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This week I discovered a new dish at ChoLon Modern Asian Bistro that might overthrow the soup dumplings as my menu favorite. (Yes, really.) It’s called the Penang short rib curry dip (pictured) with toasted rice cream, and French fries. If that seems over the top, think gravy fries but more composed and infinitely more interesting. You can dip individual fries into the blend of Asian flavors, or you can spoon the coconut-curry over a heap of fries. Either way, don’t miss it.
This dish is just one of several new ones that chef Lon Symensma has added to the menu following a recent trip to southeast Asia. He traveled—along with sous chef Jeff Stoneking, chef and cookbook author Robert Danhi, and food blogger Bee Yinn Low—to Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia. The group connected with Red Boat Fish Sauce founder Cuong Pham, and learned the ins and outs of making first-press, “virgin” fish sauce.
As a way of transporting this new-found inspiration back to Denver, Symensma and crew will transform ChoLon into a southeast Asian food court on August 22. From 6 to 9 p.m., the kitchen will recreate many of the dishes and drinks the group discovered, tasted, and sipped during their travels. No doubt the dishes will receive the ChoLon treatment, which is to say they will be modernized and passed through Symensma’s culinary sieve.
The $75 ticket is all-inclusive. To purchase, call 303-353-5223, click here, or go to OpenTable and secure a 6 p.m. reservation (enter the number of tickets you want to purchase in the “special requests” field).
1555 Blake St., 303-353-5223
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