KALAMAZOO, MI -- The owners of Pacific Rim Food market and Cravings Deli are offering what they call a ’culinary flat world’ in Kalamazoo.
Owners Xin Wang and Anson Liu have created an Asian fusion experience that goes beyond the mall food court and buffet lines where most Americans first experienced Asian cuisine.
Pacific Rim Food, the grocery side of the business, offers shoppers a diverse inventory with fresh produce and herbs from China, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and India.
Every week new items are added. Most recently, the Facebook page featured Taiwanese-style snowy mooncakes and new flavors of boba tea.
Since opening in 2008 in a 500-square-foot space in Oakwood Plaza, the market has expanded to its current 11,000-square-foot building in Portage at 229 W. Kilgore Road.
Kalamazoo’s taste for authentic Asian cuisine made opening the adjacent restaurant, Cravings Deli, two years ago a success, the couple said. Cravings Deli doesn’t have a signature dish, it has a signature menu, the couple laughs.
“My wife always said we have to do what we’re good at,” Liu said. “We opened Cravings with the intention to serve our best ideas, our best dishes.”
When Wang moved to Kalamazoo from Grand Rapids 15 years ago, she said she was hard-pressed to find sushi, Thai or Korean restaurants in the area. As a self-proclaimed “foodie,” she said she wanted to fill that gap for Kalamazoo.
“I wanted to show people the Asian cuisine beyond buffet and fusion and American Chinese food,” Wang said. “I want to show them authentic Asian. I feel that’s what was missing.”
Wang says she appreciates that Americanized Chinese food is most people’s first introduction to Asian cuisine, but “it’s not all about fried rice and egg rolls,” she said.
The Cravings Deli menu offers some familiar staples like crab rangoons and potstickers. However, if she gets an adventurous customer looking for authentic flavor, Wang said she points them to the cumin lamb or the mushrooms with bok choy, which features a sauce recipe handed down from her father.
“I wanted a restaurant that tastes like your grandma’s cooking,” she said. “The food is authentic and is how you remember it from when you were a child rather than what’s so modernized today that it lost that original taste.”
In the early days of the market, Wang said customers would often ask for her advice on how to prepare Asian cuisine. One customer suggested she run cooking classes to give examples of meals using the market’s products.
This spring, cooking classes for April and May sold out but were not able to meet in-person due to COVID-19 restrictions, Wang said. As a reward for customers patience, Wang livestreamed a cooking tutorial for braised short ribs last week.
The market and restaurant are open with both in-person and to-go options but cooking classes have not resumed yet. The couple said staff and customer feedback have dictated their reopening and adjusted hours.
They started using masks before cases were even reported in Kalamazoo County and prepared for a shutdown after seeing the coronavirus move swiftly through their home country of China. The couple says they are appreciative of their customers patience and loyalty throughout the pandemic.
“Kalamazoo and Portage and the surrounding area is such a loving community,” Wang said. “Both my husband and I both were not originally from here, but we’re so glad that we picked this place to call home and to start business and build a family.”
More Local Eats on MLive:
Local Eats: Black-owned restaurants offer community favorites in Kalamazoo
Local Eats: Kalamazoo’s Middle Eastern Appetite brings different cultures to one kitchen
Local Eats: Blue Dolphin owner thankful for Kalamazoo community’s support during pandemic
Local Eats: Downtown Kalamazoo sandwich shop brings high quality ingredients to your lunch break
"local" - Google News
August 29, 2020 at 06:45PM
https://ift.tt/3gDKCoj
Local Eats: Cravings Deli brings Asian cuisine to Kalamazoo - mlive.com
"local" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WoMCc3
https://ift.tt/2KVQLik
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Local Eats: Cravings Deli brings Asian cuisine to Kalamazoo - mlive.com"
Post a Comment