Warren, MI - Ready to become an adventurous eater? Liang's Oriental BBQ immediately makes you feel like you're either in China town or actually in China. If you've never really walked around China town, you may not be familiar with butcher shops that have hanging ducks, pigs, geese, etc..., but here, you get to see exactly what you are going to eat. In the first picture, there is hanging duck and a pig, then underneath are pig intestines, stomach, and other things that I didn't get to try. This place is amazing, plain and simple.

So, I had some bbq pork, duck, and pig intestines. I of course have to try as much as I can eat. Both the duck and the pork were prepared so well and packed with flavor. The duck, which I normally don't like, was excellent. I haven't had it in a long time, but thought it was very good. I particularly don't enjoy the meat because it's so greasy. The pork was by far the best part of the dish. I literally could have eaten plates of it. I didn't want to stop. Now for the pig intestines. Well, I can't say that I've tasted it before or anything like it. It was very chewy and did have a dirtiness flavor, if you will. I could really only muster what was on my plate. I really don't think I could order it again. Don't get me wrong, it was terrible, but if I have a choice between that and the bbq pork, I'm going for the pork. Enjoy!

Pontiac, MI - Fried food is great isn't it? How about candy bars, also delicious. How about putting them together? Last year at Arts Beats and Eats Festival, Union Jack's had Fried Mars Bars. The treat was probably what you would expect. It was delicious, having the fried flavor with the sweetness of the candy bar. Since it's being deep fried, you can image what the heat does to the Mars bar inside. I pretty much melts it, not quite into a soup, but a very very soft candy bar. One thing that was nice was when it does melt, it mixes the candy bar's flavors, still tasting like a Mars bar, but not an ordinary one. For as little as it is, it is quite heavy with the fried batter and the candy bar combined. What a nice treat, try it next time. Enjoy!

Frankenmuth, MI - Not the best looking food pose, but it's the best I could do with it. Recently I was in Frankenmuth, a very neat little German town in MI and there is a very famous sausage shop called Kerns. It's a very well known place and I thought I would try something from there. They of course had a variety of cut meats, it's a standard butcher shop, but I saw Smoked Blood Sausage. I've only seen it on Bizarre Foods, but now that it's staring me in the face, I have to try.

Well, I tried it, and I don't think I'll be getting it again. The texture is slightly different from regular smoked sausage. It has a softer texture, but something you can easily palate. It does have a hint of the regular smoked sausage flavor, but what it does have the regular smoked sausage doesn't, is the ripe flavor of iron. The blood in the sausage gives it an irony flavor, one that becomes a bit too much for me. After eating half of it, I had to stop. I really couldn't eat much more of it. Sorry. Enjoy!

Clawson, MI - Can you find vegetarian Vietnamese food? How about vegetarian Pho? Good luck! For vegetarians, Vietnamese food, particularly Pho, has traditionally been ruled out because it is made with a beef broth. Even if you ordered it without the beef and tripe, etc..., you still couldn't get around the beef broth. Well, now the wait is over. At Da Nang Restaurant, they actually have Vegetarian Pho on the menu. The whole idea completely intriguing me. I ordered the vegetarian pho to go and I was extremely impressed with it. Starting with the broth, it did taste just like the original. I spoke to the owner the last time I was there inquiring about it and she was very happy to describe all the vegetables they use to make the broth. I did not do a side-by-side comparison, but just by itself, wow, I really enjoyed it. Then you add the rest of the additions to help compliment the dish such as noodles, tofu, fresh mint, bean sprouts, jalapenos, lime, chili sauce, and hoisen sauce. After you put it all together, you have a perfect Pho dish.

If you're a vegetarian and you've wanted to taste Vietnamese food, here's your chance. Great job Da Nang! Enjoy!

Birmingham, MI - How would you like to wake up, walk to the local bakery and pick up muffins that were made that morning for YOU? And they are still warm? Bagel Factory Cafe is a place that makes all their bagels and baked goods from scratch that morning.

I used to come in and have to pick what they made, but sometimes not exactly what I want. So the owner told me to call the night before and she'll make the muffins that I want that morning. Every Friday night, I call and leave them a message for low fat oat-bran blueberry on Saturday mornings. I can wake up, walk over, and pick up warm muffins. Where can you find another place. The picture above is the blueberry muffin that we order and it is perfect. They are warm, perfectly moist, and slightly crunchy on the outside, but nice and soft in the middle.

Definitely go and pick up one of these muffins, you'll start ordering them each week. Enjoy!

