Kublai Khan RedeďŹ ning Old Concepts
A Xanadu of Gastronomical Delights BY KALYANI GIRI Alan Lee
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It’s a typical blistering summer afternoon in our fair city. The car park at the Carillon Shopping Center on Westheimer in the Westchase area is deluged with lunch seekers ostensibly making life and death choices about their sacred midday meal. I snag a parking slot and step out into the unforgiving heat, shivering with relief as I push open the heavy wooden doors of Kublai Khan, home of the Crazy Mongolian Stir Fry, where the air conditioning is restorative and bliss inducing. I take in my surroundings; a life-size terracotta warrior stands enigmatically to the side of the doorway, vigilant of those sweeping into the trendy restaurant. Nautical knotted ropes entwined around sturdy pillars give the room an anchored-down edginess. Engaged in conversation or seated solitarily on comfy beige/black couches and chairs, diners wield chopsticks and spoons as they pore over steaming bowls or platters. Drifting