I always start with an order of summer rolls, because I like these better than fried spring rolls. These were sizeable and pretty good, with a really love price that surprised me (I forget, but it was like $3? in that range).

DLS and I got the same thing (though I added beef balls to mine) so I only took pictures of mine. The broth was intensely flavored, and really lovely, and while my noodles initially were clumped together, a few swipes through with my chopsticks and they separated easily.  The beef was tender, and everything was just perfect – absolutely delicious – and when I added my standard squirt of lime, I was in total heaven.  I really enjoyed my bowl of pho, despite my initial reservations as we walked into easily the largest, cleanest restaurant in Eden Center (and I wanted to go to a hole in the wall) – which wasn’t very busy at all despite it being lunch time.  Also, our bowls of pho were in the $10 range (a little bit under), which surprised me.  Since we didn’t check any other places, I don’t know how much the other restaurants charged, but I found this a little higher priced… but the service was better (our water glasses were refilled constantly), the place was more upscale and very clean, and our server was very pleasant.

Yvo says: I definitely enjoyed my bowl of pho, though when I return to Eden Center, I’ll be checking out other places to see how they stack up instead of just returning straight here.  It was definitely one of the better bowls of pho I’ve had though – surpassing most places in NYC easily, though not as good as Montreal or San Francisco.

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: DLS, pho, summer rolls

It was a chilly and rainy night, which was perfect weather for pho. What made it even better is that our friend KR joined us with her friend W.

We shared a couple of appetizers to start.

Jicama Summer Rolls ($8). They had Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, basil and peanut sauce. They were crisp and refreshing, but could have used a bit more sausage and shrimp.

Short Rib On Lemongrass Skewers($12) with hoisin sauce and peanuts. The beef had some good grilled flavor but was a little tough to eat. The long strips off meat weren’t the easiest to eat, but we were all friends, so etiquette be damned.

CT and I were feeling extra ambitious so we shared a banh mi and two bowls of pho.

We only got the banh mi in addition to the pho because this was the only location that you could get the Pork Chop & Fried Egg banh mi ($8.25). It came with the standard pickled daikon & carrots, cilantro, and cucumbers. At the other locations, they usually ask how spicy you want your sandwich. Here they did not. It could have used some extra spice. Fortunately there was a big bottle of Sriracha on the table. Oddly enough, the egg was the most prevalent flavor I got when eating this. I’ll stick to a regular Baoguette next time.

The restaurant offers two types of pho, so we shared one of each.

Pho Real ($8)- pho beef noodle soup with rare beef. Sorry for the lack of perspective, but it was a HUGE bowl of soup. There was a lot of noodles and fresh herbs mixed in. The broth was delicious. Light, yet super “beefy.” The beef slices weren’t as rare as advertised, but still tasty and added some heft to the dish.

Pho Sure ($8)- pho beef noodle soup with rare beef, brisket, shin. This was the clear winner as it had a variety of meat, which wasn’t as overcooked as the first bowl. I would definitely order this version next time. One bowl is more than enough for an entire meal for one.

Both bowls came with a side of veggies including bean sprouts, Thai basil, and a slice of lime to add if you wish.

All in all, I was quite happy with our meal at Baoguette/Pho Sure. It was a great introduction to pho. Prices were super reasonable considering the neighborhood they were in. I will have to try to get back there soon before the weather warms up too much.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: banh mi, pho

As I mentioned, my friend’s husband grew up in Montreal… but he’s also Vietnamese, so when he mentioned his favorite pho place, I knew we had to go – especially given how much I love pho.

Plates of fresh chiles were on each table.  No, I didn’t eat any of these.  (Even though – exciting news! I have been eating spicy food lately and enjoying it. Flavor and heat without burning my face off!)

The usual sauce station, though note that there’s a small bottle of fish sauce as well! 

The summer rolls are ordered by the piece, which I didn’t realize.  We split this; it tasted okay, nothing amazing. 

The standard plate of Thai basil, lime wedges and bean sprouts – DLS‘s bowl of pho, which I know he enjoyed. 

I ordered the standard beef pho for comparison’s sake and really enjoyed the whole bowl.  The noodles were perfectly cooked, and the broth was super flavorful without overwhelming.  I slurped down almost the entire bowl of broth… so good!  I was perfectly full when we finished, and very, very happy… The hot noodle soup was excellent, and even better because it was FREEZING outside (to the tune of NEGATIVE 17… I don’t think I’ll ever get over just how cold it was up there!).  Warmed us right up to our bones! 

