Archive for vietnamese

pho-get-a-bout-it!

February 19, 2008 at 12:22 am · Filed under vietnamese

Pho 84
354 17th St., Oakland

PHOto: yelp.com

The first time I went to this place, I had a lot of firsts. First time I had pho, or probably even Vietnamese food. Also one of the first times I went out to dinner with bbg and his folks. (Bonus info: bbg likes to call it “pho eighty pho” – haha, what a clever guy.) First time I ventured out to uptown Oakland after dark. Needless to say, this place has a bit of special meaning for me.

Make your way through the area’s maze of one way streets and you’ll stumble upon this little, but popular mom and pop pho place. It’s right next to the wig place, so you can’t miss it. I’m told (by the ever knowledgeable bbg) that pho places are often named pho with a number to signify the year they opened. Looks like this place opened about 24 years ago.

The place is small and usually packed. They just remodeled the joint, and I don’t really remember what it used to look like, but I hear it’s quite nicer. There are paintings of landscapes of Vietnam on the walls – a river scene, people in fields picking something, women in brightly colored outfits in fields of flowers. The pictures are nice and welcoming, colorful and warm. The interior is very Asian Ikea – with wooden tables and natural, deep green tones throughout. It’s nice.

On the menu tonight: hot and sweet soup, tofu rolls, beans and prawns, grilled chicken and grilled beef. Let’s start with the rolls! They’re served at room temperature and come wrapped in rice paper. The tofu is fried, and rolled up with bean sprouts, shredded cucumber, and cooked vermicelli noodles. The rolls are nice and fat and come with a very rich and somewhat spicy peanut sauce for dipping. The rolls are fresh and crunchy, very tasty and refreshing. The sauce is a nice flavoring and contrasts the rolls well since it’s very thick and heavy.

The soup! The soup is delicious. It’s sweet and extremely spicy with large chunks of veggies: tomatoes, celery, mushroom, and shreds of cabbage. The sweetness comes from the chunks of fresh pineapple (and perhaps coconut milk?). There’s also a little tangy-ness to the soup, probably from the citrus. The soup comes with a good serving of whole shrimp, cooked to perfection. While it’s very very good, it’s equally spicy! I loved the taste, but my lips were burning off my face after finishing one bowl. Also, a regular serving feeds just four people – get a large and have seconds.

The entrees came with special rice, a bed of vermicelli, and side salads. The salads were just iceberg lettuce with pickled shredded carrots with a light dressing. The veggies were all fresh, but it was pretty plain. Pho 84’s special rice is yellow because it’s been cooked in broth, but generally doesn’t taste too much more special than regular rice. Good, but not as amazing as others would make it. The vermicelli comes in pancake form – millions of little noodles squished together to line the bottom of the plate it comes on. Underneath the grilled chicken, the vermicelli soaks up the juices and becomes very very tasty. YUM.

The chicken and beef were about the same – run of the mill Asian bbq. Both dishes come with a sweet and little spicy sauce you can drizzle on your meat. The meat is pretty plain, but add the sauce and you’ve got something a little bit special. Add that to the special rice or the vermicelli and you’ve got choice chow. Everything by itself is just fine, but mix it all up and you’ve got an amazing dish.

Lastly, we had a dish of prawns with green beans. The beans were cooked, but still had some crisp, which was nice. The prawns were large and well cooked. The beans and prawns are drenched in a much heavier sauce, something closer to a bbq sauce thinned with soy sauce, with a rich and smoky flavor. Very good, but a little rich for me when we ran out of rice.

The service was very fast and friendly, once you get in to the door. The place is usually packed, so don’t expect to get in quickly without a little luck. A lot of people take out, another smart move, and more proof that the place is as good as everyone says it is.

Overall: Some really good food.  Really. ‘Nuff said.

Rating: 10/10!

Leave a Comment

the choicest!

June 7, 2007 at 10:10 pm · Filed under the choicest, vietnamese

Cordon Bleu
1574 California St. (x Polk St.)

photo: top is yelp.com, rest are mine

When bbg and I first started dating he told me about this hole-in-the-wall place and how it was his favorite restaurant EVAH! So of course, the right of passage into the relationship involved a trip out there. We BARTed over, went to a baseball game, then cable car-ed it up California St. to the restaurant.

I was impressed when we ate there together for the first time. It defined “dive” and the food was good. It holds a spot in my heart, so it’s the choicest.

