Vietnamese Restaurants – Page 46

Revisiting the Rotation: Mien Trung and Izakaya Sakura

October 13, 2009 mmm-yoso Bun Bo Hue, Japanese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

A couple more revisits to our rotation.

Mien Trung:

Our recent cold weather meant an immediate return to Mien Trung, easily my favorite Bun Bo Hue in San Diego. I've had my share of Bun Bo Hue and keep returning to this little Mom and Pop shop. It is literally a Mom and Pop shop; back in 2007 Mien Trung was closed for almost a month. When they reopened we asked why they were closed for the better part of a month. The answer was simple, "Mom was on vacation. No Mom, no soup!" It does beg the question of what happens when Mom decides to retire…. But let us consider more pleasant thoughts for now.

The Bun Bo Hue:

The soup was as usual spot on, full of lemongrass flavor with a nice lip and back of throat heat, and a mild savory fermented component to boot. One aspect I think is important with Bun Bo Hue, is the temperature of the broth. The main reason being the shredded veggies served on the side. The vegetables to me, are an integral part of the dish, and the soup needs to be very hot to soften the veggies a bit. I've become used to the thicker cut meat in Bun Bo Hue, those who want the tender rare steak, should stick with Pho Tai, as at all of the more traditional Central Vietnamese shops that serve Bun Bo Hue serve it that way. The noodles always seem to be served a perfect al dente at Mien Trung.

The perfect panacea for the cooler weather…… I have encountered a problem with eating Bun Bo Hue and Bun Rieu. It is the matter of attire, slurping around the annatto tinged broth, you are better off wearing something where little red dots aren't so conspicuous. I mention this because Ed from Yuma always seems to wear white or other light colors when we've eaten at Mien Trung……

Mien Trung Restaurant
7530 Mesa College Dr
San Diego, CA 92111

Izakaya Sakura, yet again:

Yes, another place that we've posted on many, many, times. Though if you think we pay a bit too much attention to Sakura, you should check out Dennis's posts on Sakura, which truly defines the word obsession dedication, the heights of which I've never seen in the world of blogging. I'm kinda glad cooler weather is upon us, since I haven't seen Kazu around much during lunch hour. No Kazu means no Chirashi, no natto-maguro don, etc, etc…..

So on this day, the Missus got Her usual, the Unadon – Unagi Rice:

The Missus really enjoys this… perhaps a bit too much, as She now visits Sakura solo. That in itself is not too bad, but She always makes sure to call me and let me know what a great lunch She's having!

I went with the Curry Udon:

The pleasantly hot, but somewhat thin broth was topped with a "slick" of Japanese Curry.

A little stirring with the chopsticks, and viola!

The curry added some heat, richness, and flavor to the rather thin and bland broth which I tasted before mixing. The noodles had a nice pull to it, which of course posed another problem….has anyone invented a "slurp proof" shirt yet??? Maybe Dennis might know!

Even though the curry had bits of ground beef in it, I had thought this would be a bit short on the protein, and it in fact was, which justified my ordering the Chicken Karaage.

I usually end up making my own Chicken Karaage at home since it's so easy, but I think Sakura's version is nice and light, if a bit short in the flavor department.

So I guess with all these visits, Izakaya Sakura easily stays on our rotation.

To finish up, I just thought I'd throw in a coupla photos of the ever changing "special bento", just for the heck of it.

Anyone know where I can get a "slurp proof" shirt?

Izakaya Sakura
3904 Convoy St Ste 121
San Diego, CA 92111

Maxim’s Seafood Restaurant

October 6, 2009 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Maxim’s has closed

Maxim is a restaurant on the periphery for us. We pretty much never head there as a destination. For some reason, I have a hard time remembering this place, until you drive past it on ECB.

The menu is varied, as is the customer base. On any given visit you’ll see African American families enjoying the Orange Chicken and other ABC (American Born Chinese) favorites, a pair of Hispanic working stiffs ravenously attacking a plate of fried rice, a Filipino family chowing on a sizzling plate or two, and large parties of Vietnamese ordering up plates of seafood usual seated in the larger dining area on the right side of the restaurant.

And the menu is as varied as the clientele, with everything from Yu Hsiang (fish flavored) and various clay pot dishes, to the inevitable Chop Suey and Orange Chicken, to Bun and Pho! That’s a lot of territory to cover, and honestly, not everything at Maxim’s has been good. That said, the prices make it worth a try. Funny thing, they’ve pretty much got us pegged… they start talking to the Missus in Mandarin as soon as She enters the place.

