Hangover got you down? Too tired or lazy to read my post on Reno restaurants a few entries below this? We understand how a night of video poker, PBR and Jager shots can do that to even the most dedicated foodie. Therefore, as a public service, we hereby offer a direct audio link to my News 88.9 FM Nevada Public Radio weekly “Food For Thought” segment.
Click here to hear this week’s KNPR radio commentary.
Authentic, fiery, funky and fresh Chinese appeals to the average American palate about as much as a plate of lutefisk. But right next door to each other on Schiff Dr. (just south of Valley View and Spring Mountain Rd.) are two such places that are packed nightly with fellow Asian travelers who know and appreciate the real Magillicuddy in these things.
Dong Ting Spring features the cured pork and dried chili specialties of Hunan Province, along with more than a few chili-covered fresh fish dishes and hotpots that seem to pop up on every table.
Yun Nan Garden is from the region bordering Myanmar, Tibet, Vietnam and Laos, and is known for its polyglot of ethnic minorities and a cuisine that reflects influences from all of them. The food at both is not for the timid, and together they pack a one-two punch of hot and spicy goodness that took me straight back to Hong Kong.
Both are squeaky clean and modern (at least by the standards of most Chinatown places), and have young bilingual staffs that are unfailingly polite. Be prepared to feel like a fish out of water, and also be firm when they try to steer you to the round-eye friendly portion of the menu. Aficianodos of Kung Pao chicken and sweet and sour pork need not apply.
Each restaurant has English translations of dishes that for decades were only printed in Chinese characters on the walls of places in cities with large, established Chinatowns. Thus were some of the true tastes of the world’s greatest cuisine inaccessible to the adverturesome haolie….until now!
DONG TING SPRING
3950 Schiff Dr.
Las Vegas, NV 89103
702.437.7888
YUN NAN GARDEN
3934 Schiff Dr.
Las Vegas, NV 89103
702.869.8885
Pizza lovers rejoice! Settebello, maker of simply the best pizzas in town (and the best pizzas in Salt Lake City and the only ones certified as authentic by Italian authorities as Vera Pizza Napolentana-real Italian pizza), has announced plans to move from its present location at Valle Verde and Horizon Ridge (commonly referred to by EATingLV.com as the middle of bleeping nowhere) to The District II (a slightly more accessible location in the franchise-restaurant wasteland that is Monochrome Valley.)
Rumor also has it that owner Brad Otton and his pizzaiolo Carmine D’Amato (a master of the craft of pizza making), are scouting locations on the west side of town. Hope springs eternal.
Click here to hear my review of Settebello on News 88.9 FM-Nevada Public Radio.
Click here to watch a YouTube video of D’Amato doing what he does best-to a jazzy Italian soundtrack. But don’t blame me if you can’t understand anything; those darn Italians have a different word for everything!
SETTEBELLO
1776 Horizon Ridge Pkwy.
Henderson. NV 89012
702.647.3556
www.settebello.net