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.
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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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