BAOJI ASIAN HOME
Hit up this spot called Baoji Asian Home for a lunch. I'm still riding the high of an amazing meal so this is gonna be very effusive. Baoji tauts itself as a full range Asian restaurant so they cover all the hits from sushi to bao to green curry. Usually I'm wary of places that can't decide which genre they wanna master but I loved everything we got here so joke's on me. We had Japanese & Chinese apps to start and rounded off with a Thai entree the first time around, and Japanese & Viet apps and a Japanese entree for the second round.
It's got a bright pink exterior that's hard to miss on a busy road and a Chinese themed interior that is colorful and cozy. One thing I do not get & forgot to ask about was the exclusively American country music playlist ????? Luckily it's what I consider classic country and not the post 9/11, red, white & blue-down-your-throat country so it was a chill but confusing soundtrack to the meal.
ROUND ONE
God bless India bc there were like 10 veg sushi options which is PERF for me & my mom bc we both don't fuck with actual sushi, sashimi or nigiri. We got their Baoji Signature Purple Rice Crunchy Avocado Roll to start which was 🔥🔥🔥 Nori, avo, tanuki flakes, purple rice and a dash of cream cheese in an inhale-able dish. Def felt like the Americanized California Roll typa dish but who cares— I could legit eat this all day. App number two was the Spicy Chicken Pan-Fried Bao which had excellent flavors but was a lil lacking in the filling to bao ratio. The fried garlic garnish was 100/10 and I wish I could order a bucket of that to do to put on everything goddamn thing. It’s hiding under the bao in the pic but trust me, it was lil drops of heaven.
For our main we got the Kra Pow which was drooling emoji. The sizzling clay serving dish and the sunny side egg on top was a great presentation and almost too pretty to dig into. Almost. I've never seen an egg with Thai food before and tbh I usually associate it more with ramen but it was the perfect topper (hiding under the microgreens). Oh and this shit was spicy. Like, we needed multiple refills on our water glass spicy lol. I can't wait to have it again. Ofc I had to get a bevvy and I tried the Fresh Pineapple & Pink Peppercorn Mojito. They have a whole bunch of sake-tini options or you can add sake to their extensive list of mocktails. I added sake bc my drink was technically from the “Temperance” section but couldn't taste it and would've been fine with the virgin version. Lesson learned.
ROUND TWO
We went back today! And I have more thoughts. We got fully different things this time around, starting with a Yazuka Purple Rice uramaki roll. It had enoki tempura, spicy mayo, & avocado wrapped in the usual nori, tanuki flakes, & purple rice, with a bell pepper tartare on top. Also got Vietnamese summer rolls-- these were blah and not worth it. I'm used to summer rolls being wrapped with their ends enclosed like lil burritos but these were open and the filling kept falling out. I basically ended up with a salad on my plate by the end. Also the interior was mostly shredded lettuce and cucumbers-- no carrots, no sauces for flavor within the roll itself-- just a peanut dipping sauce on the side. We opted to add chicken to the rolls but that too was super plain, unseasoned grilled chicken, and barely enough meat to justify the surcharge. It’s like they packed all the chicken at the end to look good on the plate but the inside was just lettuce.
For our main this time, we opted for the Spicy Teriyaki Chicken with Japanese Sushi Rice. In the US, I don't fuck with teriyaki bc it tends to be too sweet for my taste. I figured the menu calling this spicy and the fire-like quality of our entree last time would differentiate it from what I’ve had before. It sorta did. It def wasn't too sweet but the sauce-to-rice & chicken ratio was off so each bite was super saucy and very, very salty. To the point where we just had them wrap it up and then added way more veggies at home to counter-balance the sodium content. I loved the fried onions on top though, and the blanched veggies suited the salty sauce. At home, I fried a few eggs and added a bunch of chopped spinach and the result was solid.
Overall I'd give it like 4.5 stars bc not every dish is a banger but the ones that are, go hard. Def on my list of local faves and I'm eyeing a sake-tini and the Burmese chicken curry for the next visit…
Satiate-ly yours