So here’s a sampling of what we’ve had over the last couple of months at Maxim’s. Starting with the good:

The Sizzling Beef Sate ($10.99):

We’ve had pretty good luck with Beef dishes at Maxim’s, and this was very nice. The beef was tender, and the sate rich though only mildly spicy. It was a bit on the greasy side, but pretty good.

Actually, we’ve had pretty good luck with anything Sate at Maxim’s, the Sate Shrimp($8.99) was no exception:

The shrimp were perfectly cooked, moist and tender. The garlic-peanut flavor was good. Again the only problem I had with the dish was the distinct lack of spice. Being that we believe the folks who run the place are Chiu Chow(I’m sure someone can tell us for sure), it’s not surprising that they do a decent Sate.

The Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice ($8.99), was sufficiently pungent:

But lacked the deep savory flavor of a good salted fish fried rice. The rice was decently stir fried, but lacked a decent “wok hay” that would have taken this up a notch.

The Seafood Pan Fried Noodle ($8.50) was pretty ugly looking, and I didn’t care for the noodles used, and there was a distinct lack of “seafood”:

But the flavor of the gravy, a nice salty-garlic taste, with a hint of sweetness, made this palatable. When looking at this dish, I started noticing something about the dishes at Maxim’s….. most of them were kinda, well, “fugly’ looking. The dishes really didn’t look that appetizing. And thus, Maxim’s became the place where things “tastes much better then it looks.”

The Flavor Duck ($9.50) was a very large portion of soy sauce stewed duck.

The duck suffered from star anise overload, as the anise flavor, along with excess saltiness took over the whole dish.

A heavy handed star anise and ginger flavor, along with a much too thin “gravy” also ruined the Special Beef Stew Clay Pot ($8.99):

Too bad, because otherwise this would have been a pretty good clay pot, as the meat was tender.

One day I noticed…gasp, Salt and Pepper Chicken wings($4.79) on one of the signs posted on the wall. There was no way I could resist.

This was interesting, the chicken had a batter that reminded me of something that came from a box with the letter B-A-N-Q-U-E-T written on the side. It also topped with fried garlic that obviously came from a jar….. not good eats.

One day, we went for the “Vietnamese Menu” and the Missus ordered the combination Com Tam (broken rice) dish ($6.99):

This was an interesting dish. The broken rice wasn’t very fragrant, but who doesn’t love a fried egg?The “Bi” (shredded pork) was extremely dry, but that “char grilled beef” was quite good. In fact, it almost tasted like a less sweet Mongolian Beef, and was very tender. I ended up poaching most of it off the Missus’s plate.

I ordered the Phnom Penh Noodle:

The broth was deceptively clear, it had a lot of flavor, but gave me the MS – heebie-geebies, perhaps a bit too much of the three letter flavoring. The noodles were done well, with a nice al dente pull to it. The combination of meat was fine, I didn’t care much for the slices of liver, and the fish balls were “meh”. The rest of it, chunks of what looked to be roasted pork and some offal were fine. Not that I’d have this again, but it was fine.

So what is my suggestion? Give Maxim’s a shot…… heck, you might find something that “tastes much better then it looks”!

The pricing structure with most items under ten dollars, makes Maxim’s a decent value. and they are open until midnight. Think of it as a sort of Sam Woo of the neighborhood…….

Maxim’s Seafood Restaurant
4616 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92115

Open Daily – 10am to midnight

Pho Pasteur Ahn Hong- Another meal from the eight days of feasting

October 3, 2009 Cathy Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is this. A blog about meals. A few of us blog, individually and occasionally together. Today, Cathy ate. So she is blogging.

Hi. The Mister and I have birthdays seven days apart, so our tradition is to let Him chose what he wants to eat the first three days, we agree on the middle two days and I get to choose the last three days of meals. Here is one of “my” meals.

I have posted on Pho Pasteur. It is another of our “regular rotation”, and I realized I have not posted in a while anyhow, so this time I took photos.

It is in the same parking lot as K-Sandwich, a place Kirk and I have posted on *a lot*. Also, it is basically a walk inthe parking lot from Mein Trung, another place three of us have posted about *many* times. Right on the corner of Mesa College drive and Linda Vista Road.

Since this was one of “my” birthday days, and a Friday-when I don’t eat meat “just in case”- I got to choose the meal and I did. It was simple.

We ordered and waited. The decor has pretty much stayed the same here over all the years.

Especially the pretty pink tablecloths.

