MI Best - Weekend Edition - April 9, 2023

Michigan’s Best Local Eats:

Pasong’s Café seasons meals with happy memories

SAGINAW, MI

Fusion Asian s

each item cooked in her restaurant’s kitchen in Saginaw’s Old Town district represents a taste that takes her back in time, to every delicious bite associated with that meal.

For the 46-year-old woman, some of those earliest associations involve the love stirred into meals prepared by her mother, who opened Pasong’s Café in 1986 and continues to check in on the operation handed over to her daughter 15 years ago.

“It takes you home: That’s what this food does for me,” Saycosie said. “It makes everything feel better. I want to give that to my customers. That’s why I keep this business going.”

Keeping Pasong’s Café going in the last two years was a challenge, she said. When the pandemic began in March 2020, Saycosie — like so many other restaurant owners — transitioned to take-out service exclusively. Her establishment’s dining area remains closed, her staff was reduced from 10 to ve employees, and she cut down her hours of operation.

Still, the strong following for Pasong’s Café kept the restaurant alive and kicking. These days, staff remain busy preparing takeout meals — and memories — ve days per week.

Resilience is part of Saycosie’s history. Her earliest memories involve eeing with her mother as refugees from their homeland of Laos, where

political struggles and violence impacted the region years after American forces departed Vietnam. They arrived in Saginaw on Halloween of 1979, and since then, Saycosie said the community embraced her family.

It’s a compassion she said continues now, as customers support her business even after the pandemic presented so many obstacles.

“I’m in awe of the kindness and love that has just been so bright,” Saycosie said. “For people to trust us to cook for them and take care of them during this time was and is an honor.

Without this community, we don’t exist.”

Saycosie opens the restaurant Tuesdays through Saturdays, although a holiday break will keep the eatery closed until Thursday, April 21.

When opened, she said pho remains one of the most popular items from her menu; popular enough that she sometimes advocates her regular customers to venture into other options.

One of her favorite recommendations: gai boun, otherwise known as coconut curry soup. Along with the coconut curry soup base, it features rice noodles, chicken, lime leaf, ginger, sliced cabbage, green onions and cilantro.

Saycosie said she put the item on

64-year-old Pasong

Saycosie-King, handed over the reins of the restaurant. Regardless, Saycosie closely associates the meal with her family.

“It’s something we like to eat at home, especially on holidays,” Saycosie said. “It just has all the avors. It has the creamy notes, the sweeter notes, the savory notes, and a mild spicy note too. It’s so yummy.”

Saycosie said she hopes to reopen the dining room at some point. In the meantime, she and her staff tailor meals so that her food remains just as tasty when customers dine at home as it would if customers ate at the restaurant.

She and her staff organize items in recyclable containers that feature divided compartments, keeping items such as noodles isolated from ingredients that could add sogginess to the meal during the drive home. Instead, people can mix the prepared noodles with the provided sauces and spices when they sit down to eat at their dinner table, preserving

that straight-from-the-kitchen zest.

“When you invest your money in us to feed you, we are going to feed you right,” Saycosie said. “I don’t want you going home feeling disappointed. We want you to feel good; Not just how you feel when you’re eating the food, but how you feel after you’ve eaten too. We want you to remember the food we made for you.”

tGRAND RAPIDS, MI

he Pita House, which has locations in Grand Rapids and Kentwood, prides itself on its fresh food, as well as its gyros and chicken and beef shawarma, which, according to manager Fadi Shatara, are “full of meat, full of avor.”

“They’re amazing,” he said. “There’s a lot of meat on there. Each sandwich is

over a quarter pound.”

The creators of The Pita House have been serving Middle Eastern cuisine in Grand Rapids since 1995.

First, the owners of what would become The Pita House were selling gyros out of Sami’s Party Store in Eastown. Four years later, in 1999, they opened The Pita House across the street from the now defunct party store. In 2015, the restaurant moved to its current location in the Eastown neighborhood, 1508 Wealthy St. SE.

The Pita House opened its second location, 3730 28th St. SE, in 2000.

Shatara said The Pita House prides itself on its fresh ingredients.

“Everything is always fresh,” he said. “That’s our number one thing.”

One of the most popular items are gyros ($11).

It comes with a mix of beef and lamb, served on pita bread, with a wide

selection of toppings. Customers can pick their own toppings, but for those looking for a traditional gyro, the menu recommends tzatziki (a Greek yogurt sauce), as well as lettuce, tomato, onion, feta cheese, parsley and sumac seasoning. Shawarma, available in beef or chicken ($11), is also popular.

The beef or chicken has been marinated in Middle Eastern spices and slow roasted on a vertical rotisserie.

When served at The Pita House, employees shave the layers off the rotisserie, and place them in pita bread. Customers can pick their own toppings.

For a chicken shawarma, the menu recommends garlic sauce, lettuce, onions, pickles, pickled turnips, and sumac

Suggested topping for beef shawarma include tahini (a condiment made from sesame seeds), lettuce tomatoes, onions, pickled turnips, parsley, and sumac, a spice used in Middle Eastern food.

INFO

The Pita House’s menu can be found online at pitahousegr.com, and the restaurant’s Eastown location can be reached at (616) 454-1171. The location on 28th Street can be reached by calling (616) 940-3029

The Grand Rapids location is open Monday through Friday, from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Michigan’s Best Local Eats:

Tavern Skeetown

sMUSKEGON, M keetown Tavern offers a menu full of food items made from scratch and knows how to serve it fresh to the Muskegon area.

