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Sometimes the path to edible enlightenment can be an insufferable quest. The same thing for dinner -- again? Well, here's one truth about Anchorage food choices: Point your wheels toward Muldoon Road, and you'll eventually discover somewhere fun to feast.
The newest kid on the block is Chopsticks Cafe. Open only a month, the restaurant offers an enticing mix of mostly Korean cuisine with a few Japanese and Thai options tacked onto the menu. There's even a smattering of American fare for hungry customers who want to stick a bit closer to home as far as flavors go. Entering Chopsticks Cafe, there's only one direction to go: forward. The railroad-style room features a few chairs at a sushi-like bar, but the seating layout is mostly a long, padded bench dotted with casual wood tables and red chairs. Melon-orange and bamboo-green walls give the cafe a modern yet comfortable vibe.A small area in the back of the cafe has a couch and a few chairs. While the only folks enjoying the little oasis seemed to be employees during a visit, it felt as if customers would be welcome to sip beverages there while huddling over laptops, taking advantage of the cafe's free Wi-Fi.On my first visit to the spot, I ordered dup-bab ($10.95), a rice bowl topped with your choice of beef, chicken or spicy pork combined with broccoli, steamed onions and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. Before it arrived, I was treated to three little bowls of kimchi: one with sliced pickled radish, another with pickled cucumber and the last with the traditional mix of pickled cabbage. All three had a distinct tart flavor, and none was spicy though they mistakenly looked red-hot. My glass of water, filled from a Britta pitcher from server and owner Yong Yu, remained safely full.The dup-bab arrived soon and filled a stylish pottery bowl with hearty pieces of sliced beef, cellophane noodles, broccoli, carrots and onion over hot rice. The traditional preparation was a tasty meal in itself, but a few squirts of Sriracha hot chili sauce gave the food the heat I was craving on that winter evening. Yes, I'll take some more water now, please.For my next journey to Chopsticks Cafe, I brought along two friends on two ends of the taste-bud scale: One likes all things hot and spicy, the other has a more "basic" appreciation for fire. We settled into a table and ordered a variety of dishes to sample. Menu options that spoke to us included beef man-doo ($10.95), bi-bim-bab ($11.95), udon soup ($9.95) and the Chopsticks lunch special ($9.95). The man-doo, essentially beef potstickers with a dark dipping sauce, arrived first and was an immediate hit. One friend liked the seasoned coleslaw on the plate's side but was more suspicious of the bowls of kimchi, while the other friend delighted in the little selections of pickled appetizers. The bi-bim-bab was a huge bowl of many greens and veggies atop warm white rice (minus the usual egg). Yu explained how to add a red chili sauce and then stir the entire contents into a delicious mix that pleasantly tickled the sinuses. The udon arrived extra warm with lots of fat noodles, several tempura shrimps taking a dip and fresh spinach floating on the surface. It was a filling and satisfying soup.One bit of confusion arose from the Chopsticks special. We thought the offering of a four-piece roll, two pieces of man-doo and noodle soup meant we could choose from the menu's varieties, but we were asked how we wanted a California roll, a choice we hadn't requested and didn't realize we were being served until it was too late to remedy the mistake. Despite the mix-up, the California roll was fresh with crab meat, and the Korean noodle soup was a hot bowl of thin noodles with beef slices and assorted veggies.The spot also offers the usual suspects for coffee stands, including teas, lattes, cappuccinos, mochas and a few sandwich wraps. But the Korean dishes at Chopsticks Cafe are what will really put you on the right course for cuisine contentment.