Kristy Yang

​Mango's Noodle House is not my, nor your, parent's kind of pho place. The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs reverberating from the speakers tipped me off. The restaurant's contemporary décor matches the music, but the food isn't quite as progressive.

That's not to say that the presentation isn't pretty; it's just that once you get past the hipster music and trappings, the food could be considered the same as any you'd find in your average Vietnamese eatery. The catch is that Mango boasts quite the ambitious selection. With a menu including varieties of pho, pork chop rice plates, wonton noodle soup, Korean barbecued ribs and sweet and sour pork all crammed onto one page, one could say that there's something for everyone. Oh, and there has also been the recent addition of sushi. (Of course there has.) As was evident by the bustling lunch crowd on the day of my visit, this multifarious formula is succeeding, despite some conspicuously steep prices.

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​After months of drooling over the hedonistically obscene images of burgers, tacos and other meat and carb pornography my friends had been sending me, I finally had the chance to check out the source of their obsession: LA Burger.Along with a whimsical selection of traditionally western burgers, the restaurant, from fraternal owners Ben and John Lee, have put together a menu that's equal parts playful and traditional, offering Korean-inspired tacos and sandwiches.
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Photos by Kristy Yang

​Three years have gone by since Saigon Block first opened to mass crowds, and although the hysteria has died down, it continues to be a must-go destination for fans of the restaurant's two most popular dishes: the indulgent seven courses of beef and the beastly baked whole catfish.

The craze over Saigon Block can be a bit mystifying for a couple of reasons. Although the restaurant is located in Richardson, it isn't exactly in an Asian-centric neighborhood. There is also the issue of pricing: Saigon Block is not cheap. The menu pricing is arguably the main reason there are two camps when it comes to the restaurant: the Vietnamese-majority loyalists who don't mind dropping the pretty penny, and the bemused who find the menu to be ghastly overpriced. I'm not quite sure where I fall.

After having listened to several differing opinions, I debated whether I wanted to spend what I kept hearing was a ridiculous amount of money on some Vietnamese food. After some begging and pleading to the controller of the City of Ate purse-strings (the things I do for this blog), I was given the green light to discover whether the legendary tales of hundreds-strong queues, three hour waits, and $30 catfish are justified.

For $32, I sampled the medium-sized baked catfish. Admittedly, it was a healthy sized creature and could easily feed three, maybe four people. A large catfish is $38 and extra large is $42.

Although the catfish is baked, it would be misguided to think that it's a healthy lifestyle choice. The whole fish is smothered in both fresh spring onions and fried onions. The crispiness of the catfish skin indicates that the fish is either basted with oil repeatedly while baking or it's flash fried at some point. The accouterments of the dish are rice paper; a bowl of water to wet the paper; lettuce; cucumber; pickled carrots and daikon; Vietnamese fresh herbs; vermicelli noodles; and an unstrained anchovy dipping sauce called mam nem. The diner then rolls up the catfish along with the vegetables and noodles into a wet sheet of rice paper and dips their spring roll-like creation into the sweet and pungent mam nem. Between the hands-on festivities and the BYOB factor, it is no wonder there are always so many big parties and family gatherings at Saigon Block on any given day.

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Kristy Yang

Chosun's beef shortrib lunch box.

​The boyfriend recently was moved to a different position at work, one with a shorter lunch break. So we decided to check out some of the quicker and better Asian-restaurant lunch deals around the Dallas area. Along with our own personal lunch spots, I asked some friends to contribute their favorites to the list. If I'm missing any of your neighborhoods, feel free to share in the comments.

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Kristy Yang

R&G Lounge's humongous Dungeness crab. We'd hate to see the one that got away.

​(Here's part two of travelin' woman Kristy Yang's Walk the Really Long Wok from the Bay Area. Coming up shortly, something about Asian food closer to home. Check out last week's California Wok here.)

San Francisco's Chinatown is the largest Chinatown outside of Asia; established in the mid-1800s, it's also the oldest one of its kind in North America. Its earliest settlers were from Guangdong, a southern province in China, and many ended up working on building our railroads. "Officially," the city of San Francisco granted a part of the land to these early Chinese in order for them to establish a neighborhood; however, the truth is that this was only the beginning of years of enforced segregation and racial tension to come.

