Planning on being in South Carolina anytime soon? If so, I highly recommend a visit to “Wild Ginger Asian Bistro” in Summerville, SC. As soon as I walked through the door, I received a warm and enthusiastic greeting from Joey, who is the brother of the owner, Nana Liu. Although their menu has a long list of animal products, they also had plenty of vegan options as well. Joey, Nana, and their entire staff couldn’t have been more accommodating when I asked if they could prepare a couple of stir frys with veggie broth, water, or minimal oil, instead of just oil. Unlike many of the restaurants in NYC, I felt as though my happiness with my food was important to them. I started off with the “Wok Glazed with Garlic Sauce” which includes zucchini, carrot, onion, broccoli, non-gmo fried tofu, and fresh pepper, mixed with a spicy garlic sauce (I asked for the zucchini to be removed, as conventional zucchini is a high risk GMO crop). Yum. I had skipped breakfast (I am beginning to think that the term “continental breakfast” means no bananas or anything healthy), so my hunger got the best of me and I ordered a second entree as well, which was the “Mango Tofu”. This delightful dish combined steamed onion, pepper, carrot, fresh mango, and fried non-gmo tofu in a homemade mango sauce. Both dishes included a lovely seaweed heavy miso soup, and brown rice. I asked for a glass of red wine, and wowee, my taste buds were jumping, and I was having a great time. 🙂
I learned that Nana and Joey are both from China, and that Nana had only been operating her business for a little over a year (along with her husband). Knowing that Asian hate crimes in the US have been on the rise in recent years, I asked Joey how he liked South Carolina, and he said that it was fine, but that he rarely had a chance to do anything social as he was working all of the time (a fellow diner recommended James Island as another nice place to live in SC). Joey created the giant mural inside the restaurant, and Nana explained that she didn’t know what she would do without her brother, and his contributions. Wild Ginger is the kind of restaurant that you wish was in your neighborhood, until you consider the economic implications of eating out every day. 🙂
Regardless, I really enjoyed the food, and meeting Joey, Nana, and the other patrons at Wild Ginger Asian Bistro. The bottom line? Highly recommended, of course!
Click here for the Wild Asian Bistro website.
Click here to learn more about the health risks of genetically modified Zucchini.
Click here to learn more about the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in the US.
