Green Leaf Vietnamese Restaurant
418 8th Ave South
Seattle, WA

I apologize for making things so stereotypical at times. You see, whenever I am down in the US, I try to go to restaurants unique to that place. For example, when I was in New York City, I went to Carnegie Deli; when I was in Panama, there was Mi Ranchito – and that was among a lot of restaurants. The “problem” is that Seattle is ~300 Km from Vancouver and, for the most part, you can find an equivalent here. To make the most of it, the key is to find cuisines/known restaurants not available here, which, more often than not, it translates to American or Latin-American restaurants – or even tacos, though I am not that enthusiastic to try this. So, just for kicks, this time, I tried to look for a form of Asian and, in the end, I decided to go for Vietnamese. That’s how I ended up going to Green Leaf Vietnamese restaurant.

The selection of Green Leaf was semi straight forward: go to Urbanspoon and locate one “close” enough but “highly” ranked enough. I found some places including Pho Hoa (aka, the MickeyD’s of Vietnamese/Pho and which I have visited and blogged an iterations in Vancouver) and a really wacky named restaurant called “What the Pho”. Obviously, I wanted something else and, looking at the higher ranked Vietnamese restaurants, this was the one that was high ranked enough but not necessarily upscale (hey, I like my holes in the wall!).

Arriving at this place pose one challenge: parking. Despite parking was free after 6:00 p.m. (do you read this, City of Vancouver???), there open parking spaces nearby, which really puzzled me considering most of the shops were closed by then. OK, there were a couple of restaurants but… Anyway, after I parked a couple of blocks away, I walked to the restaurant and noticed something that might make a lot turn around right away: there had some (plastic) trash cans outside. Now, they weren’t smelly but it is one of those things that will certainly raise eyebrows…

Finally, upon walking in, I I encountered this small restaurant. There were about a dozen or so tables (most of then 4 seats). There was a couple ahead of me and they were about to seat them to a two seat table that just opened, the staff noticed me and asked how many. Without any shame, I made the gesture of one. And you know what? The waiter told the couple another table (a four seat) would open soon as they just paid and if they would be OK to wait. They were and I was given that 2 seat table on the spot. Dining solo has it advantages!

Upon getting the menu, I ran into that problem of what to order in a Vietnamese restaurant. On one side, you have pho and then there are rice dishes, banh mi and so on. When the owner/manager (the rest of the waiting staff was dressed in uniform-like shirts) noticed my hesitation, offered to provide suggestions, starting if I wanted a rice based dish or a noodles based dish. While I answered his question, his answer was, well, too generic: “this is good, this other is good” and so on. At that point, I told him I will have to think about it… Eventually I did and started ordering… And ordering… And ordering. Yes, I ordered three dishes (two appetizers and one main). When the waitress heard me about the third appetizer, she stopped and said “that will be a lot of food”. Well, it seem she didn’t watch Up in the Air! Eventually, my food started to arrive, starting with… (BTW, I apologize for the pictures, lightning conditions were really wacky – some sunlight, darkness and artificial, almost incandescent, yellow lightning).

Chao tom – shrimp on sugarcane. I ordered this because it was on the walls listed as a “special”. Alas, it sounded better than it ended up being. While I was expecting the shrimp to be in a semi-paste form, it lacked a bit of snap. OK, let me formulate: shrimp has a unique “snap” when bite into it whole. If you mince it, it is possible that snap will still be there. However, if you use something like a food processor, you overwork it and, as a result, that snap will be gone. Now, I am not sure if Vietnamese cuisine would follow this Chinese cooking-type principle; however, because it was expecting that, I found it was disappointing. Now, if I took that aside for a moment, I thought the shrimp was a bit bland, even with the fish sauce it was served with. As for the sugarcane, I wished it was juicier and cut thinner. Having it that thick was problematic for me to chew – I ended up tearing them into pieces before chewing them. I would skip this next time…

Just for kicks, I ordered wings. What I did NOT expect was the amount of food it came out. I guess, once again, I underestimated how much food restaurants in the US serve… Originally, I was expecting only chicken wings, not with some peppers on top (oh, the jalapeño wasn’t even spicy). As for the wings itself, well…. Despite it had some fried garlic on top, I was totally disappointed. This ain’t wings similar to that of Phnom Penh… If I had to draw some sort of comparison, that would be House of Wings or Wings Pub & Grill. For the most part, it was plain and I had to use some of the dipping sauces to try to “kick it up a notch”. It was a fail…

