(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

Tacos and grilled cheese aside, Spokane isn't exactly a haven for truck food. On Trent and Freya is one notable exception, Smokie's, a barbecue cart that might not be exceptionally awesome, but certainly is good enough as far as drivethrough food goes.

I suppose you could walk or bicycle up to it too, but make no mistake about it: This is a converted coffee shack designed for cars and take-out, although there are a couple of tables spread across a near-by patch of grass. Of course, sitting down and taking in the view of Trent might be less than a stellar idea, but at least it is an option.

The food itself is OK, but nothing spectacular. Hit the Bulldog if you want higher quality barbecue. Not that the ribs are awful, but they are a bit dry and you really do need to dunk them in the accompanying sauce. I get the point of the self-assembly of meat and sauce, but here I don't think it works too well. These ribs need to soak in the sauce for a while to not feel dry. Like I said, not awful, but could have been better.

Worse were the sides. The slaw, again, felt a bit dry, like the cabbage hadn't been soaked enough in the dressing. I mean, fine, I get it, you don't want it to be drenched in the stuff, but there's a middle ground. The beans and potato salad both held up better, but were also a bit dull. With barbecue I expect somewhat of a flavor-kick, something I found decidedly lacking here.

It's not that Smokie's is that bad, it's just that it's not that awesome. It's kind of like Charlie Sheen's Twitter account: we had hoped for more.

Smokie's is good as far as a quick drivethrough meal goes, and we support anyone that does something a bit out of the ordinary. 

I'm not much of a wheat ale kind of guy, which I suppose is a crime in some circles. I mean, I get the point behind it, and I can respect it. It just isn't my number one choice of beer. That goes for Maui Brewing -- the brewery behind one of my favorites, the CoCoNut Porter -- and their Mana Wheat too.

This is obviously a beer squarely aimed at the summer crowds, what with the pineapple juice apparently used front and center during brewing. I say "apparently" as I picked up very little pineapple from my can. I'm not sure if it was part of a bum batch or not, but as opposed to the rest of the internets, this just seemed like a pretty straightforward wheat beer to me.

It pours a pale orange with a very nice fluffy head and great lacing. A sniff reveals just a bit of citrus and pineapple modestly and bashfully hiding behind the wheat. When it hits the tongue it's definitely crisp and refreshing, but I can only pick up hints of the fruits. The carbonation is also rather heavy, though I suppose that's not really a bad thing in something that aims to refresh.

In that sense this isn't a bad beer at all, it just isn't for me. Pick up a can if you're a wheat fan, just don't expect to get your mind blown.

Lo and behold, we have launched version three of SpoCOOL. And because we inevitably will get e-mails about it, we decided just to make a short post explaining what the hell is going on with this version:

• I notice the comment section is open for this post, does this mean you're all about comments now? We're using DISQUS for the comment system which takes away some of the headache of comment modification, and we might open for commenting a bit more, but not that often. Also note that the system can be slow at times, so it could take a while for your comment to appear to the world.
• Why doesn't my browser work with your site? You're on your own if you're using anything earlier than Internet Explorer 8. In fact, the whole site is developed using HTML5 and CSS3 so your best bet would be to use the newest version of Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer. And remember: When in doubt, reload!
• Where did all the menus go?! They're all at the bottom of the site.
• Why did my RSS reader re-fetch a bunch of your posts? Because we made a change to our RSS feed; should be a long time until that happens again. Hopefully!
• I love the new design! Thanks mom!
• I don't get the new design! Why have you changed X from the previous version? I preferred it the way it used to be! Sorry, everybody else. Long answer short: We looked at user patterns over the past few weeks, and found there were very specific ways the majority browsed the site. Therefore we changed the design accordingly.

Hopefully that answers some or even all of your questions and concerns! 

We have received quite a few recommendations for Vien Dong, some glowing, others more neutral, but all recommendations none the less. And while we might find ourselves in the more neutral parts of the water, we definitely do dive in and recommend Vien Dong.

It's all about the freshness, something every dish we sampled scored well on. The broth base of the wonton soup, for example, was nicely flavored by the vegetables, making the dish surprisingly refreshing. The spring rolls too—here filled with tofu—held a high standard, and were what some might classify as "summer-y". Or "spring-y". You get the point.

Multiple followers of Team SpoCOOL had highly recommended the "Dong Special Chow Mein" to us, and we can see why. The noodles were tasty, and cooked properly; none of the mushy dull stuff we so often see. I was pretty OK with the meat in it too, even though the lack of seasoning might put some off. As far as the shrimp goes, I picked it out and would recommend you do the same. The shrimp is a fickle friend, and is hard to cook properly when not fresh. Here it was neither, though other than that the special was very good. As was the vegetable fried rice.

When we ordered this feast, the waitress gave us kind of an odd look, asking if we knew how much we were ordering. And really, we hadn't expected quite the bang for the buck we got here. For less than $30 you could probably feed a group of six for a couple of days. 

Half of Team SpoCOOL compared the food to that from Vietnamese relatives as well as food eaten in Vietnam, the other half compared it to Vietnam Cafe in Philadelphia. Vien Dong fell just short for both of us, but is still very much recommended. You can't go wrong with the freshness you get for the price here.