The fresh grilled tofu vegetable filled summer rolls ($2.95) arrived. Warm tofu, grilled slightly crispy on the edges and filled with sprouts, carrot, lettuce and rice noodles. Served with the hoisin-peanut sauce.

Soon, a large plate of lettuce, mint, sprouts, cucumber, marinated lily buds, carrot and daikon arrived.

After about 20 minutes, our meal, a whole steamed catfish (medium, $36) arrived. It was served flat and open on the platter. It had been steamed in basically with ginger-soy and topped with three types of onions (regular white sauteed and green onions as well as fried onions), cilantro and carrots with a black pepper touch, for some heat. Served with those rice noodles you see on the left in this photo.

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As well as the rice paper “tortillas” on top of a bowl of hot water (you dip the sheet of rice paper in the water for a few seconds and then it is softened).

You basically fill the rice paper with the noodles, sprouts, mint, marinated veggies, cucumber and fish, wrap all of it ina piece of lettuce, dip in sauce and eat.

I never got around to taking any photos of our little “wraps”. We were too busy eating.

I guess we were hungry…

Pho Pasteur Ahn Hong 7612 Linda Vista road San Diego 92111 (858) 569-7515

Revisits: Pho Sao Bien and Pho Hiep and Grill Linda Vista

September 2, 2009 mmm-yoso Vietnamese Restaurants

I'm not quite sure what's going on this year. It used to be that we'd have a couple of stray days a year where we wished we had A/C. But this year, it seems like we're having a couple of decades worth of stray days run up together. Not necessarily hot, but kinda sticky too. When I think about it, Hawaii's much worse, but I guess my years on the mainland has made me a wuss…….whatever, I'm just hanging on, stewing in my juices, waiting for the weather to break. Here's a couple of revisits for hump day:

Pho Sao Bien:

I've always enjoyed Pho Sao Bien, for a quick bite. But on my last couple of visits, the food seemed to have slipped a bit. So on a recent visit, I decided to remove that camera from my pocket and document. On my last visit, a couple months back, when the weather was still nice a cool, I ordered some Pho, which was way too salty, with over-cooked noodles. No Pho for us on this visit thanks to the humidity. (I believe that this is where Ed from Yuma comes in telling me how hot it is there….something like "110 degrees in the shade"……)

We started with an old favorite, the Cha Gio($6.25).

The egg rolls at Pho Sao Bin has always been on the pricey side, but were usually very tasty, huge, and made with the right type of wrapper. I dunno what happened, but instead of crisp, these were hard, really hard, and not very pleasant to eat. The filling tasted a bit bland, and the Nuoc Mam Cham tasted watered down.

The Missus wanted something cool and light and ordered the Bun Tom Nuong (Rice Vermicelli with Grilled Shrimp – $6.95):

The Bun was mushy, and like the Cha Gio the Nuoc Mam Cham tasted watered down and weak. There were no herbs, just a chopped lettuce. The shrimp were on the greasy side, gummy, and low on the flavor scale.

I ordered the Com Bi Cha Thit Nuong ($6.95):

This is the combination rice plate with the steamed egg (Cha), shredded pork (Bi), and charbroiled pork (Thit Nuong). And since Pho Sao Bien is of the Pho Hoa Huong family tree, the pork is colored bright red,sort of like tocino. Unfortunately, it was as tough, and hard as tocino. The flavor was very mild as well. The steamed egg was somewhat mushy and tasteless. The Bi was dry, but had a decent flavor, and was the best thing on the plate….other than the rice, which was satisfactorily fragrant.

Overall, a fairly disappointing meal. I hope it was just an off day, but the quality of the ingredients seem to have taken a turn…..

Pho Sao Bien Vietnamese Restaurant
1958 Garnet Ave
San Diego, CA 92109

Pho Hiep & Grill – Linda Vista:

For some reason, I keep calling this place Pho Hoa Hiep. Old habits die hard I guess. Even though Cathy has done an updated post, I still think when someone mentions Pho Hiep and Grill, they are referring to the Chula Vista location. My bad………

Every so often, I enjoy eating at Pho Hiep just to check out the demographics. Because of the location, tucked away from Linda Vista Road, you would probably have to know it's there….. So over the years it's been interesting to see an almost all Vietnamese clientle, slowly evolve into a nice melting pot. Two years ago I noted a shift in demographics, and on this visit it looks to still be going strong. "Butt crack guys" (you know, plumbers, contruction workers, etc) sitting on one table, a group of Hispanic dudes on another, a Caucasian Family here, a Filipino Family there. It's really nice to see….

