Lam Hoa Quan
5073 Victoria Drive
Vancouver, BC
On a weekend, I had a long list of things to do and, after having done with most of them, I was up for an early lunch. The problem is that a lot of places do not really open “early enough” and trying to find something might waste a lot of times. One of my to-do list things was in Victoria Drive, I decided to stay in there and just have lunch. That meant going to Lam Hoa Quan, mainly due to a post by Anita.
In a post last week of Pho Saigon, I was wondering if I should start ordering Vietnamese dishes other than pho. Yeah, maybe one of these days… Yes, that also means I ended up ordering pho this time! Now, there was a reason: In Anita’s case, she ordered pho ga – or chicken pho. While that would have worked, the problem was that I needed something more “heavy” so I ended up going for sort of a mix of both. But, first…
I ordered some spring rolls. When it showed up, the first thing I noticed was the skin and its yellowish colour. In the past, when these were served, it would have a brown colour but not like this. It makes me wonder if they use some spices, like turmeric or curry. If I had to guess, it would be turmeric as I couldn’t taste anything else in a curry.
As for the rest of the spring rolls, it wasn’t back extremely tight; however, it wasn’t extremely loose either. The mix itself would be more on the chunkier side compared to the ones I have had recently. Overall, I would say they are average.
And here is their pho, as mentioned above, a mix of chicken and beef pho – pho tai bo ga, house special rare beef with chicken noodle soup. The first obvious thing is that the beef is not that much sliced as seen in other pho shops but looks like a piece that has been pounded a couple of times. I personally don’t mind the beef be served that way, it just that it was strange departure from what I have been used to. As for the chicken, I was started to wonder if this was a corn fed chicken, or even free-range chicken. That is because the chicken was actually chewy and had some actual chicken taste rather than the bland chicken found elsewhere.
As for the broth, that is where things went in wacky ways. I can’t say it is a chicken soup, specially if I compare it to the one I had in My Chau. I can’t say it was a beef broth either because it didn’t have that meaty taste. Instead, I would say it was a mix of both with some heavy ginger in it. While I am good with beef plus ginger or chicken by itself, this mix didn’t really work for me.
In the end, I had mixed feelings about this combination but, because of the chicken used, I also believe the product they produce can be a good one. I might try this place again in the future; however, if I do, it will be a straight version rather than a mix.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I think having a mix of chicken and beef broth made it less appealing. I had the straight chicken noodle soup and I liked it a lot. I dipped the chicken pieces in the salt pepper that was mixed with squirts of lemon. Yummy. As for the chicken, I think they use the long kong chicken which is more flavorful than the regular chicken.
Jonnek, yeah, I admit it was a wacky choice. Still, I believe their output can be a good one…
never tried combo chicken and beef pho before but i noticed on your first pic that one of the condiments was shallots, that is something new for pho i think, never seen it before, kinda interesting makes me wanna try it out next time i’m on victoria drive. also, i wonder if the yellowish colour on the spring roll skin is because of the oil they used for deep frying, possibly its been used quite a bit and 500 rolls later, batches after that might have that tint, i dunno just a wild guess. love pho tho, very much.
sgtoca, I don’t believe the yellowish colour is due to old oil. If it was old oil, it will turn dark brown instead. On that note, that is the reason why (some?) restaurants do not use a batch of completely new oil; rather they mix some of the old oil. If you were using completely new oil, you won’t get that browning in the first couple of batches.
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