What you see in the photo to the right is about all there is in the restaurant, if you can even call it that. The place seats a total of about 10 people – no joke! There’s a counter and behind it is the grill where everything is made. Since the grill is so massive and the counter is so close to it, you can actually feel a great deal of heat radiate off the thing. It gets pretty hot, especially if you’re not sitting by the door.

About three feet from the counter is the wall, so it’s a tight squeeze if you ever want to make it to the rear of the place. Towards the back are two small tables with a few chairs, but more than likely there’s stuff on the tables so you can’t really sit there (sometimes they’re empty, but I’ve seen large bags of meat on them once, and also a large meat slicer you see in delis). There’s also a bathroom that’s the size of an airplane’s bathroom. It’s usually pretty clean. Cordon Bleu overall is all about the food, so there’s nothing interesting about the interior besides the fact that it’s so damn small. I went there today and they had some photos on the wall, framed pictures of brightly colored flowers. Something you’d buy in a pack at Ikea. Otherwise, it’s just painted brick as far as the eye can see.

The staff is pretty quick to serve you. There are usually two people working the counter, and they’re always the same people! No matter when you go, there they are, so obviously a family business. There’s also an old guy who comes in and out of the mysterious back room with vats of meat and other supplies. It’s fascinating to observe.

There are 5 meals which include some combination of the following: beef, chicken, and imperial roll. All the meals come with rice topped with meat sauce and “country salad”. They have other stuff, like noodle salad and I swear I saw someone eat soup there one time, but it wasn’t on the menu today so I don’t know if that’s even close to correct. They’ve added veggie items like garlicky tofu and such, but seriously, eat the meat. Everything is cooked where meat has been cooked, so it’s not like it’s pure or anything anyway.

The meat sauce is tasty. It’s a little spicy and has bits of ground beef in it. You could make a meal with only rice and meat sauce, it stands well on its own, very hearty. The country salad is really just pickled shredded cabbage, but good if you like that stuff. The beef is sliced very thin and so it tastes like teriyaki beef jerky. It’s full of flavor and a little tough, but I like beef jerky so it’s pretty good chow. The 5 spice chicken is also good, but a bit dry since you get the upper part of the chicken (a breast and the wing, all attached). The imperial rolls are massive. They’re filled with meat, rice noodles, and pickled carrots. The rolls are wrapped in a crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside wrapper and deep fried. With the sweet dipping sauce, it’s heaven.

cordon bleu #5!We usually order the #5, which has a few slices of beef, a big piece of chicken, imperial roll, meat sauce with rice, and country salad. I can never finish more than half of the meal, so for $8 I get two meals! Not a bad deal at all. Like most of bbg’s favorite places, Cordon Bleu is big on quantity. But, it’s also very big on quality. While it lacks in atmosphere, it’s a meal I’m always up for and often crave. Sure, it may not be authentic Vietnamese food (I hear the owners are Chinese), but quit judging! They make good food and they’re nice people, I like giving them my money.

Like I said before, it’s really cheap and they only take cash. And it’s popular. Sure, it’s incredibly small, hell, two people is crowded… but I’ve seen people wait in line to order take-out, as well as a dozen or so people call in orders and pick them up while I sat for an hour and ate.

Overall: Maybe not date night quality in terms of setting, but still quality food… Maybe take out? Not for veggie people, but if you like meat and starch, this is your place! They do it right.

Rating: 10/10

Leave a Comment

DATE NIGHT!

April 14, 2007 at 11:24 am · Filed under asian, crepes, date night, dessert, french, vietnamese

Minh’s Gardenminh’s garden
208 Clement St. (x 3rd Ave.)
– Show me!
Cuisine: Vietnamese

BBG and I began date night by deciding to go to Clement, but determined (at least I was) to try something new (ie, not sushi boat, wing lee’s, or hawaiian bbq). We’ve passed by Minh’s before and always promised to try it. As we entered, a couple leaving suggested we try the trout… A good sign; someone liked it enough to suggest it… unfortunately neither of us enjoy fish.

Minh’s is your classic hole in the wall. The restaurant itself is very narrow with about a dozen tables that can seat 2, 4, or 6 people. Small and cramped, but with mom and pop shop charm and real. There are random Asian artifacts on the wall (ie, a Chinese zodiac poster describing each animal and their charicteristics, picture/paintings of what look like Asian Miss Americas, wood carvings). Plus, the classy Christmas lights. Paper napkins, hot sauce in a mustard tube, it’s great.

