NoVa Sushi & Ramen Explorers - Plus International Foods!

Join us for the Chef's Endless Table for a taste Yunnan cuisine at Yunnan by Potomac!

FROM THE RESTAURANT:
$49 / guest
2 hour limit
Whole table participation required
One Selection per section, per person, per round of ordering
Takeaway containers for leftover food not provided
Preventable food waste charged at a la carte pricing

The province of Yunnan is a beautiful diverse region in southwest China, offering a variety of unique flavors and textures in its distinctive cuisine – not your typical Chinese food. The soul food of Yunnan is mixian - a slippery, light and almost fluffy rice noodle - which is prepared with braised meats, rich broths, pickled vegetables, and sweet, savory and spicy sauces.
As mixian is the bedrock of Yunnan cuisine, at Yunnan By Potomac, mixian noodle bowls are at the core of our menu and are complimented by a variety of reimagined and seasonally inspired xiaochi small plates, bao buns, jiaozi dumplings, shaokao barbecue, tiandian sweets, and large format Family Feasts.

From Washington Post:

The restaurant is one of the precious few outlets serving Yunnan cuisine in the metro area and the first one I recall that doesn’t hedge its bets by also offering up orange chicken, beef and broccoli, and other staples of the Chinese-American cookbook. That fact, all by itself, makes Yunnan by Potomac something of a Shangri-La in the DMV.

We tend to think of moderation as this sweet spot between excess and self-denial. But there are times when I think moderation is something more complicated, like an ability to moderate your expectations of others, including those serving a cuisine still relatively new to Washington. Yunnan by Potomac asks you to revel in a bowl of noodles, without burdening it with the expectations of something that it’s not. Yunnan cuisine is not Sichuan cuisine, and it’s not Dai cuisine — the latter with ties to the flamethrowing traditions of northern Thailand — even though Yunnan cooking may incorporate elements of both.

At Yunnan by Potomac, mixian (roughly pronounced “me-she-yen”) is the slippery base for bowls, some dry and some swimming in house-made broths, all requiring a vigorous stir before you dig in. Until you learn the particular alchemy of Li’s kitchen — led, incidentally, by her daughter-in-law, Jia Cui — you might take one look at the colorful bowls and think they will explode on contact with the tongue. Several combinations, including the pork-forward Little Pot Mixian and the chicken-heavy Grandma Parou Mixian, find red chile oil floating on the surface, almost ready to burst into flames. But these bowls are built for comfort, not destruction.

In fact, if there’s a trait common to the three broth-based mixians, it’s this: The soft noodles tend to be bashful. They frequently refuse to pick up the other ingredients, which mingle and concentrate at the base of the bowl. Your wooden spoon then becomes your friend. You’ll need it to suck down the bottom-dwelling broths, where the pickled mustard stems will really start to pop and the chile oil will finally ignite. The noodles in the drier preparations exhibit no such shyness, boldly flirting with every ingredient in sight. The Liang Mixian Salad is the single finest dish in the house, its black vinegar, chile oil and sweet Chinese soy illuminating the rest of the bowl-mates.

The small-plates menu, including a separate one for seasonal bites, has a few dishes that will impress you with their simplicity. The clean, watery crunch of sliced cucumbers is offset with a savory swirl of sweet soybean paste cut with chile vinegar, the combination totally irresistible. A small plate of shredded Asian pear and pickled radish, both invigorated with lemon juice and zest, pops with tartness and sweetness in equal measures, a Chinese lemonade that you eat with chopsticks.

Join us for the fabulous curry, ramen, and more at Karé Bar in Chantilly!

From Northern Virginia Magazine:

Some of the best dishes in the world are fairly recent innovations. The Vietnamese banh mi, for example, appeared only in the 1950s thanks to the introduction of the French baguette in Ho Chi Minh City and the innovative thinking of the Le family. Japanese curry is a bit older, tracing back to the late 19th century, when British sailors enchanted with well-spiced Indian sauces brought those traditions back to another part of Asia. Eventually, Korea also created its own adaptation of the thick, flavorful gravy.

Score another one for the global food community. Actually, score two. Kare Bar opened in Chantilly on Metrotech Drive, making it easy to head to Shilla Bakery or Chateau de Chantilly after lunch or dinner. Score three?

Of course, I wouldn’t be keeping score at all if the food weren’t excellent. It is, as is the caring service and bright atmosphere. Start with something uniquely Japanese like monkfish liver with ponzu or a grilled hamachi collar, or stick to an old reliable like the juicy chicken or seafood dumplings, united by a crispy lacework of fried skirt.

I tried both the Japanese and Korean curries. The latter is labeled as “spicy” on the menu, but didn’t seem to have any more heat than the Japanese curry. I recommend sticking to the Japanese sauce for its more robust flavor. Order it with the meaty, crispy donkatsu (pork cutlet curry) or the hamburger steak curry, essentially a well-seared dish of Salisbury steak.

Whichever curry you order, it will come with sticky rice topped with a crisp-edged over-easy egg and a slew of veggies, ready to be drenched in curry. A shredded cabbage salad is bathed in an exceptionally appealing creamy sesame dressing.

As winter sets in, there are few more fulfilling meals than a rib-sticking curry. This is the place that will keep you feeling like there’s no need to hibernate.