In the end, I went for noodles. Now, I could gone for a regular pho but, c’mon, what’s the excitement behind it! Instead, they had several interesting variations, like escargot noodle soup, tomato shrimp patty noodle soup, anchovery (sic) noodle soup, one that includes blood cake and the one that I eventually ended up ordering: duck noodle soup. The soup was akin to pho ga, i.e., chicken pho, where the broth was quite light. However, it had one thing that improve things: fried onions/shallot. It provided an additional dimension to it. The (rice) noodles were of the really thin variety and were OK, not much to comment about. The shredded pieces of duck meat was actually, well, duck… Now, that is not the whole dish yet…

Yup, there is a salad of sorts going along with the bowl of noodles/soup. Here, there was more pieces of duck and the fried onion/shallot. Going back to the pieces of duck, they were slightly overdone but, still, enjoyable. After dunking it in the soup and let it soak for a moment before eating it was a key to go around that overdone-ness of the meat. Now, not Peking duck but, still, good duck.

So, was it worth it in the end? The answer will be ambiguous. The bowl of noodles was quite good; however, the rest was average at best, specially compared to the offerings in Vancouver. As a result of this ambiguity, I don’t feel that urge to return – if not for one dish… Bò 7 món! Yup, I tried ordering it but they stopped me, hehehe. But, once again, given that we have that as well, here in Vancouver…

Pho Hoa
Several locations in the US and Canada
5505 Kingsway (location visited)
Burnaby, BC

Last week, on my Thursday post, I made reference to a post I had to reshuffle because it would have made that week too focused in one area of Metro Vancouver. One of the posts I had to do so is that of Pho Hoa, a restaurant in… Well, several places over Vancouver! While they do have several locations, I went to the one in Burnaby. That, of course, brings the question: why go to Pho Hoa? Well, the reason is similar to why I have been going to several restaurants in Kingsway in the Burnaby side: because of several errands and what not, I have been spending a lot of time in the area which translates into eating in places nearby. Hmmmm… Why suddenly I start to sound like Sherman???

One seemingly unique feature of this restaurant is the fact they are open 24 hours… Or that is their claim. In its own interesting ways, it is a good and bad thing: If you are going for pho it means their broth is being prepared round clock; however, at certain times of the day, I wonder about the “quality” of the food. The day I went, it was around 9:00 p.m. so, in a way, it shouldn’t be that bad.

Interestingly, the restaurant was half packed which, again, in its own ways, is a good thing. More people, more turn around. However, as soon as I sat down, the restaurant started to empty. OK… Feel free to blame me!

Now, to the food. One “good” feature in their menu is how it is laid out for pho first timers. It breaks it down into how “adventurous” you are in their offerings. It has a combination of good and bad, though. Some options look way too similar – which is not helped because they do not keep a consistency in the order of how the meats are listed. Anyway, a regular bowl won’t do so, instead, I went for their “adventurous” options, which ended up being…

#44, noodle soup with brisket, flank, tendon, tripe, and fatty flank. Well, it is pretty much almost everything but the kitchen sink! An oddity was that, rather than a wedge of lime, it was a wedge of lemon – something that was experienced as well by shokutsu when he/she visited a Pho Hoa location in Seattle.

If I had to describe this bowl of pho in one word, that word would be average. There wasn’t anything wrong but there wasn’t anything that stood out. The tendon was just a slab of tendon, while the tripe was, well, the same you would get in places like dim sum or something on those lines. The beef was rare and that was about it. And the broth… Well, I expected some more given what I mentioned above about the operation running 24 hours.

Normally, along with the pho, I would have gone with a spring roll; however, this time, I wanted meat. So I ordered a side of chicken wings. In what seems to be something I have repeated myself a lot of times already in this post, there wasn’t anything spectacular about these. OK, it was nicely fried and still had some juiciness in it but, that aside, there wasn’t much. Not even that marinara-like dipping sauce. However, a squeeze of the lemon wedge gave it a good different twist so, from that perspective, it was good.

Hmmmm…. Should I repeat myself? OK, let’s try again. There is nothing wrong with Pho Hoa in the grand scheme of thing; however, because there wasn’t anything outstanding, it makes you wonder if, out of all places, this is the one you should go to. Well, if the 24 hours claim is true, if you are looking for something at 3:00 a.m., I guess that should do it. As for me, I am seldom awake at that time of the day and I am aware of other options…

Pho Hong
5975 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Ah, once again… Late night on Kingsway… It seems that a year or so ago, I was spending late nights in Hastings East after playing Magic the Gathering; now, I spend more time in the Kingsway side of Burnaby which leads to late night eats at times. In this case, I was looking for something “soft” for the stomach, as I had some heavy eats earlier that day. That easily took out a lot of options there and left me with something like pho…. Well, pho it is! And, among the several pho places, this time I chose to go to Pho Hong.