Detroit, MI - You want real Mexican food? I mean REAL Mexican food? You first start by going to Mexican town in Detroit. The next best thing is to get off the beaten path and head to Los Altos. This place not only has authentic food, but the experience is authentic as it comes. I've been there twice now and both times I had to order in spanish. My server didn't speak english either time. Since they could tell my spanish was horrible, they called over someone else who could speak some english so I could at least ask some questions. I loved the experience!

The first dish was a taco platter so I could try multiple kinds of meats. It's not on the menu, so just ask for the four taco dish. Since I couldn't decide on only four, I got five. MMMM. All the tacos are on a double-layer corn tortilla, served with fresh onions and cilantro. You also get a lime with chips and salsa before the meal, make sure you squeeze the lime onto your tacos. It really enhances the flavor and is quite delicious. Some of the tacos were tripas (tripe), lomo (pulled pork), and carnitas (beef). My favorite out of all of them was the lomo. It is marinated shredded pork. It's very moist and has intense flavor to it. There are also some other taco options that are typically not on menus and I highly encourage you to try them... The tacos are served with real means and rice...beans with bacon in it.

The second dish is Nopales (cactus leaf). I've never had cactus before, but it can be common in Mexico. Once I saw it, I had to try it. It's sliced into long pieces, which almost resemble green beans. However, the flavor is far from it. It's actually quite sweet and really delicious. It's not terribly filling, but it is delicious. I would get it again on the side, but not as a main dish. Enjoy!

Detroit, MI - I've heard lots of good things about Slows BBQ and finally had the chance to go. I went during the week at 2pm, and still had to wait 30 minutes. That's how popular this place is. We ordered combination dishes to try several dishes and were very happy we did. I immediately fell in love with the pulled pork. That is the best combined with the NC sauce. Mac-n-cheese, was also fantastic. Vegetarians also have the option of fake chicken sandwich was also delicious. The corn bread was dry though. That was the only below expectations review I would give.

I tried the sauces individually and was shocked that the least one I liked by itself was the NC sauce, but that it was the best actually on any of the food. I could put that on anything. It truly is my favorite now.

They also have an amazing beer list, including several from MI to support your local breweries.

Lastly, I noticed a seal on the menu that all the meat comes from farms who feed their livestock vegetarian fed meals and are not given growth hormones. This is attractive for the environmentalist in me. Enjoy!

Clawson, MI - A semi-new Vietnamese restaurant opened some time ago in Clawson called Da Nang. They are the closest Vietnamese place to me, not the best, but if I'm in the mood for Vietnamese food, I would certainly go there. It has a trendy atmosphere and their food is fantastic. Their prices are higher than other Vietnamese places in Warren. This is Bun Thit Heo Nuong, which is grilled boneless pork served on a bed of fresh vegetables, vermicelli topped with crushed peanuts and house special sauce. This is a classic Bun dish and of course it's delicious. The pork is seasoned well and with the fish sauce, it's fantastic. I also had to try some of their fresh spring rolls. They have shrimp, vermicelli noodles, cucumber, and mint. It's served with a peanut sauce which compliments the roll very well. It's definitely a must for an appetizer. Enjoy!

Birmingham, MI - Cannella Patissarie is a petite place that transports you to France. This is a Crep Chocolat with Bananas. Bananas and chocolate compliment each other so well and they do the same in this crepe. It was very light and crispy on the outside with delicious rich chocolate on the inside with slices of bananas mixed in. It could probably have used a little more bananas on the inside, but there were enough for you to still enjoy them. It is served with sliced bananas slightly caramelized. If you've had crepes in Paris, then when you eat this, you'll think you're there again. It's not as good as one off the street vendors in Paris, but it's very close. If you've never been, well, it will certainly make you feel like you're there. Enjoy!

Auburn Hills, MI - One of my Indian friends took me to his favorite Indian restaurant, Rangoli. They had really really good food! If you like Indian food, you should really check this place out. We started with Cut Mirch, banana peppers stuffed with a tangy peanut and tamarind paste, batter-fried, sliced and topped with chopped onions, cilantro, and a blend of powdered spices. Other than a little greasy, it was very flavorful and surprisingly not that spicy. It was very delicious and everything was gone.

The spicy appetizer prepared me for my entree, Rangoli Special Spicy Dosa. Dosa is a crisp crepe made of rice and lentil flour, usually served with sambar and chutneys. This dosa is lined with chutneys and spicy curried potatoes and also served with sambar and chutneys. Well, it was spicy alright. It wasn't unappetizing, but it had quite a kick. I couldn't finish the dosa, the portion was too large, but it was excellent left overs. Both dishes were vegetarian and delicious! Enjoy!