Drought, backbreaking factory labor, overcrowding and the Cultural Revolution would result in an influx of immigrants from Hong Kong in the 1960's. The irony is they would be entering an even more crowded situation in San Francisco's Chinatown, as it was fast becoming one of the densest neighborhoods in the region.

Today, about two-thirds of the city's Chinese population is crowded into its two major streets, Grant and Stockton, and all their little alleyways. It's crammed, but this is why I've always loved San Francisco's Chinatown. The neighborhood may be overcrowded and it may be considered one of the lowest socio-economic areas of the city, but it's both impeccably clean and safe. Granted, like in any major metropolis, I wouldn't go roaming around at night, but getting lost through one of the myriads of alleys and discovering all the hidden culture during the daylight is one of the most fulfilling things to do in the city.

On my recent visit, however, there was no time for Arcadian drifting. When the boyfriend and I set out to San Francisco last week, we had two absolute "musts" on our list: crab and Chinese. We decided to knock both off from our list in one fell swoop at R&G Lounge.

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Photos by Kristy Yang

Filipino-style pigs feet. Yes, you will love them.

​(Walk the Wok correspondent Kristy Yang has been taking some very long walks lately, so we thought we'd have her tell us about Asian food elsewhere. Presumably, City of Aters do step out of the In-N-Out line now and then and travel.)

Any trip to the San Francisco Bay area would be remiss without an Asian cuisine tour. Along with having one of the better Chinatowns in North America, the region also boasts one of the densest Filipino populations in the States, namely Daly City, the self-proclaimed "Pinoy Capital."

The boyfriend and I recently returned from the Northern California metropolis for a visit with his Filipino family. Whilst visiting his eccentric Uncle Tony in the seaside town of Pacifica, we were told there'd be no Goldilocks for us. (Goldilocks is a popular chain of Filipino food and bake shops.) Instead, we were shuttled to a recently opened Filipino restaurant in the neighborhood.

Juan dela Cruz Asian Cuisine -- or J.A.C. for short -- is a small family restaurant in a shopping center on the border of Pacifica and Daly City. Although its chef comes from a fine dining and hotel restaurant background, the restaurant specializes in hearty Filipino family sized dishes. To our surprise, the boyfriend's cousins informed us that the Bay area is now chock full of fancier Filipino establishments that serve tiny, bite-sized tapas dishes. Fortunately for us, there's nothing dainty about the food at J.A.C. Good thing we had come to San Francisco with murderous intentions.

Barbecue tadyang or shortribs: Have you hugged a Filipino (or Spaniard) lately?

​Over lunch, Uncle Tony regaled us with the history of Filipino-Americans in the SF Bay Area and how many came to settle in Daly City after World War II because of its proximity to several military bases. During the war, Filipinos were recruited (namely into the Navy) to help fight the Japanese. After the war, a few Filipino soldiers and their families settled in the more reasonably priced Daly City. Soon after, many began to follow, wanting to create a community away from their native home and breaking the more migratory nature of past Filipino immigrants. Today, more than 40 percent of the population in the city is Filipino-American, creating one of the densest Filipino populated towns in the United States. If I got any of that wrong, sorry, Uncle Tony. I may have been slightly distracted by the food.

Yes, the food. Before the meal, the boyfriend, his cousin Maria and I had put in two hours at the gym, and I don't think it made a dent. We feasted on bistek, large slices of beef that swam in a sauce of vinegar and garlic; a heavenly barbecue tadyang or shortribs, glazed in finger-licking sweet, red sauce; coconut milk bicolano-style cooked medley of pumpkin, bitter melon, and okra; and finally, the mackdaddy of all hedonistic Filipino food, crispy pata.

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Dan Kim, president and chief executive officer of Red Mango, in a photo from the company's MySpace page.

​It's undeniable that social networking has changed the landscape of food. How we eat, view and hear about food has been dramatically altered thanks to websites like Yelp, Twitter and Facebook. Only a few years ago, the process of marketing and discovering new foods and restaurants was reliant on a few magazines, infrequent newspaper reviews, the random website or plain old word of mouth.

What makes social media so intriguing is the even playing field it provides. It's an equal opportunity platform of marketing for everyone, from the giant corporation to the small start-up. Social media and its relationship with the food industry is hardly a new phenomenon, but its affect has recently impacted our local food scene.

