mmm-yoso!!!

Phonomenal

I've been doing a bit of research on expanding my "pho-risens". As I mentioned in my previous "pho-raging" post, it was time to try a couple of new places, "pho-better" or "pho-worse".....ok, I'll stop with the puns for now!

During my searches, Phonomenal in National City kept coming up. Though it says it's "Khmer" influenced, whatever that means. Was it pho or keay teav? Which I don't consider Khmer, but as more of a Cambodian-Chinese (Chiuchow/Teochow) hybrid. The closest I've had while Visiting Cambodia was Num Banh Chok at a crossroads village outside of Siem Reap. The "pho-tos" sure looked like typical pho, a bit darker perhaps, and with most people raving about 'dem bones (xi quách sưon bò) which Pho Duyen Mai used to make fairly well before the new ownership. 

So, I decided to head on over. The shop is only open Thursday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm, or until they run out of soup.

I noticed a line when I I drove over just before 10. I found parking and by the time I walked to the door, the crowd was in the shop. This is what it looked like at 5 minutes past 10. All the tables, the two and four-tops are communal. I sat next to a very nice Korean couple.

And the place was soon full!

The menu has basically one type of pho, spring rolls, and a bunch of drinks on the menu.

And so it was the House Special ($18.95) for me. I didn't know what to expect, would it be pho or keay teav, of which I've had the Vietnamese version Hu Tieu Nam Vang many times.

Well, the small portion of sprouts-basil-chili-lime made this really seem Vietnamese.

Soon enough my bowl arrived, with three ribs full of meat in full display. Now I knew why this place was popular.

 I liked the amount of cilantro and scallion in the broth, it added a nice fragrance and flavor. The meat was tender, though it seemed to not be as beefy as I would have desired. Still, if you're a major carnivore, you might enjoy this. Personally, I like a variety of cuts, texture, and flavors.

Sadly, the noodles were overcooked and mushy.

The broth was nice and dark, decently, not overly defatted, there was a nice herbaceous-anise flavor, along with a mild beefiness. It did have that overly "sweet" tone that permeates San Diego pho. My main issue was how salty it was. I was chugging  H2o all afternoon.

The service is nice and efficient. There was a waiting list a page long when I went to the counter and paid. Tons of folks were doing takeout. Like I said, if you're a carnivore, this might be your place. For me, there's more to pho than just the meat. I did notice that there didn't seem to be a Vietnamese customer in sight. The couple next to me were of Korean heritage and the young lady was complaining about how salty things were.

Still, perhaps this is the bowl for you. 

A bit over-hyped, but not bad.

Phonomenal
811 K Ave.
National City, CA 91950
Current Hours
Thurs - Sun 10am - 5pm or until they run out
Closed Mon - Wed

Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho-mparison: "KuyTeav" From 777 Noodle House, Ly Heng, and Trieu Chau

I'm thinking this post is long overdue; after all, I've been eating Hu Tieu Nam Vang ("Phnom Penh Noodles") Kho ("Dry") for ages. But just recently, I decided to try all three (not two) places in City Heights which claim Cambodian (versus Khmer) roots.

As for the roots of the dish itself; I'm more inclined to agree with folks who believe that Kuy Teav is more of a Cambodian-Chinese (Chiuchow/Teochow) hybrid that had been adopted by Vietnamese cuisine; than a purely Khmer Dish. In fact, while we ran into the very traditional Num Banh Chok when visiting Cambodia, a dish that has legendary deep roots in Cambodian folklore, there's not quite the equivalent for Kuy Teav.

Regardless, I tend to eat Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho in the very typical way; for breakfast. And over the last couple of months, I decided to revisit these three places a mere third of a mile apart.

So, let's get started, shall we?

777 Noodle House:

777 used to be my choice for Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho; but was eventually surpassed by Ly Heng, but on my last visit, things were looking up.

So, what would it be this time around?

The bean sprouts were nicely blanched; the only place that did this during this rotation. The noodles were nicely cooked; though the sauce for the noodles were the mildest of the three. This bowl also had the least and cheapest toppings. The accompanying soup was good, not too salty. I shocked at what was the usual shank with meat as it looked fairly skimpy. It was however, almost all, very tender, very porky meat, and just a sliver of bone!

In terms of price; this was in the middle of the three bowls. If you'd like to know more about the original owners of 777 and enjoy a blast from the past, you can check this out from almost seven years ago to the day it was published.

The place is looking a bit worn; though it's basically the same folks who have been working the front of house from when I first visited back in 2010.

777 Noodle House
4686 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105

Ly Heng:

Next up; Ly Heng, which I first visited when they opened in 2014. Over time; I thought that Ly Heng had over taken 777 with regards to the Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho.

