Pacific Rim began as Kana, a small Korean restaurant near the U of M hospitals opened by the Ko family in 1982. In 1995, it moved to its present location downtown. Y. B. Ko took over from his parents in 2000, brought in his graduate school friend, Duc Tang. They decided to expand the restaurant’s menu to include other East Asian cuisines, inspiring a name change to Pacific Rim. Y. B. Ko moved to Hawaii in 2007, leaving Duc Tang as sole chef-proprietor.

Duc Tang was born in Saigon. When he was eight, his family fled Vietnam by boat. They endured refugee camps in Hong Kong and the Philippines, and eventually made it to California in 1980. Since then, Duc has earned degrees in Biochemistry, Theology, and Biblical Studies but has had not an iota of formal culinary schooling. Nonetheless, helping his mother in the kitchen and experiencing a variety of Pan-Asian cuisines on his route to America, he has become a brilliant ‘home-schooled’ chef. Perhaps this lack of formal training has been to his benefit. There are no traditional ‘learned’ bounds to restrict his highly inventive culinary creations.

This will be Chaad Thomas’s second Ann Arbor Tasters Guild dinner presentation. He presided over a Food for All Seasons picnic accompanied by U. S. Wine Imports selections a year or two ago. Chaad served as sommelier at Paesano’s for several years before joining John Bullock as a partner in U. S. Wine Imports, an Ann Arbor-based company specializing in Mediterranean wines. Med wines with East Asian cuisine? Come see how well the combinations work!Note: The capacity of Pacific Rim’s private dining room is 30 persons. We advise you place your reservations a.s.a.p.

Crispy spring rolls filled with tiger shrimp, taro, and vegetables

with a Vietnamese-style chili-lime dipping sauce

Coconut-green curry soup with sweet potatoes, butternut squash and shiitakes

Rich sablefish marinated in miso and sake pan roasted with soy-tamarind sauce served over sauteed napa cabbage shiitake mushrooms and Korean vermicelli noodles

COLLI ORIENTALI DEL FRIULI FRIULANO, VILLA RUBINI PACIFIC RIM SALAD

Baby greens, sesame oil, pine nuts, and...

Thin slices of Certified Angus ribeye with sesame crispy rice,

sauteed julienned vegetables, quail egg, and Korean chili sauce

Bittersweet chocolate cake with toasted coconut-Kahlua ice cream

and sake-macerated cherries