It’s been said that the true measure of the quality of an ethnic restaurant is if the people eating there are of the nationality the food represents.
When my dining companion and I walked into the new T&T Seafood Restaurant at 22511 Highway 99 in Edmonds, next to Ranch 99 Market, the place was nearly full. We were two of about four or five non-Asian people in this Chinese restaurant.
That was the first clue. The second, simultaneous with the first, was the aroma. It was very good.
Third were the tanks for the live fish, lobster and Dungeness crab. It doesn’t get much fresher than that.
Fourth was the menu. Three or four times, we had to tell two or three different waitpeople who were checking on us that we weren’t quite ready. We were having trouble choosing from among the 126 food items available.
Finally we settled on deep fried black cod with salt chili pepper and sizzling beef short rib with black pepper. The fish was tender, the batter was light and it was seasoned with chili peppers, cilantro, roasted garlic and finely chopped bell peppers and green onions. Yummy. The beef was swimming in a delicious sauce with sauteed onions and mushrooms.
T&T, open only for a month and a half, is the second incarnation of the first T&T Seafood Restaurant at 18320 Aurora Ave. N. in Shoreline, which has been in business for about three-and-a-half years.
Both restaurants are owned by the husband-wife team of Tony Mann and Theresa Lamm, hence the name T&T. Both are natives of China who grew up in Vietnam, though they didn’t meet until after coming to the States. Theresa serves as hostess while Tony cooks and supervises the kitchen. Tony, 37, has been cooking for 15 years.
“I enjoy cooking,” he says. His specialty, of course, is seafood, hence the name of the restaurant, the fish tanks and the 30-plus seafood based items on the menu.
The seafood items have been popular, Tony said, including crispy prawns with honey walnuts, lobster with house special sauce and the black cod steamed with ginger and onion or fixed several other ways.
“Asian people like the whole fish, or whole crab,” Tony said. Non-Asians tend to prefer the sauteed items in sauces, sometimes hot and spicy, he said.
The crab had beckoned to me but I decided against it because we were in a semi-hurry, planning to see a movie, and because I figured the crab wouldn’t be that much different from anywhere else. It appears I was wrong.
The lobster and crab are available with a choice of a variety of sauces, including black bean, butter, Singapore style or the house special — the latter is a definite favorite, Tony and Theresa say.
It won’t be long before I go back to try it.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
