It’s kind of funny. I recently made some revisits to places I’ve takeout from quite a few times. And while getting this post done; I noticed that I had actually done a post on these two places together once before! There must have been something triggering this, huh?
Anyway, here goes……
Ngon Ngon to Go:
Once a regular stop for me…well, it had been a while. I dropped by to place a takeout order and noticed something “interesting”. My usual, the Bo Luc Lac ($16), no longer included rice! There’s a version with fried rice, which is not what I wanted, but if I wanted white rice, there would be an additional charge of $2.
Well, I just sucked it up and got some white rice with my bo luc lac. I ordered and went and did a bit of shopping, returning for my takeout.
That side of rice was fine, if a bit on the harder, drier side.
There was a generous amount of salad which was fine. I’d had experiences with browning lettuce and stuff before, but this was fine.
My issue was with the beef. Take a look at the color.
The beef had not been marinated/sauced appropriately in my opinion. It lacked the savorysalty-sweetness that I associate with this dish. The beef was also super tough and chewy. Just not fun to eat.
With the weird upcharge and the lack quality and execution. I guess, after all these years and visits, I’m closing the chapter on this one.
Ngon Ngon To Go
10550 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126
Chaba Thai:
Or as the Missus calls it; that “Chubby Thai place”. It had been a while and the Missus was wondering about the Krapow Gai. I would usually get that along with the Khao Kluk Kapi with Honey Pork, but on my last visit, it was mediocre, so I went with another item I’ve ordered from Chaba, the Tod Mun, the fried fish cakes.
So, I placed my order, ran to do some shopping at Zion and picked up our dinner.
First off, the rice that came with the Krapow Gai was terrible. You can see the brown, overcooked spots. It was really dry and hard.
The Tod Mun was strange. It was really hard and overly chewy…I mean quite tough.
The usual mild herbaceousness usually of the addition of lime leaf was missing. This was super bland. Even the typical fish sauce based dip was not helpful.
The Krapow Gai had it’s own set of issues. And no it wasn’t for lack of pidan.
As you can see on the photo below, where I put the dish into a container, there’s a good amount of century egg in this dish.
Rather, the ground chicken was very chewy and dry. I had ordered this spicy, but it was not. The seasoning was off as this was so bland. In fact we used the dipping sauce for the Tod Mun and all the fried basil from that dish as well to try to add flavor. I usually expect a salty-savory-mild sweetness in this dish, which was totally AWOL.
This was a very unsatisfying meal. I’d like you to take a look at the photos of these exact two dishes from our takeout visit in 2020 and compare.
This was quite disappointing. I guess we’re writing this one off as well. I’m not sure if “FOY” Si O still reads the blog, but maybe he has a recommendation?
Chaba Thai Kitchen
8010 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Oh man, oh-fer-two…….