Oh, and my combination Com Tam wasn't bad either!

The only weak point was the steamed egg (Cha) which was nice and moist, but very bland. Also, even though the menu said "Com Tam" this was jasmine rice. But like I always said, whenever you get Com Tam Dac Biet, with the variety of items, it's almost impossible to have everything done to perfection. Strangely, I enjoyed the charbroiled chicken the best, though the Missus poached all the shrimp, so I'm guessing it was pretty good as well. This dish is called the Com Tam Hiep, and is fairly pricey at $9.95, but it sure did fill me up.

Pho Hiep & Grill
6947 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111

The other evening, the Missus & I had the pleasure of having a wonderful, gut-busting meal with some of my favorite folks. There were lots of laughs and enough food to feed the entire neighborhood….several times over! As if to crown off the evening, here's the sunset from YY & MrQ's backyard:

I'm sure the fires up North have something to do with this, but it sure was beautiful………

Phat Restaurant – Chicken Delight a first look

August 31, 2009 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Phat Restaurant has closed

One evening I was in prowling Convoy looking for a place to eat, when I noticed a new business in the former Luong Hai Ky location, something called Phat Restaurant…… Phat Restaurant? Along with the written Chinese "Fat", it was kinda quaint.

I wasn't sure if I was in the mood for something new this evening, but was sold when I saw the little "Chicken Delight" sign. Now, I was pretty sure that whatever came out of the kitchen here would not resemble Chicken Delight in any way. But I just couldn't get the "don't cook tonight, call Chicken Delight" ditty out of my head. Back when Chicken Delight had shops opened in Honolulu, it was considered very expensive for us, so I only had it maybe twice in my entire life. The taste memory has long faded, but that catchy slogan had been retained in my cabeza forever! BTW, did you know that KFC's Extra Crispy was created to combat Chicken Delight? But I digress……

I entered the restaurant, and the interior looks basically the same, and I'm sure folks like Cathy will be glad to know that the fish tank is still in place, and the denizens of the tanks haven't suffered a flush faith possibly worse than death.

The menu was interesting, as all dishes featured chicken, from the variations of chicken soup, appetizers, and rice dishes. There was the now ubiquitous "Mission Statement" spiel of the restaurants disappointment in processed food, and declaring a dedication to organic, free-range, chicken with no Hormones, he-mones, and she-mones, or whatever. One nice thing is the ability to select the type of noodle you'd like for your soup from the six offered. I also noticed that all the dishes were over six bucks, fairly pricey for this type of soup and noodle joints.

I ordered the Chicken soup with dumplings and egg noodles ($6.50). Well, actually I ordered Hu Tieu as my noodle, but I guess something got lost in the translation or perhaps the very nice Server decided to over-rule my decision.

First thing I noticed was the portion size wasn't very "phat", in fact it was quite small. The chicken made to look like Char Siu was very mild, but serviceable. The egg noodles were super hard, and I needed to let them steep in the soup a bit. The soup however, was "fairly phat"(?), full of flavor, with a nice, mild, almost cinnamon/onion, along with a good amount of white pepper taste. The broth had just the tiniest sheen of oil. It was also full of umami, so savory as to be almost sweet, a flavor that almost never occurs naturally. But because I didn't suffer from thirst, nor edema in my fingers or feet, I'll give the broth benefit of the doubt, and just say "man that was (kinda) phat!"

Replacing pork with ground chicken is very difficult, but this was a decent job. The minced water chestnuts added a nice crunch, but the shredded carrots didn't do it for me. The filling was moist and tender, instead of the normal rock hard meatball. Four dumplings total. At $6.50 a bit over-priced in my opinion.

A few nights later, I returned. I had seen something that interested me on the menu; Salt and Pepper Chicken wings ($6.25). Being a certified Salt and Pepper Chicken Wing fanatic, I was curious to see what these would be like.

When the plate hit the table, I cracked up. On one side of the plate were two regular sized wings, on the other side of the plate were 5 little drummettes and wings that looked like they belonged on a phat fat quail perhaps? The wings had been fried without batter, than stir fried with garlic and chilies, in fact these should be called garlic-chili wings. The wings were pretty greasy(so much about the whole healthy mission statement), and the garlic burnt to literally the "bitter end".

Not settling for just appetizers, I asked for a recommendation, and was told to order the Lemongrass Chicken, with a warning that it was "very spicy".

