Saigon Saigon

February 4, 2006

Often in Sydney we'd just walk down nearby Glebe Point Road in search of something to eat. This tactic succeeded with varying consistency, but one of the good spots we found was Saigon Saigon. Cheesy name notwithstanding, the place actually serves up some pretty good basic Vietnamese fare. The menu isn't fancy, but the setting is nice (a little more upscale than your typical hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese place in the US), with very friendly and efficient service.

goi cuon - summer rolls with prawns, chicken, mint and vermicelli - A$9 A very good rendition of this standard Vietnamese app. These had great pieces of shrimp, and a nice mint kick. Not pictured is a A$2 bowl of "crispy crackers," which were some kind of homemade prawn chip. Very tasty and addictive.

house fried rice with prawns, chinese sausage, chicken and mixed veggies - A$12 Aren't I adventurous? Well, for some reason that night the fried rice appealed to me, and I'm pretty glad I got it. Admittedly, A$12 is still pretty expensive for fried rice, but this stuff was really good! A good mix of meats paired with some slight heat from the chilies left me quite satisfied. Oddly enough, the place doesn't have pho. I wish I'd made it back to try their bun though - I never got the chance. The place was a bit expensive compared to how much we're used to paying for Vietnamese here, but I didn't feel ripped off. The nicer ambiance and quality of food made up for it, I guess.

Le Soleil

October 23, 2005

Here's a pretty modest follow-up to my French Laundry meal - a quick lunch with my mom at Le Soleil. I hadn't been in a while, but Le Soleil has always been a pretty solid Vietnamese place at the beginning of Clement. I was surprised to discover on this visit that they've redecorated, with a bunch of new, hipper furniture. It actually looks kinda cool in there now. The menu has pretty standard Vietnamese fare.

combo lunch plate - soup, imperial roll, salad, and bbq pork chop with rice - $8.30 At lunch they have this special combo plate that comes with your choice of the pork chop I got or five spice chicken. Everything was pretty tasty, and the portion is quite large. The soup was a bit on the sweet side which surprised me; I was hoping it'd be more spicy. The pork was tender with a nice char to it. The roll was nice. Basically good stuff all around but nothing new.

The Slanted Door

November 12, 2004

Well, it has officially started snowing here in the soon to be frozen tundra of Boston. But what better to make one think of sunny California than food pictures? Well, at least the food eaten during that sunny California weather... Here's another trip to the new Slanted Door, this time with my mom, Auntie Cathy, Auntie Margie and the Chus.

green papaya salad - $7

barbecued willis ranch pork ribs with honey-hoisin sauce - $10.50

spicy japanese eggplant - $9

pan-seared alaskan halibut with spicy ginger fish sauce - $19.50

grilled australian free range lamb rack with crispy potatoes and tamarind sauce - $26.50

mesquite-grilled porkchops with ginger-soy-shallot sauce and crispy potatoes - $18.50 Got to try a lot more different stuff on the menu this time, and it was pretty good. The papaya salad was very refreshing and tasty. Pork ribs were alright, but honestly didn't taste much different than your average bbq rib (which I guess isn't a bad thing). The eggplant was great - I think this place is really quite good at making use of seasonal fresh vegetables. All of the vegetable sides I've had have been wonderful. The halibut was good but not that memorable. The two meat dishes were massive. Personally, I preferred the porkchops. They were moist and tender, which is often a problem with huge porkchop dishes. I won't lie though - if I go back again, I'll get the shaking beef.

Slanted Door cont.

August 15, 2004

I forgot to mention something interesting about the Slanted Door. They used an interesting short grain white rice which I thought was very good. Watch out for it if you go.

The Slanted Door

August 14, 2004

A reader gave the great suggestion of putting up prices along with all the food, so I'll do this whenever I have the right prices. Food in HK has been great, but still got lots to go from SF. I'll catch up eventually... My mom and I ate at the new Slanted Door for lunch a while ago at the Ferry Building.

crispy imperial rolls with shrimp, pork and glass noodles - $7.25

organic sweet corn with green onions and golden chanterelle mushrooms - $9

meyer ranch shaking beef - cubed filet mignon with garlic and organic red onions - $18.50

cellophane noodles with fresh dungeness crab meat - $13.50 I went to the original Slanted Door years ago in the mission, but I never went to the middle location between that one and this one. The new place is absolutely packed... We ate at 1:45 or 2pm and the place was still full. They were also filming some kind of interview with the chef. Anyway, the food is still good. Great imperial rolls. The corn was very sweet. Shaking beef was as good as I remember it, as were the noodles. I think the crab noodles are a very interesting dish... great combination. The place is pretty expensive for what is normally considered cheap food, but I have to admit it's pretty good. The view is absolutely fantastic.

