ALL's FARE

TRIPLE CHOICE

Blue Ginger brings a trio of tastes to Orchard Lake Road.

Blue Ginger's
ecialty roll: Las Vegas

BY DAVE MOSS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANGIE BAAN

mall and serene, with food that's full
of personality, the new Blue Ginger
restaurant offers a refreshing change of
pace when you are in the mood for Asian food.
Unlike the ubiquitous Chinese fare that dots
the local landscape, Blue Ginger offers Viet-
namese, Malaysian and sushi, leaving diners with
some tough decisions when opening the menu.
Nestled in the Old Orchard shopping center
on Orchard Lake Road, just south of Maple,
Blue Ginger is warm and inviting, with soft
colors, a large tropical fish aquarium, and white
table cloths accented with blue cloth napkins.
Seating only 80, there's another dozen stools at
the sushi bar.
Sushi is good choice here. In addition to the
usual rolls and nigiri, there are sushi specials daily. For an appetizer,
we tried the delicious "caterpillar roll," combining barbecued eel,
cucumber and avocado slices, laid out in the shape of a winding cater-
pillar, and drizzled with a sweet eel sauce. There was also a "Philly
roll" with smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumbers.
Blue Ginger provides a nice variety of beverages to complement
its food. With my sushi, I chose a Japanese Sapporo beer, which was
light, dry and well chilled. It was a good match to the complex flavors
of eel, sushi rice, spicy wasabi and soy sauce. In addition to six
different beers and eight wines by the bottle or glass, Blue Ginger
features several choices of sake and popular "bubble teas" in a variety
of flavors.
If you are a sushi lover dining with someone who can live without
it, Blue Ginger is a perfect choice, thanks to the nice selection of
seafood, chicken, noodle and vegetarian dishes on the Vietnamese
and Malaysian menus.
Malaysian appetizers feature chicken satay with a peanut sauce and

S

grilled tofu stuffed with veggies.
Vietnamese appetizers include
fresh shrimp rolls, spring rolls,
and a special salad of shrimp, cab-
bage and carrots.
Our favorite main dish from
the Malaysian menu was the
succulent mango shrimp,
lightly breaded and sautéed,
tossed with shredded mango,
red onion and carrots, and
served in a hollowed-out
mango shell with a spicy
sweet-and-sour sauce.
On the Vietnamese side, we
tried the charbroiled beef with vermicelli, a deep bowl of noodles
with thin strips of grilled steak and julienne vegetables, accompanied
by a Vietnamese fish sauce. Noodle dishes are available with beef or
shrimp. The rice noodle soups are available as vegetarian.
Other dishes include fish entrees, a number of vegetable and bean
curd dishes, and Malaysian fried rice.
Blue Ginger is owned by Cholada Chan of Shangri-La fame. Her
son, Joe, is manager. Service is friendly and maybe a bit too attentive,
as we were asked how everything was at least a half-dozen times.
The food presentation is high-end and high-quality, with prices that
are a bargain. I'll be back for more.

❑

Blue Ginger: 6635 Orchard Lake Road • West Bloomfield
(in Old Orchard shopping center) • (248) 737-7918

JNPLATINUM • FEBRUARY 2005 •

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