Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Asian fusion in Cary: An

Last night a colleague and I ventured to Cary for dinner at the restaurant An. The menu features sushi, sashimi, a variety of small plates that lean towards Asian and a dinner menu with main courses like chicken with peanuts, black vinegar, and spicy honey. Their specialty is Kobe beef and the menu describes it as being served with deconstruction ratatouille, cassava cake, miso and ginger sauce. I am not sure what that means and I am too cheap to pay for Kobe beef so I went for the prawns with candied walnuts, heart of palm slaw, and honey cream sauce. The flavors went together very well. I really enjoyed the honey cream sauce. What's not to love about honey and cream?

My friend had the miso sea bass with maple syrup, white miso, shiitake, and ginger soy meunière sauce. It looked good, and she cleaned her plate. I don't yet know her well enough to say, "Excuse me, may I have a bite?" so I didn't get a taste.

The drinks menu and wine list are lengthy. I had a nice full, smooth Burgundy before my dinner because yesterday was too cold for white wine. I needed something to warm my blood and it hit the spot.

I like the atmosphere at An. The tables are decorated with orchids which happen to be my favorite flower. For those of us in RTP it is fairly convenient for dinner or cocktails after work. I plan to go back soon to try their sushi. We have a lot of mediocre sushi in the Triangle. Maybe An will be a pleasant surprise.

Side note: I'm still closely following the crisis in Tibet and the surrounding provinces. I'm worried about the latest round of what is undoubtedly a silly Chinese yarn.

1 comment:

Marsosudiro said...

"I don't yet know her well enough to say, "Excuse me, may I have a bite?" so I didn't get a taste."

Sigh. The downside of polite society :-)

In my twenties, I ate like a vacuum cleaner and always finished my co-workers' meals for them. One top-exec from our corporate headquarters expressed insult when I didn't want his leftovers at the end of one of our first lunches together. "What, my leftovers aren't good enough for you?" "No, John, really -- I'm just full." One of our biggest clients joined us for dinner at the Angus Barn that same week. Caught onto the system and offered me his uneaten baby back ribs or lamb chops or whatever it was. Lord, I was so stuffed.

I've been itching to get to An for some time. Hope to, soon. Thanks for the detailed report!