Quick Bites: Asian Cafe in Fort Smith.

Fort Smith's diverse ethnic food culture gives lots of epicurean gifts to eaters, at really reasonable prices. Asian Cafe on Rogers offers a lovely span of Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese dishes in its tiny space, delivered in large portions and beautiful dishes.

Quick Bite: Wasabi Sushi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

We travel across the region frequently and find places we love to dine at. Wasabi Sushi is going to be our go-to sushi and teppanyaki bar in Hattiesburg now, after a March visit that utterly charmed us.

Smile Bull's Sweet Surprises Seem Serendipitously Smart.

Fort Smith is full of culinary gems, restaurants that offer great value and great flavor. Smile Bull does a fantastic job of living up to the city standard with an array of Asian favorites and homegrown surprises.

9 Things To Try at Mei Li Cuisine in Eureka Springs.

Hot Asian soups, warm noodle dishes, rolls and wontons? All these things are on the menu at Mei Li Cuisine in Eureka Springs, and they're available in-restaurant or for delivery.

Eureka Springs has a wonderful array of restaurants for every celebration. On Valentine's Day, most of those restaurants were filled to capacity with reservation-fulfilling couples ready to dine lushly.

Grav and I were not one of those couples.  We both had the same idea - to enjoy a reasonably priced local flavor that would undoubtably lack the two-hour wait we saw elsewhere.

We weren't the only ones to have this idea.

This is a view from a previous visit.  The wall to
the right is now lined with green booths.

We dropped in at Mei Li Cuisine at the appropriate Valentine's Day dining hour, right before 7 p.m. on that Saturday night, to find the parking lot full.  There was a booth left inside, though, and we squeezed in and soaked up the menu.  We both knew what Grav wanted... Pad Thai, one of his favorite comfort foods.  But I had other ideas.  I knew the Snowpocalypse was near (Eureka Springs was forecast to get 4-8 inches of snow the following evening) and I wanted leftovers.  Because, as you all know, Asian noodle dishes are always better the next day.

So we chose a small selection of dishes -- combination Pad Thai with chicken, beef and shrimp; beef Pad See Ew (a favorite of mine); and General Chicken.  Not General Tso's... General Chicken.  Not to be confused with Colonel Chicken or even Private Beef.

These each came with a soup and an appetizer.  For fun and profit, or at least for variety, we chose to sample one of each of the soups.  I've written elsewhere about Mei Li's extraordinarily healing hot and sour soup... but it bears mentioning again, this nourishing and deep beef-based mushroom-enhanced soup that needs no salt, no soy, no augmentation at all.  Grav says it's the best hot and sour soup in the state, and the guys at the booth behind me suggested it when our waitress asked which we'd like.

Of course, I'm all about some egg drop soup.  If I am sick, it is the great diviner... consumption either indicates that I'll survive or I won't.  So far, I survive.  Mei Li's is different from most egg drop soups, though.  It's far thicker, richer and enhanced with quarter inch thick cubes of sauteed onion for an additional layer of flavor.

The wonton soup, we hadn't tried before.  Here it was light but completely inundated with scallion flavor, its meatless noodles substantial within.

I was disappointed to hear that Mei Li has gone to a pork egg roll -- their previous beef ones were very good.  Grav says the pork ones are just as good.  The egg roll is the default accompaniment to each dinner, but we

switched it up a bit at the suggestion of our waitress.  She swapped it for a hand-rolled vegetarian springroll with a thin but ample peanut sauce on one dish and for two hearty crab wontons on another.  The wontons were decently packed, not sweet but served with a sweet red sauce similar to a duck sauce.

Then there were the dishes.  The Pad Thai was a bit better than our last go-round, which is saying something, since it was pretty spectacular the previous visit.  We'd opted for combination rather than sticking to one meat, and this was a good choice, with 35-40 count size shrimp along with the sauteed chicken and beef.  There was a nice hint of lime and fish sauce, and in addition to the crushed peanuts and bean sprouts that normally accompany the dish, the cook had included finely chopped red cabbage, which was a good call.

The Pad See Ew, a dish I lean towards, was very garlicky.  The wide soy-fried rice noodles had soaked up a lot of salty-sweet and garlicky flavor, and they were speckled with bits of fried egg.  The beef wasn't quite tender but it did well, upping the hearty factor of a rather good dish.

And then there was the General Chicken.  Yes, there's a little pepper on the menu that indicates it's hot, but it didn't seem so at first.  The individual pieces were very crispy, and the sauce was nice and sweet... but after a moment a fire lit on the tongue from the subtle peppering.  Nice.  The

fried rice with it was soft and plump and just about perfect.

