SO. MUCH. FOOD. >>>

On Thursday, Jan. 12, 25 dedicated foodies and Weekly Volcano peeps gathered at Café Banana in Lakewood to sample an eye-opening variety of curry dishes and colorful cocktails. From a Massaman lamb curry to roasted chicken Kulumar to classic Penang, green and red curries, the choices were diverse, ample and delicious. It was an enormous amount of food. Many Nosh Leaguers took home piles of curry.

Proprietor Tony Wen provided a curry history lesson, noting trade routes and spice variations.

Accompany the five curry dishes and curry puffs, Wen poured very strong mango vodka slushies and blue rum drinks.

As the gathering wound up, attendees signed up for their Nosh League newsletter, gathered their raffle prizes and slowly moved toward the door. We're talking a lot a food.

Keep your eye out for future Nosh League events organized by the Weekly Volcano. Also, please rate the restaurants in our South Sound Restaurant Guide.

[Cafe Banana, 10115 S. Tacoma way, Lakewood, 253.589.4678]

LINK: More photos from Café Banana Nosh League event

LINK: Learn about Nosh League

HOLIDAY HELPINGS >>>

Still reeling from New Year's Eve? Don't pack up the party just yet: The Year of the Dragon is on, kicking off 15 days of Chinese New Year festivities around the world. But it's not just an excuse to get drunk and make resolutions; this is also the most important Chinese holiday of the year, a period of purging, bonding and ritual tied to the lunar and solar cycles of the earth.

In honor of the holiday, let's eat Chinese today.

Happy Dragon Chinese Food

5104 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.0800
One of the oldest Chinese restaurants in Tacoma with some of the oldest Chinese servers in Tacoma - who happen to be very nice. The mango chicken, Mongolian beef and tangy eggplant are our go-to dishes. - Jake and Jason de Paul

Happy Teriyaki #4

2223 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.1544
The small franchise location specializes in fast, tasty and affordable Asian cuisine; Chinese teriyaki dishes dominate the menu with a smattering of Mongolian, Szechwan, Korean, Cantonese and Japanese dishes thrown in - sushi, sushi rolls, sashimi, bento box, tempura, chow mien, kimchi, soups, spring rolls, barbeque pork, yakisoba, katsu, almond chicken, fried rice, beef short ribs and stir-fry. The portions are generous and affordable. What stands out is the friendly attitude of the staff. On each visit, service has not only been efficient and swift but pleasantly provided. - Jennifer Johnson

K&C Burkie

12926 Bridgeport Way SW. Lakewood, 253.582.9250
Friendly faces serve standard American food alongside Korean, Chinese and Japanese dishes at K & C Burkie Burgers just outside McChord gates. The small, clean and casual eatery does a good job with both East and West offerings - corn dog or gyoza, California wrap or spicy tuna roll, chili cheese dog or chicken teriyaki, curly fries or scallop roll. - JJ

Lobster House

711 S. 38th St., Tacoma, 253.471.8982
At the Lobster House in Tacoma's International District a range of Chinese dishes can be had; radish cakes, congee (rice porridge), chicken feet, salt and pepper squid, chow mein, walnut prawns, hum bao, chow fun and the hot ticket item of the moment: dim sum. Think of dim sum as small meat and vegetable filled pouches, or even simpler as Chinese dumplings. - JJ

Macau Casino Restaurant

9811 South Tacoma Way, Lakewood, 253.983.1777
Chef King Heun Wai, who has won local and national awards, and who has repeatedly been distinguished as one of America's top 100 Chinese Chefs, and who has earned House of Hong in Seattle's Chinatown a place on King 5's Best of Western Washington list of the top five Chinese restaurants, now brings his talent and more than 30 years of experience to Lakewood's Macau Casino as executive chef. The Chinese menu has 87 different items. - JJ

The Green Coconut Tree

8813 Edgewater Dr. SW, Lakewood, 253.473.4444.\
The tiny joint serves Chinese, Vietnamese and ... yes a full complement of Jamaican cuisine. Green Coconut Tree is a casual restaurant with simple furnishings and minimal décor. Two flat screen televisions on either wall had me mesmerized like staring into a fire. The place was clean, and we were given cloth napkins - a nice, unexpected touch.  - JJ

Shanghai House

1126 Commerce St., Tacoma 253.627.1859
Shanghai House opened in April 2009. We give Shanghai big props on portion sizes, for sure. The food is average. Read our review here. - Jake and Jason de Pauls

