Offbeat Eats

After we concluded our backpacking trip in Arizona, we ended up quickly cleaning our gear and repacking so we could head out to Arkansas to hike the Ouachita Trail. In addition to the backpacking trip itself (which was reasonably enjoyable), we had the secondary goal of being in a nice, remote area near the centerline of the April 8, 2024 total eclipse. Secondarily, we got into town a day earlier, so this was a rare chance of mine to visit a new-to-me metropolitan area: Little Rock. Without double-checking the marked-up map in my parents’ hallway, I’m not 100% sure I’ve even been to Little Rock before, and if so, it’s been a long time (I have been to Arkansas a lot more recently, however, Bentonville and West Memphis…). It’s always nice to explore a new area, and I quickly found that Little Rock has a nice downtown area: a nice river walk with sculptures, several cool older railroad bridges converted in pedestrian bridges, and even an enjoyable brewery. After the better part of a day walking around, we then decided it was time to head out for dinner, checking out a place on the south side of downtown, Three Fold.

With my yearly trips to Detroit, it’s been interesting to see that the Detroit dining scene is anything but stagnant; every trip seems to have a fresh set of new dining and drinking options opening up (and the occasional closures as well). Two relatively recently-opened venues (from different owners) have been trying variations on the “food court” model: Fort Street Galley and Detroit Shipping Company in which they construct a shared dining area with a lot of smaller kitchens and a cocktail bar, trying to appeal to the younger professional crowd while making some opportunities for new restaurateurs. In the former case, a converted Federal Reserve Bank hosts 4 restaurants. It’s been a bit shaky: in my three visits to Fort Street Galley, I’ve seen complete turnover of the food businesses, and the beer bar converted to a craft cocktail bar, but it does seem to continue to offer good food and drink. In the latter case, it’s been a bit more successful: the Detroit Shipping Company set up shop on Peterboro street, which in pre-Interstate Detroit was the center of the city’s Chinatown (there are a few subtle references to Chinatown remaining architecturally, and one restaurant, the Peterboro, is new but also recognizes the heritage). Detroit Shipping Company is named such because the venue is created from shipping containers, stacked up to make two multi-level dining areas, one inside, and one outside. “Shipping containers” sounds pretty industrial, but the overall ambiance is actually quite nice, and the dining areas nicely appointed. In the indoor food dining area, the periphery is surrounded by four dining counters (and one more upstairs); on my visit Brujo (a taco joint), Bangkok 96 (Thai), Coop Caribbean (Caribbean Fusion), -320 degrees (Coffee and pastries), and Momo Cha. While members of my party partook of all of these, I primarily focused on Momo Cha.

Like Montreal’s Dragon Beard Candy Stand another place we’ve walked by many times is this little sign in Chinatown that says (well, the English portion at least) simply “Soup Dumplings”. The restaurant itself is called Qing Hua. We’ve been meaning to go there (or their original location over in Ville-Marie) for years, but kept getting stymied by one little factor: They aren’t open on weekends, which is when the majority of our visits happen. But when we were in town for the Death March, several of us were getting hungry, and decided to have a mid-afternoon snack of dumplings. And thus, we were finally able to visit Qing Hua.

(Moved) There’s always something compelling about food sold from little street carts, and despite the many challenges that street food cooking can have, I’m always astonished by how good the food from some street vendors can be (taco trucks are a particularly good example). And, for any given pedestrian mall, you can usually find some yummy treats out there. Burlington’s Church Street is no exception. In particular, for the last several years I’ve made it a point to visit Hong’s Chinese Dumpling every time I’m shopping on Church Street.