Diamond in the rough location

 

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis, who has authored “The Friday Feast” since November, is reviewing 30 locally-owned and/or operated restaurants across five categories: American, Asian, BBQ, Mexican and Date (establishments to impress your date, spouse or both). Each Wednesday through late August, The City Wire will post Lewis’ review of two restaurants. That’s a review of 30 restaurants in 16 weeks for those keeping score at home.

Week 1: Taqueria la Guadalupana, and Las Americas Too
Week 2: The Cuban Grill and El Rodeo
Week 3: El Milagro and Restaurante Salvadoreno Norita
Week 4: Green Papaya and Pho Vietnam
Week 5: Fried Rice and Pho King

review by Peter Lewis

Our Asian odyssey continues this week with two more delicious dining spots.  Though both delicious, they are located in vastly different locales.

Those in real estate remind us all that the crux of the issue (in all things) is related to location.  I’ve long discounted this mantra in my merry meal meanderings and venture forth into lands known, unknown, and well known. As a result, I often find myself happily eating in a new and pleasant setting in a slice of town that I may or mayn’t frequent. And it was in this state of mind that I found myself dining with a becoming companion in the northern reaches of the river city at Diamond Head 2.

DIAMOND HEAD 2
Located at 1901 Midland Blvd., the establishment is, to say the least, a Fort Smith institution. One that, unfortunately, I had not frequented in quite some time. My dining forays never seemed to coincide with their limited evening hours. Open only for lunch during the week, the only chances to dine their in the evening hours are on Friday and Saturday. After consistent prodding from Diamond Head regular, Howard “Irvin” Vernon, the clouds parted and I was once again able to visit this venerable vendor of Vietnamese victuals.

The social atmosphere is one of the many perks of Diamond Head. Seating is largely communal. This layout promotes heavy conversation amongst patrons. Conversation is far from limited to just customers, the proprietor, Tan, is himself a heavy conversationalist as well. Interaction with those who frequent his restaurant is high and if you frequent enough you might even end up with an entree named after you. One such dish is the John Johnson. This particular dish is a heaping mound of rice mixed with heavy portions of shrimp, beef, and chicken. With a thick undercurrent of spice, the meat and rice is in turn accentuated with a mix of carrots, snow peas, water chestnuts, and chunks of broccoli. While this is, perhaps, basic fare when it comes to dining out, it’s an impressive feast on a plate.

If you are searching for something a little bit more mild, then you might seek out the chicken lo mein. Though a Chinese carryover, this particular Amerasian manifestation is a fairly straightforward affair. Noodles mixed in a mild soy sauce concoction with chicken and vegetables is as straightforward as it gets.

Check out Diamond Head enough and you could wind up with a dish to yourself. Or you just might find yourself making a key business connection over a bench table. Whatever happens, you’ll certainly be eating well in the meantime.

(Diamond Head is closed for “remodels” through June, apparently. I’m told this is code for vacationing).

TRAN’S
A somewhat similar vendor with a long association to the previous restaurant is Tran’s Restaurant. Located at in the heart of Fort Smith on the 2100 block of Rogers Avenue, it is a Vietnamese restaurant serving mainly dishes of Chinese origination. It would seem that this was largely done to cater to Americans more familiar with these dishes. While the decision was possibly reached out of a combination of clearheaded pragmatism and a desire to reach the largest base of folks in the River Valley area, it is also one that has proved valuable to the patron’s taste buds.

For starters, there are the wontons. While wontons in China are mainly boiled, in America the usage of the word “wonton” largely refers to a deep fried dumpling dish. At Tran’s it is no different. Their wontons are indeed deep fried  and stuffed with cream cheese and crab filling ($2.95).

Tran’s menu is fairly large and wontons are just the tip of an Asian iceberg. Along with a handful of Vietnamese dishes, there is the standard fare of fried rice, steamed rice, lo mein, and chow mein. One of the biggest draws of Tran’s menu is the value. Dinner dishes like Mama Curry or Tran’s Chicken ($5.45) are accompanied with fried rice, an egg roll, and a choice of either egg drop or wonton soup. 

A staple of Chinese cuisine is sweet and sour chicken. It is what one might consider a “safe” choice when ordering food at a Chinese restaurant. There is a pattern. Bite sized chunks of deep fried chicken are battered in the aforementioned sweet and sour sauce with pineapples, onions and bell peppers. The main variation between dishes is the sauce. At Tran’s it is slightly tart, yet pleasing. That is, of course, if you enjoy tartness. It, along with the other entrees, comes with the aforementioned rice, roll and soup choice.

An interesting menu item is the fried catfish. While many might not associate this particular dish with Asian cuisine, catfish is a common meal item. Intrigued as I was, I found nothing particularly winsome about the dish. For those curious, that also indicates there is nothing overtly wrong about the dish. It was run of the mill, which serves as a larger motif for Tran’s on a whole as well.

If you’d like to taste any of these plates for yourself, I suggest hustling. It is rumored that the folks behind Tran’s are shutting down the restaurant and relocating to Little Rock in the coming months.

An explainer note from Peter
Having such cultural diversity within easy reach is one of the many dining pleasures in the River Valley. As we continue to explore the different cooking styles throughout the area, I hope it will spur you into trying something new. Broadening horizons is as old as time itself.

You can reach Peter at [email protected]