Now, there is no reason in particular for Pho Hong other than it was the first place I ran into… OK, that and the fact I didn’t have to do a U-turn to go to other places! Upon arriving, I noticed there were a lot of customers for late night eats. The more curious thing is that over half of them were teens or in their early 20′s. I guess it had a customer base of sorts… After seated and given the menu, I noticed something strange on my hands after starting to flip it – my hands suddenly had a sticky feeling. Go ahead and draw your own conclusion… Deciding what to order, actually, was quite an easy task – they had a special whereas I could order a large bowl (from their item list, #1 to #14) and a spring roll for $8.50

Yes, that’s a big piece of both brisket AND tendon!

Lemon instead of lime but, in either case, it worked.

In my case, I went for the all but kitchen sink pho bowl (#1). One thing that I was actually surprised was the time it took for the bowl to come out. It was less than 3 minutes between ordering and it showing up on the table! I guess they are indeed prepared to handle people mass ordering this special. And, yes, in one of those tables (around 10), all of them ordered from this special!

The meats were OK, not too exciting but they weren’t subpar either. The chicken meatball, for example, had a snappy texture but lacked a chicken taste or (similar to the beef version) some sesame. While that is acceptable given the “deal”, what was not was the broth. It was plain. Well, it had some really light beef taste but the problem is that, c’mon, you should be able to do better! As for the spring roll, it was crispy but not really pipping hot. Still, it went down easily yet, once again, it could have been better.

Overall, it is cheap eats for that time of the day. If it was the only option, it would be fine but, alas, it isn’t. Might go back if others want to go along but not necessarily my first option.

Huaxi Noodle
2126 – 4500 Kingsway
Crystal Mall
Burnaby, BC

Chong Lee Market Kitchen
3308 E 22nd Avenue
Vancouver, BC

This was supposed to be two short post but I thought, rather than two short posts, how about having a longer one, specially considering these two places shared some things in common? Namely, me needing a meal; however, I wasn’t THAT hungry? OK, that might be an overstatement… Basically, I had a somewhat heavy meal earlier that day and needed a snack/light meal. And based on posts from other fellow bloggers, I thought I should drop by Huaxi Noodle (in Crystal Mall’s food court) and Chong Lee Market…

My visit to Huaxi Noodle is thanks to a post from gastronomydomine (of the Foodosophy team). While I have had my share of visits to the food court and there are several interesting stands, at the same time, there are some dubious ones and, at times, it can be hit or miss. However, given gastro’s feedback, hey, it sounds good! So, on an afternoon, relatively close to the mall’s closing time, I dropped by there for a quick “light” dinner.

As per gastro’s suggestion, I ordered dish #8, Guizhou Style Beef Noodle Soup ($5.95). And, not necessarily noticeable in the picture above, I added some huge scoops for garlic. I will have to admit that, for $6, this is quite a decent serving. Hell, you pay more if you go to MickeyD’s! And, if you take a look at it, there is a good amount of herbs on top, which, interestingly enough, did infuse a little bit of its taste to the broth.

I am not sure if it was supposed to have two types of meats but, considering they are different cuts, each provided a different type of consistency. The leaner/grayer cut (shank?) had a slight chewiness, while the more fatty piece (brisket?) had a more tender, fatty texture. For some reason, I thought it had some gaminess in it, which worked quite well with the herbs mentioned above. Because I added a lot of garlic, it also imparted some of its pungent taste to the broth but, because I added before I tasted the broth (one of the few rare instances I have done that), I can’t say how it would be by itself… Finally, the noodles… I will have to admit mine were served slightly past the al dente texture, or at least slightly past how I would have preferred it. No harm, though, it still had a slight bite and, again, there was a decent amount given the price.

Given the limitations of the food stand and its cost, I am quite surprised at the end product. I really wished I had visited them before! It is starting to look like some xiao long bao from Wang’s Shanghai and a bowl of noodles will really hit the spot!

Now, moving on to the second “restaurant”, a couple of weeks ago, Alex of Chef’s Night Out, made mention of banh mi (Vietnamese subs) in a really odd location: inside a market in 22nd Avenue in Vancouver. That market is Chong Lee Market, which shouldn’t be confused with its Victoria Drive’s location. As I mentioned once:

1. Open a restaurant in a weird location/setting
2. Make it ethnic (bonus if Japanese)
3. ???
4. Profit!

OK, not necessarily profit here, the question instead is how good it is. Actually, I had to go through a small problem first: after I walked in, I couldn’t find the banh mi stand. I walked to the back and they have a mini butcher, cafeteria like Chinese food (think Kent’s kitchen). After walking back and forth, I gave up and started to walk out, just to find it was right next to the entrance! Had I turned left as soon as I walked in, I would have found it right away.

