Flo's Fresh, Filling, Fabulous Food with Friend Felix (plus Freakish Fortunes)
I have read an awful lot of bad restaurant reviews lately ... or maybe there are a lot of bad restaurants reviewed lately. Whatever ... I've decided to lay off the Cardinals and the Suns (briefly) and give all you faithful FLOG-olites the skinny on the best restaurant in Scottsdale.
12-12-12. Only happens once a century and is worth a celebratory meal. Although I don't need much of a reason to go to Flo's Asian Kitchen - any occurance that has a title ending in day, i.e., Thursday, Monday, Groundhog Day, etc.
I met my amigo-extraordinaire, Sid Felix, at Flo's for another stellar lunch (shu mai dumplings and beef with snow peas). A feast worthy of 12-12-12. As always, at the end of the meal we were presented with fortune cookies, which I had previously thought were custom scripted for each customer. On this day though, mine read, discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation. Hmmm. I nervously wondered if this was a warning that an angry FLOG subject or subjects is/are going to descend on me. Sid, who is navigating his 90th year, got a missive that, a thrilling time is in your immediate future. Again, hmmm. Hopefully, the thrilling time does not involve dodging a berserk mall Santa or a runaway dump truck. We both prefer prophecies like, under the happiest of circumstances, you will dine again soon at an Asian restaurant you really like.
Many years ago, when I lived in Seattle where there are more Asian restaurants than Starbucks (and there are a lot of Starbucks), I once recommended to a forlorn non-Asian restaurant that they have an Unhappy Hour and give out un-fortune cookies. Mean Eileen Editing Queen insisted they should be called misfortune cookies, but Miss Fortune Cookies sounds too much like a Chinese beauty pageant. The restaurant did not take my advice but they did wish me fortune of the "un" and "mis" variety - only more colorfully stated. But I digress.
When Margaret and I came to Scottsdale on reconnaissance in 1991, we flunked due-diligence in thoroughly scoping out the Asian restaurants. The bordering-on-tragic options might have dissuaded us from choosing Arizona for a second home. For the first three years we lived here, we were chow-mein deprived and then, mercifully, came Flo's Asian Kitchen.
Our first time in, we had to wait an hour for a table. While we bided our time, I told Margaret I was going to mingle with the other waiting patrons to try to convince them to dine at the Italian place a few doors down (in order to move our name to the top of the list faster). I figured Margaret would admonish me, but she suggested I tell people the Italian restaurant was giving away free cocktails.
Hong Kong born Flo came to Scottsdale via Memphis, Tennessee where she had gone to school. Coincidentally, Margaret was born and raised in Memphis, and we saw the connection as a good omen. The food definitely worth wait - we made a point of introducing ourselves to Flo and have enjoyed many fantastic meals since. I could detail the virtues of each dish, but you really just have to try it for yourself - you won't be disappointed. In 1998, Flo told me she was going to open her second location in the Scottsdale Promenade and said it would simply be called, "Flo's."
"Not good," I told her. "It should be called Over-Flo's."
I have read an awful lot of bad restaurant reviews lately ... or maybe there are a lot of bad restaurants reviewed lately. Whatever ... I've decided to lay off the Cardinals and the Suns (briefly) and give all you faithful FLOG-olites the skinny on the best restaurant in Scottsdale. 12-12-12. Only happens once a century and is worth a celebratory meal. Although I don't need much of a reason to go to Flo's Asian Kitchen - any occurance that has a title ending in day, i.e., Thursday, Monday, Groundhog Day, etc.
I met my amigo-extraordinaire, Sid Felix, at Flo's for another stellar lunch (shu mai dumplings and beef with snow peas). A feast worthy of 12-12-12. As always, at the end of the meal we were presented with fortune cookies, which I had previously thought were custom scripted for each customer. On this day though, mine read, discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation. Hmmm. I nervously wondered if this was a warning that an angry FLOG subject or subjects is/are going to descend on me. Sid, who is navigating his 90th year, got a missive that, a thrilling time is in your immediate future. Again, hmmm. Hopefully, the thrilling time does not involve dodging a berserk mall Santa or a runaway dump truck. We both prefer prophecies like, under the happiest of circumstances, you will dine again soon at an Asian restaurant you really like.
Many years ago, when I lived in Seattle where there are more Asian restaurants than Starbucks (and there are a lot of Starbucks), I once recommended to a forlorn non-Asian restaurant that they have an Unhappy Hour and give out un-fortune cookies. Mean Eileen Editing Queen insisted they should be called misfortune cookies, but Miss Fortune Cookies sounds too much like a Chinese beauty pageant. The restaurant did not take my advice but they did wish me fortune of the "un" and "mis" variety - only more colorfully stated. But I digress.
When Margaret and I came to Scottsdale on reconnaissance in 1991, we flunked due-diligence in thoroughly scoping out the Asian restaurants. The bordering-on-tragic options might have dissuaded us from choosing Arizona for a second home. For the first three years we lived here, we were chow-mein deprived and then, mercifully, came Flo's Asian Kitchen.
Our first time in, we had to wait an hour for a table. While we bided our time, I told Margaret I was going to mingle with the other waiting patrons to try to convince them to dine at the Italian place a few doors down (in order to move our name to the top of the list faster). I figured Margaret would admonish me, but she suggested I tell people the Italian restaurant was giving away free cocktails.
Hong Kong born Flo came to Scottsdale via Memphis, Tennessee where she had gone to school. Coincidentally, Margaret was born and raised in Memphis, and we saw the connection as a good omen. The food definitely worth wait - we made a point of introducing ourselves to Flo and have enjoyed many fantastic meals since. I could detail the virtues of each dish, but you really just have to try it for yourself - you won't be disappointed. In 1998, Flo told me she was going to open her second location in the Scottsdale Promenade and said it would simply be called, "Flo's."
"Not good," I told her. "It should be called Over-Flo's."
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