VIETNAMESE IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

We haven't found a truly great Vietnamese restaurant around us. There are some pretty good ones - we sometimes visit the one in the Pacific East Mall for pho, but nothing that has been truly amazing. While driving over to kickboxing a couple of times, I had noticed a pho restaurant called Pho Hoa in a strip mall in Richmond - the neighborhood north of us. It's not really the safest neighborhood, nor one that we visit often, but the restaurant we saw always seemed like it was packed with Asians. So one evening we finally decided to check it out.

We decided to go to dinner early, since I was being a little paranoid and wanted to eat while it was still light out. This meant that we were basically the first people to show up at the restaurant (though we were quickly followed by a few other people). Since this was our first time visiting the restaurant, I decided to get a few simple things.

The first thing we started off with were fish cakes.
There were okay. They weren't my favorite fishcakes that I'd ever had, since they weren't crispy and had a more oily flavor. Maybe because we arrived there early, the oil still hadn't heated up fully. (when you fry at a lower temperature, whatever you're frying will absorb more oil and end up soggy rather than crispy).

Then a order my usual - a bowl of chicken pho.
It was actually a very good bowl of pho. And the side additions it came with were very fresh and tasty. I must say, that's it was probably the best bowl of pho that I've had in the East Bay. However, I must warn that the service here is high lacking, and they aren't exactly nice. I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to visit this restaurant again. Though it was good, it wasn't truly amazing enough for me to go there rather than the Pacific East Mall. So I'll continue looking for some really great Vietnamese here in the East Bay.

BUI, SOLANO AVE

Though Tom and I have our favorite places to eat in our area, we do like to try new places. And so on one evening we ventured out to Bui, a local Vietnamese restaurant on Solano Ave, since we couldn't decide on where else we wanted to eat. Now, we had avoided this place for a little while, mainly because the sign outside indicated that it was a "Contemporary Vietnamese" restaurant and I prefer hole in the wall, authentic (and cheap) Vietnamese food.

When we entered the restaurant, it was about a third full, and I noticed that there wasn't a lot of staff on the floor. We were seated right away and presented with menus. As I suspected, (along with the white table cloths on the tables) this place specializes in more French influenced Vietnamese cuisine. So though I was just craving a bowl of noodles, that wasn't really what the offered here.

Tom and I ended up ordering a few appetizers to share. Here's my summer spring roll below. You can tell from the photo that it's a little dry looking (clearly made a while in advance), but it was pretty good.

I also ordered these garlic basil chicken wings. They reminded me a lot of the ones we always get at Sabuy Sabuy, and though they weren't bad, the ones at Sabuy Sabuy are better.

As our meal progressed, the dining room started getting fuller and fuller - to the point that nearly every seat was taken. It was clear that the restaurant had not expected this as they had a single server and a single runner for the ENTIRE restaurant. Now, I can fully understand that for restaurants in this economy, it's prudent not to have too much waitstaff, especially on a Thursday night when you don't expect to be busy (and haven't been in the past). But I think it's also important to have people on call, just in this type of situation.

After our entrees were cleared, we were mistakenly handed our check by the waiter. We notified the runner, but it took another 10 minutes to flag down the waiter to convey the mistake. Meanwhile, the table to our left were regulars, who were surprised at how busy the restaurant was, and the table to the right were newcomers who were rightfully annoyed that it took 20 minutes just to get their drinks.

We were eventually given our entrees. (by this point I had forgotten to take pictures). Tom got a seafood stew, that I found was way too salty, but the thought it was pretty good. And I did get wish for a bowl of noodles with shrimp. It was pretty nice, but I could've gotten the same thing for half the price elsewhere (though not on Solano Ave.)

Our overall dining experience wasn't totally negative. The waitstaff was just way too busy and I felt sorry for them. I was truly more annoyed at the owners who were clearly ill prepared. I don't think we'll be going back to Bui, though. The food was fine, but I truly do enjoy less fancy Vietnamese food at the much lower prices.

DA NANG, ALBANY

For Vietnamese, we normally go to the pho place in Ranch 99. It's pretty decent and cheap and quick. But one evening, I felt that we should try out a new place, and decided to check out Da Nang, a Vietnamese restaurant pretty close to our house. Now a while ago, my cousin had warned me not to go to this place. Apparenly she and her husband had gone there a long time ago, and had a bad meal there. I maybe should've heeded the warning more, since they're a lot less pickier than I am when it comes to food, but I had read views online that said that new management had taken over and that the food was much better now. So we headed over and decided to give it a try.

