It’s time to have fun with firefighters at Z’Tejas Southwestern Grill in Costa Mesa.
Now through Sept. 23, Z’Tejas is raising money for the Costa Mesa Firefighters Widows & Orphans Fund. Sales from their special Chile Fest menu,patterned after the famous Chile Festival in Hatch, N.M.,and some specialty beverages will go toward the cause.
The special selections feature novel tastes and flavors derived from an assortment of specialty chile peppers. Also on tap are fresh citrus and jalapeno mint margaritas made with premium Sauza Hornitos tequila as well as Corona beers.
This year’s Chile Fest menu includes a chipotle shrimp salad tossed with oranges, red onion, goat cheese and chipotle-mint dressing, green chile chicken posole (a traditional, hearty stew), citrus-thyme fish served with green chile rice, green chile enchiladas prepared in the tender barbacoa style (barbecued and pulled apart by hand), and a Mexican chocolate brownie sundae topped with pumpkin-seed brittle and ancho dulce de leche sauce. Prices run about $5.99 to $10.99, with market price for catch-of-the-day.
As part of the fun, the Third Annual Fire Hunk Bachelor Bid will take place on Sept. 27 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. This is one of the most popular events of the year. Single females are encouraged to “fan the flames” at the bachelor auction. Money from this also goes toward the Widows & Orphans Fund.
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Z’Tejas: select menu going toward good cause |
On a general note, Z’Tejas Southwestern Grill offers a wide array of fresh, flavorful and innovative menu items inspired by culinary influences from Louisiana, Texas, California and Mexico. The restaurant’s interior features an exhibition kitchen, private dining room, mahogany bar, wrought iron detailing, handcrafted tile work, copper accents, jewel-toned fabric lined booths and flattering amber-colored lighting. Al fresco dining is available on the restaurant’s large heated patio.
Z’Tejas Southwestern Grill is open daily for lunch and dinner. Happy hour features half-priced appetizers and drink specials.
The restaurant is at South Coast Plaza: 3333 S. Bristol in Costa Mesa. Call (714) 979-7469.
Authentic Japanese
We’d first heard about Sushi Shibucho from friends, two Japanese and one American, who have excellent palates and knacks for finding authentic ethnic restaurants.
As we cruised West 19th Street, we soon came upon a row of nondescript storefronts,a liquor store, a discount music store and a free-standing Thai restaurant at one end of the strip mall. Tucked far away in the other corner was Sushi Shibucho.
Sushi Shibucho serves only sushi and sashimi; no combo plates as in all the Americanized places. The sushi chefs greeted us congenially and we took one of the three blond wood tables in the small space.
The restaurant is small. There are only 10 sushi bar chairs and eight places at small tables. Decor is simple. There’s the sushi bar, some copper clad sconces and a few Japanese art prints on the wall.
There were only Japanese customers in the restaurant, all comfortably conversing with each other and the chefs. Conversation was a little difficult for us since the staff of three,two chefs and the woman waiting on our table,were more comfortable speaking Japanese than English.
In the end, it made no difference. We managed to ask the chef if he had any fish cheeks on hand. He proffered a meaty collar of white fish instead and we accepted. We were offered a sheet of paper that portrayed three kinds of plates offering an array of tastes in addition to one of the familiar sheets that give a list of the available sushi and sashimi. That’s the whole menu.
The fish collar came and was simply delicious, baked to perfection. Two plump chunks of freshwater eel further cemented our belief that we were in good culinary hands. We ordered a chirashi bowl,a variety of sashimi atop a layer of sushi rice. That too was most pleasing.
We moved on to some a la carte sushi. Clam, tamago (egg cake) and a plum and shiso leaf roll. The first two are known to us and were satisfying here, but the plum/shiso roll was a new experience. It was a slather of pickled plums (a popular item in most Asian cultures) and shiso leaf (an herb similar in taste to a mix of fennel, mint and citrus) rolled inside sushi rice. It’s a different kind of savory sensation and a nice variation between the bites of fish and shellfish.
There are pickle rolls, herring eggs, gizzard shad, amberjack rolls and more kinds of sushi and sashimi we’ve never tried before. It will require more visits.
Dinner is served nightly except Monday, with lunch Wednesday through Friday. Sushi mostly costs in the $4 to $5 range. Sushi Shibucho: 590 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa, (949) 642-2677.
Chinese Gem
About three decades ago, we used to go to Westminster to have an endless selection of Chinese dim sum (the little dishes of food served from carts rolled from table to table) and an occasional Chinese dinner in one of the few well-known establishments. One of those was Seafood Paradise, a big place half a mile west of Magnolia Street on Westminster Boulevard that originally put the stamp on extravagant dim sum dining.
Then Little Saigon exploded with great restaurants. We recently found ourselves back in the same dull-looking shopping mall that still houses Seafood Paradise. But we were there for another reason: Peking, a family-run place acclaimed for its homemade noodle dishes and its beef roll.
Before you go, you must first rid yourself of all expectations about the restaurant’s atmosphere. Just park toward the front of the lot and look for the Peking sign, which is the only exterior embellishment. The inside doesn’t have that much more in the way of decor. There are a few round and square tables, a hostess/cashier standing by the front door and one mirrored wall to make the small space seem larger. That’s it.
But some wonderful aromas waft through the air and the mostly Asian diners are digging into platters laden with Mandarin style dishes, many of them incorporating rough cut, fresh noodles.
The menu offers two sections of soup noodles and drier style noodles mingled with your selected ingredients. You must request the homemade noodles that are toothsome and flavorful on their own and they rise to new heights when combined with a large selection of meat, fish and poultry and vegetable combos. Otherwise, you’re going to get commercial, boxed pasta and that’s not the reason you’re here.
I’m hungry again thinking of homemade noodles with pork, sesame sauce and sauteed shrimp or as a combo of vegetables and meats. In soup, I like the noodles with the braised beef or as a spicy meat and vegetable potage.
I adore green onion pancakes. They are made from simple flour dough infused with a lot of chopped scallions. The dough is rolled into a long, thin baton, then formed into a spiral circle and finally, flattened and rolled out to about a quarter-inch thickness. Just before serving, the pancake is quickly fried on both sides. Peking has come up with a very flavorful way to have them by taking succulently roasted beef and rolling it inside an onion pancake and then cooking it. They can be sliced into rounds that deliver taste that’s up to the task of getting itself plenty of publicity.
There are some other authentic highlights that also reside on the big menu. I highly recommend the chubby pan-fried dumplings (10 of them per order), salt and pepper shrimp (without shells), shao lom pao (steamed dumplings with both meatball and broth inside), green leeks with pork, chicken with black bean sauce, steamed fish and beef with pea pods.
For anyone who is not into new adventures in dining, this menu also is jam packed with all the mainstream dishes that we find on Chinese menus everywhere.
Lunch and dinner served daily except Monday. Noodle dishes $5.50 to $8.75; other dishes range about $5.75 to $11.95.
Peking is at 8566 Westminster Blvd., Westminster, (714) 893-3020.