As mentioned, I was there for banh mi and ended up ordering three: One of them to eat it almost right away, the other two for later that day. I know I was taking my chances, after all, a lot of times the baguette used in banh mi degrades really fast if not eaten right away. However…

Actually, all of them looked pretty much the same…

Unlike banh mi shops like Ba Le or Tung Hing, they don’t have a bakery to prepare their breads on-site (or, as far as I could see/tell). So, the bread isn’t necessarily fresh but they do have an oven to reheat them. So, which banh mi I ordered?

The first one (and the one I ate right away) was the chicken version. Because it was still “fresh”, the exterior of the bread still had some “crunchiness” in it but it is not even close to the ones from Ba Le or Tung Hing. One thing I found quite surprising (and it is common among all the subs here) was the amount of pickled vegetables, though I wish it was a bit more pickled (i.e., a bit more acidic/sweet). But, back to the sub itself. The chicken was a bit plain; however, the pepper managed to provide some balance. I won’t say it is the best but acceptable.

This is one I had later that day and, by then, the bread started to be chewy, though not on the lines of sourdough. Now, I am not sure if I will call it meatball or even meat sauce. More than anything else, it was a cross of minced meat, Chinese style (on that note, reheated in a microwave), and meatball. Similar to the chicken, the meat didn’t have that much taste by itself but the pickled vegetables and peppers were doing a major job.

Finally, their “special”, which had different type of cold cut type meats and, as seen in the picture above, a decent serving of pâté. It actually was tastier than the other two above and, despite the meats were able to hold its own, it still needed a little bit of support from the pickled vegetables. Howeve,r once again, because I had it later that day, the bread was somewhat chewy by then.

Overall, I found these banh mi were decent, provided your expectations are not high, specially given its location and price. Yes, did I mention these were $2.75 each, except for the special which was $3.25? However, since it is not that accessible to me, I am not sure how often I would frequent it… >_<

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.

Thai Hang Vietnamese Restaurant
2122 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

A couple of weeks ago, Karl (The Friday Lunch) and Sherman (Sherman’s Food Adventures) checked with me for Bao Bei. But, alas, I felt sick that night. Karl and Sherman decided to go ahead anyway but, instead, they ended up going to Hapa Izakaya because Bao Bei was packed full (not unexpected considering it was just open by then). Fortunately, another outing was organized, this time for something Vietnamese, but not pho or banh mi but Bò 7 món or beef 7 ways or seven courses of beef. The restaurant selected for this? Thai Hang in Hastings Street. And, in attendance…

• Anita of La Petite Foodie
• Jessica (and Mark) of Yum-o-Rama
• Karl of The Friday Lunch
• Sherman of Sherman’s Food Adventures

And, of course… Me!

Because we were coming from different ways, it was a bit of a logistic mess. Fortunately, reservations were made and it was a matter of arriving on time. In my case, Anita and I met in Downtown Vancouver where we took transit there. How come people who are driving arrived *after* those of us who took public transit?

After all of us arrived, food started arriving. Hey, they already knew we were going for beef 7 ways! And here is a spread of what we got initially (not everything is in the picture). And, yes, click on it for a larger version.

OK, let’s go quickly with what was served…

The different dipping sauces

Dry rice paper, to be used to prepare rice rolls

Rice noodles

Different herbs, cucumber, pickled daikon and carrot, lettuces and bean sprout

Raw beef to be dipped in the broth

Grilled beef

Some attempts on making the rolls.

Ground beef and ground beef wrapped in leaves

Congee, the last dish

And dessert.

Wait, there aren’t seven dishes, you might say. Well, that is true. According to the menu, it should be:

1. Diced beef tendon
2. Blanched Beef Toro
3. Beef with Herbal Wraps
4. Satay Beef Wraps
5. Beef Tendon
6. Specialty Beef Meatballs
7. Beef Congee

When we made our order, we were told the meatballs were not available so our beef 7 ways ended up being beef 6 ways. But, regardless, I will admit something: Because of the good company that night, I lost track of what was order and what was what or if all dishes came. As for the taste of the dishes, my memory is a little bit faint but do remember some unique characteristics. For example, the congee was thinner than the Chinese version. Reason? I think we (or at least I) were having some fun assembling the rice rolls, guessing the herbs on the plate (mint? saw-tooth?) and, of course, eating them. As a result, there were no “way” we could say we did not like. Back to the different dishes, it is technically possible the meats use were not of the highest quality. Even if it wasn’t, at least, they prepare them well enough, to the point it didn’t make that much of a difference; even the raw one which we used to cook before eating. Then again, you must keep something in mind: its price: 2 for $30.