When we arrived, there were a few people present. It had pretty simple decorations, and I liked the planters of lucky bamboo running down the middle of the restaurant:When we were handed the menus, it was clear that we were off to a poor start. The restaurant serves a mix of Vietnamese and Thai food. They had the Vietnamese dishes, but the focus was clearly more on the Thai stuff. That's always a warning, when a restaurant takes two distinctive Asian cusinese and thinks it can lump them together and come out with something good. I tend to avoid such places. But we were there, so I put in an order for some summer rolls:
These were OK. I guess when you're making summer rolls, the components are so simple that you really need to use super fresh, yummy stuff. That was not the case here. The veggies weren't overly fresh and the dipping sauce wasn't very good, either. Just kinda tasteless and forgettable. It certainly didn't add much to the rolls.

I had also ordered the Vietnamese classic: pho. The thing that bothered me was that it wasn't even called pho on the menu. They had all these different dishes, and I couldn't really identify was just a bowl of chicken pho- I finally just asked the waiter if they had it, and this is what they brought:
So this wasn't really the best pho I've ever had. The noodles stuck together, the broth tasted kinda strange and worst of all, the chicken tasted as if it had gone bad. Like, you know when you smell raw chicken and it has that slightly rotting flavor so you know it's bad? The chicken in my bowl had that flavor. I ended up picking our all the chicken cause I didn't want to get sick, and dousing the damn thing in hot sauce so I could mask the flavor of the broth.

So overall, it wasn't a great trip to Da Nang. We'll be sticking closer to home, with trips to the Ranch 99. I guess you just gotta go where all the other Asians go.

DINING IN SAN FRANCISCO AT THE SLANTED DOOR

For those of you who haven't heard of the Slanted Door, it's a super famous Vietnamese/French restaurant in SF. In keeping with the style of the Bay Area, they use all local, and heavily organic produce. And as you might imagine, it's kinda pricey. So taking advantage of the fact that my parents were in town, we headed off for lunch at the Slanted Door, which is located in the Ferry Buildling.

The actual restaurant in quite stunning. It's very modern and it has these huge floor to ceiling windows that look out on the bay. I had to make an earlier reservation (11:30) since they were booked for anything later. When we walked into the restaurant, it was about a quarter full, but it would fill up quickly as we sat there. Lots of people were having business lunches, but there weren't as many tourists. Here's a pic I took of the inside:

They do everything family style here, which was fine with us. We had five people, so this just meant we could order more dishes and try new things. The menu was actually heavily Vietnamese, so the dishes were quite familiar. Out able started off with some fresh summer rolls, which I skipped due to the addition of pork.

Actually, I skipped a lot of the early dishes, like this scallop carpaccio that my dad wanted. But he seemed to like it and said it was very fresh.

Oh, here's a dish a tried which I really did like. This is a Vietnamese crepe. I've only had it once before at a restaurant in Boston, but I really like the crispy texture of the crepe which contrasts with the warm, soft interior. Also, this was full of fresh veggies, which I really enjoyed.

Next up, my parents ordered this dish of spicy squid, which was yet another dish I avoidedBut I was quite happy with the arrival of the green papaya salad. It was again, super fresh, crunchy with clean flavors, though it could have been a bit spicier.And we ordered two noodle dishes. To be honest, we actually ordered a few more dishes than that, but I didn't take pics of all of them. This dungeness crap dish with crystal noodles was quite goodBut I was disappointed by my dish on lemongrass chicken. The chicken ended up being quite touch and not anything special. Overall, the food at the Slanted Door is characterized by super fresh, clean flavors. But there are certain cuisines that I don't feel great about pay a whole lot of money for. I know that's unfair, but it's true. And when you order a place of sauteed bok choy for $8.50 (which we did) it'd better be the best freaking bok choy you've ever had in your life, or you're probably paying too much. For me, I enjoyed our lunch at the slanted door, and I'd glad go back if someone else were paying. But for me, I could be just as happy as going to a hole in the wall and paying half the price.

A MEAL TO SOOTHE A COLD

So Tom and I have both had colds in the last week. He blames me, but I blame Max, who's had a cold for a while now. The other thing you learn about kids is that they get sick all the time, so you gotta wash your hands around them and never share food with them. Since I was feeling too tired to cook, we headed over to our local Asian shopping mall for some noodle soup.

