Restaurants serving eclectic or hard to find food

I'm working on another project this morning, but our totally non-scientific polls have been kind of fun as conversation starters. Got ideas for a new poll? Share them here, and we'll put them in the queue!

I was about to post this in another thread, but realized it didn't necessarily lend itself well to a poll.

Certain foods seem to only be found at a couple of spots around town; what are some go-to restaurants that carry some of your favorite hard to find foods?

Some examples:
Bubble tea--Tea Station
Crepes--Java
Sour Beer--Holy Grale
Natto--??? I haven't found this one yet outside of the Asian food store.

[Robin Garr]

Good one, Paul! I don't think I've seen natto at any Japanese restaurants around town, but then, to be honest, I haven't been looking.

Taking a stab, I think I might start my quest at Tokyo on Lime Kiln, which is one of the few sushi restaurants around town actually run by a Japanese itamae. It's the only place I've seen ankimo (monkfish liver, a.k.a. "foie gras of the sea"), so I imagine they have the street cred to go for natto or other off-the-wall specialty. (I think I've heard that Hiko-A-Mon also had ankimo, so they might also be worth a check.)

I've had bubble tea at the Vietnamese bakery (Coco's?) on South Side Drive, and at one point, the Chinese fast-food chopsticks place upstairs at Fourth Street Live.

Haven't seen crepes around town since Dana and Brian McMahan were making them for a while at farmers' markets.

Here's one: Durian? I've seen it for sale at Asian groceries, but not (as far as I know) on an Asian menu.

And for easy pickins, go to one-of-a-kind ethnic spots. Funmi's for Nigerian, Chez Seneba for Senegalese, Chapinlandia for Guatemalan/Salvadorean street food.

Crepes can be found here.

[Robin Garr]

Crepes can be found here.

Geez! I knew that! And you didn't even need to go to a national corporate Website to find it.
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/vietn ... ur-sisters

I get bubble tea at both NamNam and Jasmine, both of which I frequent. I seems to me I have had it at other places, too, just can't remember where exactly.

Both savory and sweet crepes are on the menu at Ghyslain.

I've got to go with the Mayan Cafe and that 'corn smut' stuff. I have not seen it anywhere else. Good good stuff.

MOFONGO! ???

...I've had no luck finding it since falling in love with it in San Juan last summer. My word that stuff is good.

Gotten pretty good at making it myself, though.

[Robin Garr]

MOFONGO! ???

...I've had no luck finding it since falling in love with it in San Juan last summer. My word that stuff is good.

Gotten pretty good at making it myself, though.

I can't recall there ever being a Puerto Rican restaurant in Louisville, other than possibly that short-lived little place over in Sellersburg that had three different Latino cuisines.

MOFONGO! ???

...I've had no luck finding it since falling in love with it in San Juan last summer. My word that stuff is good.

Gotten pretty good at making it myself, though.

I had mofongo at Seviche a few years ago.

You can find brains here, brains are hard to find:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/el-molcajete-louisville-3

Seviche frequently has mofongo! Love it! I too fell in love with it visiting San Juan.

-The bubble tea place/baker on the south side is DaLat's.
-Chinese food with mala peppercorns: Jasmine. Are there other decent Szechuan options? That's the only one I've found.
-Fried sauerkraut balls: German-American Club --are there other places that have these?
-Momos: Clay Oven
-Bombay Grille's the only place I'm aware of where you can get a proper head-sized, fully-inflated chana bhatura (had disappointing results at Little India and Dakshin on that front)
Nashville-style hot chicken: Proof on Main -- I haven't tried it, though.
That Barcode place where Maido used to be is supposed to be more like a yakitori restaurant, right? That would be new, especially if you could get some of the more exotic skewers like manta ray and chicken knees and whatnot.
Do any of the Korean places have those super-crispy Korean chicken wings? I tried the Korean wings at Mussel/Burger Bar, and they were good but not what I was hoping for.
For a while there was a taqueria at exit 180 just south of Cincinnati called Molca Salsa that had huitlacoche and squash flowers on the menu, but they took them off due to lack of demand. Made the salsa less spicy, too. Womp womp.
I guess there's really just one place for Filipino food, too... so that place for chicken adobo. Now that Karisimbi's closed there's just one caterer who does Rwandan/Burundian/Congolese food. That's all I can think of for now.

Taking a stab, I think I might start my quest at Tokyo on Lime Kiln, which is one of the few sushi restaurants around town actually run by a Japanese itamae. It's the only place I've seen ankimo (monkfish liver, a.k.a. "foie gras of the sea"), so I imagine they have the street cred to go for natto or other off-the-wall specialty. (I think I've heard that Hiko-A-Mon also had ankimo, so they might also be worth a check.)

Sapporo has ankimo every so often.

There is an African restaurant out past Iroquois shopping center on the right. Looks like a sports bar, ..can't think of the name, that serves Mofongo. A little bit goes a long way.

African sports bar past Iroquois Manor -- are you talking about Karisimbi/Kalisimbi? Unfortunately they had a pipe burst this winter and never reopened. I heard some new guy is planning to reopen but it won't be a Rwandan place anymore. That's sad, because as far as I can tell, Louisville really did have the only Rwandan restaurant in the country for about a year and a half.

Some other unique food items: Somali goat pilao with green sauce, then go next door for mandazi, chapati and ginger tea at the "International Mall" (Somali Mall) at 8th and York.