Since we did not order the usual dishes (i.e., pho), it would be somewhat difficult to compare it to other Vietnamese restaurants. But, based on the bò 7 món, I would be interested in coming back. Alas, I need to find somebody to go along!

Pho Tan Vietnamese Restaurant
4598 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

Memories might fail me on this one but, when asked which is the best place for pho, somebody said “Pho Tan in Main Street”. On the days prior to the crazy road closures prior to the Winter Olympic games, I went to Pho Tan just to find out how do they compare to other pho shops. Pretty simple, eh? Well, if it wasn’t for one small detail…

This place was packed! Unlike, a lot of places where they would have single diner tables, that was not much of an option here. In a Chinese way, I was given the option to share a table with somebody; however, the other party wasn’t that keen. Hey, since I was there before you, it is easier to accommodate me than your group! Anyway, in the end, I was given a small table near the entrance, which, fortunately, had a screen to block anybody who might be gazing at me, probably cursing me for taking a table for myself.

I might be overstating the obvious here but… I was ordering pho, of course! And, above the garnishes. Now, you will notice something peculiar about the bean sprouts. Similar to the ones I had in Thai Son, they were blanched! I guess some people are turned off by the fact they are served raw and, as a result, the restaurant ends up blanching them… I personally don’t mind/care if it is blanched or not but I am not sure if it is a good thing it is now starting to be a norm. But, other than that, the herbs were green without any signs of wilting.

And here is my order of pho, #16 – sliced rare beef, beef brisket and tendon with rice noodle soup. In a really atypical note from me, rather than ordering the large bowl, I ordered the small bowl. Now, I know there are people who say that the difference between the small and the large is merely that of the bowl and some broth. However, there is some psychological factor at times. Regardless, the broth had a clean taste but, unfortunately, not extraordinary. Don’t get me wrong, it was good in its own way but not necessarily memorable. The meats were OK, though, in the case of the rare one, it was a bit chewy. Normally, that will be a bad thing; however, in this case, that chewiness somehow resulted in a bit more of meaty taste than I have had ran into from other places. The fact it was still red, rather than dunked into the broth might have contributed to that factor. The noodles… Well, not much to talk about.

What seems to be sort of a tradition, I also ordered some spring rolls. Normally, I end up getting the “regular” spring rolls or what ever that means; this time, I went for their seafood spring rolls. In the picture above, a piece is missing because the next table was curious about why I was taking pictures of the food (as a side note, they were NOT Asians) and I told them I take them for my “hobby”. From there, I offered a piece which they found it was quite good. After taking my picture and biting into a piece, I will have to agree with that statement. It is a different type of goodness from your regular vegetable or beef type spring rolls; instead, the shrimp here gave them a different snappy texture. While the flavour was partially muted by the crispiness and the rest of the filling, at least you could “feel” the shrimps made it for me.

After I finished my bowl, I spent some talking talking again with the couple from next table and they were telling me about other nearby good eats places (to be visited sometimes soon) and, of course, about Pho Tan. They went on to explain to me why they liked it and I will agree with some of their points. However, while it is all good from that perspective, the final product still has rooms for improvement. As a result, it is still far from that “best” title (which, at this moment, is somewhat of a question mark). Would I come back? Given there are other places closer to me and the fact parking might be tricky depending of the time of the day, it is a coin toss… If I am nearby…

East is East
4413 Main Street
3243 West Broadway (location visited)
Vancouver, BC

Sherman (of Sherman’s Food Adventures) is “the man”. It was his turn to organize the next Vancouver food bloggers gathering and he managed to pull out the largest one ever. How large? I was able to get 8 food bloggers (plus guest) us in a Long Table Series at the Irish Heather. This time, he was able to get writers of 15 blogs (plus guests) of us! In attendance….

Sherman of Sherman’s Food Adventures – Post is up!
Mijune of Follow Me Foodie – Post is up!
Kevin of 604 Foodtography
Jenny of My Secret Eden – Post is up!
Victoria of Victoria’s Food Secrets – Post is up!
Jonathan of Food and Tell
Jessica of Yum-o-Rama – Post is up!
Joyce and Frank of Van Foodies
Wilson of La Petite Vancouver
Anita of La Petite Foodie
Darina of Gratinée – Musings on Food & Culture
Melody of Gourmet Fury
TS of [eatingclub]Vancouver
Angie of Sea Salt with Food (home of the infamous Hasselback potatoes recipe!)