When I first moved here, I was pretty surprised at how suburban it is. Big shopping malls, freeways, etc. But I guess that's just really Californian, too. Now I've gotten used to it, and I really like where I live cause it's so convenient. One of the things I really like is how close we are to the Ranch 99- for you non-Californians, it's like Super 88, but bigger and better, because it's catering to a much larger Asian population. In addition to the Ranch 99, we have a bunch of Asian restaurants to eat at, including the noodle house we visited. I don't remember the name, but it really is the best place to eat when you're sick.

So I got a big bowl of seafood noodle soup with those fat rice noodles that I love. It was very tasty.

Tom also got a big bowl of noodle soup, but he chose to get egg noodles. They weren't as good as the rice noodles, but he'll know for next time.

We also ordered a side dish of fish cakes and served with some pickled veggies, they tasted great. Overall, it was the perfect meal to have when you're feeling a little under the weather.

MY FIRST TRIP TO DORCHESTER

Our friend, Sam, is in Boston right now. He's one of those people who comes in and out of Boston, but since he's unemployed right now, he's here for the forseeable future. I know there's a large Vietnamese population in Boston, but I'm not quite sure where to go. So taking advantage of the fact that Sam was in town (he speaks Vietnamese fluently and lived there for quite some time), we asked him to take us to great Vietnamese food in Boston.

So Sam picked a restaurant in Dorchester called Pho 2000. Looking up the address in Google maps, Tom and I decided to drive locally, so I got to drive through Dorchester for the first time, which probably wasn't the greatest idea, but it was still light out. (We ended up taking the 93 on the way back). Since we got there early, we got to look through the menu. Lots of stuff you'd typically see on any Vietnamese menu (pho, bun, etc.) . The surroundings were very hole in the wall. It's great cause there's parking across the street, but when we entered, Tom and I both detected the smell of garbage and the smell of incense- it wasn't the greatest way to start off. But when Sam arrived, we let him and his friend order for us. There were 7 of us at dinner, so it was a lot easier to eat family style.

We started off with this fantastic Vietnamese type coleslaw.There was coleslaw, shrimp, mint, basil, peanuts, peppers- it was salty, sweet, spicy, sour, and cool- really the perfect thing for a warm winter night and my favorite dish for the entire night.
Soon, more food started to arrive- more than could fit on our small round table. The first was a tofu dish, that you can see to the right of the picture. And in the back you can see a chicken dish. Both were quite good, but nothing truly amazing.

The special dish of the night was this fried catfish. Sam said it was really traditional and hard to find in Boston restaurants. (It's listed on one of the special menus that aren't translated into English). So you get to cut chunks of the catfish. Then you're given packets of rice paper and a bowl of really hot water. You dip the rice paper in the water to soften it, and then make your own wrap. You put in catfish, a selection of veggies, rice noodles, wrap it all up, and dip it into the sweet sauce (that contained apples among other things).

My first wrap wasn't so great. The big plate of veggies they gave us contained this strange vegetable that I'd never seen before. It's a Vietnamese vegetable that smells and tastes exactly like fish. Like stinky fish. It was surprising and I put it in my wrap without trying it first. Needless to say, it wasn't a great idea. It kinda ruined my first wrap.

My second wrap was a lot better, but this still wasn't my favorite dish of the night. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it, though. And it did feed all 7 of us. The good thing about driving to Dorchester? Our entire meal cost us $13 per person. Overall, we had an enjoyable meal, though probably more for the company than the food. I'm glad I got a chance to eat more authentic foods, but I don't think I'll be driving down to Dorchester again to find it.

NOUVELLE VIETNAMESE IN BEVERLY HILLS

Tom and I just got back from a week in LA. Before I left, people kept asking me if I was excited to go home and I responded of course! I'm gonna eat so well! And that's exactly what we did. For 6 full days. My tummy is still full and kinda round after our marathon dining. I'm going to the gym tomorrow. And of course, I brought stuff back, like a box full of Satsuma Tangerines. I've already eaten two this morning. I visited some of my favorite spots, but I wrote all about those the last time I went home, so the next few posts will be about the new places that I went to. Every time I go home, my mommy has new places for me to try (I think Tom learned where I got a lot of my eccentricities and habits on this trip, like my messiness, love of food and travel), so we definitely tried a few good spots, which was important, cause we didn't have time to have a bad meal.

