OP_033017

opprairie.com Dining Out
the orland park prairie | March 30, 2017 | 25
The Dish
Crab is king with a kick at Orland’s Q Restaurant
Asian fusion spot
gives sneak sip of
summer cocktail
Bill Jones, Editor
Q Restaurant’s popular spicy king crab legs ($26) are listed on the appetizers menu but
work just as well as an entrée, according to owner Quee Huynh. The sauce includes
ginger, basil and tomato, as well as Thai chili and jalapeño peppers.
Photos by Brittany Kapa/22nd Century Media
Q Restaurant
11379 W. 159th St. in
Orland Park
Hours
• 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.
Monday-Thursday
• 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.
Friday-Saturday
• Noon-9 p.m. Sunday
For more information ...
Web: www.
qrestaurantorland.com
Phone: (708) 966-2179
While innovation is generally
the name of the game for
Q Restaurant owner Quee
Huynh, one of the dishes
she enjoys the most has been
hiding out on the appetizers
portion of the Orland Park
Asian fusion spot’s menu for
the past two years.
“I put [it] on the appetizer
side because it’s meant to
share, but you can always
have it as an entrée,” Huynh
said.
The spicy king crab legs
($26) feature ginger, basil
and tomato. And the heat
comes from a combination
of Thai chili and jalapeño
peppers fried together.
But the sauce only really
works — cheesy as it may
sound — if happiness serves
as the key ingredient.
“When I cook this sauce, I
have to be happy or I [mess]
it up,” Huynh said. “I like to
be happy — just me and my
sauce together.”
And despite the “spicy”
moniker, the shellfish is actually
rather mild, at least
when compared to its Singaporean
counterparts: chili
crab and black pepper crab.
“I do tone the spicy level
down a bit,” Huynh said.
That is not the only adjustment
Huynh said she made
to accommodate her American
customers. While she
often asks to see pictures of
her friends’ travels around
the world to get ideas, she
also recognizes important
cultural differences between
Asians and Americans.
“We like to make our
hands dirty and dig in,” the
Vietnamese chef said.
Those in the United States
— especially those going out
for fine dining on the weekends?
Not so much.
So, she decided to slit the
crab legs to make the meat
easier for her diners to pull.
And it had the positive side
effect of letting the sauce get
directly to the tender insides
of the crab.
“I’m always so proud of
this dish, because I’m so
happy with how it tastes,”
Huynh said. “It does have
that warming from the ginger
but also a little kick. Seafood,
you need the ginger
and the heat.”
When it comes to the
The honey lavender cocktail ($10) at Q Restaurant features
Figenza — a Mediterranean fig-flavored vodka — and Jack
Daniel’s Tennessee Honey whiskey, with a dash of lavender
bitters.
unique sauce, Huynh said
she knew she wanted to do
something to separate it
from what she was seeing
everywhere else, in terms of
seafood.
“I’m not just going to
make butter and you dip it,”
she said. “I’m going to make
something different.”
Huynh said her regular
customers — who she calls
“family” — have emboldened
her in the kitchen to
simply try things and see
where they lead.
“Our customers here are
really easy,” she said. “We
make it; they love it.
“I know what good food
tastes like. ... I know what
people like. So, I trust it.”
Coming this summer: lychee rose
Bill Jones, Editor
Q Restaurant in Orland
Park recently gave 22nd
Century Media a sneak
peek of one of the new
cocktails expected to hit its
menu this summer: the lychee
rose ($9).
A lychee is a tropical
fruit popular in Southeast
Asia. But Q owner Quee
Huynh said the taste is so
light that drinks branded
as “lychee” rarely taste like
the real deal.
She instead tried to do an
impression of the soapberry
Speaking of sauce
When Quee Huynh is not
looking to other countries for
inspiration, her eyes turn toward
the West Coast, where
she said she finds plenty to
love in California’s trendy
atmosphere.
“I’m always very trendy,”
she said. “I’m looking for
new things all the time.”
For one of her favorite
cocktails of the moment,
she said she actually was
inspired by an ice cream
flavor popular in California,
combined with her love for a
Brittany Kapa/22nd Century Media
by mixing peach vodka and
X-Rated Fusion Liqueur —
a mix of French vodka and
blood orange, with mango
and passion fruit. But the real
trick — what gives the drink
its light-and-fresh lychee
vibe — is the rose water she
mixes with the alcohol.
She said she finds the
right ingredients, from
strange bitters to the perfect
floral arrangements for her
tables, by getting out and
looking for them herself.
“I love to go to the grocery
store,” she said. “That
is like my mall.”
new vodka called Figenza —
a Mediterranean fig-flavored
vodka.
The honey lavender cocktail
($10) — an item not officially
listed on the menu
but among Huynh’s “secret”
offerings — mixes Figenza
with Jack Daniel’s Tennessee
Honey whiskey and lavender
bitters.
“That’s all they need to
know,” Huynh said of the ingredients,
noting the bitters
are really what make it special.
“Bitters is just a bonus
to a drink.”