Three Sisters Tacoma Szechuan

9601 South Tacoma Way, Lakewood, 253.581.0102
Folks, this is as real as it gets around here. Chinese (Sichuan) with a huge menu, well over a hundred options, and the portions are big and the flavors fresh. Their idea of a starter soup is more trough-like than cup. Crispy pork & tofu with hot tomato sauce, hot pepper fried shredded potato, eggplant in hot garlic sauce - they excel in hot and spicy. Thin, marinated lamb strips had a bit of fat, giving the dish a bump in richness. Quite tender meat gave easily at tooth touch. White onion and green and red bell peppers made up half the dish. Plentiful dried chili pepper pods were carefully avoided after a first blind forkful nearly made my head explode. - Ron Swarner

LINK: Eating in the Year of the Dragon

WHEN WEATHER REPORTS SCARE >>>

AccuWeather just dropped this on the Weekly Volcano World Headquarters:

January 16, 2012 – State College, PA – After a modest round of wintry weather over the weekend, more snow, including a potentially historic winter storm will target the Pacific Northwest this week, with heavy accumulations expected, even in Seattle.

In the Cascades of Washington and Oregon, snow will be measured in feet and along some western-facing slopes, it could take multiple yard sticks to total up the powder!

Read more...

Comment On This Post

YEAR-END LIST OF A DIFFERENT SORT >>>

While most of you spent your post Christmas-Festivus-Hanukkah-holiday storing away fuzzy decorations or tyring to restore your belief that your children are the moons to your tides, Emergency Food Network Director Helen McGovern crunched numbers. From her Lakewood office, she threw some additional coal on the fire and compared this past year's bounty to 2010. Here is what she discovered:

In 2011, area food programs distributed 19,396,885 pounds of food, which equates to 15,517,664 meals - more than 1 million more meals than 2010.

Emergency Food Network provides 80 percent of Pierce County's emergency food. EFN distributes nutritious, staple food to 67 food banks, shelters, and hot meal sites in Pierce County.

Area food programs see an average of 147,000 visitors each month.

Demand for emergency food in our community increased 43 percent from 2008 to 2010, and then grew an additional 6 percent in 2011.

Total visits to food banks, meal sites and shelters topped 1,285,000 visits, an increase of 74,000 over 2010.

In 2011, the Gottfried and Mary Fuchs foundation contributed $100,000 to help EFN purchase food.

The Gary E. Milgard Foundation granted EFN $75,000 to support warehouse operations

Washington Women's Foundation contributed $50,000 towards food purchase.

EFN's Abundance charity auction raised mor ethan $200,000 for the organization

Pierce County Hunger Walk raised an additional $130,000.

EFN received $100,000 from the Murdoch Charitable Trust to help replace its roof, along with $50,000 from the Puyallup Tribe and $50,000 from an anonymous donor to help with roof construction.

EFN also receives funding totaling more than $400,000 from the federal government, the State of Washington, the City of Tacoma, the City of Lakewood and Pierce County.

Widows of the four fallen officers in Lakewood worked with the Lakewood Police Department to raise more than $40,000 and more than 40,000 pounds of food during the 2^nd annual Fallen Officers Food Drive.

Emergency Food Network received other gifts around the holidays, including $25,000 from the Walmart Foundation, $10,000 from the Safeco Insurance Foundation and $5,000 from the William Kilworth Foundation.

EFN also received $10,000 from the Hendrix Foundation and $5,000 from Quadrant Homes for Mother Earth Farm.

For information about the Emergency Food Network, to donate, or to learn about volunteer opportunities, visit www.efoodnet.org.

Nice work Helen.

LINK: Hey! Didn't she ...

LAKEWOOD BEAT >>>

The Moon Rise Café in Lakewood will be closed until further notice because a car crashed into it this morning around 8 a.m. No one was seriously hurt.

Updates are available at the Moon Rise Cafe's Facebook.

Every New Year's Eve we do it to ourselves. Why? Is it the sweet clink of the ice cubes? The exhilarating pop of the cork? Or just the way the night seems to open up into endless magical possibilities?

Whatever it is, things aren't so magical the next morning. There's nothing glamorous or exhilarating about bloodshot eyes swollen shut. Instead of trying to remember who dropped the poison into your eyeballs, soothe the savage orb with wikiHow's seven steps to cure puffy eyes. You're so welcome.

