after dinner sneeze

Varga Bar Chicken Wings:  We got their chicken wings, knowing we’d get wings at Cheu.  Varga’s were very approachable. They had a nice tang glaze which could have used a touch more heat. Overall, refreshing with tender, juicy meat with mild duck fat flavor. The blue cheese dip was much more for the celery than a needed accompaniment of the wings.

Uncooked ramen with spice: Brought us back to college with a great crunch and impressive heat.

Scrapple: The sweetness of the dish was the most memorable note. A subtle scrapple, not the typical savory punch you in the face type pork concoction. The crunch of the outside had the perfect sizzle but the overall loaf was soft.

Dumplings: Light and airy, again a subtle way of presenting pork with a mild deficiency in salt.

Buns: First, ask nicely and get all three types.  The pork had mild crunch on the bun with subtle sweet meatiness of ridiculous soft pork belly.  Maybe the crunch in all three was due to cucumber?  The “burger” had perfect cilantro pop to a meaty party, but our party disagreed on how good it was overall.  The mung bean is best described as an Asian, falafel so good my mother would eat it!

Wings:  Sadly undersalted, but great crunch and no grease. Juicy and tender, much like Varga’s, but again a need for more heat.

Cold sesame noodles: Light airy noodles with less starch and more flavor… Dare we say better than Han’s? (t interjects: for real? no way! now I have to go there!)

Briskest noodle soup: What. A. Mess. By far the weakest link due to a starchy Asian broth (that was more like gravy) and overcooked soggy noodles. And again, the dish lacked salt.