Of course, myself…

In total, we were about ~20 of us. How come I don’t know the exact number? Since our party was so large, they couldn’t really sit us in a long table (a la LTS) or in a round table (a la Chinese restaurant). As a result, we were broken down into two groups. Furthermore, at the end of the night, when we were outside chatting, the manager/owner even came out asking Sherman if everything was fine. O_o

Due to somewhat bad timing on my part, I did not arrive at 7:00 p.m. sharp, the time we were supposed to meet there. But, in the end, we were able to shuffle in the group. I ended up seated with Ricky, Jenny, Kevin, Anita, Mijune and W (Mijune’s guest). Because of that delay, we ordered way after the others. After I was seated, we were presented with these:

These were two mini cups of heavily spiced Chai tea. I drink half of one (there were two types) and chose to stop as it was starting to overload my palette. It was quite interesting but, to me, too rich to start off with. Anyway, once orders were made, I received my drink:

Rangoon Rain, which is a yogurt lassie with peach, lychee, pineapple, coconut and banana. As a drink, it was OK; the problem was that I couldn’t really taste much of the ingredients except the banana. No, not even the coconut! While it did have some texture of some fruits, it was hardly noticeable. My biggest peeve of this drink is its size. At $5 and around 8 ounces, I would expect something more than 8 or so ounces, specially considering this is not an alcoholic drink! (On that note, they did not have alcoholic drinks in their menu to the consternation of at least two bloggers!).  Furthermore, I ordered the large and got the small one instead. When I told them about the error, I was told I could get a “refill”. However, it seems that a refill is not exactly a refill: you pay a full glass. Now, I know this is not pop and unlimited refill, I wasn’t expecting it to be. However, it it was just confusing.

Ricky (Jenny’s guest) ordered Peshawari Bazaar, another lassie which has cucumber, mint, salt and cumin. Salt???? In a drink? Yup, that is no typo, ladies and gentlemen! Now, I have had odd drinks with cucumber in the past and I will have to admit this one tasted really strange. I think it was Kevin who mentioned this tasted like a “drink version of a Tzatsiki”. I think that description suits it perfectly…

Now, to the food! Actually, a small detour here… Before we went there, I checked on-line and, well, I wasn’t sure what to order. When we arrived, the partially dim lights and the joking we were doing with other food bloggers did not help with the thought process. However, somebody said something on the lines of “do you want to not-share?”. I know, this sounds really strange, given that, at times, we do go in group and share our meals because we want to try different dishes. The concept of “not sharing” is foreign to us! I will get back to this topic in a moment; just keep in mind we were “not sharing”, OK?

Anita had the Afghan Nomad which I will summarize it as a lamb burrito. No, really! There was some rice, beans and pieces of lamb inside that wrap. Aside from a strong gamey taste, I found it was OK at best. Sorry not much to comment on this one!

This is Kevin’s order: Khichiri – brown dill rice w/ ground beef, spinach & mushrooms, topped with dehydrated yogurt, tomato & onions. I will have to admit it was a really odd dish at first. Dehydrated yogurt? Regardless of their odd description, at the first bite… Well, if I didn’t know it was ground beef, I might have said it was lamb instead. Why? I had a gamey taste to it! Not sure how they make that but it worked in its own ways. It tasted similar to eating a stew where you added some barley into it and then topped by the yogurt. A dish I might order, if I was there by myself.

Mijune’s dish – It was a form of vegertarian dumpling… OK, let me try again: imagine a really soft version of a spinach ravioli; however, it contains no meat and had a gamey taste. Does that sound like a contradiction? Well, that is because it is a contradiction! It was really soft and that gamey taste was quite good, though I am not sure how vegetarian it is considering the gamey taste. Once again, something I would order.

The following set of pictures is what I ordered. More details in a moment so, please, bare with me, OK?

Eastern Platter

Clockwise from 12 o’clock: lambe kebab, saag paneer,afghan and coconut rice, dhal soup

Clockwise: Lamb kebab, Afghan eggplant and the Afghan rice

Clockwise: Afghan and coconut rice, dhal, lamb kebab and baked salmon

Dishes in the middle: Afghan eggpland and chicken masala (?)

Baked salmon

Thai tofu and, once again… Eggplant!

Eggplant and peas and cheese

Chickpeas

There were three dishes in the menu as part of the Eastern Platter that I did not take pictures: the minced beef kebab (which looks like meatballs), alu gobi and mango butter squash.

