R wanted to do something different Saturday night. She wanted to go bowling! And thus, we ended up at North Bowl. When we first got there, they told us it would be a 90 minute wait for a lane. HA! That was hilarious. But in reality, it ended up being more like 9 minutes. Perhaps North Bowl needs a new clock. The bowling was fun, and mostly due to H/A’s out of this world bowling technique. I can’t even describe it. One has to experience it in person. C wanted tater tots and that’s just what he got. What can I say? They were tater tots. Good tater tots. Crunchy, yet not greasy at all.

There’s a vending machine there, with all kinds of random and kitchy stuff. What kind of stuff? Well let me show you. Gummy steak.
Gummy bacon.

I know I was just in chinatown, but somehow I ended up there again the following night. After being at the World Cafe Live, but knowing that I did not want to eat their mediocre food, we started wandering. I wanted to go to Mercato a tiny bit, but there was a wait. So we wandered some more, and ended up in Chinatown. It was a tie between Rangoon and Sang Kee, and for reasons that do not need to be discussed on this here blog, we went with Sang Kee Peking Duck House. Now there was a wait here too, but it was too late, and I was too hungry to walk around anywhere else. It didn’t end up being a very long wait. Lucky for my growling stomach.

B went with the beef chow fun in black bean sauce. If you like black bean sauce, then you’ll like this. If you don’t, then you should pass. And ho fun noodles? Who doesn’t like ho fun noodles? An extremely thick rice noodle with gravy on it. Oh my word. I ate a bunch of onions out of this, because I love onions and my dish did not have any.
So my dish? House Special ho fun noodle. When I was trying to decide what to order, I saw a picture of what I wanted on the menu. I didn’t know what it was so I asked the waiter and he said it was the house special pan fried noodle. I’m not that into the crunchy pan fried noodle, so I asked for ho fun noodles instead and he said sure. Yey! This is everything I want in a dish. Ho fun noodles, some kind of chinese greens, chicken, shrimp, roast pork, and lots and lots of gravy. Everything about this dish is perfect. Seriously, it’s just perfect. Well, maybe not the chicken. I didn’t need that to be in there. I wish it was double the portion of the roast pork instead. I live for Sang Kee’s roast pork. Also not on the menu were these lemongrass wings. B had gotten these before, they weren’t on the menu anymore, nor were they a special, but he asked for them, and he received. It took awhile for them to come out (our waiter warned us), but they were worth the wait. These things were hot and juicy and slippery delicious. These are so much better than any boring buffalo wing.

Service was good, nothing special. It’s very factory-esque here. Your food comes out extremely fast. This was my first time eating at the actual Sang Kee. I live near the Sang Kee Asian Bistro and go there all the time. But I think the chinatown one is better.

J wanted yakisoba. And I could not fail. I don’t mind failing. Not ever. I’ve done it plenty of times in my life. But when it comes to food, how could I fail? It was not going to happen. I searched and searched and searched, but really only came up with one option – Yakitori Boy. So off we went.

So don’t get the wrong idea, Yakitori Boy does not have yakisoba on their menu. But that wasn’t going to stop me. It was friday night, a bit on the later side, we had no problem getting a table. Our server? Oh boy, was she a character. And by character I mean yakker. She just talked and talked and talked and talked. Whew! So much that we just found her to be comical, even though she was beyond earnest and just trying really hard to earn her pay. Gosh, I wish I could remember her name.

Anyhoo, I got the tempura soba. I think I had the tempura udon last time. I remembered it was good, so I thought I’d get the soba variety this time. This time around, the shrimp tempura actually came with my soup. Last time, it game separately, probably due to poor planning. This was just fine. I find these japanese noodle soups to be so simple, yet tasty and hearty. And I love soba noodles just as much as I love the thicker udon noodles. And just like last time (sorry I’m so boring folks), I got the tako yaki. Do you remember these? They’re balls of dough with octopus on the inside, topped with some sauces and bonito shavings. These were good, as usual. But I think they may have been a little undercooked. Maybe not, but I wished that the dough was a bit more cooked on the inside. Still good though. So I told you that yakisoba was not on the menu, but we asked our eager beaver waitress if we could order that. She asked the kitchen and they said yes. So J ordered beef yakisoba. Then she came back and said chicken or pork. So he went with the chicken. So when it came out, it tasted like yakisoba, but it looked like one hot mess. The noodles weren’t really noodles, but broken noodle bits. There wasn’t a noodle longer than half an inch. Presentation wise, it was quite tragic. I guess that’s what we get for forcing someone to make something they don’t normally make. But it tasted fine. I ate a bunch of the cabbage, because I love me some cabbage.
As for what else J ordered, well, it was this little fish. This little whole fish. He had wanted the sea bass, but they had just ran out. Boo. So one of the specials of the night was this whole aji, which is some kind of mackerel. It was small, it was bony, and it was fishy. It was very much from the sea, and smelled and tasted like it. My mom would have loved this. J? Not so much. But A for effort in trying to get as much meat off of this little sucker as humanly possible.
This light fixture? I just liked it. I like how this place looks – very clean lines, simple, lots of dark wood. It was a really fun night. The food was good, if not amusing, and the service was also good, despite our waitress – little miss talkerson / little miss overattentive.