[Food Review] Lunch at Red Bowl

The mouthwatering memory of stir-fried eggplant comes back to "haunt" me. This time I return to Red Bowl to have it a again. Can this one vegetable really be that awesome?

My friend and I had several errands to run in a single day. The funny thing was that we were running around in the same borough. Each destination took a good hour to get to. By the time we reached the afternoon, we were very hungry. It was a cold day as well and I took no time to order. Though by the time I got the menu, it was proving hard to choose. The lunch specials were quite tempting.

Everything we ordered was $7.80 or $8.50. Of course there are options that costed more. What's great about Red Bowl is that you can make your own combos, pair a protein of your choice with a vegetable of your liking. I picked the beef and eggplant plate. We also ordered a bowl of pork offal rice sheets soup and a Chaozhou styled chicken and squid stir-fry. Can I say that we made some great choices that day?

I already said that the eggplant is tempting and indeed it was delicious. Tender beef slices and fried eggplant doused in sauce. The Chaozhou stir-fry may look bland, white on white protein, but plenty of flavor. Fresh squid and moist chicken. What's nice is that they had some greens under the protein that soaked in all the sauce. The rice sheet soup consists of smooth rice sheets and blanched offal. The offal itself is bland because it was not seasoned at all. I guess its good points is that it had been cleaned well leaving no odd tastes. The broth was lightly flavored leaving the eater to decide whether they want more sodium or not.

This was when I discovered something nice about Red Bowl. Other than the hot barley tea that was refilled regularly, Red Bowl had a really nice house made hot sauce. Dipping my offal pieces in soy sauce wasn't enough, I wanted more. The hot sauce was spicy, but also had sweetness and a little acidity. It reminded me a lot of homemade hot sauce where you can still eat the minced peppers and their seeds. Affordable and filling, I will give Red Bowl another visit!