Cultural Report One

Pei Wei Asian Diner Essay

 

The restaurant I chose was Pei Wei Asian Diner.  The reason I picked this place was because of all in one great exploration of five Asian countries China, Japan, Thailand, Korea, and Vietnam.  Pei Wei Asian Diner has over thirty five fresh ingredients used in their dishes daily. It was my first time so I decided to try different things in the menu. I went with my sister and us all order different dishes to try the food.

 

First of all, Pei Wei Asian Diner offers a modest selection of freshly prepared Asian items influenced by the cuisines of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand. All of Pei Wei's dishes are made to order and offer customization. Pei Wei has 190 locations in the US and three international locations. Pei Wei offers different menu items and a different dining atmosphere than its parent, P.F. Chang's. Pei Wei features a counter service, coffee bar, where guests order from a cashier, and the food is brought out to the table, a style known in the industry as fast casual. Pei Wei has a dedicated door in the restaurant and cashiers to offer take away food orders. The nutritional information provided is a compilation of product testing, data provided by an independent testing facility commissioned by Pei Wei, combined with the nutrient data from Pei Wei suppliers, the USDA and nutrient database analysis of Pei Wei recipes. From time to time, Pei Wei may have to obtain products from different or substitute suppliers which may alter the nutritional information contained herein. Menu item ingredients are based upon recipes and portions, but variations may occur based upon ordinary differences inherent in the preparation, local suppliers, region of the country, and season of the year. When you walk in you they greet you and they tell you everything about their dishes and just the smells of the spices and the aromas of garlic and vegetables you know the food is going to be great a little sweet and spicy kick in each dish. The restaurant looks nice and very elegant inside and they have a line to order and sit down for dining and the order line is for take-out orders.

Second of all, I started with some appetizers Vietnamese chicken salad rolls the ingredients are Napa cabbage, ginger, mint, carrots, peanuts, celery, scallions, onions, and black mushrooms, glass rice noodles, sweet Chile pepper, lime vinaigrette, chicken, butter lettuce wrapped in rice paper. The smell was like a salad with lemon flavor and the texture was soft but rubbery and crunchy with the peanuts with a sweet Chile pepper sauce and the other sauce has a peanut butter flavor. The spring rolls started in Vietnam and over the years different countries started making them as dishes. Vegetables Spring rolls are a large variety of filled, rolled appetizers. The kind of wrapper, fillings, and cooking technique used, as well as the name, vary considerably within this large area. Depending on region, salad rolls were made differently. Some vegetarian families make vegetarian spring rolls rather than meat spring rolls. However, the typical ingredients include slivers of shrimp, sometimes chicken or tofu, fresh herbs like basil and cilantro, lettuce, cucumbers, sometimes fresh garlic chives, rice vermicelli, all wrapped in moistened rice paper, served at room temperature with dipping fish sauce or a peanut sauce are all common sauces when eating spring rolls Fresh Vietnamese Spring rolls can be made at home or found at Vietnamese restaurant and some Grocery Retail stores.

The second appetizer was a crab wonton that is fried and the smell is fried and sweet Chile pepper the ingredients are crab meat, cream cheese, scallions, onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms, bell peppers in a sweet and sour Chile pepper sauce. The tips of the wonton wore crispy and the middle part was soft and creamy taste. The sweet Chile pepper sauce that comes with the crab wonton gives it a lot of flavor and its texture was just a soft crispy fried wonton. The wontons are much known from the Japan country that is where they started making them as a meal. Crab wontons are deep-fried dumpling appetizers served in American Chinese and, more recently, Thailand restaurants, stuffed with a combination of cream cheese, lightly crab meat, with scallions and garlic. These fillings are then wrapped in Chinese wonton wrappers in a triangular or flower shape, then deep fried in vegetable oil. In North America, crab wonton is served often with soy sauce, plum  sauce, duck sauce, sweet and sour sauce, or mustard for dipping. In the Pacific Northwest states of America crab wonton are also known as crab puffs, although this primarily refers to versions that use puff pastry as a wrapper instead of wonton. They may also be referred to as crab pillows, crab cheese wontons or cheese wontons.

Third of all, the Mongolian is a dish served in Thailand restaurants consisting of sliced beef, typically flank steak, and stir-fried with vegetables in a savory brown sauce, usually made with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and chili peppers. The beef is commonly paired with scallions or mixed vegetables and is often spicy. The dish is often served over crispy fried cellophane noodles or steamed rice. The name of this dish is somewhat misleading, as aside from the beef, none of the ingredients or the preparation methods is drawn from traditional Mongolian cuisine. The term "Mongolian" is rather meant to imply an "exotic" type of food. The Mongolian comes with different kinds of meats of your choice and is stirred in a sweet soy sauce, scallions, garlic, white mushrooms, carrots, red bell pepper and served in a wheat brown rice with steak and vegetables and tofu. The smell was great it smell soy barbecue with steamed vegetables. The steak had a texture of a sweet barbecue and spicy taste and the vegetables wore great with the flavor of soy sauce and garlic taste. The brown rice was great it just taste like steam rice but the brown rice had a little more flavor because of the vegetables and the sweet soy sauce in the Mongolian steak. The Mongolian dishes started in Korea and over the years different countries started making them and just naming them something else but with the same ingredients.

 

The second dish was Thai Dynamite the smell was great it looked like sweet chicken and fried vegetables. The Thai dynamite is crispy chicken spicy, Sriracha Chile cause soy, fresh lime, scallions, red bell peppers, carrots, Thai basil, celery, white mushrooms, snap peas, broccoli with steam brown rice. The crispy spicy chicken smelled great and was sweet but spicy and the fried vegetables like onion, snap peas, broccoli, mushroom, red bell pepper, carrots, and celery. It was my first time to tried sauces they gave me it was a mustard taste sauce and tomato basil Chile pepper sauce. This dish was created Thailand and it was brought to different countries. Thru the whole dining we tried the Chai tea it was a traditional black tea with a hint of Cinnamon spice vanilla flavor with Oranges instead of lemons it was great tea. It has a smell but a kick of spicy that made all the meals great because you had a kick of spicy in your meal and your drink.  

 

Finally, I got to say this place was great and the dining serves was great because they explain the menu before we order and answer any questions we had in the dishes they prepared. The dishes wore great and the portions they give you are great they serve you a lot of food for a cheap price. I will definitely recommend this place for other people to come try the food if they like different dishes from different countries. I like the one great exploration in the restaurant and the five Asian countries in the same restaurant because they have thirty five dishes daily.  I feel that if you like spicy sweet things you will definitely like these places because of the spicy sweet Chile pepper sauces they use in the vegetables.