In the Zone – Dough Zone

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It’s Sunday afternoon around 2pm and I need lunch.  I’m tired of eating sandwiches all week, trying to avoid fast food, and don’t want to eat too much as I’m going home for dinner within a few hours.  Lunch by yourself can be an awkward affair, better suited to grab and go, but you get used to it after a while.  If you want good food, you figure out how to be comfortable eating alone. I had been wanting to try Dough Zone to see how they compared to the gold-standard Din Tai Feng for soup dumplings and this seemed like the perfect time to do it.

Dough Zone was still a zoo at 2pm with a 20 minute wait for a table. The fortunate part about dining by yourself, is that they can squeeze you into the counter.

dough zone - soup dumplings

soup dumplings – I loved these first of all, they had all the hallmarks of a good soup dumpling – plenty of fillings, they poured juice when you bit into them, the skin wasn’t too chewy and they had decent flavor; Din Tai Feng still holds the crown on these though – theirs are more delicate in the wrapping and have a bigger oomph on the meat flavor; however, these are only $9 vs. their $13 and doesn’t have the benefit of being a worldwide phenomenon

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Flaming French – Pomerol

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My sister can’t get foie gras in California, so when she comes home to Seattle, we must have at least one foie gras. Since it was her birthday, we found restaurant that serves FOUR dishes using the succulent lobes – Pomerol. They’re a relatively new french restaurant in the Fremont area that has their own wood fired grill in a minimalist setting.  There’s nothing stuffy about this place, but it’s trendy without being too edgy.

Pomerol - grilled octopus

grilled octopus – a job well done on the texture, they made good use of their grill

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