tanakasan: asian comfort food.

Recently, my main squeeze and I had the pleasure of visiting Tom Douglas' newest restaurant: TanakaSan, located on the corner of 6th and Lenora at the lower level of the Via 6 apartments. An Asian fusion take on classic comfort foods with a slight Midwest twist (the chef is from Wisconsin!) - we were thrilled with the menu choices. Below are a few snippets of our brunch:

curried lamb dumplings

black cardamom, tamarind, green papaya

caramelized coconut beef

jasmine rice, coconut sambal, fried egg

pastarami

slowly cooked pork, hash browns, caraway, cabbage, poached egg, dijon mustard

My favorite dish had to be the coconut beef - loved the sambal relish that was creamy, sweet and provided great contrast to the spices and salty yet savory flavor of the beef. The jasmine rice had a beautiful aroma and was fluffy. Note, that it had been several months since I last had a bowl of rice... and for a girl who grew up on a bowl per day, that's a toughie. I was in heaven with every bite. 

Afterwards, we ventured to Assembly Hall (also owned by Tom Douglas) which is a little juice/smoothie/coffee place on the same floor as TanakaSan where we grabbed a light refreshment. My drink of choice - the tropical spice - which had a blend of pineapple, orange, lime and cayenne. My main squeeze opted for a more hearty drink - the restoration smoothie, featuring banana, spinach, pineapple, coconut and ginger. What I love most about Assembly Hall is that the juice and smoothies are done right in front of you. Some juice stands already have the juice pressed, but when I ordered my tropical spice - it was squeezed right before my eyes... just the way I like it!

Can't wait to come back and try more of the yumminess!

xoxo