On our first night in LA, we had dinner with my family and a couple of old family friends. My mom told us we were going to have Vietnamese food, so I expected the typical pho and bun, but maybe a little nicer. But when she told me to change into nicer clothes before we left for dinner, my suspicions were aroused. For me, there are just certain food that don't need to be dressed up and made fancy. In fact, when this is done, the food is often just not as good as the neighborhood hole in the wall you love to go to. That includes, Chinese, Mexican, Indian, Thai and of course, Vietnamese food. But like many of you seek restaurant recommendations from me, I shouldn't doubt my mom's tastes either.

When we drove up to the restaurant, Michelia, in Beverly Hills, I noticed that it's awning said "Nouvelle Vietnamese", which aroused my suspicions even more. And when we entered the restaurant, the dining room was really nicely decorated, thought not too large. Since my mom had been here a few times, she new the chef/owner, who is Chinese, but grew up in Vietnam. She spoke perfect Mandarin. And so, my parents just let her set the menu, so I'm not positive about everything we ate, though I'll try to reconstruct it from the menu online.

We started with several appetizers. Here are the Saigon rolls: A pair of soft rice wraps rolled with jicama, cucumber, mixed greens, and shrimps that are sautéed with lime leaves, chili, and ginger. These were definitely better than the ones you typically get at Vietnamese restaurants, with the higher quality ingredients and the mesclun mix instead of the typical iceberg lettuce. Actually, as I'm looking at the menu and descriptions, I ' m realizing is very reasonably priced. If it were in Boston, I'd definitely go back. But I digress. Next, we had some shumai: Innovative steamed dumplings stuffed with shrimp, chicken & crab, topped with masago. These were also really well made, and I'm breathing a sigh of relief right now. Since we never saw a menu, I didn't know if there was pork in this, though Tom and my sisters assured me there wasn't after they'd tried it. So I ate one and it was good. Not like the frozen ones they like serving all around Boston.Everyone else also had some beef appetizer that I didn't photograph cause I didn't eat it. But that was ok, cause we had plenty more food to go. Our next dish was something dish I can't find on the menu. Anyway, it involved prawns sauteed with veggies in some sauce and served in a crispy basket. This was also really good, cause the prawns were large and tender and I enjoyed tearing at the fried basket, which was just like fried wonton wrappers. And our next dish was veggies sauteed with tofu. It was simple, but nice to have since it broke up all the meat that we'd been eating.
Ok, by this time, I was stuffed. But we're talking about my parents here. They always order too much. Our next dish was probably my favorite one. It's a Crispy Sole: Sole fish filet breaded with panko, golden fried, topped with the chef’s original spicy French-style dressing. It seems really simple, but the fish was cooked well; still moist and tender on the interior, but crunchy on the exterior without being too greasy. And finally we finished the dinner with some pan fried noodles with chicken and veggies. Totally unnecessary, but still tasty. I think this was the first, and certainly not last time, in our trip that Tom would hear me say "I'm so full I'm gonna explode." We were handed dessert menus, but that would've been ridiculous. Also, the desserts were just ones bought from Bindi, nothing homemade, so not really worth ordering. So definitely a very enjoyable dinner, and for Katie, my only LA reader, check this place out, cause you'd definitely like it. And with so much seafood, Dustin would like it, too.

VIETNAMESE SANDWICHES AT NEW SAIGON

Ok, I'm kinda annoyed with Picasa right now. And I've been annoyed at blogger for a while. You see, when you use Picasa to upload your pictures, you can also select pictures and create a blogger entry from that page (Google owns Picasa and Blogger). So that's one way I've been doing my posts, cause it means that I don't have to upload each pic individually to Blogger. Except that I just did a post and Picasa ate it. Good thing it wasn't a long one. And lately, it's also been eating some of the pictures. So when the blog entry uploads to blogger, there are pics missing from the entry. I've just given up and I'm going back to the old, more time consuming method of uploading individual pictures. And since I'm ranting anyway, I'm greatly annoyed that Blogger isn't offering it's new beta version to people who already have blogger accounts. You can create a totally new blog in the new beta version, but you can't convert your current blog to the beta unless you've been invited. WTF. Does that make any sense? Anyway, Tom has the new version and I want it too. Damn you blogger.