Despite all that – being full and how cold it was outside – DLS saw ‘fried banana’ on the dessert menu and had to order it.  (Never let him tell you that it’s my fault he’s fat.  Yes, I lead him to good food, but I don’t make him eat it!)  I have to say, I LOVED this – the bananas were crisply battered on the outside, while gooey and warm on the inside.  Drizzled with a bit of honey, delicious! and the super artificially colored green tea ice cream wasn’t quite as bitter as I like it, but still very good.  This was a great dessert!  I would never have ordered it, so I was glad DLS wanted it… and even gladder that he willingly shared with me, haha. 

So… I liked this place so much that we went back our last day.  Since I was super cold (again), I ordered milk tea, hoping it would be interesting for $2 and change.  Nope, it was just a cup of tea.  Ah well. 

DLS ordered a red bean/grass jelly drink of some sort with coconut milk in it, so I opted not to try any.  It sure is pretty though, right?  (I think he orders things with coconut in it when he doesn’t want to share with me…)

As we’d exited during that first visit, we’d noticed a newspaper article hanging in the window that showed this dish.  We ordered it by describing the article to our waiter. 

Basically a deconstructed “bun” dish – cold noodles over a salad mixture – it came with the noodles on the side, and a bowl of various grilled meats swimming in fish sauce with pickled veggies, and a bunch of veggies on the side.  DLS got first crack at this dish, and enjoyed it, commenting that the grilled meats were just like what he’s had at other Vietnamese restaurants (apparently you can have a grill at your table… but I’ve not done that, so he has to show me!).  I liked the dish, but found it hard to eat the way they had it – I prefer my bun in one big bowl so I can stir it all around and eat it like that.  Also, I didn’t like one of the grilled meats – it was sort of crumbly, like it was a meatball but not. 

I ordered the pho ga – or chicken pho – because I’d heard it was really good.  And it was – super clean, light broth, and a ton of chicken.  Too much chicken, honestly, since I’m all about the noodles and broth when it comes to pho… speaking of which, we’d intended to split both dishes.  The pho was placed in front of me, so I ate that first, and DLS had the bun dish first.  Unfortunately, in my digging around the bowl, I totally accidentally – ACCIDENTALLY – ate all the noodles without realizing it.  Luckily, DLS was pretty full from the bun but I still felt terrible about it… whoops.  Sorry!  (This is probably why he orders stuff with coconut in it – so he doesn’t have to share and run the risk that I’ll take all of it… wah…)  I left him lots of chicken though!  It really was an accident… but that pho was so freaking good! 

Yvo says: That was some damn good pho… honestly, I think this just shot to the top of the list.  My favorite pho place is still Turtle Tower in San Francisco, but Montreal is slightly easier for me to get to (hey, a quick 5 hour drive…).  Hmmm, guess I’ll just have to settle for Pho Bang when I can’t get to San Francisco or Montreal…  Why can’t we get pho like this in NYC?!
highly recommended – excellent pho

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: DLS, noodles, pho

There was no wait at ChaPa’s, and we both ordered drinks – lychee juice on the left for me, Thai iced tea for DLS on the right.  I liked my juice – light and refreshing, slightly sweet.  I didn’t try the Thai iced tea but I imagine it was just fine. 

We started off with cha gio, Vietnamese spring rolls.  While the flavor was good, the exterior was slightly soggy and not quite as crispy as I’m used to.  The interior was very juicy, though, to the point where I bit into it, and it exploded onto my plate in a splatter of hot oily juices. 

I wanted something different, so I added on the Vietnamese chicken wings.  While these were tasty – slightly sweet, sticky, slightly savory – I didn’t think they were special or good enough to warrant ordering again.  I didn’t regret getting them, though, because while I usually feel super full after pho… well, you’ll see. 

DLS chose the special pho, which he thought was OK. 

We each received our own plate of accompaniments with our bowls of pho. 

Since it was my first time at ChaPa’s, I ordered the beef pho, plain and simple.  I was surprised when it arrived at how small the bowl was – or rather, how little there was to it.  I know it’s in midtown and being able to get pho in midtown is already pretty awesome, but $8.50 for a bowl that looked like it would hardly fill me up is pretty weak.  I was glad we’d ordered two appetizers, that’s for sure.  As for the broth, it was extremely murky – which doesn’t bother me – but the overwhelming smell of star anise with each sip really bothered me.  I’m not the biggest fan of star anise in the first place, and to smell it each and every time I tried to take a slurp of soup… wasn’t pleasant to me.  Of course, another person who likes or even loves star anise might feel the complete opposite as me!  Taste-wise, though, it didn’t come through as strongly, which worked fine for me.  The noodles were also on the thinner side than I prefer or am used to… and I wished there were more of them! 