Pho Pasteur

June 26, 2004

Went to Pho Pasteur and actually ordered something new...

banh hoi with grilled pork I've always wanted to order the banh hoi but never have for some reason. What they do is they give you the plate of stuff above, and some rice paper wrap things on the side (which I don't have a pic of). You dip the rice paper in warm water and they become soft. It's just like the wrapper you get on the fresh rolls. Then you just roll stuff up yourself. It's delicious.

Pho Pasteur

March 2, 2004

Ugh, looks like my web host went down for a couple of days. Back though. Here's some stuff from Pho Pasteur.

appetizer platter

Hue style noodle soup with beef and pork The appetizer platter is a thing you need 4 people to order. Pretty big thing. It came with fresh and crispy rolls, shrimp toast, chicken & beef teriyaki, the orange shrimp thing which I dunno how to describe, and a chicken salad in the middle. We usually get the rolls. I liked the shrimp toast a lot, actually... teriyaki wasn't that good though. I also went with what they listed as "Hue style noodle soup" which has both beef and pork. The guy said it was spicy (it wasn't really, even though it was reddish). It used a different noodle.. thicker than the usually ones and rounded, but still not thick. It had a pork leg, and I don't know what part of beef. It was alright, but I like the normal stuff better.

PPQ

January 4, 2004

Bart had a pho craving the other night, so I accompanied him to PPQ on Irving.

imperial rolls I wasn't really hungry so I didn't feel like a bowl of pho. I just got some rolls to keep him company. Pretty standard stuff. He said his pho was good though.

Pho Bich Nga

January 1, 2004

Everyone remember Pho Shizzle? Well say hello to Pho Bich Nga!

Pho Bich Nga - authentic Vietnamese cuisine Some people think Pho Shizzle could be a fake. I'll give you the arthur hungry guarantee that Pho Bich Nga does in fact exist. It's in Vancouver, on Kingsway, and I took the picture myself! We didn't actually try it though as we were there at like 4pm in between meals. That will be for another day...

Pho Shizzle

December 2, 2003

Haven't been eating anything interesting lately. In the mean time, check this place out:

Pho Shizzle - vietnamese noodle soup After winter break I'll have another good one to show.

Pho Pasteur

October 31, 2003

Went to Pho Pasteur in Chinatown for dinner... thought it would be good to compare to Sugar Bowl which I went to earlier this week.

grilled pork and imperial roll bun The pork was better, but the imperial roll wasn't really crispy enough. I gotta try the imperial roll at Sugar Bowl some time. Still, I think it's easier to just go to 88 since it's right next door... the difference wasn't very big (I could, of course, go to the Pho Pasteur which is like 2 blocks away).

Maluken, Super 88 Sugar Bowl, Beijing Cafe, and Uno

October 29, 2003

Finally got my computer back up and running... I guess I'll put up a few pictures of the past few days. I'll keep the comments brief since this is gonna be pretty long.

maki from Maluken, left to right: avocado, spicy salmon, caterpillar, crazy

ebi, hamachi, sake, maguro, and a tekka maki Had a sushi CRAVING today, so went to Maluken in Kenmore again. This place is pretty solid for the money. The crazy maki has tempura and some other crap in it... I'm a sucker for tempura rolls.

grilled shrimp and pork bun from Sugar Bowl

spicy beef noodle soup This is from Sugar Bowl in 88 the other night. Mike says the spicy beef noodle soup was good, and is the best deal in Super 88. It was the first time I tried the bun there, which was pretty good too at $6.25. I liked the pork a lot. Always goes back to the Vietnamese place being inexplicably cheaper than the Japanese place (Ajisen Ramen) by a few dollars, even though the food is better and the portions are larger.

cashew chicken from Beijing Cafe Takeout style Chinese from a couple days ago... at least it fills you up.

fish sandwich from Uno Went to Uno twice within what, one or two weeks? Someone felt like going and there weren't any other options. As you can see, the piece of fish on this sandwich is pretty damn big. I had to kinda fold it over to fit it. Fish wasn't bad, but coulda been better... A little dry, and not enough meat. The fries were seasoned like curly fries, but not curly. I approve! That's about it for now. I'll be updating regularly again now. :D