West Bloomfield, MI - There are lots of places for sushi in West Bloomfield and several people told me to try out Mene Sushi. So I stopped in for a quick bit and had their ginger salad, miso soup, salmon sushi, and a hand wrapped eel roll. I don't think there is a salad dressing better than ginger dressing. I literally can drink it, I love it so much! Mene's salad and soup was up to par with other places, but not the expectations people placed onto it. The salmon sushi and hand wrapped eel roll were both fresh and delicious. The flavor of the food hit it's mark, but the restaurant and the price is, to me, what missed. The place squeezes tables in so you're practically on top of each other and the prices are higher than other sushi restaurants. The food was good, but the place let me down. Enjoy!

Warren, MI - I was first tipped off about Golden Harvest by a friend and also saw an article in the paper about how "authentic" this Chinese restaurant is. I rarely go to Chinese restaurants because the dishes are Americanized for our tastes. However, at Golden Harvest, there are menu items I have never seen before and would love to try out. This was the first one I saw that I have only seen on TV. This is Chinese Conch, a large salt water snail served in a very light soy sauce base with mushrooms. I loved that it was a dish I have never had before and how delicious it was. Since it is a large snail, it's hard to compare it to escargot, but it is slightly chewy, similar to calamari but softer. I highly recommend the restaurant to try something new and definitely the conch too. Enjoy!

Troy, MI - There is a very good Korean restaurant by my house called Shilla. I've always been very impressed with their food and this time I was hoping to get a Korean dish not on the menu. I asked, but unfortunately they didn't have it, but they did have another dish not on the menu called Seafood Basket. Since it's not on the menu and they make it, you know I have to try it. It has standard veggies like red and green pepper, broccoli, and celery. For meats, it has mussels, octopus, and shrimp. The shrimp were the best on the dish, prepared tempura style, but it then soaks up all the sauces and makes it a very flavorful batter around the shrimp. The sauce was very interesting, delicious, but very hard to describe. It was a brown sauce, but not really a soy sauce base, sweet, but I pretty much drank it, it was so delicious. Korean food also comes with lots of side dishes called banchan. The most common is kimchi, fermented cabbage mixed with garlic, chili spices, and lots of other spices. Kimchi is actually any vegetable that is fermented and rolled into the spices, etc... In this case, the banchan I had was cabbage kimchi, cucumber kimchi, bean curd, broccoli, potato and pickled radish. It's customary to take a little of the banchan with a little of the main entree and eat together. I'm not that big of a guy, but the dish was very good and everything you see here, it's gone. Enjoy!

Royal Oak, MI - Tapas! If you've never had tapas before, this is a great place to try it. These are tapas, Spanish appetizers, from Sangria. Most I really enjoyed and another I wouldn't get again...


This is the first dish we tried called, Manchego and Chorizo. Chorizo is a Spanish smoked sausage and gets it deep red color from dried smoked red peppers. It has a distinct smoky sausage flavor, but I was rather disappointed with this dish. The Chorizo really didn't have a lot of flavor as well as the manchego cheese. Manchego is a sheep milk cheese, usually aged for at least 3 months and also has its own distinct flavor. In my opinion, the sharper the better and this one wasn't aged enough. It had a very mild flavor and I think it should be much stronger to get the excellent flavor it offers. Both ingredients were very mild, making the dish very bland.


This by far was my favorite of the night. I could have ordered a whole plate of this and then ordered another. Another tapas called, Pincho de Solomillo or Tenderloin in Black Pepper Oil. The beef was medium-rare, extremely tender, and really melted in your mouth. The black pepper oil complimented it very very well, giving it a slight pepper heat if you will. This is the dish when you end up closing your eyes immediately after you put it into your mouth because it's so good! Definitely get this when you go there.

Lastly, we had Pulpo a la Vinagreta or Octopus and Potatoes in a Lemon Vinaigrette. This dish is served cold and also a very delicious tapas. The octopus is cooked nicely where it is not too tough and rubbery. The vinaigrette enhances the flavor of the octopus and compliments the potatoes very well. Also a dish I would get again. Enjoy!

Trenton, MI - Did you know you could order a little dessert and breakfast at the same time at the TV Diner? This is a Creme Brulee Belgian Waffle. It is exactly as it sounds, Belgian waffle, then topped with creme brulee and slightly caramelized as creme brulee should be. Well, needless to say, you do not need any syrup for this dish, it's sweet enough. However, it's not overly powerful and really compliments the waffle quite well. If you're really hungry, I recommend ordering some protein with it, because it's all carbs, but it is quite delicious. I ate the whole thing and enjoyed every bite. Enjoy!

