This was basically a Pho, that famous Vietnamese soup, but this version had a whole large beef bone in it, complete with bone marrow, leaving no room for rice noodles. The broth is made from bones, and then what I think they do is cut the bones open to expose the marrow and serve them in the broth that those very bones made. The meat that still clings to the bones or has fallen off into the soup is tender and delicious. I tasted star anise in the broth that I think is commonly used in Vietnam. The soup came with the usual side of sliced jalapeño peppers, Thai basil, and bean sprouts. I put it all into the soup and let it steep. The broth got spicy and very delicious, and the bean sprouts added some crunch. The star of the bowl, though, was the buttery bone marrow; that alone was worth the modest price of this delectable soup. I had a Saigon export beer that had a nice malty flavor to it to drink with my soup. I was asked if I'd like it over ice, which is probably common in Vietnam, especially when it's hot and humid, but I didn't think it was necessary on this cooler than usual summer day in San Diego.
Location: Shank & Bone, 2930 University Avenue, San Diego, California. Date: July 26, 2021.
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It was a hot summer day, and I went looking for cold Japanese noodles. I had no luck, but a few days ago I was told at Dao Fu, a Vietnamese and Japanese inspired restaurant, that their vermicelli noodle dishes were cold. It turned out not to be exactly true. The noodles were room temperature, but the topping of spicy shrimp and pork was steaming when it came to the table, though it did cool down fast. The salad that came with it was cool. I ordered the shrimp and pork because one of my favorite Portuguese dishes is clams with pork. Once again, seafood and pork came through for me in the most delicious way. The noodle dish came with chopped fresh mint that every so often gave me a burst of intense and refreshing flavor. The crispy salad was greens, bean sprouts, cucumber, carrot, and red bell pepper in a sweet and sour dressing with a garnish of crispy fried garlic slices which provided another flavor bomb. Like much of the best Asian cuisine, this was a superb balance of sweet, sour, savory, and hot. It also had soft, chewy, and crunchy elements. This was definitely Vietnamese, not Japanese; no subtle flavor here. This dish was explosive!
Location: Dao Fu, 3332 Adams Avenue, San Diego, California. Date: July 20, 2021. This roughly minced and tender wild boar does taste wild, but in a good way. It's flavored with lots of lemongrass which is chopped fine so you can easily eat it. The red pepper is mild; the heat does build a little as you eat, but it's never too much. This seems to be a stir fried dish with red and green bell pepper and peanuts. It's garnished with delicate green leaves that taste like lemongrass, but they certainly don't look like lemongrass leaves. The dish showed up with an impressive toasted rice cracker with black sesame seeds in it. I was told to break some of the cracker off and spoon some meat onto it. The resulting morsels were delicious. The meat appeared to have been flavored with some soy sauce and maybe some turmeric (there was a definite yellow color). Even though this was a lemongrass forward dish, I could still enjoy the taste of the wild boar.
Location: Que Huong Restaurant, 4134 University Avenue, San Diego, California. Date: August 7, 2019. This was one of the great dishes of my life; certainly it was one of the most interactive. First, a little Chef Mark burner was brought to the table with a bowl of vinegar with sliced onion. The vinegar was mild enough so that when the burner was lit there were no obnoxious vinegar fumes wafting over the table. Next came a plate of thinly sliced beef and a plate of fresh produce: lettuce leaves, mint, cilantro, cucumber, pineapple pieces, and marinated julienne of carrot and daikon radish. Then came a plate of dried rice wrappers and a bowl of warm water for rehydration. Lastly there was a bowl of cold noodles and a bowl of dipping sauce and some hot sauce. The chef showed me what to do. You basically make spring rolls to your liking, or you can also do lettuce wraps. For a spring roll, you take a rice wrap round, dip it in the warm water, and put it on your plate. You then add fresh stuff to your liking and throw some beef into the simmering vinegar. You cook the tender beef to your liking, which only takes seconds, and put it on your dish along with some noodles. You then roll up the rice paper, sealing it at both ends, and dip it in the sauce before eating. This was a fresh, tart, and crisp dish with some sweetness from the pineapple, and you could keep going back for more, adjusting ingredients to suit your taste. I tended to over stuff my rolls so that sealing them wasn't an option; I was a bit of a messy eater, but so what!
