Que Huong-Lunch with Friends

It's Tuesday and mmm-yoso!!! is getting through the week with another post by Cathy.  Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are just plain busy.

Kirk first posted about Que Huong in August 2005. He subsequently had a series of three posts devoted to the food here in 2008 and he has mentioned some of the dishes, particularly the chicken wings, in other posts (you can use that 'Search" box on the top left of this page) there are 1670 mentions on this blog. The Mister and I had been to this location before 2005, when it was a dim sum restaurant (and I wasn't taking photos of our meals, much less blogging).  In August, fellow blogger (on hiatus) Sawyer was in town, working for his Internship and Kirk, Carol, Dennis and I met up with him at Que Huong early on a Sunday morning for a wonderful celebratory feast.
Located in the corner space of a mini mall, behind the Burger King parking lot on the North side of University at Marlborough, the exterior is deceiving.

Que Huong has a very large interior behind the steel corner door barred location, the tables and chairs always are elegantly covered - for lunch and dinner- and the interior seems quieter and less hurried than most Vietnamese Restaurants.

Kirk did the ordering since he knew what he -and we- would like.  The menu is mind-numbingly large and includes several types of wild game meats and is not anything like a Pho Restaurant. At all.

The pork and shrimp jackfruit salad arrived at the table topped with a sesame rice cracker.

It looks like this.  It's tangy and made with canned jackfruit (which isn't mushy, but firm...kind of al dente, as are all the vegetables).  It's topped with a bit of nuoc mam (fish sauce).

Kirk ordered the table both tamarind and fish sauce chicken wings.  If you've read his posts, you know he thinks the chicken wings here are the best in San Diego.  I agree. The wings are crispy and light and coated perfectly.  It was extremely difficult to decide which was better...it was a matter of if you like a bit sweet or a bit more pungent.  I will say I will never order hot sauce/BBQ sauce/honey anything wings anyplace else ever again.

The seasoned periwinkle in coconut curry sauce was another great item.  The periwinkles are cut on both ends, so you can easily suck the meat out and enjoy the sweet-spicy sauce.  The herb on top is Vietnamese coriander (rau ram). There were about six of the little shelled creatures and some of the sauce left over and I brought those home to The Mister, who really enjoyed the flavors melded in this dish.

This was a salad of minced wild boar sauteed with lemongrass and red and green peppers, topped with the sesame rice cracker. The herb on top has a cumin flavor.  This was surprisingly wonderful and mildly addictive.  The boar flavor wasn't too distinct or odd...I got more texture out of it and enjoyed the melding of all the flavors. 

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Snapper flavored with dill and turmeric is a classic Vietnamese dish: cha ca thang long.  It's served with that plate of goodies at the top- rice noodles, lettuce, perilla leaves, cucumber, pickled carrot, pineapple and mint. this is a meal for two all by itself.  Seriously good.

Above is the catfish Hot Pot, photographed after some of the contents had been removed and the sizzle had stopped. The fish was tender and fresh flavored (not muddy, as sometimes happens with catfish) and a piece of pork belly lined the bottom of the pot.  The sauce was sticky of course, but had a deep flavor of fish sauce in addition to the sweet.  I wish I wasn't so full and could have eaten more. All in all, great food shared with great friends.

Of course, I returned, with The Mister, for lunch.  We started out with the papaya salad.  Fresh, crispy, able to taste all the flavors which were perfectly melded together.  Just enough heat for us.

We chose to share the fish sauce chicken wings, because ...well... we just wanted to try one flavor and The Mister asked me to choose. My choice was savory. Perfectly crispy wings, perfectly sauced and served with a salt-pepper-lime juice for dipping. 

The Mister wanted to see the version of  Bahn Xeo that Que Huong makes.  We ordered it as soon as we sat down, knowing it takes a while to make.  

A perfect light, crispy, rice flour-turmeric based pancake, filled with bean sprout, onion, pork and shrimp. Airy and crispy, wrapped in lettuce leaves with mint added. An excellent version.

We enjoy Que Huong and it has become a regular stop when we are in the neighborhood.  It's just a bit nicer with better food and offerings than some other places.

Que Huong 4134 University Avenue San Diego 92105  (619) 281-6008 

Comments

[HB]

How do you pronounce the name of this place? Looks great.

[caninecologne]

Great post! That's one of my favorite restaurants! i like the fish sauce wings better than the tamarind. we also like the shrimp/pork/green jackfruit salad.

the salt and pepper lime juice with the wings is new. they use to serve it with lime wedges and a small dish filled with salt and pepper separately.

The owner is also a very nice guy!

[Dennis]

Yay that was a fun day! That minced wild boar dish was great, seasoning and all. Every time I'm here I get to try a dish I never tried. Special thanks to Kirk for ordering! He's also written a nice article on the reader and mentions the day: http://tinyurl.com/be4xnds

[Ed (from Yuma)]

Great post. I love the place too. One of Tina and my favs. Just looking at those dishes is mouth watering.

[Cathy]

Hi again, HB-I pronounce it "K Hwong", but am not certain if that is proper. The food here is excellent.
Thanks, cc. I haven't yet had anything bad or even mediocre here. Jay is a good guy.
It was such a nice day, Dennis. Thanks for the link-attached it to Kirk's name (and sorry about your name/link; also corrected). Seriously fresh, great food.
Thanks, ed. Just getting you thinking about potential places to visit next time you get out here...

[Janfrederick]

"Kirk did the ordering since he knew what he -and we- would like."

Uh oh, sounds like Kirk is turning into a Mr. Beach. All he needs now is a cool nickname. :)

[Carol]

What a great meal (and day) that was! I love this place. The fish sauce wings are my favorite. I need to go back soon, if anything for the just the wings. :-)

[Kirk]

Hi Cathy - It was a blast seeing and chatting with all of you!

[Cathy]

You're funny, janfrederick. What happened was that all of us there had 'researched' Que Huong by reading Kirk's posts and I think each one of us mentioned one of the items that he had blogged about. He just ordered it all, plus one 'new' to us item.
It was a really great day, Carol. The large order of wings and maybe a bowl of rice is a meal for two.
Thanks again for everything, Kirk. You make it fun to learn new things.

[caninecologne]

cathy, i actually looked up banh xeo and kirk wrote in his post that this place had one of the better versions he's had. that was our first foray to QH. of course we tried other stuff that day and during numerous subsequent visits. i liked it so much that we went for mother's day 2 years in a row. perhaps it will be a new tradition.

in my opinon, the banh xeo they make is not as crisp as other versions. theirs is also quite large. i like the crisp banh xeos better actually (sorry QH!).

[Cathy]

What a nice a place to go for Mother's Day, cc. Everyone has different preferences for certain items- and places prepare things differently. The bahn xeo here has more filling and the bottom did not stay as crisp, but we end up breaking it up to put into the lettuce leaves anyhow and sogginess isn't a factor.