Along with the decor, and an added side note, it seems as if Minh’s is pretty well-known. There are multiple framed or blown-up articles on the walls from the SF Chronicle and NY Times featuring the restaurant. Although I didn’t get close enough to read the articles, the titles suggested it was a great “cheap eats” or just featured in review about the city’s range of cuisines.

A quick glance at the menu revealed dishes didn’t really top $10 a piece. We quickly found the family meals and went for a meal for two for $19.95. There were also more expensive meals for 3+ people, but eh. Our meal came with vermicelli soup, two imperial rolls, chicken with veggies, bbq beef and steamed rice. WHAT A DEAL!

BBG got a Tsingtao and I got a thai iced tea. My drink was a little different from what I’m used to. It was a little more of a reddish orange than just orange, with lots of milk in it since it looked more dense. But it tasted great and was probably terrible for me (health wise) as a result.

The soup was pretty plain, not much more than broth with pieces of chicken and vermicelli. The imperial rolls were excellent! Great mix of meat, vermicelli noodles inside a crispy, but chewy-sticks-to-your-teeth shell. Not sure why it was served with lettuce, but it was fresh, so I guess that counts for something.

The chicken with veggies came with a variety of veggies: carrots, those weird mushrooms you get with Vietnamese food, onions, celery, and broccoli. The sauce was like a nice, light gravy, good to top rice with. Not too salty. The beef was GREAT. Cooked well done, so chewy but full of flavor. The dipping sauce gave it a little bit of extra sweetness.

The service consisted of an older man and a young woman for the entire restaurant. They tag teamed pretty well between serving, busing dishes, and entertaining family members or friends eating near the kitchen. Service was quick and incredibly friendly. We were one of three couples in the place, plus a mom-dad-kid family, and the aforementioned group. Very homey and sweet.

Overall: a great hole in the wall place with excellent food and friendly service.
Rating: 9/10
.
.

.
Genki Crepes and Mini Martgenki
330 Clement (x 4th Ave.)
– Show me!
link
Cuisine: Asian, Crepes, dessert, French

After dinner, I wanted to check out the mini mart to see if I could find tapioca balls to make homemade boba (a dream I have after successfully making homemade thai iced tea). FYI, I found a boba making kit, which had tapioca balls and milk tea mixes (both green and black tea) for $10.50, I didn’t buy it because I think I could find just tapioca balls in chinatown or at another store.

I really love this store since it has TONS of Asian treats. Everything from Pocky to those Panda cookies to colorful packages with who knows what in them. I’ve found some of my favorite Japanese treats I enjoyed in my childhood, plus stuff from other countries. AND they have a wide variety crammed in a tiny store. There are also savory items like instant soba noodles and shimp chips, plus drinks like Asian iced coffee in rectangular bottles and grass jelly drinks. Lastly, there are random items like soaps, both domestic and foreign, and toys and trinkets like cell phone charms. It’s fun to stop in and stare.

To check it out, you’ll more than likely have to push your way past a crowd near the door. These people are waiting for the second part of Genki, which is the crepe place! They have sweet and savory crepes, original and with an Asian twist. For example, you can get your regular stuff like nutella and bananas or ham and cheese. You can also get crepes with red bean paste or beef sukiyaki. If you thought that was amazing, you can also get these with ice cream!!!! I’m sure you could be a bitch and clog the line by making up your own combo, but they have great combos to choose from. For example, there’s classic, safe stuff like vanilla ice cream with your choice of fruit or chocolate ice cream with pieces of cheese cake. Or you could go Asian and try green tea ice cream with lychee.

it’s so great!We went with mango ice cream and strawberries. The crepe itself was really thin and crispy around the edges. It was sweet and tasted the way it smelled from the street (like a waffle cone). It was folded into a triangular shape, put into a paper cone (pictured left) and stuffed with our ice cream and and fruit. It was delicious! The mango ice cream was sweet, but didn’t really taste too mango-y. Good, if you don’t overthink it. The strawberries were ripe, but not frozen. Unfortunately, there weren’t very many slices – about 4 halves. I think it would’ve been better if the strawberries were cut into smaller pieces, so then you could get pieces with each bit of ice cream.

The store also sells boba, but I haven’t tried it from there… yet.

Overall: A great place to find your favorite Asian treats, especially if you don’t exactly know which Asian country they’re from. Plus a good place to discover new treats! A good place to try an Asian spin on crepes, but average on crepes in general.
Rating: 9/10 for the mini mart, 7/10 on the crepes.

Comments (1)