Yvo says: I thought overall, it satisfied the pho craving, but by no means would I seek this out again.  On a cold, rainy day, I think I’d be better off going for ramen at Tabata (which is also so much closer to DLS’s place that we won’t get completely soaked at least- I hope!), since I crave noodles in soup on rainy days.  However, there are other items on the menu that I might like to try, so I wouldn’t be vehemently opposed to returning… I just won’t be the one to suggest it. 
middle of the road; if you really want pho and you’re stuck in midtown, it suffices

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: DLS, pho

A couple Fridays ago, CT and I didn’t have any special plans so we decided to go out in the neighborhood. I had a voucher for the NY Comedy Club that I purchased from Travelzoo back in March(shortly after their launch party) that was just burning a hole in my pocket. Fortunately the voucher was good for a year, so I wasn’t in a major rush to use it. CT mentioned that she had a Groupon for Bao Noodles that she was also looking to use. Considering that both places were about 2 blocks away from each other, it was a no brainer.

CT’s deal was the common $15 for $30. Bao Noodles isn’t super cheap, so it wouldn’t be an issue to order $30 worth of food. For those of you wondering, Michael “Bao” Hunyh of Baoguette, Baoritto and other restaurant fame used to be associated with Bao Noodles, but no longer.

Since it was a Friday night, we started with some beer. I went with the Vietnamese “33” and CT had the Japanese Kirin Light. Do the Vietnamese and Japanese get along? Deanlo, can you confirm? I don’t think I ever had a “33” before. It was a nice refreshing lager, pretty generic tasting.

We started with an order of Summer Rolls($5.95), since it was Summer after all. I decided to be “healthy” and get fried tofu as the filling.

As you can see, using the term “filling” was quite generous on my part since the rolls only had two sad strips of tofu in them. At least all of the veggies were fresh and crisp. It was quite tasty after dipping in the Hoison sauce.

CT says: It was just ok and the filling was a little skimpy. But as TT said, at least the veggies were fresh! I’ve had the shrimp summer rolls in the past and been satisfied with them, so maybe it was just the lack of tofu?

CT had been here a bunch of times, but not that recently. So, she still had a couple “must order” dishes including:

Salt & Pepper Shrimp ($12.95)- tiger prawns coated with salt and pepper, stir-fried with garlic, shallots, red and green peppers. Served with taro fries. It is hard to see but there were a lot of shrimp underneath the small plates and taro fries. The dish on the right had a chili pepper and salt mixture to dip the shrimp in. There was also a mayo-based sauce that was good with everything. The shrimp were lightly fried and delicious. We went all in and ate the thin shells and all. The taro fries were super greasy. I’m pretty sure the chef dumped them straight into our basket from the fry basket.

CT says: This is one of my favorites and a must-order every time, in my humble opinion. I love that flavor they have on their own, but dipped into the salt/pepper/red pepper flakes just takes this dish to another level! I could (and possibly have) eaten this entire dish on my own. The taro fries are ok if you get the ones on tops, but nothing that special.

Saigon Fried Rice ($7.95)- shrimp, Chinese sausage and tomatoes. A second shrimp dish, but totally worth it. Lots of sausage mixed throughout with a couple shrimp on top. The rice itself was very tasty. It was also very good as leftovers.

CT says: My other go to – stuffed with so many goodies and lots of flavor, why wouldn’t you want to order it? The rice is sticky and cooked just enough and you can tell it’s cooked with all the meats as the flavors really meld together. Just yum!

CT allowed me to order one dish.

Panko Crusted Pork Chop ($13.95). It was served on top of a nice slaw. Unfortunately it only seemed to be one pork chop in the dish. I would have thought for that price there would have been a second chop. The pork was seasoned well and very crunchy. A couple of the end pieces got a little tough, but I managed to eat them anyway. The slaw helped to cut the heaviness of the deep fried meat.

CT says: The pork chops was juicy on the inside (mostly) and crispy on the outside. It was pretty flavorful. However, I only had a couple pieces as the portion was pretty small and I was more focused on the shrimp. The slaw was a nice palate cleanser though. A decent dish, but not enough to be added to my “must-order” list.

All in all, it was a pretty good meal at Bao Noodles. We both left quite content without feeling stuffed, especially since we ended up taking half of the fried rice home. Prices were a little high, but Groupon helped alleviate that. The Travelzoo deal was very good. For $15 we got admission for two including 2 drinks and saw 7 different comics. No one I heard of before, but some were very funny. I would definitely return to the comedy club again especially since the regular prices were pretty reasonable compared to other, bigger clubs in NYC.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Groupon, TravelZoo