Anyway, back to my post (which I've already typed once today). Last week, I was getting my haircut in Downtown Crossing, so after it got done, I met up with Tom for some lunch. I decided to get a Vietnamese sandwich in Chinatown, since I love these things. Now, I know that everyone has their own favorite Vietnamese sandwich place in Chinatown, and I like going to New Saigon, which is stuck right between Empress Garden and McDonald's on Washington St.
I like this place cause you can order a chicken teriyaki sandwich and they have yummy premade lunch boxes on sale. Here's a pic of all the sandwich fixings and the lunchboxes stacked in front. Tom ordered a mango shakes with bubbles. They used real mango to make it and he thought it was pretty good, but needed more ice. I, of course, got a chicken teriyaki sandwich. Here it is below.
There's just something so delicious about Vietnamese sandwiches. I think it has to do with all the different flavors and textures going on at once. You get the crunchy/salty/sourness of the pickled veggies, the sweetness of the chicken and the heat from the chilies. And it's all served on a lovely toasted chewy bun. Could anything be better? Maybe the fact that it costs only $2.50. Anyway, I wish there was someplace near home where I could get these all the time, but I guess I'll just have to settle for the occasional sandwich from New Saigon.

CHEAP BITES IN CHINATOWN

Last week I activated a free one week membership at the SportClub LA. I have no idea how I got invited to join this club, since I am not in the income bracket of someone who could afford this place (the most basic membership comes out to $200/mo.) but whatever. They were inviting me to try it for free and I got to bring a long a friend! So Leah and I headed down there on a Fri night to figure out what all the hype was about.

To be honest, the LA Sports Club is not all that great. Leah made a great point that it looked and felt like the fitness/spa deck of a cruise ship. Sure, it had lots of space. And I got to watch a thunderstorm take place while sitting on an exercise bike overlooking the Commons (and watching cable on my own flatscreen tv), but as far as the amenities went, it wasn't that much greater than my own gym. We did fall in love with the locker room, though, with it's lovely sauna, showers, plentiful towels and sheer cleansliness.

After the gym, we were starving and we wanted to eat fast, so I suggested we visit Pho Vietnam.

It's not the best Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown, but it certainly is cheap. When we arrived, the restaurant was nearly empty. I ordered the chicken bun while Leah ordered some summer spring rolls and the beef bun. I ordered a chicken bun.

Ok, so i gotta say, I always get the bun at Pho Pasteur and Pho Vietnam mixed up. But once I got my order, I remembered that I didn't like the chicken bun at Pho Vietname as much as the one at Pho Pasteur. It's true that as I kept digging down in my bowl, I'd find more and more veggies, and that kept me happy. But the chicken here is always a bit dry, tough and kinda disappointing. At least it was an inexpensive dinner, though, costing me less than $7 for my bowl of bun, but we should've gone across the street to Pho Vietnam, which I will remember next time.

QUICK VIETNAMESE BITES IN CHINATOWN

I was attending an event in the Ladder District last week and was fortunate enough to find a parking meter (a broken one too! talk about good parking karma) in Chinatown. So after my event, I figured I'd take advantage of this rare free parking situation and made a quick trip to the Vietnamese sandwich.

No, the name of this store isn't actually the Vietnamese sandwich shop. That's just what i call it cause i don't know it's name. (i think it involves Saigon, though) And yes, the are other places to get a Vietnamese sandwich in Chinatown, but this is the one i like the most. it's located right between Empress Garden and McDonald's on Washington St. and is just a little store with no seating. I like this place cause it has great, cheap sandwiches. I always order the chicken teriyaki sandwich.

So for those of you've who hadn't had the joy of eating a Vietnamese sandwich, it's basically a chewy french roll and piled on top is your choice of meat, cucumbers, some lightly pickled veggies, cilantro and some other ingredients (like mayo and thai chilis, which i never get). All of this makes for a yummy flavor packed sandwiches that also has all these great textures. And one large sandwich will cost you just $3.50. Great deal huh?

Ok, so i don't have a pic of the sandwich, since i gobbled it down in my car before i got home. (yeah, like you've never done that before.) But i did also pick up some quick stuff for snacking on later on. Here's the pic of some summer shrimp spring rolls. That's shrimp, basil, bean sprouts and rice noodles all rolled up into a bundle and served on the side with some sweet dipping sauce. Leah knows how to make these by herself, but i'm too lazy, and these were very good.
And here's a little chicken to go box with rice. Also a great meal to go.

And for all this, I paid $8.50. Amazing huh? You gotta love Chinatown. I know I do.