Zoe Ma Ma’s Sister Restaurant Brings a Taste of the Pacific Rim to Boulder | Eater Denver

"Inside Chimera, just off Boulder’s Pearl Street at 2014 10th Street, I found Edwin Zoe presenting a “hybrid beast” that blends his northern Chinese and Taiwanese family roots with his American upbringing into an upscale Pacific Rim restaurant — he asks that people not call it “fusion” and aims to elevate the perception of Chinese food. With chef Corey Buck (formerly Blackbelly, Matsuhisa, and Flagstaff House) running the kitchen, the tight dinner menu offers traditional takes on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean dishes: “little eats” include Shanghai’s xiao long bao (soup dumplings), bao buns, hamachi crudo, smashed cucumbers, and other vegetables, while “big eats” range from jasmine tea-smoked chicken with baby bok choy and rice to seafood soon dubu, a Korean hotpot with prawns and squid and “panna cotta-textured tofu” in fish stock, and an elevated chicken chow fun made with house-made rice noodles and a mix of oyster, soy, and fish sauces plus fresh ginger, garlic, and scallion. Zoe and Buck also make ramen with their own noodles and broth bases (Zoe notes ramen’s roots in Chinese lamian), and the drink list nods to the family’s past restaurants with mai tai and shave ice cocktails alongside Kikusui saké, Suntory whiskey, and Kung Fu Girl riesling. Chimera officially opens at 4 p.m. Friday; dinner will be served 4 to 10 p.m. nightly, with weekday lunch and weekend dim-sum brunch services starting in May." - Josie Sexton