This was pretty much a ho-hum dish, the chicken was undoubtedly free-range as it had a chew to it, something that I don't find unpleasant. It wasn't very spicy, and the flavoring nothing special. The rice, which was "Com Tam" (broken rice) wasn't fragrant at all, and there were a couple of hard bits.

The saving grace of the mediocre meal was the fairly sizeable (for a freebie side dish) bowl of broth, which was again very tasty, of not a bit salty.

I guess the question to be answered would be "chicken phat?" I'm not quite convinced though I'd say to stick with the soups here. The menu is fairly small, and I'm kinda interested in the "curry broth". I'm pretty sure I'll return when things cool down a bit.

Phat Restaurant
4633 Convoy St Ste 107
San Diego, CA 92111

Hao Vi Chinese Restaurant

August 18, 2009 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Hao Vi has closed

If you're like me this is probably the closest you've ever gotten to Hao Vi……

You just kinda zip on by while driving on University, and say to yourself, "one of these days…." Whenever we'd pass by, the Missus would always mumble, "good taste". Which is what "Hao Vi" means. Over the years, there was only one individual I knew who actually ate there. My ears perked up when he mentioned Hao Vi, and when I quizzed him about the place, I was told, "it must be a front…..they had the absolute worst Pho I've ever eaten!" Scratching my head, I said, "isn't the place one of those Chinese-Vietnamese Noodle Shops, that serve Mi?" His reply, "what's mee….hey, there's Pho on the menu, so it must be a Pho shop." Dude needs to stick to writing those "reviews" on the board who we need not name……

And so the place remained on the "one of these days…" list. Until during a conversation with two of my favorite folks, MrQ and his lovely missus YY. MrQ mentioned HaoVi in passing. Which instantly got my attention, I pushed Q and YY for more info, and they filled me in a bit on the place. Which is why I ended up opening that door and entering Hao Vi on a recent weekend morning.

To be perfectly honest, the interior of this place has seen better days, but it looks like they make an effort to keep the place as clean as possible.

The menu is tri-lingual, English, Chinese, and Vietnamese, and Hu Tieu (tapioca or rice noodles) and Mi (egg noodles) appear prominently on the menu.

Without further ado, I'll get to my favorite part of the meal at Hao Vi. Much like Cam Ky, you're served a pork broth as a starter.

Much better then the version at Cam Ky, more "porky" in flavor. You know that there's no way in the world this tastes as good without a little "help" if you know what I mean. But after a sip or two, you really don't care.

On both of my visits the pieces of pork in the soup was soft without being mushy, and hadn't had the flavor cooked out of it.

And this is the free part of the meal.

Like a few other similar restaurants, only bean sprouts and lime garnish the noodle soup dishes.

The weather was unseasonably mild on my first visit, so I decided on the Beef Sate Rice Noodle Soup (Hu Tieu Sate Bo – $5.25):

The portion size was on the smaller side. The sate broth was more like gravy, as it was thick and vicious. In fact, it was just kind of resting on top of the Hu Tieu. When I moved the noodles with my chopsticks it drained to the bottom of the bowl. The flavor was quite strong. When I order Sate Noodle Soup, I'm used to a broth with a couple of tablespoons of sate sauce in it. This tasted like it hadn't been diluted much! It was pretty spicy, and there was the presence of a powerful cinnamon like flavor. It was also quite salty. The beef was tough and forgettable, but the noodles were perfect, chewy, with a nice pull.

It wasn't bad, but the pork broth brought me back a couple of days later. This time I had the Dumpling Egg Noodle Soup ($5.25). Because it was quite hot, I ordered my soup "dry", so a sweet-soy-oyster sauce with bits of ground pork was poured over the noodles.

I gotta say, this dish really didn't do it for me. The hard dumplings had only thin slivers of cardboard like filling, which tasted exactly what it looked like. It was also one bland dish…. except for one thing, MrQ had told me that the Mi always comes out perfect at Hao Vi, and he was right. This was about as good as egg noodles could be prepared, crunchy, but not hard….. just perfect. Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about the rest of it.

Actually, this wasn't the way I wanted to leave this post. I fully intended on returning and trying the classic Hu Tieu Nam Vang – Phnom Penh Noodle Soup, but I'm just not feeling up to it right now. Maybe one day soon, so this'll have to do until then.

A few details; street parking only, and cash only, the folks here are quiet, and on the serious side, but nice. The restaurant is not as gritty looking on the inside as it would appear from the exterior.

