive to Broomfield, 120th and Main, where you get a choice of several good options for pho, groceries, and non-pho Vietnamese.

17) Any very favorite place that does not fit into one of the previous categories
Hmm. The best of limited options for Chinese are: Zoe Ma Ma (Pearl St) for a limited selection of homestyle small plates; the "other" menu at Five Spice (Iris and 28th) for not-as-americanized lunch/dinner; and the weekend-morning-only Taiwanese small plates menu at Lee Yuan (Baseline and Foothills).

-----
Five Spice
3325 28th St, Boulder, CO 80301

We are having an unusually late garden season, and I have a ton of chinese celery and red russian kale that will need to be dealt with in the next 1-2 weeks. Tonight I tried this celery and fennel thing from epicurious:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...
using chinese celery and some pancetta that was hiding in the freezer. The cooking process really tames down the celery flavor, so it actually isn't bad. I should have used more bacon (only had a little bit of pancetta left in the house. This was accompanied by a ciabatta roll halved, topped with arrabbiata sauce (a la Safeway brand jar) and mozzarella, then broiled.

The plan is to use a small head of celery in some Szechuan water boiled beef later this week. The other four celery heads and dozen kales will have to wait....

Pho 88 is in Westminster at Federal and 104th. There is an Indian place across the street at the same intersection, Jewel of India, which I have only been to once ( for dinner), which was fine.

There is Pho 78 at Wadsworth and 88th, but I think Pho 88 is better.

The Pacific Ocean Mart in Broomfield at 120th and Main has some good and inexpensive banh mi - look for the case with the hanging meats at the dim sum/deli counter, and you will see a small sign to the left listing the sandwiches.

-----
Jewel of India Restaurant
10343 Federal Blvd Unit P, Denver, CO 80260

Pho 78 Restaurant
7275 W 88th Ave, Broomfield, CO 80021

UTZ chips
old-school Chinese pastries, the kind sold at places like Ho Yuen in Boston
flavored seltzer
good quality Asian vegetables
stinky cheeses of the soft, runny variety
Goya products
TJs

I've had the ramen in Niwot - I'm not a ramen expert, but I thought it was pretty good. Sachi Sushi in the back of Niwot Market has it in addition to their regular offerings, but only on Sundays.

I've heard about the Secret Sunday ramen in Niwot, but nothing about Erie....

Leftovers of AB man & cheese can be reheated successfully, with some care. I add a bit of milk and reheat in a pan on low heat, stirring constantly. Add a little more milk as needed and you should get the creamy sauce back, almost as good as the first night.

Thanks! Hmmm, maybe I'll have to make several excursions to Aurora....

Thanks, I'll add them to my list. I am a sucker for squid, that sounds tempting....

I don't think there is any relation - Korea House in Boulder is small and seems to be run by a family, no grills.

-----
Korea House
2750 Glenwood Dr Ste 4, Boulder, CO 80304

I have never heard of Pho and China, I will have to check them out sometime.

In Boulder, I've been to Korea House and the Healing Tea place on Arapahoe. It has been a while since I have been to Korea House, but the food there just seemed really mediocre. I think the last time, I had some kind of squid which was ok but other people in the party were not happy with their bulgogi. Healing Tea is more of a lunch cafe with an extremely limited and somewhat Americanized menu - nice if you have someone who needs to eat gluten-free (I think there entire menu is gluten-free), but I can make my own bibimbap at home.

I've also been to some Korean BBQ place in Arvada, which was ok - might have been better if I had been with a more enthusiastic group of people, so it might be worth trying again. Although, Arvada is far enough that I kind of feel at that point I might as well keep on to Aurora if the destination is more likely to be high quality.

-----
Korea House
2750 Glenwood Dr Ste 4, Boulder, CO 80304

I am planning a trip to Aurora for some decent Korean, which is not to be found anywhere near Boulder. This is a pretty big schlep for me, and I'm looking for recommendations since I will probably not be sampling more than one place. I'm intending to also make a trip to H-Mart so I can cook my own, since POM doesn't seem to carry many Korean ingredients. Table grills are nice but not necessary.

Options:
Grandma's Korean BBQ in north Aurora, closer to me but not to H-Mart?, no grills
Seoul BBQ, has grills
Han Kang Korean, maybe has grills?
P&Y - Chinese-Korean, seems to specialize in Jja jang myun
I Ga, in the H-Mart shopping center

Anything I missed? Do any of these places stand out above the rest? It has been quite a while since I had good Korean, so my standards have probably dropped a bit.