Southfield, MI - This was a new item to Sweet Lorraine's menu recently so I thought I would try it out. It is Spicy Southern BBQ Shrimp and Crispy Grits. Surprising enough, it was a very light dish, even with the grits. The shrimp were very good, but not the best I've ever had. The sauce isn't overpowering the shrimp flavor, which I thought was very good, it does compliment it well. The sauce is flavored with applewood smoked bacon, given it some extra flavor. However, I think the spicy part of it just wasn't there. The girts on the other hand, fantastic. I've never had fried grits this way and I would prefer to get it like this every time from now on. The grits are mixed with small amounts of chili spice and peppers to give it an extra kick. I was expecting the grits to be heavy, but they were surprisingly light and creamy. You taste the chili peppers right at the end of the bite. That little kick is very well placed and really give the grits a home run flavor. Enjoy!

Clawson, MI - Usually when you go to a restaurant, you take a look at the menu and decide what you want. I, on the other hand, look at the menu and ask the server if there are dishes they make that are not on the menu. In many times at different ethnic restaurants, the staff makes what is traditionally eaten and what's on the menu can be more "Americanized". Not always, but sometimes. So, I've gotten into the habit of asking places what else do they make that's not on the menu. This is a Vietnamese sandwich from Da Nang, often referred to as Bahn Mi, but they told me the official name of this sandwich is Mi O. It is almost like a Vietnamese Bahn dish, minus the noodles. It has all the other topics, lettuce, cilantro, marinated strips of pork, carrots, cucumber, and jalapenos. Many Bahn Mi sandwiches also have a spicy mayonnaise and pate, but they didn't have both so I settled for the fish sauce that comes with Bahn dishes. To get this sandwich, you have to specifically ask them for it because it's not on the menu. They told me they could make it, but they didn't have all the ingredients such as the mayonnaise and pate. Even without it, it was still very good and enjoyed every bite. I do think the sandwiches are much better with the two ingredients, but when you have no other options in town that offer it, well, it's the best in town! Enjoy!

Birmingham, MI - The local bakery called Bagel Factory, you can call in orders the night before for fresh muffins. After doing this many many times, the owner's now use to me coming in and thought he would treat me to a new item. This is Manna La Simma (probably spelled incorrectly, sorry). The owner had family just return from Iraq and he said that a very common snack is this. So he pulled some from his personal amount and sent me home with it. As you can see, they are clumps stored in flour, otherwise they dry out, with walnuts in the center. The texture is very chewy, similar to taffy. At first it's kind of dry because of the flour on the outside. The taffy part is a mixture of flour, sugar, and not sure what else. I generally do not like walnuts, however, I enjoyed it because it was very light and the flavor of the taffy-like part covered up the walnuts. It's not too sweet, but just has a slight sweet after flavor. I thought it was very good and would definitely have it again. Between the taffy and walnut texture, it has a very good balance. Enjoy!

West Bloomfield, MI - Feel like Italian? This will sound crazy with all the interesting food I eat, but I have never had Gnocchi. So, I was Antonios, an Italian restaurant recommended to me and thought it was a perfect opportunity to try it. This particular dish is potato gnocchi. I can say that I liked it. I wouldn't say that I love it so much I would get it every time, but it was interested. Gnocchi in Italian means "Lump", and as you can see, it's a lump or dumplings. These did not have a lot of flavor, but it does retain some of it's original flavoring. Sometimes they are made out of flour, so they take on that flavor as well. Due to the original ingredient, potato, by the end of the meal, it becomes a little too starchy. The sauce on the other hand is made from scratch and was very delicious. Most Italian sauces prepared for Americans are very salty, but this was prepared more traditional style and very little salt is added. Therefore, you get a delicious fresh tomato marinara flavor. For vegetarians, it's an excellent choice. In the future, I would prefer this dish as an appetizer rather an entree. Enjoy!

Southfield, MI - This is not for the weak hearted. This is an Ethiopian dish called Kitfo from Taste of Ethiopian. This is beef mixed with lots of spices that give it a BBQ flavor. However, it's a unique flavor, one in that I have not tasted before. It comes with goat cheese to help balance a nice smooth flavor and texture, salad, and extra cayenne pepper on the side to make it spicier if you like. The meat has a very interesting texture, very smooth, and surprising that it was so tender. The reason why its not for the weak hearted is because its raw! Raw beef! It's like raw kibee, but much better. The spices make it. I highly recommend it. Enjoy!