Now, here is the “not sharing” portion. According to the menu, the Eastern Platter comes with the two versions of the rice, a roti, salad, dhal soup and two of the dishes above. If eating by yourself, you can re-order any of the other dishes – after all they are small dishes. However, if you are sharing, you are “locked” by your two initial selections. So, as a joke, when we were ordering, we made emphasis on the we are “not sharing”. Figure THAT out. Of course, also as a joke, we were telling Sherman that he took us to an all-you-can-eat!

But, jokes aside, some of these dishes were hit or miss. While I did not take written notes, I have a lot of mental notes. I could write down most of them but that might be a bit of a chore given all these dishes. Instead, I will provide a quick summary:

• Lamb kebab: Really gamey, not chewy at all but weak sauce
• Chicken masala: Dark meat (though, for some reason, my initial piece was white), weak sauce.
  Minced beef kebab (not pictured): In practical terms, meatballs. It had a good texture but, again, weak sauce.
  Baked salmon: Slightly overcooked (still good, though) but, I think I am repeating myself here… The sauce did not do much.
• Saag paneer: The “cheese” did not really work as it was grated on top but, despite its mushiness, it was something I would expect from a spinach dish.
• Afghan eggplant: The winner of the night. Soft eggplant but it was better seasoned. Probably because of the fact it was eggplant?
• Alu Gobi (not pictured): I don’t recall eating this one so… No comments.
• Thai tofu: The sauce did nothing to improve the usually bland taste of the tofu.
• Peas and cheese: Might be a bit misleading here, the cheese is not a cheese sauce or cheese cubes but paneer. It was OK but… Weak sauce?
• Mango butter squash (not pictured): The oddball of the night. To quote Kevin, it looked like baby food. Past that, it was quite decent due to its unique sweetness.
• Chickpeas: Did not get to try.

During the whole meal, we were having funny chats, me blinding people beside me with my Speedlight (though I wasn’t the only one firing their flashes – Sherman’s table was even worst!). A couple on the front where there was a couch were looking at us really funny the whole time while we were shooting. So there you go that sense of wackiness!

As for the food, in general, it was mostly hit or miss. If you try the platter, some of the dishes seems to have been watered down to appeal the masses, though, still there are gems in it (like the eggplant). The non-platter dishes suffer a similar hit or miss. Like the “lamb burrito” above was a dish I thought could have been better but felt flat. On the flip side, both Mijune and Kevin dishes were excellent. If I were to come back, I think I will stick with these more unique dishes instead.

So, Sherman, once again, thanks for organizing this. You have set up the bar way high for the next one!

Pho Maxima Restaurant
822 20th Street
New Westminster, BC

OK, it has been almost two weeks since I came back from Seattle and I am not finally starting to catch up with my post on Vancouver restaurants. I think that, for comparison purposes, Seattle can give a run to Vancouver’s Canadian dollars in terms of food but, in the end, I am biased towards Vancouver, hehehehe.

Anyway, after I was back, the eternal question popped out the following morning: Hungry… Food… Where? The truth is that I need something “soft” to the stomach. After all, I ate way too much fatty/fried food while in Seattle! So, in a way, I short listed myself to soup, congee and noodles. But, since I was doing errands in the Edmonds area, I decided to drop by a pho place that might easily fly over almost everybody’s radar simply because it is in an odd place: a strip mall in 20th Street – a street that usually carries heavy traffic (because it directs you to the Queensborough bridge) but not much else.

After I walked in, I was given the option to sit anywhere. However, some of the tables still haven’t been cleaned up yet so it wasn’t a “sit anywhere” situation. It is a funny note I should mention this as it wasn’t that busy, despite it was a 2 person operation (from what I could see during my visit; I am sure there will be more in dinner time). I chose a table in the middle with some access to natural light and was set to go.

Yes, the picture above sort of tells the whole story: I was up for pho once again. Sure, that was the intent from the very beginning; however, I think I should start trying other Vietnamese dishes, like rice/vermicelli dishes or banh cuon! (OK, I have already had my share of banh mi). However, rather than the usual beef pho or my recent adventures with pho ga, I went for something pho but not the usual pho either.

Behold, their “HUE’ Spicy, beef brisket, ham with thick noodle soup”. Yeah, so much for going something “soft” to the stomach. The truth is that I wanted to go originally for a beef pho but somehow I thought it might be a good chance to try this. The spicy part was really enticing but, in the end, it wasn’t as spicy as it could have been, despite all the (chili?) oil you could see on top. One thing I found out later was that, had I squeezed the lime from the very beginning, it would have provided an interesting contrast between the light spiciness and some acidity. The beef was OK though I did not have high expectations out of it, since it wasn’t rare but (well done) brisket. Still, it had some beef taste to it so no complains in the end. The one part that really disappointed me was the noodles. If you look in the picture above, it was more on the lines spaghetti than thick noodles, specially considering that the rice noodles I am used to are almost the same thickness as the ones shown above (which begs the question, what would be “thick” in this case). Furthermore, they were really fragile, as in a couple of instances, they broke apart while I was grabbing them with the chopsticks. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