From everyone at the Weekly Volcano and Spew land, we wish you a happy new year!

LINK: 5 Ways to be a Better (cough) You!

HEAD INTO THE DARKNESS >>>

Gathering 'round the tree is all well and good on Christmas morn. But what do you do after the last shred of wrapping paper lands in a trash bag, the feast is demolished and you've tired of admiring – or deploring – your gifts?

Go to the movies!

Click here for a schedule of what's playing tonight.I

Weekly Volcano's bosses ran the numbers and decided that since you'll all be drunk anyway, there's no use in turning the lights on Christmas Day. So: We'll be back Monday with more frivolity. In the meantime, thanks for reading and commenting this past year. Consider our stockings stuffed.

So "Merry" this and "Happy" that, whatever suits your fancy or your need. Just don't forget the "Ho Ho Ho" that, maybe better than anything else, keeps it all in perspective.

Oh, and Happy New Year. That's unambiguous.

WHEN CUPS RUNNETH OVER >>>

Anyone who has traveled to Southeast Asia knows it is a great place to expand one's culinary horizons. Even in a less exotic locale like Singapore, or a more impoverished region like Indonesia, the sheer variety of curries and rice dishes offered at one of the myriad "food courts" and open markets gives these countries an exciting culinary tinge.

Singaporean native Tony Wien's Café Banana Asian Bistro, located inside the Great American Casino in Lakewood, is modeled after such admiration for Southeast Asian flavors, with its "roots" in Malaysian, Thai and Indian cuisine. "Within the walls of Café Banana lie all the ingredients for an eating Oasis," Wien recently told us.

Wien is a bit of a historian when it comes to curry. He'll bend your ear for an hour discussing ancient curry trade routes, preparations and varieties.

Throw one of his exotic mango or sake cocktails, and five of his curry dishes, and we'll listen.

That's exactly what the next Nosh league will do at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12. We'll meet for a night of curry history, dishes and exotic cocktails. Wien is also throwing in a salmon dish. That's cool with us.

As always, the price tag for the night will be $15 a person.

If you would like to join us, RSVP on the Nosh League Facebook.

Nosh League

Thursday, Jan. 12, 6 p.m., $15
Café Banana Asian Bistro
10115 S. Tacoma Way, Lakewood
253.589.4678

LINK: First bite at Café Banana

FIRST BITE AT CAFE BANANA IN LAKEWOOD >>>

In more than a decade of writing for the Weekly Volcano, I've come to depend heavily on restaurant leads from its knowledgeable readers. I can't be everywhere at once, and feedback from readers has frequently led me to restaurant gems that I might not have unearthed on my own. But in that decade-plus, I've never gotten more encouraging reviews from readers about a restaurant than I've received in the past month or so about Café Banana, the new Asian bistro where once Goodfellas Steakhouse anchored the Great American Casino in Lakewood.

Where a lot of restaurateurs would probably be happy just throwing a few posters from Thailand on the walls and a bronze Buddha in the corner, owner Tony Wen dims the lights, giving the bamboo wallpaper and Asian cultural décor a more mystic feel.

The menu at Café Banana shines with five appetizers, five curry dishes, five noodle dishes, three satays and four entrees, including a crispy red snapper. It's reasonably priced, with most dishes ringing in less than $10.

So how do you decide between the red curry with coconut milk, bamboo shoots, bell peppers and Thai basil and the green curry with coconut milk, bamboo shoots, bell peppers, snow peas and Thai basil? Well, since the flavors at Café Banana are clean and wonderful, it doesn't really matter which dishes you choose.

There are a handful of menu items I'd highly recommend such as the Massaman chicken and cashew chicken. I tend to judge Thai restaurants on their Pad Thai; I figure if that classic Thai noodle dish isn't up to par, then there's no reason to think anything else will be. Café Banana's Pad Thai ($9.95) definitely wins "Best Of" status in my book. It's exceptional.

Several curry and noodle dishes are offered as $7.95 lunch specials with choice of soup or a mixed baby green salad.

With a full bar of boozy goodies and extra-friendly service, this new restaurant is top banana in my book.

[Café Banana, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 1-11 p.m. Saturday, 1-9 p.m. Sunday, happy hour 4-7 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 10115 S. Tacoma Way, Lakewood, 253.589.4678]