As CityBeat‘s resident foodie, Asian Food Fest is one of my favorite weekends of the year. The region’s largest celebration of Asian food and culture is always a delight, and the experience only gets bigger and better every year.
Each year, I attempt to only eat things I’ve never tried before. It’s a bit of a challenge for me—not only did I work in a Korean restaurant for a while, but living next to Findlay Market and working in Covington means I’m constantly surrounded by incredible Asian food.
With that in mind, I opted to skip anything I’d already had before. When I’m at Asian Food Fest, I’m trying to expand my horizons. Read on to see everything I tried from four visits across two days.
Sisig Rice from Lasang Pinoy Filipino Eats
The eventual winner of Asian Food Fest’s “Best of Yums” competition, this Filipino food truck didn’t disappoint. They had plenty of meat skewers and mango desserts, but I opted for something a bit more interesting. Sisig rice (pronounced SEE-sig) features minced pork belly marinated in calamansi—a very sour citrus fruit often referred to as a “Filipino lime,” but it’s actually a hybrid of a kumquat and a mandarin orange—placed on a bed of rice and topped with onions and chili peppers. If I hadn’t gotten this at the very end of the festival on Sunday, I probably would’ve gone back for seconds.
Custard Buns from Beijing Duck House
Every chef, writer and foodie I know has been telling me I need to check out Beijing Duck House for months now, as it’s the first and only restaurant of its kind in the Cincinnati area serving up traditional Peking duck dishes. Owner Harry Hsu is basically the godfather of Chinese cuisine in Cincinnati thanks to his dozens of popular and delicious restaurants scattered across the city, so I don’t know why I haven’t yet. But that’s going to change immediately. As soon as I was handed my order, I took one heavenly whiff of these steamed buns—made of sticky milk bread that contained an egg-based custard—and uttered a string of exclamatory curse words that my editors would probably not like me to reproduce on this page. I’ve had similar sticky buns at other dim sum joints, but nothing on this level. They were easily the best thing I had at Asian Food Fest by a country mile, and I’m already planning an expedition up to Sharonville to try them again. Beijing Duck House, 11955 Lebanon Rd, Sharonville.
Madras Mocha Chip from Chukee’s Ice Cream
Graeter’s might have some real competition if this Dayton-based ice cream shop ever decides to expand down south. Chukee’s infuses ice cream with the flavors of India, creating flavor combinations you’re likely not going to find anywhere else. The booth had four flavors on hand: Taro cookies and cream, madras mocha chip, a mango flavor, and a gulab jamun-inspired flavor that had actual pieces of gulab jamun inside each scoop. As tempting as the latter sounded, I was in a coffee mood and opted to grab the madras mocha chip. Madras is an Indian spice blend that typically contains coriander, turmeric, chili, cumin, cayenne pepper, and fenugreek—which makes this ice cream sound a lot hotter than it actually was. In reality, it tasted like your standard coffee ice cream with a very mild (but fantastic) spice kick to it. I could see myself stocking my freezer full of this one. Chukee’s Ice Cream, 1569 Lyons Rd, Dayton.
Bulgogi Gimbap at Gimmebap
Kimbap (pronounced KEEM-baap) is a popular Korean street food that is somewhat comparable to a sushi handroll. Unlike sushi, however, kimbap rice is usually seasoned with sesame oil instead of vinegar and does not typically include any raw fish inside; often, the roll is filled with cooked proteins like bulgogi, ham or egg. As I mentioned above, I once worked at a Korean restaurant, and kimbap was always mentioned as a potential future menu addition. The idea never came to fruition, but that didn’t stop me from wondering how kimbap was actually supposed to taste. After giving it a try, I’m even more upset it never came to our menu. In the roll I tried, bulgogi, egg, carrots, spinach, imitation crabmeat, burdock root and pickled radish were wrapped in rice and seaweed with a sesame-ginger glaze. It was cheap, quick, and delicious—everything you’d want from street food. Gimmebap, 9343 Mason Montgomery Rd, Mason.
“That Sexy Hash” at Fusako
Fusako, a food truck centered around Japanese fusion dishes, had my favorite item of last year’s Asian Food Fest: a “Japanese curry coney” that serves as an homage to Skyline, Gold Star and the like. It takes your average coney and piles it up with a chili-flavored curry, pickled ginger, sesame, green onion and (of course) a giant mound of shredded cheese. As good as that was last time, I opted to try something new this go-round. My friend and I split “That Sexy Hash,” which was quite literally just a crispy hashbrown covered in crab, yumyum sauce, sesame, green onion and a teriyaki glaze. While I think I prefer the Japanese coney—I am a Cincinnatian at heart, after all—I certainly wouldn’t mind if they brought this one back next year, too.
