Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Insects Dinner at Typhoon Restaurant

Typhoon Restaurant
3221 Donald Douglas Loop S.
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 390-6565
http://www.typhoon-restaurant.com

Dr. P's friend Timmy has been talking about trying out some cooked insects from Typhoon Restaurant.  I proposed the idea of an insects dinner party to Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 and got picked!!!!  Thank you, Foodbuzz, for giving the seven of us the opportunity to chow down some insects (and amphibian too) last night.



Typhoon Restaurant is located inside Santa Monica Airport on the 2nd floor.  Our reservation was at 5:30pm.  The restaurant was already full.  People just kept on coming in the entire night.  We were surprised how popular this restaurant is.  Does everybody like insects that much?




This was the view from our table.  We could see the runway and the small airplanes outside.


Frogs' Legs ($11.00)
deep-fried thai style, cilantro sauce

Our dinner started with the "exotic" dishes as appetizers.  Frogs' Legs was deep fried and served with cilantro sauce.  Growing up in Taiwan, I had been eating frogs' legs forever.  This was a "normal" dish you can find in almost every authentic Chinese restaurant.



Dr. P had never had frogs' legs before.  He was a little freaked out seeing the green color on the legs.  I told him it was just the cilantro sauce, but he refused to believe me.  He tried a bite and just wouldn't eat it anymore.  Everybody else didn't have any problem eating it.  Frogs' legs tasted exactly like chicken.  If you don't know what you're eating, you probably will think it's just chicken.


Singapore-Style Scorpions ($11.00)
shrimp toast

Singapore-Style Scorpions was served on top of shrimp toast.  The scorpion was a lot smaller than I expected.



On the count of 3, everybody put a piece of scorpion and shrimp toast in their mouth.  Honestly, I couldn't taste the scorpion at all.  I only tasted the shrimp toast and something crunchy.  Maybe I should've tried the scorpion by itself?


Thai-Style White Sea Worms ($9.00)
deep-fried thai style, baby lettuce leaves, ginger, chile pepper, peanuts, lime, tamarind dipping sauce

Thai-Style White Sea Wroms sounded scary.  I mean, when you hear the word "worm", you just get the "ewwwww" wormy image in your head, right?  The actual dish looked a lot better than I imagine it would be.



The worm was deep fried and didn't look like worm, but more like fish.  It looked a lot like those tiny silverfish (魩仔魚), and it actually tasted like it, too.  I really think it was fish, but they just called it "sea worms".  This dish was salty and spicy.  Pretty tasty.


Taiwanese Crickets ($10.00)
taiwanese stir-fried, raw garlic, chile pepper, asian basil

The dish is called Taiwanese Crickets, but there really wasn't anything Taiwanese about it.  The crickets were deep-fried, served with fried potato strings.



This gotta be the scariest looking dish!  Would you put that thing in your mouth, chew it, and swallow it?



This was little Jonathan's reaction.  Pretty much everyone had that expression on their faces when we first saw this dish.



I took a forkful of potatoes plus 1 tiny cricket, closed my eyes, and put it in my mouth.  Well, I only tasted the potatoes and it just tasted like fries... really crunchy fries.  After a few bites, I decided to try the cricket alone by itself.  Cricket actually didn't have any taste at all, just really crunchy.  Timmy said he got one that wasn't fully cooked and when he bit into it, the juice squirted out.  We all went "ewwwww", but he said it tasted even better than the really crunchy one.  It had a good nutty flavor.  He said, "From now on, I'm gonna get hungry when I see crickets.  Actually, I think I'm gonna go to the pet store and buy some crickets and cook them at http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com."  Timmy, you win!



After a few bites, little Jonathan said, "I want more crickets!  Cricket is my favorite food now!"  The crickets was indeed the most popular dish tonight.  We saw this guy at the table next to us.  He ordered the crickets and ate it like an entree all by himself!

We also wanted to try ants, but they didn't have ants last night.  Too bad!


Burma Wings ($9.00)
hot chile paste, pineapple, raita

The rest of the dishes were just your standard Asian fusion dishes.  Burma Wings were good, but really really spicy.  The raita yogurt sauce was good and balanced the spiciness of the chile paste.


Honey Walnut Shrimp ($18.00)

Honey Walnut Shrimp was ok good.  Portion was on the smaller side, but price was on the expensive side.


Filipino Pollo Adobo ($14.00)
vinegar, garlic, soy

I ordered the Filipino Pollo Adobo for Cat, who came from Philippine when she was 5 years old.  The chicken was tender, and it tasted a lot like soy braised chicken.  Cat said that the Pollo Adobo didn't taste authentic.  It was too sweet.  The real Filipino version had a lot more vinegar and is more on the sour side.  I have never tried Filipino food before and this was my first Filipino dish.  I would love to try a Filipino restaurant next time.


Thai Garlic Short Ribs ($19.00)
caramelized soy sauce

Thai Garlic Short Ribs was way too salty for my taste, but I did liked the flavor.


Mongolian Lamb ($20.00)
stir-fried with tomatoes, scallions, mushrooms & carrots; served with sesame buns

Besides the crickets, Mongolian Lamb was everyone's favorite dish for the night.  The lamb with veggies was flavorful.  It did tasted a lot like Mongolian BBQ.  The sesame buns were delicious as well.  Wen's hubby cut the sesame buns open in the middle and stuffed it with Mongolian Lamb.  It was really tasty.


Stir-Fried Egg Plant ($8.00)
taiwanese-style with garlic, chile & asian basil

Stir-Fried Egg Plant was supposed to be cooked Taiwanese style, but again, it wasn't that Taiwanese.  It was still pretty good though.  I liked the basil.


Pineapple Fried Rice ($11.00)
pineapple, chicken, shrimp, cashew nuts

Pineapple Fried Rice was good, but I think it's missing the "dry meat flakes" (Rousong 肉鬆).


Kway Teow ($12.00)
malaysian rice noodles, chicken, shrimp,egg, bok choy, sprouts, garlic

Our waiter recommended Kway Teow.  It was the Malaysian style flat rice noodle, stir fried with chicken, shrimp, egg, bok choy, bean sprout and garlic.  I like the noodle more than the fried rice.



I enjoyed the insects dinner a lot.  We all got to try insects for the first time.  If you would like to try some insects, you gotta come to Typhoon.  I think this is the only restaurant in LA that serves insects.  But if you just want some Asian food, I would say you should go somewhere else.  The "regular" food here wasn't exactly bad, but it was more of an Americanize type of Asian food and way overpriced.  But we all had a lot of fun trying out "new things" last night.



I want to thank all my brave friends for joining us for the insects dinner party.  Last but not least, thank you again, Foodbuzz!!!!

[ad#ad-unit]