You may recall in my review for Din Tai Fung in San Diego last year I wrote the following: "To be honest, dumplings aren't really my area of expertise, so I would have wished that Mr. Music was with me so he could tell the difference between Din Tai Fung and one of the many dives he has frequented in various Asian neighborhoods." Well, this isn't dumplings but it does give you an idea of how deep Mr. Music goes to find quality Asian food.
Another interesting tidbit about B2J is that they are a national chain. But not one that looks to have any kind of economy of scale. They have 5 locations: One in the Seattle area; one in the New York City suburbs of New Jersey; another in western Maryland; one in Houston; and this location in Plano near DFW.
OK Mr. Music, what do you have for us today?
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When Mr. Grizzly told me he wanted to take me to a place that only serves spicy sauerkraut fish soup and it would blow my mind: I thought sauerkraut? and fish? Yeah, I had some reservations... but still, we promptly made reservations to go there.
Mr. Music (me!) is always up for a new food adventure and this one sounded like it was all of that. I was happy that Mr. Grizzly's lady joined us. She is from China and finds some of the best places!
We got to the restaurant, which is in an old Plano strip and is packed with very interesting looking Asian fooderies, all of which I WILL TRY!
The facade of B2J is 2 big, crystal clear, unobstructed windows. The place is small and was full! It was bright inside and I could see every customer and all the food on every table all at once. What a cool sight! Each table had a huge bowl (or two) of soup surrounded by small plates of goodies.
The soup comes 3 ways: classic spicy sour; spicy; and vine pepper numb flavor.... really? HELLOOOOO! Bring on the vine pepper numb flavor, with fish and sauerkraut right away! Mr. Grizzly and lady said "that's the best way!"
The soup was packed with mouth numbing vine peppers (Szechuan peppers) and dried Thai chilies (for heat). The sauerkraut is not the German pickled cabbage stuff; it is more like tart kimchi made from fermented mustard greens and really compliments the peppers and other seasoning. The fish is a very mild white fish, Swai or tilapia.
Then there were herbs (ginger, garlic etc), onion and oil... but wait! There is also a sundry of add-ins too! Spam!? lol, meatballs, enoki mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, black fungus, tofu, potato slices, A-choy (root and leaf), different types of noodles and more.
We decided on A-choy root, lotus root, tofu, and black fungus! We loved it all, but next time a different mushroom instead of black fungus. Black fungus, but we had the black fungus salad plus the black fungus is very neutral and just got lost in the mélange of flavors in the soup.
As for the sides, we got Chinese fried bread, steamed rice, black fungus salad, spicy sour fern starch noodles and takoyaki (fried dough balls filled with creamy stuff and a chunk of octopus in the center, which Lady Grizzly ordered) it was actually pretty good. The Chinese bread was good and used to soak in the soup, but I preferred ladling my soup over the sticky jasmine rice. The fern noodles were topped with diced Thai chilis and was yummy, spicy and tangy. The black fungus salad was fantastic with thinly sliced cucumber and purple onion, it was tossed in a vinaigrette made with rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and spices. It might have been the best I've ever had. note: I order black fungus any time it is offered and get it at 3 or 4 places.
There were some very interesting drinks like fresh squeezed watermelon juice, plum juice and yeshu coconut milk not to mention teas and sodas, but we just got water.
Wow, it really did blow my mind! I love love loved it! I have not had that many flavors simultaneously since I first tried mutton biryani or tom kha gai!
It was a wonderful meal and experience. I definitely want to go again.
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