Mochi Donuts from Aloha Dayton
A fusion of American-style donuts and mochi—a Japanese rice cake—these didn’t disappoint. The ones from Aloha Dayton kinda looked like those pink iced cookies you see at the grocery store, but tasted light and bouncy, and had a mouth feel that was almost like the tapioca pearls at the bottom of boba tea. (Strange comparison, I know, but the chef behind the booth told me they “taste like boba” afterwards so roll with me here.) Aloha makes their mochi donuts out of mochiko, a sweet rice flour, which made them entirely gluten-free and about as healthy as you could get from a donut. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine why Charlotte Katakuri was throwing 20 or 30 of these back every day.
Korean Corndog at Bubblicious Boba Tea
Apologies in advance for the lack of photo, as I was too busy thinking about how good this was. The menu at Bubblicious was basically as authentic as Taco Bell—which, I should note, is not a diss or a put-down in the slightest. But when you’ve got boba tea the same color of Baja Blast and “sushi tacos” wrapped in spicy Doritos, the comparison between the two is easy to make. I opted for a “classic” Korean corn dog, which was a regular corn dog wrapped in panko bread crumbs, filled with cream cheese in one half and a hot dog in the other, then drizzled with sugar to finish. It’s the sort of junk food-adjacent item that sounds like it would be gross on paper but is a total show-stopper in execution.
Spicy Chicken Skewer from Tea ‘n Bowl Malaysian Cuisine
Meat skewers are nothing new in every region of the world, but I can’t say I’d experienced how Malaysians do it until now.
The charcoal-grilled chicken on my skewer was coated in a spicy peanut sauce I couldn’t quite place, although I picked up on elements of lemongrass and turmeric. All I really know is that I’d have probably eaten about 10 more. Tea ‘n Bowl Malaysian Cuisine, 211 W McMillan St, Clifton.
Steamed Wontons at Smiles ‘n Spice
Unfortunately, my streak of only eating dishes that were new to me came to an end with these wontons. But if your friend comes up to you with free food, are you gonna turn it down? As it is for just about every dumpling on earth, these pork wontons hit the spot. (I never shame people for their food preferences, but I did hear a guy near the booth tell his friends he “doesn’t really f**k with dumplings” and wondered how someone could arrive at such an opinion.) Topped with a spicy ponzu sauce that accentuated the flavors of the meat, these were nothing too original, but there’s nothing wrong with doing a classic the way it’s supposed to be done.
Cheesy Naan Bites at Khaoo Macha
Akron-based restaurant Khaoo Macha won last year’s “Best of Yums” with their “chicken lollipops,” which are exactly what they sound like: giant hunks of chicken that are frenched, shaped into a jumbo lollipop, then deep fried. As I arrived at the booth, the cashier informed me they were sadly sold out of the lollipops. Seeking an alternative, the cheesy naan bites caught my eye. Let’s just say I wish I had chosen something else. Cut into eight slices like an order of breadsticks, each piece of naan was weirdly crunchy on the edges and unusually limp towards the center, and the “cheese” in question was just a thin layer of paneer on top that tasted underbaked. I didn’t even finish them. This was easily the most disappointing thing I ate all weekend, and I have to imagine the rest of the items on their menu were a lot better. Khaoo Macha, 200 Montrose W Ave, Akron.
Umeshu from Kiuchi Brewery
Umeshu, or plum wine, is a Japanese liqueur that combines plums, alcohol and sugar. Given the English name, I was expecting it to taste like, well, wine. But the flavors were pretty much the opposite. It’s closer in flavor to Shochu or Soju, with an extremely sweet, tart and tangy flavor that barely tastes like alcohol in the slightest. In one word, I’d call it “dangerous.”
Wok Star from Rhinegeist
I’m surprised I’ve never had this until now. Rhinegeist calls Wok Star an “Asian-style lager.” Whether that means it’s more of a happoshu (i.e. its contents are less than two-thirds malt) or a rice-based beer, I couldn’t tell you, as I’m no beer expert. But it paired pretty well with just about everything I ate, and I hope somebody over at Rhinegeist sees this blurb and decides to put it in their taproom full-time. Pretty please? Rhinegeist, 1910 Elm Street, Over-the-Rhine.