Hao Vi Chinese Restaurant
4451 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

Tao Vietnamese and Japanese Cuisine – A first look

July 15, 2009 mmm-yoso Asian Fusion/Pacific Rim/Hawaii Style Fusion, Japanese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

Among the emails I received early this week was one that started "Hey yoso-Dude….." Dude??? Well, I'll take that over other four letter words that I've been called or other various utterances starting with the letter 'D', often ending in "bag' or a word commonly used to describe any animal of the genus Equus…….

Anyway, this email went on to tell me that he really enjoys Dao Son, and first heard about the place through one of our posts. To return the favor, he thought he'd let me know that on his last visit to Dao Son he was told that they opened a new, more upscale restaurant on Adams Avenue called Tao. Tao also made their own tofu in-house…..we were so there!

After scouting about for a bit I found some parking, and we walked over a half block, and entered the world of Tao.

The interior is nicely adorned without going over the top. The menu is a mixture of Japanese, Vietnamese, and fusion dishes. We noticed a few familiar "Dao Son" items. We also noted that the prices reflected the upgrade in decor being about $2 more than Dao Son.

As with Dao Son, we steered clear of the straight Japanese and Vietnamese dishes. We were disappointed to find the Fried Catfish with Eggplant not on the menu, but pleased to see the Red Chicken. The offerings seem on the lighter side, with fewer fried dishes.

After placing our order, we were brought a free "salad", a nice touch.

This was more of a "herb salad" and will wake up taste buds if you aren't familiar with the flavors of Rau Ram(Vietnamese Cilantro), Ngo Om (Rice Paddy Herb – you'll swear there's cumin in the salad), Tiet To (Perilla), and I swear there was Diep Ca in this as well. It also featured a few small cubes of the handmade tofu, which was of the firm variety, and mildly "beany" in flavor.

Wanting to check out the homemade tofu, I ordered the Handmade Tofu with Oyster Mushrooms in sizzling Basil Black Bean Sauce ($12.95). Can you tell that Tao is really into oversized plates? The plates took up large real estate on the tables. Also, the pinwheel arrangement was a far cry from Dao Son.

I enjoyed the whole cloves of garlic, and the rice, a half red and jasmine rice was a nice touch, even though the rice wasn't particularly fragrant. The oyster mushrooms were ok, but nothing special. The tofu was too mild for this dish. For me good home made tofu should go off on one of two tangents. The first would be a wonderful silken tofu, that would be textural heaven. The second would be a firmer tofu that would have a pronounced "soy-beany" flavor. This had neither, and though the sauce, which tasted like basic black bean sauce, wasn't too salty, the tofu was lost in the sauce. For my taste, the tofu would be better served in dishes like the salad as it is very mild. This was not bad, but not outstanding.

The Missus, wanting to compare with Dao Son, ordered the Tasty Red Chicken($8.28):

I enjoyed this much more than the Missus. At Dao Son, the Red Chicken is sometimes served with strips of white meat chicken which can be dry as heck. These were wok seared dark meat chicken which I enjoyed. The "red sauce" here is more like a glaze than a sauce, and seems to be missing something. The heat is provided by dollops of Sriracha-like hot sauce, which tasted out of place. As you can tell, the Missus and I had switched plates. I think we'll have to go back to Dao Son soon to refresh our taste memory with regards to this dish.

The young lady serving us instantly charmed us when she smiled and told us, "I'm sorry in advance, I've just started working here….." She did a good job, and in fact was a bit over-attentive but I'm sure she'll do well. It didn't hurt that she brought us some free "dessert" while we waited for our check.

Overall, we enjoyed the experience, and we'll return to Tao in a few months. As you can tell, the decor is much more refined than the "divey" Dao Son. The folks are very nice, and the menu large. Parking can be a pain. We're glad that Dao Son has done so well, that the "Hot Chef" could open up a place like Tao. Open less than a week at the time of this meal, I think they did pretty well.

Tao
3332 Adams Ave
San Diego, CA 92116

Lunch: Mon -Fri 11am – 2pm
Dinner: Daily 5pm – 10pm
619-281-6888

As for the FOY who emailed me, when I wrote that I'd like to mention him in my post, he requested anonymity. So let's just call him 'Mr X'! So, thanks Mr X!

Pho Hiep & Grill- someplace else in the same neighborhood.

July 13, 2009 Cathy Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog- a diary of what Kirk. ed (from Yuma), Cathy and a few others eat. We don't "review", we merely describe. Sometimes without a thesaurus.

Hi. Since I saw Kirk just posted about durian fro-yo from Flavaful, I thought I could just finish up talking about eating at the the only place on that corner of town (Linda Vista and Ulric 92111) that we from this little blog have not talked about in the last 12 months.

