Country #4 (Mongolia)
HuHot (Mongolian)
College and Olive, Fort Collins
www.huhot.com

Charlie and Rachelle: All you can eat Khan’s buffet

HuHot is our favorite place to eat. We go there at least once a week. It’s a great place, really. You go up to the food line, fill one or two bowls with various meats (chicken, beef, pork, tilapia, lamb, krab, etc), noodles, veggies, fruits, etc. Then, the defining feature is their sauces that coat the food.

	Samurai Teriyaki™ • a mild, slightly sweet traditional Asian favorite made with soy sauce, sugar, sherry and sesame oil
	Not-So-Sweet & Sour™ • our version of sweet & sour; a flavorful yet mild combination of tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar and spices
	Khan’s Favorite™ • our house sauce; an excellent complement to any other sauce; a mild blend of soy sauce, rice wine, garlic and spices
	Feed the Hordes Hoisin™ • a distinctive, slightly sweet sauce made with soy sauce, soybeans, vinegar and garlic
	Black Thai Peanut™ • our most popular sauce: a creamy blend of peanuts, coconut milk, mild chilies and fresh lime juice
	Burn-Your-Village Barbeque™ • subtle BBQ flavors with traditional Asian ingredients like soy sauce and chili garlic sauce
	Mean Bean Garlic Sauce™ • a moderately spicy black bean and chili sauce; other ingredients include soy sauce, garlic and ginger
	Bekter’s Ginger™ • a zippy mix of ginger, sherry, soy sauce and chilies lightly sweetened; if you like ginger, you’ll love this sauce!
	Yellow Belly Curry™ • yellow curry, coconut milk and chilies; one ladle of this sauce is a great complement to any sauce combination
	Mongol Mustard™ • a flavorful sauce with some kick; ingredients include mustard, lemon, sesame and Asian spices.
	Five Village Fire Szechuan™ • a spicy chili sauce with soy and tomato sauces, garlic, rice vinegar and more chilies!
	Kung Pao…Yow!™ • our hottest sauce! soy sauce, garlic chili sauce, sesame oil, more chilies and did we mention chilies?!

And sauces so you can create your own:

• Garlic Chili sauce
• Garlic Broth
• Sweet Chili Sauce
• Soy Sauce
• Sherry
• Ginger Broth
• Hot Chili Oil
• Garlic Oil
• Lemon Juice
• Sesame Oil
• Jalapeno Juice
• Lime Juice

Today, Rachelle started off with her usual… chicken, beef, celery, carrots, onions, broccoli, pineapple, sugar snap peas, cilantro, and bamboo with one ladle of the Thai Peanut sauce, three ladles of her favorite, Yellow Curry, two ladles of Kung Pow Yow!, a ladle of lime juice, and a little bit of garlic broth.

Charlie started off with barbecue… Mongolian barbeque?  I discovered barbecue at HuHot!  The meat and veggies that go into the barbecue plate can vary.  I usually go for beef and sausage (that’s good BBQ to me), plus mushrooms, spinach, and any other veggies that look good.  The sauces make the meal:  3 ladles of Burn Your Village Barbecue, 2 ladles of Kung Pow Yow!, soy sauce, garlic broth, and garlic chili sauce.  I like to look at the ingredients of the house sauces I’m using, and then use the basic sauces to supplement the taste.

After waiting a long time, the three cooks take your bowls of food and dump them on a humongous grill, where they cook it right in front of you, along with a bunch of other meals. They have a good time back there, throwing spatulas around and spraying water on everything.

We finally get our food, put some shredded coconut on our plates, and then retreat to our table, where we ate our food entirely with chopsticks! We mixed some rice in, and also had some tortillas to make wraps with our food.

When we were standing in line, we overheard someone say that they were from Mongolia, and the food selection is pretty close to what they have there in Mongolia.

For round two, we both decided to go hot. Rachelle got the same meats and veggies, and then put 5 ladles of Kung Pow Yow! on it, as well as one ladle of the Yellow Curry for good measure. Charlie tried the Five Village Fire Szechuan.  A very different taste–warmer, moister than the dry heat of the Kung Pow Yow.

Rachelle made hers so hot even she could barely eat it. Eventually, her mouth went numb and she could continue.

Afterward, we each got a fortune cookie, and then went home where Rachelle fell into a HuHot coma.

The sauces are trademarks of HuHot Mongolian Grills LLC.

Country #3 (Mexico)
Home Cooking
We made tacos for dinner

We made tacos! Rachelle made guacamole (although since she’s not feeling the greatest still, we got a mix… usually she makes it from scratch), and chopped up red peppers, onions, and tomatoes in with it. We grated cheddar cheese and smoked fontina (a spanish cheese), chopped lettuce, red peppers, tomatoes, and onions for toppings, made canned black refried beans, and browned hamburger meat seasoned with a mix, onions, and red peppers. We bought pre-made corn taco shells.