(got an error when I tried to post this, hope it doesn't double-post)

-----
Han Kang Korean Restaurant
1910 S Havana St, Aurora, CO 80014

Just a note that I saw that Namaste (Meadows Shopping Center in Boulder, Baseline and Foothills) has added goat curry to their menu. I haven't tried it yet, but I should soon since I live nearby.

IME with the Boulder Sunflower, it has the worst produce of any grocer in Boulder, including the wretched produce at the 28th street asian market. Maybe it is just that location, but I won't buy produce there any more, and have not had a single good experience at that location. I much prefer the newer Sprouts on Baseline, although it is still somewhat limited and no where near as good as TJs. And usually I shop at Safeway since I live next door, so I don't have high standards here...

Hot peppers (three asian varieties), tomatillos, and tomatoes (cherry and brandywine) are indoors under lights, for transplanting in mid May. Wintersown kale, mustards, bunching onion, gai lan, and kohlrabi just germinated on my porch yesterday, in time for today's foot of snow. Snow peas will be direct seeded the last weekend of March, weather permitting. I have a community garden plot, and our water isn't turned on until some unknown time, usually in April - could be April 1, could be April 20. I am reluctant to plant much until the water is turned on, and May snows are not uncommon anyway (Colorado 5a).

I have a hoop and row cover setup that I use on my asian brassicas, pvc hoops set with rebar. In spring (until early June) and fall (starting early Sept), I use the heaviest weight agribon polyspun row cover. In summer, I use a cotton gauze which acts to keep out insects and also to raise humidities and moderate nighttime temperatures. We always have cool nights, low humidity (single digit relative humidity is not uncommon), and brutal sun, and the plants seem happy under the gauze even on 100+F days. The warm season brassicas will be direct seeded in May, squash will also be direct seeded in late May under water walls.

One of my artichokes seems to have survived winter so far, under a layer of straw and double thickness of the heavy agribon. I have hopes of actually getting artichokes for once, we usually get snow before first-year artichokes have a chance to send up the flower spike.

I have heard that it is both a new owner and a new chef, but cannot verify.

Post trip report:

Day 1, dinner: Shorty's Bar-B-Q, 11575 SW 40th St
chosen for proximity to our hotel after a long flight. I had the pulled pork platter, coworkers had rib plates. The sauce was a bit sweeter than I prefer (I like vinegar based BBQ the best), and the meat was a bit on the dry side. Not bad, just ok. Also had the key lime pie, which was nice.

Day 2, lunch: Lung Gong, 11920 SW 8th St
I had pork belly in spicy sauce, coworkers had pan fried noodles with beef and one of the 'pancake' dishes. The pork belly was moderately spicy and also contained carrot, green cabbage, and peppers, and I liked this dish a lot. The pancake was sort of like a homemade wheat tortilla which was cooked, sliced into strips, and then added to a mix of meat (pork?) and vegetables, with a mild flavor. The pan-fried noodles were thin egg noodles (I think) with beef and vegetables in a sauce on top - this was reported to be on the bland side.

Day 2, dinner: Nunzio's Ristorante, 11433 SW 40th St
Italian restaurant very close to the hotel, closed on Mondays. I had the cheese ravioli in meat sauce, coworkers had seafood linguine, manicotti, gnocci in red sauce, and side of sausages. House salads were iceberg lettuce with a slice of tomato - it has been years since I've seen a plain iceberg salad served and I was a bit surprised. The ravioli was fine but nothing spectacular, the linguine was reported to be good but excessively oily. I tasted a small piece of the sausages, which apparently were slow cooked in the meat sauce until near the point of disintegration. Had the gelato for dessert which was extremely rich and creamy, but with a few ice shards.

Day 3, lunch: Cerro Negro, 9613 W Flagler St
A small Nicaraguan place next to Winn Dixie, this was a bit fancier on the inside than we were expecting, but the lunch specials were all in the $6-9 range. I had the shrimp stew with garlic sauce, coworkers had the "combo" special and steak special. A repeat of the iceberg lettuce with tomato house salads. I wouldn't describe the shrimp as a stew, more as shrimp with sauce, which was indeed very garlick-y. I got the green plantains, which were long fried strips, similar to banana chips; everyone else got the sweet plantains, which were in softer chunks instead. Three coworkers raved about the steak and combo specials, so this was the surprise hit of the trip.