Once again, so much for going “soft” with my stomach… Yes, I had to order their vegetarian spring rolls. And, let me tell ya, this were quite good spring rolls. They were pipping hot, though also slightly oily on the outside. In my first bite, it started to ooze out some juices (oil?) which, in a way, shows they were made to order. Also, it was pack somewhat tightly, a characteristic which some consider bad, but, in this case, it worked fine. And the fact the filling was evenly distributed made every morsel enjoyable.

Given I did not have that much high expectations of the place, I must mention I quite enjoyed my meal. That is despite the thick noodle incident. (Though, I must mention, looking at the other dinner’s bowl of pho, their regular noodles are the same ones you would commonly associate with pho). Furthermore, when customers kept walking in, the waitress treated them as family, as if they have been customers for a long time. So, in a way, it is a hole-in-the-wall but a family one.

My Chau
1715 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC

On the night Anita, Mijune and I watched Did You Hear About the Morgans? (as mentioned here), we went to Breka Bakery (which Mijune blogged, here). Due to some wacky circumstance, we went through Kingsway and, while driving through, we were mentioning about different good spots for food in this Vancouver main road, including House of Dosas, which was blogged here. Another place that was mentioned was My Chau which seems to have some really good pho…

Now, if it is so good, why it has flown below most blogger’s radar? Well, actually it was blogged previously in Foodosophy (post here) some time ago and more recently by The Friday Lunch (post here). However, there was one more reason I wanted to come here: Anita’s visit to Lam Hoa Quan where she had Pho Ga (chicken based pho) rather than more “usual” Pho Bo (beef based pho). And according to Gastronomydomine (of Foodosophy) and Karl (of The Friday Lunch), they make a really good Pho Ga. While that is all good, there was one hurdle: They are closed by 6:00 p.m.! But, one weekend, I finally managed to squeeze some time.

While having chopsticks and spoons on the table is not unusual, I don’t recall seeing spoon and forks!

When I arrived, it was already past noon; however, it was packed full. In fact, I had to wait for a couple of minutes for a table to open! And, even after I was seated and given the menu, I had to wait for several minutes for them to drop by to take my order. Talk about being busy! However, once I made my order, the rest was pretty much fast.

While they do have other items in the menu, there was one dish I was going to order… Sort of. While Pho Ga is what was mentioned previously, they have three of such dishes: Mien Ga (special chicken with clear noodle in soup), Pho Ga Don (deep fried chicken with rice noodle in soup) and Pho Ga My Chau  Dac Biet, which has… Well, this is what I ordered!

Yup, pretty much everything chicken but the kitchen sink… Oh, wait, let’s try again: it has chicken, liver, gizzard, quail egg and chicken ball. As expected, the most flavourful piece was the liver; however, it is also a bit of an acquired taste so not everybody will enjoy it. The gizzards were cut nicely, which resulted in a slightly chewing texture but not too chewy. Similar to the liver, it had a strong meat-y taste. The chicken balls were OK, as it had a “springing” texture. It tasted lightly like chicken but, well, what would you expect here! There was a single quail egg. I believe it was mostly token and I could have easily lived without it. Tastewise, it wasn’t that different compared to a chicken egg. Finally, the chicken meat was composed of both white and dark meat. I will have to admit, even for dark meat, it was a bit bland. I wished it had some side pepper to make a dipping sauce as Anita did in her post. The noodles were similar to a lot of other pho places so I won’t comment about it. Finally, the broth. It was both good and bad. It was clear and had some chicken taste, as expected; however, it was somewhat uni-dimensional and lukewarm. I mean, you tasted the chicken (though somewhat light) but there wasn’t anything else. I thought some additional herb-y (saw-leaf herb, et al?) taste would have worked great. Still, I enjoyed the broth.

In the posts mentioned above, fried chicken was version was ordered. To “make up” for it, I ordered a side order of the chicken leg just to check how it taste. It was great I must say! Unlike other versions of fried chicken, it had no batter –  I am not even sure they dusted it with flour prior to frying. Along with its sweet and vinegary dipping sauce added additional notes to the basic chicken taste.

Despite it was quite a drive, somewhat difficult to park and wacky hours, I was quite happy with my meal. Sure, not perfect but, then again, nothing is perfect… The fact it was full after noon sharp it showed it has its followers.As for myself, I will try to come back but there are still other pho shops nearby to try, hehehehe.