Ethiopian Spicy Beef

Infinite Soups’ Ethiopian Spicy Beef ($2.50 for 8 ounces) soup sent me frantically digging in my purse for bottled water.  With ingredients such as yams, beef, poblano pepper, garlic, and ginger — it sounds pretty harmless, right?  Yeah, the poblano had some kick but it was Wendy’s Berber Spice Blend that put this soup over the edge.  Although there are about 30 other spices within this blend, I have just one very important ingredient for you: Cayenne. 

I couldn’t eat it.  It was too hot. Full of fantastic flavor, I was dying to conquer a bowl of Ethiopian Spicy Beef, but I simply could not.  For the first time ever, something has kicked my ass. Congratulations, Infinite Soups. — Steph DeRosa

[Infinite Soups, 445 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.274.0232]

Fried rice

Stepping into the new Pho tai at 38th Street and Pacific Avenue I felt comfortable. The warm, earth-tone walls decorated with only a few overblown Vietnamese characters; the simple tables and simpler settings; the space between those tables; the high, high ceiling — I thought it was deliberate urban minimalism, nearly Japanese in its austerity. Pho tai does fried rice the hard way ($5.99 chicken, pork, shrimp, vegetable) — searing fresh white rice in the wok, then tossing it with meat and vegetables, rather than taking day-old rice, staining it brown with cheap soy sauce and re-steaming it to make it soft. I’m a pushover for Vietnamese coffee and condensed milk ($2.45). The sweetened condensed milk sits on the bottom of the tall glass, with the rich coffee on top, so there’s a good bit of stirring necessary to mix the two. I close my eyes for the first sip, to focus on the sweet, dark flavors. — Ron Swarner

[Pho tai, 3814 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.471.4221]

The Cult of the Crab

The Sea Grill at 15th and Pacific in Tacoma celebrates the Royal Order of the Flying Crustaceans during the month of March, which is a PR term for: if we come up with a cool name will you tell your readers we have a crab special on the menu.  — Jake de Paul

[Sea Grill, 1498 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.5656]