Day 3, dinner: El Chaman, 14241 S.W. 42nd St
A Peruvian restaurant in a half-empty strip mall. The interior was nicely decorated with masks and large oil paintings of scenes from Peru, plus a rather odd disco ball. Lots of seafood options on the menu, most in the $15-25 entree range. I had the Arroz con Mariscos, seafood with seasoned rice, as did one coworker, the other coworker had Pescado a lo Macho con Arroz, panfried fish filet (catfish?) topped with sauteed seafood. Portions were very generous, and the 'seafood' was a mix of shrimp, scallops, squid, crab, and mussels. I enjoyed the rice dish very much, and my coworkers also enjoyed their meals.

So the winners for the trip were Lung Gong, Cerro Negro, and El Chaman.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll report back after our trip.

Myself and a few work colleagues are headed to the Tamiami/Sweetwater area near Florida International University for three days in mid-February, Monday-Wednesday. We'll have one car to share between us, so I expect we won't be traveling too far in search of food. Any recommendations on lunch or dinner places relatively nearby, lets say lunch entrees $15-20 max, dinner $20-30 max? We will probably just have breakfast at the hotel.

The only place I've managed to find by searching the board is Lung Gong, which looks promising. I'm not at all familiar with the area, so I may be searching the wrong location keywords. We're coming from Colorado, so seafood, Cuban, asian would be great, but I'm happy for any recommendations in this out-of-the-way location.

Thanks in advance!

I have lived without a microwave for most of the past decade. How I reheat something depends on what it is: lots of things, I will reheat in a bowl set in a bamboo steamer if I want them to be moist, in the toaster oven in foil if I want them to be crispy or less moist, or on the stove in a pot if they are of the right consistency (stew-like). I think I once saw a recommendation to reheat pizza in a fry pan to make the crust crisp up.

Well, we just got one check for the entire party, but there were two people who didn't want to eat family style. Most of the dishes are almost the same price ($10-13 for entrees), so it wasn't a big deal, we just had everyone pay $14 (includes tax and tip) to cover the bill. I'm not sure if they would have split the check into multiple sections or not, we didn't ask them to.

I should also note that it is not a large restaurant. We had called well in advance, and they pushed together four tables to make one big table, and we took up almost half of the room.

Oh, I see that this post is allowing me to add more photos, I will try to attach photos of the crispy duck, curry, and one of the pork buns.

There has been a little bit of discussion of China Jade here, but I went there for dinner tonight and thought it would be nice to have its own thread.

I went with a party of twelve - ten of us ate family style. We had ten entrees for the whole party, plus two appetizers, and took extra food home. For appetizers, we had the pork buns (I didn't try one) and the wonton in spicy oil, which I thought didn't have much flavor beyond the chili oil. I tried to take photos, but didn't want to use flash and they are a bit blurry, sorry.

The family style entrees included:
• eggplant with hot garlic sauce - this had shredded pork in the dish as well
• spicy boiled beef (photo below in the glass dish), beef and bean sprouts in a medium spicy broth/sauce
• basil shrimp - strong basil flavor, I think had broccoli as well
• crispy duck - this came out cut into pieces with a side sauce
• twice cooked pork - my favorite, this was pork belly with leeks, and is the fourth photo below
• ziran (sp?) beef - I think this is the "cuminum cyminum" beef mentioned in the westword article - this is the third photo below
• thai style chicken curry - one of the spicier dishes, this actually seemed more like Indian curry to me, with potatoes and chicken chunks
* some kind of pork - sorry, I forget exactly what the name of this one was, but it is the second photo below

Of these dishes, I think the twice cooked pork and spicy boiled beef were my favorites. Many people thought the eggplant was the best, but I don't much like eggplant so I can't fairly judge that. This was definitely the best overall Chinese that I've had in Denver, although I don't know how often I would frequent the restaurant since it is 45 minutes from my house.

-----
China Jade
12203 E Iliff Ave Ste D, Aurora, CO 80014

I saw some in Sprouts in Boulder not too long ago. And I've got a pile of small ones from my garden sitting on the floor of my apartment (var hybrid baby delica).

Anyone heard of Ting's Place in Lafayette? I've had it recommended by two people, my coworker says they have good homestyle Chinese food, and I'm wondering if it is worth a trip.