If ever there was a poster child for a social media success story in the food industry, it would be Dallas-based Red Mango. Owner Dan Kim was recently invited to speak at this month's New York Times small business summit. The invitation was undoubtedly extended because of his savvy social media marketing campaigns that have ratcheted up to 300,000 Facebook fans and 120 nationwide branches of his yogurt shop.

When Kim first started his business in 2007, social media seemed like common sense. It was a cost-effective way to connect with the market, and it allowed the company to, as Kim put it, "develop a deeper understanding of our customers."

Kim attributes much of the company's growth to the instant access he has to his customers. Having the direct line to fans also gives the company real-time feel for the market's pulse and desires. When asked if he saw the capacities of social media hitting a wall down the road, he admits that traditional marketing will probably be in Red Mango's future, but not anytime soon. "Social networks will continue to play an increasingly important role in defining a consumer's relationship with brands. I do not believe it will hit a wall. Rather, many more 'traditional' walls will be broken with the continued proliferation of social networks, mobile handsets and the number of consumers who will embrace both."

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​Several years ago, the discovery of the carcinogenic compound 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol in soy sauce was generating concern throughout parts of Europe and Asia. A United Kingdom study directed attention to the matter in 2001.

It turned out that low levels of 3-MCPD had been present in processed foods for decades and had been acknowledged by regulating food and drug agencies in different countries. In small doses, the compound is an inescapable evil of processed foods.

In large doses, 3-MCDP has been linked to cancer and infertility in lab rats. What made the 2001 study of the organic compound so alarming were the dangerously high levels being found in several brands of non-fermented soy and oyster sauces. More >>

Kristy Yang

Go ahead and take a big bite, tough guy. It's just chicken.

​There are spicy foods, and then there is 1 Plus Chicken. Holy moly.

I'd been meaning to try the Korean fried chicken joint for some time, and the opportunity finally presented itself this weekend.

It's situated next to the popular K-town watering hole, Bar A, and I was always disappointed that 1 Plus Chicken had such early closing hours. Eleven p.m. seemed very conservative considering it sat next to a bar that spits out drunks in need of some greasy cuisine.

Well, I think I've decoded the reasoning behind the closing time: This chicken should not be consumed within five hours of bedtime.

Even the most ardent of spicy-foods fans might have some digestion issues. The boyfriend -- a connoisseur of spicy substance abuse -- writhed and burped in pain the whole night. When I asked him why he partook in so many pieces of poultry, he replied, "Because it tasted so good going down."

Indeed, 1 Plus Chicken is tasty. It isn't quite the crack that is BonChon Chicken, but it's unique to Dallas and worthy of a try. The regular fried chicken comes in both spicy and mild flavors and can be ordered in five-, seven-, 10- and 20-piece increments, starting at $7.95 for the five-piece. The picturesquely golden-fried chicken has a tantalizing, yet deceivingly innocuous appearance. There is no hint of red or pink coloring to give warning that you're about to bite into a batter-encrusted dragon's fireball. As soon as the teeth sink into that thick crunchy layer of crust and through the tender, juicy meat, the wrath of jalapeño is felt instantaneously. I was too busy focusing on not swallowing my tongue after the first few bites to be able to tell whether the clandestine jalapeño water was a part of the batter or had been a part of the brine. The consensus amongst my fellow diners was the batter.

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Bitter melon is good for what ails you, if you can stand it.

​As exhibited by my tribute to junk foods post last month, I don't always have the best buying habits whenever I make my Asian grocery store visits. Fortunately, aside from the occasional evil treats, Asian market aisles can also harbor several items associated with very useful health benefits. Here's a quick list to try for your next visit:

Bitter Gourd aka Bitter Melon
Benefits: This aptly named vine fruit is not messing around when it comes to getting to the point with its moniker. Very bitter tasting, this fruit -- mainly used in soups and stir fries -- aids in digestion and helps with constipation. It might leave an unappealing taste in the mouth for novices, but many Asian diners love this stuff for its refreshing and healthful qualities. This is truly some sort of wonder melon for many as its used in Eastern medicine to fight against malaria, diabetes and various viral diseases.

Cons: It is very much an acquired taste. Bitter melon should be avoided during pregnancy, and its red seeds can be toxic.

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