A couple more revisits before we moved offices late last year.
Green China Grill:
It had almost been a year since my last visit. So, on one of those cooler days, I decided to drop by.
The place was as green as ever. And the menu seems to keep expanding.
Looking over the menu I realized that I'd always had the Lamian (牛大碗 – hand pulled noodles) here. I decided to try the Dao Xiao Mian; knife cut noodles, with beef brisket.
While the flavor of the broth was still on the mild side; it didn't seem to be too heavy on the MSG side of things. It was also decently textured, a decent amount of fat/oil in the broth. The beef had a nice texture, not falling apart, but not too chewy. There was a nice soy sauce-anise-light sweetness to it that was pleasant. Man, this had a ton of noodles in it! The noodles were pretty uniform in terms of width and I prefer my Dao Xiao Mian a bit thicker. It seemed a bit too processed in texture; tearing easily, lacking tenderness and "pull".
All-in-all, not bad. Though not quite worth the $10.99 price tag for some rather routine noodle soup.
Green China Grill
4688 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Pho Duyen Mai:
**** Pho Duyen Mai is under new ownership
Of course I had to have some of "Them Bones" again.
The pho broth here has hit a certain level of consistency; a bit too sweet and salty, but not terrible, light in beef flavor and anise tones. Still there's much worse to be found in the area. Noodle were perfect, proteins in the soup decent. And then there were the xí quách bò – the simmered beef ribs. I was kind of disappointed this time around as the meat was really tough. I had to use the knife to cut it off the bones. On previous visits, I could just scrape them right off the ribs with a spoon. The beefiness was there, but it was just too hard to fully enjoy.
And no talented pooch this time around either. Oh well, Duyen Mai is still better than other pho places in the area……for now.
Pho Duyen Mai
5375 Kearny Villa Rd
San Diego, CA 92123
Thanks for reading!