With an array of homemade roux, stocks, sauces and reductions to complement the dishes, Executive Chef Martin Yant makes sure the community gets a bite of southern cooking each visit.

Skeetown even serves alligator, representing the chef’s time spent in Louisiana.

The tavern, located at 1308 W. Sherman Blvd., is best known for its award-winning savory steak and hearty soup by Yant himself.

Yant, 53, rst learned to cook Cajun foods when he was in grade school, after moving from Muskegon to Louisiana in 1983. During his teen and early adult years in Louisiana, he worked at his mother’s restaurant, El Camino Restaurant and Cantina, before taking a break to pursue other interests in 2007.

According to Yant, his love for cooking took him back to the hospitality scene at a corporate restaurant in Louisiana, further inspiring Yant to come back to Muskegon to pursue more culinary opportunities in 2010.

Yant said that his parents’ idea to mix TexMex avors and a steakhouse menu was what unintentionally inspired the seasonal menu at Skeetown Tavern because of how he was raised to cook Cajun foods.

“If I kind of sit back and look at it, Skeetown is a good replication of my mom’s restaurant in Louisiana,” Yant said. “The smells, sights and sounds have always been something that it’s hard for me to get away

serves up fried alligator legs fresh from Louisiana

from. I grew up with it.”

Skeetown Tavern used to be a simple bar before Yant helped the owner Todd Harmon morph the place into a tavern with hearty foods.

One of the menu items that stands out from the rest is a dish fresh from a Louisiana farm. The savory fried alligator meal ($15) is brined in buttermilk and hot sauce, hand-breaded, and served with a cocktail sauce on the side.

The dish is described as having fresh avors, with a shrimp-like taste and a similar texture to chicken.

“It is almost like a novelty item,” Yant said. “Not many people can say they have eaten an alligator, but it’s something that we’re used to down south. So I thought I would try to introduce it and see if the Muskegon area would give it a shot, and they have.”

Besides the novelty items, Skeetown is best known for its hearty gumbos and handmade tacos.

Another tasty item on the menu is Skeetown’s Flautas ($8), made of chicken, bacon and cheese wrapped in a tortilla before it’s fried to perfection with a pineapple salsa to dip into.

Besides the unique TexMex items, customers can get a classic burger with a twist called the Roadkill ($16), which consists of a huge 14-ounce burger patty smothered with sautéed onions and mushrooms in a savory bourbon sauce, topped with melted mozzarella, and served with a salad.

As far as drink specials go, adults over 21 can enjoy Skeetown’s 16-ounce Bloody Marys, frozen daiquiris and margaritas in-house or to-go for $10.

“Everything is from scratch,” Yant said. “We have a large, varied menu. We are just trying to hang our hat on it being a scratch kitchen.”

Michigan’s

Best Local Eats:

Sichuan Cuisine

serves authentic dishes in Kalamazoo

tKALAMAZOO, MI here are a lot of Chinese restaurants around Kalamazoo, which is why Sichuan Cuisine focuses on authentic dishes.

Sichuan Cuisine, 324 N. Drake Road, features two menus – authentic Sichuan food and American Chinese food, Owner Christine Yu said. The authentic menu is the one they promote the most, she said.

“I think as a Chinese restaurant or Chinese food industry promoter, I love my culture, especially food culture,” Yu said. “I think authentic menu is the best way to express the real thing.”

Yu worked as a manager at the restaurant and took over ownership in 2019 when the original owners no longer wanted to run it. Since then, she has focused on making authentic Sichuan food, dishes with centuries of history, like Dan Dan noodles and spicy dumplings. Both come with a price tag of $6.95.

“(The spicy dumpling dish) looks very simple, but it tastes so rich and has balance of avor,” Yu

said.

Whatever people order, they can’t go wrong, she said. People don’t always know what Sichuan food is, Yu said. It is one of eight main cuisines from different regions in China and has grown in popularity across the United States over the years, she said.

“It’s taken me two years to educate people,” Yu said. “What kind of Sichuan food is real?”

A lunch buffet is available weekdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., except for Tuesdays in the summer. It’s a great way for people to try a variety of Sichuan food to discover what they like, Yu said.

Part of what makes Sichuan food unique is the variety of avors and the way they combine, Yu said.

Hot pot is a popular dish, especially in the winters, Yu said. People can add everything from whole sh to tofu to frog legs to their hot pot.

Sichuan Cuisine serves a large selection of vegetarian and vegan food. That includes a wide variety of tofu – like mapo tofu or General Tao’s tofu – to crispy eggplant to gongbao vegetables. Each dish is $12.95.

INFO

The restaurant currently has a spicy cray sh special. It is served in a spicy sauce with jalapenos, onions and chili peppers.

Running Sichuan Cuisine can be stressful, especially as food costs continue to increase, Yu said. They also have to drive to Chicago to get necessary ingredients after a distributor stopped coming to the Kalamazoo area. She also had to deal with some people telling her to go back home, especially in 2020. But she knows those people don’t represent the community as a whole.

“People keep coming,” Yu said. “We have the best customers.”

During the coronavirus shutdowns, Sichuan Cuisine was part of “We Wok Together,” which was a group of restaurants that worked together to provide free meals to rst responders. The restaurant was also part of a nationwide drive, Food of Love, that raised more than $1 million to donate during Asian American and Paci c Islander Heritage Month, Yu said.

The majority of the restaurant’s business is carry-out and delivery, but they are open for dine-in. Yu does tell customers that dine-in may be slow, depending on how many staff they have that day.