Beverages run to teas, juices, and smoothies. We skipped the sweet drinks and sampled an authentic dessert, bow bin ($4.99; $6.99/large). It’s a heap of ice with four toppings: gelatinous lumps like pounded rice in a white sweet sauce, green adzuki beans in a sweet sauce, red beans in yet another sweet sauce, and assorted white beans and lotus seeds or gingko nuts in . . . by now you can guess. I think they may pour some dark corn syrup over the whole thing. A small is really enough for about four people.
The newish restaurant, right across from Shabu-Zen, which I reviewed this past week, is just a square room. You enter by a long hall to the back, so there is some separation from the street, and the inside is nicely set up with gold wallpaper that seems to have brush-written characters on it, and dark, bamboo-look laminate tables. There was only one TV, showing sports, and no background music. On a weeknight, the room was full of young people — almost all Asian-American, likely most of Taiwanese background — intently ordering delicious food I’ve seldom had before.
Robert Nadeau can be reached atrobtnadeau@aol.com
