A Taste of Vietnam.

A lot of the dishes I ate growing up originated from Vietnam even though my family is of Lao descent. My mom would make some Viet dishes because a lot of Southeast Asian meals are adapted from each other. Personally, it’s really hard to find a good Viet cuisine restaurant in town that has really good flavor, especially since home cooked food from Mom sets the bar high. I’ve gone to this spot a couple times already due to recommendations from friends so I decided to blend my couple trips there into this blog post.

Y’all know I loveee me some fresh spring rolls (mentioned in my past post about Basil). The spring rolls here are huge! And they’re very generous with the ingredients and meat they add. I get the shrimp rolls, which the shrimp are large and there’s enough in each bite. There’s a hearty amount of noodles and veggies too.

Banh mi is a Vietnamese sub that shows the influence of the French culture in Southeast Asia (the French baguette) mixed with traditional Vietnamese ingredents such as cilantro and pickled vegetables. I think the way than A Taste of Vietnam makes their banh mi is probably one of the best ways I’ve ever ate banh mi. They toast the bread perfectly, where it’s crunchy on the outside and soft inside. Inside, there’s the pickled vegetables (carrots and daikon), which give a great tang to a sandwich that is salty without it. There’s also cilantro, jalapeño, cucumber, seasoned beef, and also comes with the traditional liver pâté (which I opted without). This sandwich is perfect! From the seasonings of the meat to the crunchiness of the veggies to the slight pickled flavor of the cucumber and daikon, it just pulls the whole dish together.

For my entreé, I got Chicken Pho. If you don’t know what it is, it’s the better version of Southeast Asian ramen with rice noodles and much more flavor.  It’s very hard for me to like pho that isn’t made by Mom, just because she barely uses seasonings yet makes it very flavorful and the perfect comfort food. Let me tell you…the pho here is pretty close to Mom approval. I usually prefer my pho super soup and spicy but when I tried this broth, I was even okay with it being plain. It comes with a plate of Thai basil, bean sprouts, cilantro, and jalapeños which is the traditional way to eat pho. I actually ate everything out of it and drank down to the broth.

Tony had gotten Chicken Broken Rice, which is a scoop of steamed rice, seasoned chicken, tomatoes, cucumbers, and the traditional sweet and sour vinegrette sauce (fish sauce, sugar, seasonings). His was very delicious too and very filling! Also a great healthy option.

So far, we found our new favorite Viet spot in town! So excited to go back and try more.