Soup Girl

It is funny the ways that you bond with your children as a parent. For my father and I bonding usually meant going to old school Italian places like Little Joe's on Broadway in San Francisco or rafting down the Guadalupe River in pool flotation devices. For my four year old daughter and myself it is enjoying a bowl of Won-Ton Soup.

Now every Chinese place is going to have a bowl of Won-Ton Soup (maybe even a Vietnamese place for that matter). I've tried hundreds and generally they are a fairly lackluster combination of chicken stock, MSG and some grisly pork wontons. However a few places do Won-Ton Soup right and the best of those has to be Mike's Noodle House in Seattle's International District.

Mike's in the International District

My daughter and I visited Mike's right after they opened at 9:30am and the place was already jumping. Families and groups of friends were enjoying Congee and Chinese Doughnuts. Now Congee is just one of those things that I can't get into and I doubted that the little one was going to be game either so we went for the Beef Brisket Won-Ton Noodle Soup ($7.55 for a large) and the Chinese Doughnut($1.90). The staff was friendly and helpful for this type of establishment. They provided me with a pair of scissors to cut the noodles for my munchkin. When the soup arrived it was a revelation. The broth had the usual MSG/chicken stock elements but also a faint trace of star anise and ginger that gave it a greater depth of flavor. The beef brisket was tender and fatty and also carried the taste of star anise. The wontons were a combination of a whole shrimp and a minced pork filling forged together in a wrapper. My only regret with the soup was that there were only three wontons which meant one and half for each of us...not enough. My daughter was a happy camper and had over two servings of the soup including seconds on the brisket

The Chinese doughnut was a big disappointment however. It was a cold, greasy, doughy blob that didn't really satisfy on any level. Maybe the gringos got the shaft but I am not sure why it would be cold twenty minutes after the place opened. I wonder how long it had been sitting out. Maybe yesterday's special?    

After bonding over soup, we left Mike's and checked out the international district. There were lots of dim sum places around which isn't all that common in Seattle outside of this neighborhood. We will have to try one next time and bond over pork buns....another mutual favorite.