Guilt Trip

Pork in Indian Food? What???

I remembered our trip to India a while back, and initially found it interesting that restaurants serve only chicken, goat and lamb along with seafood.

Then, it dawned on us that the no beef and no pork policy was for the majority Hindu, and largest minority Muslim population in India.

Most Indian restaurants in the States also follows that rule — except Guilt Trip in Redmond, striking out as the rule-breaker.

We went for lunch at off hours, so it was quite quiet.

The menu is full of interesting dishes to try, and they have a chai bar and a lassi bar, which I will be back for.

At the Chai bar, they offer the Kashmiri chai which has no milk, and 4 kinds of chais with different spice combinations.

The Lassi bar is even more adventurous, with flavors such as apple pie, saffron almond, tamarind date and mango chili.

The prominent pork in the restaurant comes in the form of bacon.

There was a blue cheese bacon naan, and bacon butter chicken, which we ordered.

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Blu Sardinia

Heard about Blu Sardinia from one of the most conventional way of advertising – a mailer to my home!

I was eager to check them out because a) I would like to find an Italian, non-pizza place on the eastside that I would like (current favorite Cantinetta), and b) wanted to see for myself what regional Sardinian food was like.

Turns out Blu Sardinia is in Redmond Bella Bottega.

The space is huge, airy with high ceiling.

Right at the entrance, inviting beautiful display of desserts, and the many colorful gelato flavors in the cold case would lure any hungry soul in.

My party was pleasantly surprised to find that they still had the “Dine around Seattle” menu, and it so happened to have the 2 things I wanted to try the most from the menu, so I dove right in.

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Macau Doulao Hot Pot

The last time I went to my guilty-pleasure Chinese American food joint, Mandarin Buffet, I saw a sign in the same plaza for a new restaurant called Macau Doulao, replacing the old Cozy Tea bubble tea place.

Macau Doulao turns out to be a new hot pot only restaurant in this southern part of Redmond.

Very similar to Little Sheep Hot Pot, Macau Doulao offers soup bases (spicy, house, mushroom and pork) and raw food to cook in it.

Another similarity was both restaurants have induction cooktops on their tables; the difference is Macau Doulao has personal small hot pot, while Little Sheep’s big pots are always meant for sharing.

I believe Macau Doulao’s selling point is based on their all-you-can-get counter full of dipping sauces: standard ones such as soy sauce, Chinese BBQ sauce, to more adventurous ones with fermented bean curd.

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Are Eastside Burgers Any Good?

Not shabby in my opinion.

After the long-standing tradition of Burgermaster, hidden gem of Wibbley’s, and the addition of Lunchbox Laboratory, came Tipsy Cow in Redmond and Local Burger in Bellevue, both are high-end burger restaurants.

On a weekday, I went to Tipsy Cow for early lunch to beat a potential lunch crowd that absolutely materialized within the hour of my early arrival.

On Tipsy Cow’s website, they mentioned their support to local ranchers, farmers, and distillers; however, aside from their beef supply identified as from Painted Hills, there was not a whole lot of information about where everything else came from.

I loved their burger menu consisting of many other than beef selections, including lamb, pork, buffalo, turkey, salmon, tuna, chicken and vegetarian lentil.

Appetizers looked interesting as well with pork shoulders and eggplant wedges.

We went for chicken wings with Habanero BBQ sauce. Continue reading →

Special Interests on the Eastside

Are you on a special diet? Do you like board games?

Hugo’s and Mox Boarding House are the solutions to special interests on the eastside.

Hugo’s Restaurant is located in Redmond; one of the very few, if not the only, full organic, soy free, gluten-free and cow’s dairy free restaurant in the Greater Seattle area.

I love the health consciousness bright about by Hugo’s: aside from organic food, fish are wild caught and beef are grass-fed.

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