It's the ninth week of the seven month steak tour and the last one in single digits! Hard to believe, but we're now heading into our third month on this tour! In addition to hitting traditional steakhouses and steak sandwiches in pubs and restaurants, I've been trying to find steak dinners at restaurants you wouldn't normally associate with steak. I think I've found a good one for this ninth week on the steak tour and that restaurant is...Thanh Linh, a Vietnamese restaurant on Main Street. I love the food there and found out that they have a Vietnamese steak dinner on the menu so that is the stop for this week's steak dinner! And we have a special guest joining us today and she's got a book of a Peoria tour that she recently finished. Keep on scrolling to read more about that and see this week's Vietnamese steak dinner!
Here we are at Thanh Linh, I came here on the soup tour and I just looked at that post and I can’t believe that was over two years ago! We’re overdue for a return visit, so let’s go inside and start week number nine of the steak tour. Hey, I think I see our special guest star over there near the front window...
It’s Chelsie Tamms! Chelsie is an artist and graphic designer here in Peoria and I featured her and her work on this MBIP post. Chelsie recently had a Kickstarter campaign to help her publish a book of over 130 illustrations she designed for businesses, local attractions and events here in Peoria. The campaign was wildly successful and since I contributed I get a book! We decided to meet here for lunch and Chelsie brought the book and even wrote a nice message in there for me! Very cool, now let’s take a quick peek inside!
Since I contributed to the project I got some extra goodies including a thank you card, a die-cut sticker and an art print, this is like an early Christmas! The book is really cool and I love her fun style of combining logos with entertaining illustrations. I first saw Chelsie’s work at Emack & Bolio’s where they sell her Peoria post cards. And check it out, there’s an illustration for Thanh Linh. And the biggest surprise was the page with the MBIP design! I didn’t know that was going to be in the book and I’m honored to be included! Thanks, Chelsie! If you’d like to meet Chelsie and have her sign a copy of the book she’s doing a book signing this Saturday, December 16th at Urban Artifacts from 1 to 3pm. If you can’t make that you can get copies from Urban Artifacts, The Peoria Riverfront Museum gift shop and the gift shop at the Peoria airport. If you’d like to order one online, simply click here and you can either arrange a local pick up with Chelsie or have it delivered. The book is really fun and cool and would make a great locally produced and designed Christmas gift!
I tried to get a photo of our waitress, but she was shy and sent the owner of Thanh Linh over, Linh! We shoed Linh the design for her restaurant in Chelsie’s book and she loved it! Then we ordered our lunch...
And the appetizer arrived very quickly! We got an order of Crab Rangoon and it’s one of my favorite appetizers here. The wonton is deep fried and filled with a rich and creamy crabmeat and cream cheese filling and they’re delicious. Just as we were finishing those up, my friend and MBIP contributor, Chip Joyce showed up to pick up his gifts I got him from our Mister Donut journey last week. It was Chip’s idea to do the story and I stole it from him so I got him a Mister Donut coffee mug and t-shirt! Always great to see Chip and I feel a lot less guilty now!
As our main courses were being prepared I took a little look around in Thanh Linh. There’s the counter up front and check out the Christmas tree, very sparkly! There’s also photos on the wall from Vietnam and I took a shot from the back of the restaurant where if you look real closely you can see Chelsie at our table.
Suddenly...fortune cookies!
There’s another dining room over here and as you can see, Thanh Linh is a very popular lunch destination here in Peoria.
The star of the show is the lunch buffet which I’ve had and it’s one of the best lunch buffets in town. Speaking of lunch, let’s get back to the table because I bet the main courses have arrived!
And I was right! Chelsie got the fried rice and as you can see, the portions here are very generous! That’s a mountain of fried rice and Chelsie said she’d probably be eating it all week!
Here’s this week’s steak dinner, it’s a Vietnamese Beef Steak which is served with lettuce, Asian salad dressing, onions, tomatoes, cucumber, red peppers and cilantro. It’s a beautiful presentation and it looks and smells divine! Time to dig in!
This steak is unbelievable! It’s lean and very tender, it melts in your mouth! It’s got a unique Asian-seasoned flavor and it’s so savory and tasty!
As you mix the vegetables and salad with the tasty steak, each bite has its own unique flavor and this is one of the most delicious steak dishes I’ve ever had! I knew it would be good, but I never dreamed it would be this fantastic!
I’m definitely coming back for this again, what a wonderful discovery!
And when I got home I placed Chelsie’s book on the MBIP World Headquarters Coffee Table. Thanks to Chelsie for the book and for meeting me for lunch, I had a lot of fun and don’t forget to get your signed book this Saturday at Urban Artifacts from 1 to 3PM. And check out Chelsie’s website and facecrack page, if you have a local business you should talk to Chelsie about having her do some of her unique designs for your marketing and promotional work. We’ll see you all tomorrow!
Steak Rating
Four Elsie The Cows—This was such an unexpected treat, I knew it would be good, but this Vietnamese steak dinner was such a taste treat. If you like steak, you have to come and try this dish out!
--------------
1209 W. Main Street
Peoria
309-495-0179
--------------
Related Posts: Seven Months Of Steak @: Willie’s Tamale Cart, Hearth Restaurant, Los Jimadores, Jim’s Steakhouse, Mona’s Italian Restaurant, The Packinghouse Dining Company, Fresco and The Fish House.