{"id":500,"date":"2007-12-14T17:25:24","date_gmt":"2007-12-15T03:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.studionewmedia.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/14\/no-expectations\/"},"modified":"2007-12-14T17:25:24","modified_gmt":"2007-12-15T03:25:24","slug":"no-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/2007\/12\/14\/no-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"No Expectations = No Disappointments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Went to E & O Trading Company<\/em> for the office holiday dinner last night.\u00c2\u00a0 Dark with earthy tones and Southeast Asian decor, this trendy Pacific-fusion restaurant takes over the empty space between Compadres’<\/em> and Borders<\/em> at Ward Center once occupied by Jean-Marie Josselin’s Oahu branch of A Pacific Cafe<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 The server was polite and pleasant, but it seemed like the wait staff was overstretched – We would go many minutes without seeing our server on many an occasion.\u00c2\u00a0 A brief read of the menu indicated that their culinary lean was toward South and Southeast Asia, with Indian, Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese influences.\u00c2\u00a0 There were some Chinese and Japanese-inspired\u00c2\u00a0menu items tossed in for good measure too.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starting in with appetizers, we\u00c2\u00a0ordered the Indonesian corn fritters, fried calamari, paneer-stuffed “nan”, and the satay platter.\u00c2\u00a0 The corn fritters were not what I expected.\u00c2\u00a0 I was imagininig bite-sized things made from cornmeal, but\u00c2\u00a0 these came as two hamburger-bun sized discs with a dipping sauce.\u00c2\u00a0 If you are one given to dislike corn kernels in your conrbread, stay away from these.\u00c2\u00a0 The best description I can come up with is fried pancake batter with a can of niblets mixed in, served\u00c2\u00a0with a soy sauce-based dipping sauce.\u00c2\u00a0 The calamari was good, period.\u00c2\u00a0 Some people thought it was salty, but\u00c2\u00a0I didn’t detect that.\u00c2\u00a0 The cheesy “nan” was good, but not really like any nan I’ve had before, being more thick, dense and chewy rather than the traditional light thin flatbread.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a reddish dipping sauce (assumedly chili-based), and a yellow one (possible mango based).\u00c2\u00a0 The yellow one was sweet and fruity.\u00c2\u00a0 Stay away from that one and use the red one.\u00c2\u00a0 The satay platter was hit or miss.\u00c2\u00a0 The beef was tender and smoky.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The portabello mushrooms were firm.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The salmon was just perfectly\u00c2\u00a0rare and very fresh.\u00c2\u00a0 The chicken was chicken.\u00c2\u00a0 The prawns were skanky – obviously “once frozen”.\u00c2\u00a0 They were “head-on”, but since they were not “fresh-caught”, the inside of the head had become a muddled brown liquid instead of the glistening, identifiable individual internal bits that should have been present.\u00c2\u00a0 That funk suffusing the body of the shrimp, in addition to the lack of deveining and the dryness brought about by being “previously frozen”, yeilded something rather unappealing.<\/p>\n

For the entree, I got the daily special duck.\u00c2\u00a0 It was prepared “roasted”, but I’m guessing pan-seared and then finished in the oven.\u00c2\u00a0 It was lightly flavored with “Anise and Chinese 5-spices” – isn’t Anise one of the 5?\u00c2\u00a0 Oh well, whatever.\u00c2\u00a0 The plating was pretty, with an enormous plate drizzled with various exotic flavored oils, unidentifiable crispy tendrils, and a mango compote.\u00c2\u00a0 The duck was placed atop a bed of baby kai choi<\/em> set on a base of\u00c2\u00a0flavored long-grain non-sticky rice.\u00c2\u00a0 The whole stack was surrounded by a piece of\u00c2\u00a0banana leaf to support it.\u00c2\u00a0 The duck was perfectly cooked, but the spicing was just a bit too subtle.\u00c2\u00a0 The quantity was definitely a surprise.\u00c2\u00a0 For $24, I’d expect a bit more than a single duck breast half the size of\u00c2\u00a0my palm.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s OK – it left room for dessert.<\/p>\n

\"Chocolate<\/a>Dessert was definitely the highlight.\u00c2\u00a0 I had the Chocolate Silk Cake which was served with a scoop of espresso gelato.\u00c2\u00a0 Plated with a chocolate drizzle and a few raspberries, the soft cake lived up to its “silk” moniker, melting at mouth temperature and releasing its bittersweet bouquet.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t say enough about this dessert (except maybe it would have gone great with some good coffee – had I even been offered the opportunity to order any<\/strong><\/em>).\u00c2\u00a0 Sara W. had the cake too and concurred that it\u00c2\u00a0was the bees knees.\u00c2\u00a0 Christian and Andy had the special bread pudding and ate about\u00c2\u00a0a third of it and the accompanying “Indonesian coffee sauce” – if that says anything.\u00c2\u00a0 Jeff W. had the second dessert on the\u00c2\u00a0menu and liked it – for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was, but that was my second choice.\u00c2\u00a0 It was creamy and served in a\u00c2\u00a0Martini glass…\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few of the dinner attendees said they had better food and service at this establishment on previous visits.\u00c2\u00a0 There were some timing issues, like one satay platter coming out about half-an-hour after the first, and two people ordering the “spicy seafood curry” and one getting theirs at the beginning of the entree service, and the other coming out 15-minutes later (and cold).\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t fault our server -\u00c2\u00a0I get the impression she was actually trying to do her best given the circumstances.\u00c2\u00a0 I think it’s an organazational issue in the kitchen that’s at fault.<\/p>\n

In general, I’d say give them a chance.\u00c2\u00a0 Food wise, it was spotty – it would be hard to give a blanket recommendation, like “stay away from the seafood”, since half of it was really good, and the other half was rubbish.\u00c2\u00a0 The prices are generally high for the quantity and quality (preparation quality or ingredient quality – you choose: it’s either one or the other that is lacking on any given occasion).\u00c2\u00a0 The salads are super-tiny, even the >$5USD ones.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d almost\u00c2\u00a0have to say go eat somewhere else, then go here for\u00c2\u00a0dessert and fruity cocktails and atmosphere.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two-and-a-half Monkeys out of four<\/p>\n

Here’s some little post-script notes:<\/p>\n

The special that wasn’t the duck was a “whole wok fried snapper”.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the other tables ordered it.\u00c2\u00a0 When I was walking by on the way to the bathroom, I caught a whiff of that “not fresh fish stank” that turned my stomach.\u00c2\u00a0 Guess where the smell came from…<\/p>\n

When we were leaving, the Asian hostess didn’t even\u00c2\u00a0acknowledge us.\u00c2\u00a0 She had said, “good night – come again,” to all the predominantly-caucasian groups leaving before us…\u00c2\u00a0 WTF?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Went to E & O Trading Company for the office holiday dinner last night.\u00c2\u00a0 Dark with earthy tones and Southeast Asian decor, this trendy Pacific-fusion restaurant takes over the empty space between Compadres’ and Borders at Ward Center once occupied by Jean-Marie Josselin’s Oahu branch of A Pacific Cafe.\u00c2\u00a0 The server was polite and pleasant, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[8,12,13],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paJYlx-84","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}