We actually ordered more to go to sustain us through the snow to come... which it has.  Our dinner and our take-out altogether was less than $50.

What I didn't get, though, is what I'm craving now.  That's the curries -- the Red Curry and the Mus um Mun Curry, both just decadently wonderful.  That spice would be wonderful today.  Now I'm checking to see if the roads are going to clear up so we can go.

But the dishes are always

spot-on, and there's good reason why.  See, the family that runs Mei Li Cuisine came to America 30 years ago, and settled in Ohio.  They moved down to Eureka Springs in the fall of 2010, and opened Mei Li Cuisine that November in the old Cafe Soleil spot on US Highway 62.  And though we've eaten there a dozen times and had delivery from them about as often, I have yet to ever have a bad meal with them.  And that's why we chose this little yellow Asian restaurant on the bypass for our Valentine's Day dinner.

Don't wait for Valentine's Day.  Get yours next time you head up to Eureka Springs.

One more thing.  Mei Li has started to offer fried chicken and catfish.  I don't know what to think of this.  Haven't ordered it yet.  Not sure I will, since the Asian dishes are so good.

Mei Li Cuisine
3094 E. Van Buren
Eureka Springs, AR 72632
(479) 363-6678

Asian Markets in Arkansas.

When I have the time, I enjoy a spot of ethnic cooking.  The many years I've dabbled in historical food research has given me an appetite for trying all sorts of new things.  

Many of the items I utilize, I can't find in a staple Arkansas grocery store.  So here's a list of Asian markets for your own resources that might carry some of the more exotic items you can't find on Aisle 9 at Kroger.

Little Rock Greater Metropolitan Area:

Asian Food Market

408 West Main

Jacksonville, AR 72076

Asian Groceries

9112 Rodney Parham

Little Rock, AR 72205

Asian Mart

3002 South University

Little Rock, AR 72204

* Recommended:  This is one of Sue Khoo's enterprises.

K Oriental

303 Bowman Road

Little Rock, AR 72211

Lee's Oriental Market

118 Taylor Circle

Conway, AR 72032

Mr. Chen's Asian Supermarket and Restaurant

3901 South University

Little Rock, AR 72209

Mt. Fuji Japanese Food and Gift Shop

10301 North Rodney Parham

Little Rock, AR 72227

Recommended:  This is the tiny yet well-packed Japanese shop under Mt. Fuji.  I get my seaweed wraps here.

Oriental Food Market

1011 West Main Street

Jacksonville, AR 72076

Sam's Oriental Store

3704 South University

Little Rock, AR 72204

Recommended:  Fine selection of gifts and housewares as well as fresh vegetables, fish.  I get my banana leaves here.

Fort Smith:

Asian 99 Food Market

803 North 11th Street

Fort Smith, AR 72901

Laostar Market

3114 North Albert Pike

Fort Smith, AR 72904

Midland Market

3711 Midland Blvd.

Fort Smith, AR 72904

Truong Son

3901 North O Street

Fort Smith, AR 72904

Recommended.  Best Vietnamese store I have been to in Arkansas. 

Northwest Arkansas:

Asian Island Food Market

2323 S. Old Missouri Road

Springdale, AR 72764

Asian American Grocery and Deli

2190 South Lincoln

Siloam Springs, AR 72761

H&T Oriental Market

812 North Thompson Street

Springdale, AR 72764

Manna Oriental Market

907 South Pleasant

Springdale, AR 72764

Seoul Oriental Foods

729 South School

Fayetteville, AR 72701

(closed -- owner returned to Korea)

T's Oriental Market

1300 North Thompson Street, Suite L

Springdale, AR 72764

Tang's Asian Market

224 South Thompson Street

Springdale, AR 72764

Vo's Oriental Market

115 North Dixieland Road Suite 11

Rogers, AR 72756

Hot Springs:

Asian Food Market

4737 Central Avenue

Hot Springs, AR 71913

Jonesboro:

Kitt's Asian Pantry

3009 East Nettleton

Jonesboro, AR 72401

Texarkana:

Yong's Oriental Market

223 East Broad Street

Texarkana, AR 71854

Thai One On at Saigon Cuisine in Conway (or Little Rock).

This restaurant has closed.

There’s been a lot of pitter patter on Twitter and other social media about the need for good, reasonably priced Thai in our area. So I’ve been on the lookout. And hey, I found some. It’s in Conway at Saigon Cuisine.