Charlie made Horchata, which was very tasty. It’s a sweet rice and cinnamon sweet drink from Mexico. We make it with skim milk to really bring out the cinnamon flavor. Yum!

Other than some issues with produce (the avocados were a little iffy, and the lettuce and tomato were limp), the meal turned out to be very good. We ate until we were stuffed!

We didn’t really use any set recipe, just Rachelle’s experience making tacos.

Country #3 (ALL OF THEM)
IHOP (International)
College and Elizabeth, Fort Collins

Charlie: Steak, eggs, pancakes and hashbrowns
Rachelle: Bacon, eggs, pancakes, and hashbrowns

I guess we’re finished now… we got ALL the countries at the INTERNATIONAL House of Pancakes…

JUST KIDDING! IHOP doesn’t count as anything. :)

Countries #1 and #2 (Japan and Korea)
Jeju (Japanese and Korean)
College and Olive, Fort Collins
Went with Justin and Caroline for lunch

Charlie: Chicken Curry Don, tuna sushi
Rachelle: Bulgoki
Justin: Chicken Teriyaki, sushi
Caroline: Dynamite, sushi
appetizer: Edemame

Rachelle asked Charlie if he wanted to treat Justin and Caroline to lunch before they headed off to Korea, and Charlie thought it was a good idea, and decided to let them pick where to go. Caroline wanted sushi, so Jeju it was, as Jeju is the closest sushi place to the apartment and Rachelle cannot walk very far due to still recovering from mono. Besides, Charlie and Rachelle had been meaning to go there
for a while.

The atmosphere in the restaurant wasn’t very Asian, as they were playing crazy American covers of jazz songs over the speakers and showing a talk show on the televisions. One thing that added to the atmosphere was a cooler on the counter by our table that had all sorts of different fish used in sushi on display.

Charlie and Rachelle decided to order something from Japan and something from Korea and share with each other to get two countries in one meal.

All four of us each got a bowl of Miso soup, which is a traditional soybean-based Japanese soup with tofu, nori (which is like seaweed), scallions, and negi (welsh onions). The soup was very delicious.

Rachelle can’t use chopsticks, so she luckily had her chopstick helper cheater things to aid in eating. One of the goals of this food eating thing is for her to learn how to use chopsticks correctly.

As an appetizer, we ordered edamame, which is boiled soybeans in pods with salt on them. Rachelle had never eaten them before, but everyone thought they were tasty, and we all ate through them very quickly. Justin’s comment was, “It was good, it was edamame, but…couldn’t they have put salt on more than 3 or 4 pieces?!”

Caroline and Justin ordered a bunch of sushi, and Charlie ordered two tuna sushi as well. Apparently, the California rolls were very good, and the others were as well.

The Korean-bound couple also ordered some Chicken Teriyaki, but Caroline discovered she really wasn’t in the mood for it. Justin thought it was blah, until all the meat and veggies were gone and just rice remained, and then it wasn’t worth it anymore. The sauce just kind of sat there and the chicken just wasn’t up to par.

The Chicken Curry Don was a disappointment. It did not have nearly have as much curry flavor as we expected, and it really wasn’t worth eating. Charlie says, “It was a waste of chicken.”

Both Charlie and Rachelle ate more of the Bulgoki, which was, in contrast, very flavorful and nomable! It had sliced sirloin with various veggies, including mushrooms, which Rachelle immediately discarded, much to Charlie’s delight. Caroline tasted the pickled radish and didn’t have much to say about it. Overall, the bulgoki was
very, very good. We think it was cooked in a wine-based sauce with some soy sauce mixed in as well. It came with a bowl of rice which Rachelle mixed in with the meat and veggies. The bulgoki was definitely the highlight of the meal.

Caroline decided to order a dynamite to replace the teriyaki. Dynamite is made of the leftover parts of fish that can’t be used in sushi. Caroline commented on how good it was, and offered to share it with the rest of us. Charlie and Justin were pleased by this offering. Rachelle hates seafood, so she avoided the dish like the plague and used the time to perfect her edemame eating skills and play around with the
chopsticks.

By the time the rest were done eating the dynamite, Rachelle managed to pick up a carrot slice and a piece of onion with unaided chopsticks, much to everyone’s amusement. “I’m going to learn how to use these things yet!” she said.

Overall, Jeju was a great place to start Charlie and Rachelle’s around the world food eating journey, especially since they had never been to Jeju before.