Yes, Kirk did blog about it a few years ago , when it was called Pho Hoa Hiep, so it's about time for an update anyhow. Pho (Hoa) Hiep (& Grill) has been here since 1991.

It is across from the landromat just around the corner from Flavaful Yogurt , which is next to Thuan Phat, which is next to Yum Cha Cafe, just across the parking lot from Pho Hoa Huong, which is next to LV Sandwiches across the street from Olga's Food Place, which is just across the other street from Sab-E-Lee. {OK, I skipped the taco shop on the other corner, and I can go there and eat again, soon, with my camera this time and let you know about it.}

The reason The Mister and I like this place is because they never skimp on add ins for pho. There are always two pieces of "sawtooth" for beef soups, plenty of bean sprouts, basil, jalapeno and usually a half of a lime (or lemon, depending on the timeof year) to squeeze in.

I have always enjoyed the deep anise flavored, rich, broth here and the fresh cilantro and non-mushy/non-"clump" of noodles served. This is pho tai (rare sliced beef) and it is $5.50 for a small and $6.35 for large.

As an aside, Pho Hiep is the very first place I ever had pho and The Mister and I clearly remember when we first ordered, many, many years ago, pointing to what we thought we wanted (Dac Biet) and our waitress (yes this is one of very very few pho restaurants where women take your order) told us, quite clearly "You no want that" and then directed us to what we apparently did want…

On one recent visit, I got the #52 Bun Thit Nuong Cha Gio ($6.95) Char-Broiled pork and spring rolls on top of chilled rice vermicelli on top of a shredded salad which includes lettuces and mint. This pretty much is my "to go" Vietnamese dish in the summer. Except the other day, I went all wild and crazy and got #57-

Bun Bo Nuong Cha Ngo- Also $6.95 and grilled beef instead of grilled pork. I like the flavor of the grilled pork a bit more than the grilled beef, though. But both are good.

The Mister ordered #63 – Bun Mang Vit (small- $5.95) (large is $6.95)- young bamboo and duck meat soup. Another wonderfully flavorful rich broth, not too oily, and served with

The traditional toppings for duck ,which include cabbage and lettuce, as well as the bean sprouts, jalapeno and lime. The young bamboo is tasty with a good texture and the duck meat is plentiful and flavorful. We were lucky enough to get the liver in the soup today.

Since it was a *hot* day, we each got our own fresh made lemonade ($2.35 each). The one on the right is Da Chanh- regular lemonade-fresh squeezed and the sugar was dissolved with warm water. The one on the left, Soda Chanh, is fresh squeezed with club soda added. You can see the sugar still on the bottom of the glass, needing to be mixed in because it was not dissolved. Much sweeter.

Now you pretty much have our take on all the places to eat at that intersection, where there is, unusually, a good parking situation.

Pho Hiep & Grill 6947 Linda Vista Road, #H San Diego 92111 website (the site only has the Chula Vista menu listed- prices at this Linda Vista location are less; I have a paper copy and can scan it for you)

Happy Birthday to my brother! Happy Bastille Day to all of my friends who celebrate!

O’ Yea! Vietnamese Cuisine

July 6, 2009 mmm-yoso Bun Bo Hue, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** O'Yea has closed

Over a year after reading Mizducky's post on the quaintly named O Yea! we finally made it for a visit. You can read all about it in her post here. If I recall, this used to be a Thai Restaurant in a former life. The interior is rather pink…..

The one odd thing is not the color, or any of the decor. In many kitchens you'll here the "ding" of the bell when a dish is ready for pick-up. At OY, you'll hear Big Ben Chime…."ding-dong-ding-dong…..ding-dong-ding-dong"!

The menu is just a tad South of huge, with 96+ dishes ranging from Pho Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup) to full on Hot Pot Dinners (Lau), and this doesn't include the 30 or so drinks. It's enough to trigger off "Vietnamese Menu Overload".

I decided to order the combination Com Tam pictured on the tabletop ($6.50):

The first thing I always try to note is the fragrance of the broken rice; for some reason it always stimulates my appetite. Unfortunately, the aroma of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline was lacking. It was appropriate as this dish was basically a "non-starter". The grilled pork was hard, greasy, and tough, though the "Cha" (steamed egg) was moist but bland. The "Bi" was dry, and lacked flavor.

