WOKCANO

Greetings Foodies!  It has been a while since I've posted, but that hasn't let me stop eating, I assure you.  (Note to self: just answered my own question about why am I not losing weight...but I digress). Back in April, I was on stay-cation.  Stay-cation (for those of you that don't know) is when you are on vacation from work but cannot actually afford to go anywhere.  That said, I had a great relaxing time, and caught up with some friends in and around the Los Angeles area.  I had to return some books to the library and noticed WOKCANO and decided that I would check it out.  I contacted my buddy Dairenn who works in the area and asked him to please please come eat with me so I don't have to eat alone join me.

WOKCANO http://www.wokcanorestaurant.com is (yet another) Asian-Fusion restaurant chain which is becoming very popular.  They have several locations in Los Angeles. Pictured above is where I went with Dairenn, and Angeleno foodies will immediately recognize this as downtown Los Angeles at 800 W. 7th Street (between Figueroa and Flower).  Non-foodies will immediately recognize it as that place next to Macys.

We were seated immediately and after briefly catching up with the hellos, how are you's, how's life and here are those books and that DVD I'd promised to lend you's, we ordered.

The Miso Soup was okay, but as I have discovered in many restaurants these days, it was TOO SALTY !! As my good friend Susan down south would say "honey, it had more salt than Carter had liver pills".  Maybe if there were less salt in Miso Soup, we might all liver little longer?? Just saying....

Oh, but OH OH OH the next course completely redeemed WOKCANO in my eyes. Oh for the love of all things holy (and I'm not religious so it had to be good for me to say that), behold the GARDEN SALAD.  It wasn't just the salad that sent me into a When-Harry-Met-Sally-I'll-Have-What-She's-Having moment, it was the dressing !!  The menu described a "Ginger Dressing", and it certainly contained ginger, but there was something else in that dressing that gave it a creaminess and a slight sweetness that was the absolute BEST dressing on a salad I have ever eaten.  The salad was light and crisp and I practically just put my face down onto the plate and just noshed away.  All this excitement for $5 !!

When I finally regained my composure (I'm so going back there just for the salad) I ordered the Roasted Duck ($18).  I really enjoyed this.  It was cooked perfectly, and had just the right amount of crispness on the skin. It came with a bowl of rice and some nicely-blanched broccoli.  By the way, the serving was huge, and I had to do what all classy foodies do and take it home in a box.

Dairenn ordered the Orange Crispy Chicken ($13) which was also delicious.

Here is Dairenn, giving his dish a hearty "thumbs up".

With our drinks, our bill came to $40, and for the amount of food (and the salad dressing) it was very good value for money.  WOKCANO is a great place to have lunch with folks and given the quality of the food (salty miso aside) I would recommend this as a place to perhaps impress a date.  Our waitress Jen was an absolute delight.  I highly recommend WOKCANO.

By the way, Dairenn is a very talented musician/singer/songwriter, and he has just released an album. (seriously, all my friends are more talented than me, all I do is eat).  So if you feel like some cool new music in your life, check out his music samples here http://www.starfiremusic.com and then (in my best Emeril Lagasse voice) Go buy yourself a couple of hundred copies will ya?


Next up on the review?  Mexican food with my friend Karla !!  Stay tuned.....