Adventures with Japanese & Thai Food

Ever since we went to Shiro of Japan I have had the craving to go again, and I have tried to eat in other Japanese, or Thai places trying to find a comparable meal. Last week I went  to Sushi Tatsu II with my friend April and we had lunch. I had a craving for noodles, just like the ones I had at Shiro, but I couldn't seem to find any, except Pad Thai. I remember trying it once 7 years ago but with Tofu, and decided to order the Chicken Pad Thai instead. I must say the meal was delicious, I even ate a vegetable Gyoza, and I am not fond of vegetables, but it was very tasty, and the dipping sauce was comparable to that of Shiro, so over all I had a great meal and would definitely come back. April complained about the service, the waitress was not too attentive of our needs, but over all the food was great and I get why April goes there so often.
On father's day, my hubby wanted to eat Sushi, so we ordered from this place in Williamsburg called Pacific 
Ocean House. It is a very small restaurant, and it was very casual and family friendly. There was a woman that worked there, maybe the owner, with her small daughter, the restaurant had toys, puzzles, story books and a toy kitchen. My daughter had fun while we waited as she played with a Spongebob Puzzle. One thing I didn't particularly like about the place was the strong smell, Gaby didn't particularly mind, or Elsie, but I did find the smell of food overpowering. The meal was a bit pricey, but I must say it was very good as well. I ordered the chicken teriyaki with Pork Gyoza and I must say the Gyoza are as delicious as the ones in Shiro, the sauce was amazing, and we had a very nice meal. The only thing I wished was that the vegetables included in the Chicken Teriyaki were different, as it had a lot of mushrooms and I am not fond of those either. But a very nice meal that was. Would come back any time.

Today was my fourth try with adventurous food, I still had the craving for noodles, so I decided to go to this Thai restaurant a block from my house and try it out. It is called Udom Thai and it is a very cozy place, the decoration is beautiful, and you feel very comfortable and peaceful in there, I totally loved the ambiance of it. The server was very attentive and friendly although she was wearing some short short ripped jeans and black leggins underneath it with a nice t-shirt on top. I felt her outfit did not match the place but I didn't really mind that much. I looked over the menu and decided to order something "safe", and I went with the chicken Pad Thai again. I was fantasizing about the yummy noodles and the delicious sauce and the bits of sprinkled peanuts on the side like in Sushi Tatsu II, and the vegetable gyoza and the amazing sauce, I even vowed to try the vegetable spring roll that I gave April last time. I ordered a coke and it came in a glass with a beautiful rose in the top of the straw, made out of Straw wrapper. I thought this was brilliant and I was impressed. Something so simple yet it gives it a very nice touch.

Rose in my soda :)

After this the server brings me the salad. And in all these places I have had meals in the past few weeks I have noticed that they give me a salad with a very interesting dressing, it's somewhat like french dressing, but thicker and a bit tangier. I really liked it in all the other restaurants up to now. Today I wasn't so lucky with the salad, first of all it was all lettuce and one slice of cucumber, the other salads had a bit more vegetable variety, yet that wasn't what turned me off to the salad, it was the dressing, it tasted like pure peanut butter.  Imagine taking half a cup of peanut butter and adding a teaspoon of french salad dressing and pouring it in your salad. It was too thick and to peanutty. I lifted the cucumber slice and tried to eat the lettuce that didn't have too much dressing, but I had to leave most of it on the plate. After that I receive the plate with the chicken Pad Thai, I don't know if it was the peanut butter dressing but I was already feeling a little bit nauseous, it might be just me, but I don't really like peanut butter at all, so I'm not a good judge on that. I take my chop sticks and take a piece of chicken in my mouth and I swear it tasted like rotten meat. I drank some of the soda, and some water and tried to wash down the flavor, I thought maybe I was still nauseous from the salad so I decide to keep eating, maybe it will grow on me the flavor, so I ate, and I ate, and I must say that after the 4th bite it did not taste bad anymore, but it started to taste too sweet, and after eating about half the plate, I had to stop.

Chicken Pad Thai

I tasted the vegetable gyoza that as you can see was a bit crunchy, like the spring roll, and they were both dumped into the sauce, as opposed to serving them on the side so that we can choose how much or how little sauce to put on it. The gyoza was still very good, and the spring roll was good too, but I couldn't eat the whole thing because it had too much sauce on it. After I finished, I paid my $10 and headed home, but I felt queasy and nauseous and with a stomachache for about an hour after I ate. I must say I won't be coming back to Udom Thai, It is a very beautiful place, much more than Pacific and Sushi Tatsu II, but the food was not my favorite.

Next time I am going to go to Gen instead, it's a sushi place right across the street from Udom Thai, and only one block from home. I can't believe how I have lived here over 5 years and I have never tried their food. I have bought sushi for my husband but I have never eaten anything there myself. It's also interesting how just doing one adventurous thing like eating at a Japanese Restaurant, something I had never tried before led me to embark in a full on adventure seeking out several other restaurants with similar foods.

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever been adventurous once and then followed with other adventurous things as well?