The Missus had Her mind set on one thing from the beginning, those savory orbs of rice flour called Banh Khot ($6):

The Missus, an avowed Kanom Krok fan, had expected something similar with regards to texture; crisp exterior, light at first bite, with a still molten, custard like interior. This was already cold by the time it hit the table, and it was soggy all the way through.

Not a great meal by any stretch of the imagination. Still, I decided that I'd give the place another shot. Though the Missus decided to stay home and have leftovers.

Again, faced with the sizable menu, I was at a loss as to what to order. Not that the very nice young lady waiting for my order was pushy, when she was in fact quite nice……I think she's used to the initial state of confusion. I finally went with the Bun Bo Hue, one of my favorite noodle soups.

When the bowl arrived I was very surprised at the portion size…..it is priced at only five bucks($5):

In spite of the promising appearance, I could barely detect the scent of fish sauce. Nor could I pick up the aroma of lemongrass nor shrimp paste. Tasting the broth confirmed what my nose had not detected. The broth was very bland, annatto colored, salt water bland. The broth was also South of hot. BBH demands a scalding broth to take care of the herbs and vegetables provided. Notice I said vegetables, not garnish. For me the chopped greens are an integral part of the dish.

Too bad because the noodles were prepared well, and in spite of the lack of Cha Lua (steamed defatted pork sausage), there was meat galore in this bowl. The meat was very tender, the brisket full of flavor. The addition of Rau Ram (Vietnamese Coriander) added a nice peppery component to the bowl.

This bowl reminded me of the version at Pho Hoa Cali Express. It's Bun Bo Hue designed for Pho lovers, if you're looking for that, it's waiting for you here. I found this lacking the earthy, spicy, bright flavors of a good Bun Bo Hue.

I had really to like this restaurant; the prices are good, and I had really nice and friendly service. So maybe one of my FOYs (Friends of Yoso) out there can tell what of the 90 plus items on the menu is worth trying????

O'Yea! Vietnamese Cuisine
4660 El Cajon Blvd #102
San Diego CA 92115

Chinese Kitchen (Chi Tu Thanh Nha Hang) – A revisit

May 18, 2009 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Chinese Kitchen has closed

When someone mentions "hole in the wall", the first place that comes to mind is Chinese Kitchen on University Avenue near College.

When I first did a post on this little shop back in 2006, it was literally that, the ordering was done at a "hole in the wall". Here's a photo from back then.

Having a food blog, is sometimes my stomach's worst enemy…..it seems that I'm always distracted by those "shiny things". New places, new recipes, and new dishes, and places that I enjoy like Chinese Kitchen fall to the wayside. So I recently made an effort to drop by the restaurant.

And my has the place been spiffed up……some new paint, and actual fixtures that look like they belong in a restaurant! Though I'll miss ordering at the hole-in-the-wall, which has been replaced by a counter. The menu, or should I say "menus" look the same, with the huge selection of Chinese Fast-food, which I've never had a chance, nor desire to sample.

In spite of the name, I instead pay attention to what I call the "real menu" of Vietnamese Dishes.

And even beyond that, there's only one item I order here…the Bun Mang Vit (Duck and Bamboo Shoot Soup), and I'm rather surprised it's still five bucks. I've found that I prefer to take my Bun Mang Vit to go…..for a reason I'll explain later.

Take out comes in three parts, the duck, which is made inhouse(I remember being told it was acquired "very fresh"), shredded cabbage, shredded banana blossom, Rau Ram (Vietnamese Coriander), and bun comes in one tidy container. Another contains the sweet, and slightly spicy Nuoc Mam Cham, which also contains minced garlic. And the soup, in which a good amount of bamboo shoots lay rehydrating.

And though it didn't look like that much, it felt pretty hefty, and if you start placing items in plates and bowls you realize that this is a pretty good amount of food.

The reason I usually do my Bun Mang Vit to go, is simple…..I want the bamboo shoots to "steep" in the light broth, which adds a nice earthy-woodsy flavor. I will place the soup in a pot and heat slowly on the stove. After placing the Bun in a bowl, and pouring on the broth, you realize that this is a pretty good sized meal.

I almost miscalculated, which would have led to an overflow. The soup is a good as always, the duck tender and full of flavor, the banana blossom added a very mild bitterness, but not the soupy-astringent flavor that banana blossom can have, to the dish.

Just as good as always, so I guess you can just read my original post, though I think there was much more bamboo shoots this time around. And still five bucks. I still haven't deviated from this, so maybe you can make some additional recommendations for Chinese Kitchen. Though I'm more than happy sticking with my Bun Man Vit.

Chinese Kitchen
6160 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92115

619-286-8778