Location: Que Huong Restaurant, 4134 University Avenue, San Diego, California. Date: July 30, 2019. Top snails are herbivore sea snails of varying sizes, but the ones at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant are quite small. These cute little morsels are served in a coconut milk sauce that is salty, sweet, and lightly creamy. It seems to be flavored with lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, and the dish comes with a generous sprig of Vietnamese basil. If you can't suck the snail meat out of the front of the shell, then blow hard through the back; eventually the meat will come out, though sometimes it shoots out into the sauce, splashing the tablecloth. Trust me, it's worth the effort. Even if you don't like escargot, you may thoroughly enjoy these little sea snails.
Location: Que Huong Restaurant, 4134 University Avenue, San Diego, California. Date: July 29, 2019. This delicious Vietnamese-style vegetarian sandwich consisted of fried tofu cubes flavored with sweet and salty hoisin sauce, pickled daikon radish and carrot, thinly sliced jalapeňo pepper, cilantro, and sriracha aioli (spicy mayo) on a toasted French roll. It was a very savory but also sweet and spicy sandwich. The tofu was chewy on the outside, soft on the inside, and very tasty. My only suggestion was to add a bit more acid, like a squeeze of lime. The radish and carrot were pickled in seasoned rice wine vinegar, the kind used for sushi rice, which probably added more salt than sour. Overall, though, this was a noteworthy sandwich which I came across at the Kuma food tent in a temporary food truck park in the desert town of Coachella.
Location: Kuma food tent, 1609 4th Street (an empty lot when not in use), Coachella, California. Date: March 10, 2019. This Vietnamese dish was advertised as braised beef shank in spicy broth with lemongrass and vermicelli noodles. I was told when I ordered this dish that it was spicy, but I grew up in Ethiopia and spicy doesn't intimidate me. When I tasted the fiery red broth, oh boy, it was hot! It was also tasty with a hint of sweet from the lemongrass, and when I squeezed the lime wedges and then dropped them into the soup, there was some sour to help tone down the spicy ever so slightly. There were chunks of tender fatty beef and what looked like pickled onions for garnish. As I understand it, this imperial dish in Vietnam is usually a balance of sweet, sour, and spicy, but the version I had in Palm Springs ranks up there with some of the spiciest dishes I've ever eaten, and kudos to the restaurant for taking the risk. Intense!
Location: 533 Viet Fusion, 1775 E Palm Canyon Dr., Palm Springs, California. Date: November 7, 2018. This was an exciting find: little Vietnamese fusion appetizers served in martini glasses. They're a happy hour special, but in Palm Springs in the summer it's very hot, the snowbirds have gone, and so happy hour lasts all day. (By snowbirds I mean people from colder climates who spend the winter in the Coachella Valley.) My delicious appetizers, from left to right, were green papaya salad, chicken meatballs in lemongrass curry, and noodles in red curry. The papaya salad was mildly sweet and sour and fresh and crunchy. The three meatballs were swimming in a mild creamy coconut lemongrass curry sauce with rice at the bottom that had soaked up some sauce and turned into savory rice pudding. The noodles were chewy and the red curry sauce was quite spicy. These dishes reminded me more of Thai food than Vietnamese, but the restaurant does have the word fusion in its name. What made my experience even more memorable was that we'd had a wet thunderstorm earlier and it had cooled down the hot desert air. I ate outside and it was like a pleasant tropical evening. The following night I went back and had, from left to right below, the roasted vegetables, the bau bau salad, and the deconstructed mango spring roll. The roasted vegetables were most notably carrot, zucchini, and mushroom. The bau bau salad contained carrot, bean sprouts, cucumber, green beans, curried tofu, and peanut lime dressing with cilantro. The deconstructed mango spring roll contained unripe mango slaw and ingredients that enhanced the mango, such as cucumber, house pickled ruby cabbage, rice noodles and a fried wonton garnish. Like the night before, all the dishes were delicious.
Location: 533 Viet Fusion, 1775 E. Palm Canyon Dr., Suite 625, Palm Springs, California. Date: July 11 & 12, 2018. I enjoyed this surprising vegetarian sweet & sour soup at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant, which happens to be in San Diego. The colorful soup contained cherry tomatoes, pineapple pieces, bean sprouts, gourd (actually young loofah scrubbing sponge), basil leaves, and soy fish, all in a sweet, sour, and spicy broth that contained jalapeño. I'm usually not a fan of imitation meat products made of soy, but the two fish steaks I got in my soup had a chewy flaky texture and realistic fish flavor. The soup was served with a bowl of rice on the side, and it was an exotic but inexpensive meal. Location: Que Huong Restaurant, 4134 University Avenue, San Diego, California. Date: December 3, 2014. |
AuthorChef Roland has been a legal resident of seven countries and has travelled in over thirty, documenting food along the way. He currently resides in the desert in Southern California. Categories
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