I was a bit surprised with what arrived. It was the most interesting presentation and also the cheapest ($6).

The soup had a nice sized bone in it with a decent amount of tender, flavorful, meat. As usual; it edged on the salty side, and was perhaps the least favorite of the three.

Check out that presentation; in a shallow bowl, with everything on lettuce (?) which wilted. The chicken served with this was dry, the liver tasted not-so-fresh, the noodles were over-cooked. The bean sprouts weren't blanched as well.

Hmmmm…..

The young lady who waited on me was wonderful and Ly Heng was the most modern and busiest of the three places. It was strange as everyone; all five other tables seemed to finish at the same time and leave within minutes of each other.

Ly Heng
4451 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

Trieu Chau:

Talk about a blast from the past. Yes, that post is from 2006! Actually, I did revisit after our Cambodia trip. Let's just say I didn't "handle" the food well and leave it at that. Usually, I'd never return to, or ever post about somewhere when that occurs. But heck, it's 2019, right?

And while the restaurant looks basically the same outside; I think the interior looks a bit better.

Though there are some interesting touches....like did you ever wonder what happened to Mandarin Garden's (another blast from the past) chopsticks after they closed? Well, look no further.

The version here was the most expensive; like eight bucks, but it also had the most meat.

And while there was a pittance of unblanched bean sprouts and the bone in the soup was just that....no false advertising here, it was almost all bone, with some really tough meat and connective tissue, I think the broth was the best, as it actually had some nice porkiness to it.

The noodles were a bit over-cooked, but the sauce used for the noodles were also quite good, if a bit salty (the lime helps with this); it did help that there was a good amount of what looked like seasoned-sautéed garlic as well. The shrimp was large, moist and plump. The rest of the meats were fine as well. So if you prefer more meat with your Kuy Teav, this is the place to hit up.

Trieu Chau Restaurant
4653 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

So who was the winner? Well, me of course as I got to enjoy three decent versions of Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho, all for less than most of us pay for a sandwich! Though I will say that the version at Ly Heng has slipped (though it's only $6) and I was pleasantly surprised by Trieu Chau.

These noodle soups are so inexpensive that you should probably check them out if you're in the neighborhood.

First and Last Meals in Portland - the Mekong Bistro; Dar Salam

Kirk and Cathy get a day off today as Ed wants to talk about his and Tina’s first and last meals in Portland.

On our trip, we flew into Portland and out of Portland, but the lion’s share of our visit was spent on the road going to Central Oregon, Southern Oregon, and the Oregon coast. After we flew in and before we flew out, we had the same problem, we wanted to eat somewhere close to our motel and to PDX.

Mekong Bistro:

The area along 82^nd Ave. in East Portland is a treasure trove of small restaurants of various ethnicities. Intrigued by the thought of Cambodian food, we found the Mekong just off 82^nd:

The restaurant was a large space with an inviting bar, though not very busy on this Monday night:

The menu was huge, a whole page of happy hour specials, and several pages of Cambodian, Lao, Thai, and Vietnamese choices. Of course, we wanted to focus on the Cambodian, but first, to take the edge off our appetites, we ordered chicken wings off the happy hour specials:

A real winner. Fresh from the fryer, crust perfectly crunchy, meat tender, moist, and flavorful. Though almost too hot to handle, we couldn’t stop ourselves from munching away. The dipping sauce was meh, mostly sweet, but nothing could detract from the wings themselves.

Our first bowl of Cambodian soup was sour pork and watercress:

Okay, that’s a pretty lousy picture; this’ll give you a better idea of what was in the soup:

The rich broth had a complex sour profile and the pork and watercress were well cooked, but not overcooked.

The sweet and sour fish soup had different flavors:

This photo shows many of the ingredients:

Bean sprouts, greens, squash, pineapple, and perfectly cooked excellent quality fish. The fish had no off or muddy flavors, tasted very fresh, and had been lightly grilled or fried so that the pieces of the filet stayed together. Really excellent.

The soups had come with a small bowl of ordinary rice, and the bill – gotta love no sales tax in Oregon – was quite reasonable:

Our friendly waitress, who was Lao, explained that the bistro is owned by a Cambodian/Lao couple, which helps explain the wide range of menu items. I would happily go back and wish I had an opportunity to work through more of the menu.

Mekong Bistro, 8200 NE Siskiyou, Portland, OR 97220; (503) 265-8972.

Dar Salam

Looking for our last Portland meal, Tina found Dar Salam, pointed out it had good ratings and that we hadn’t had Middle Eastern food anywhere on the trip. Sounded good to me and the restaurant looked inviting that morning in a modest neighborhood on NE Alberta:

We were early, no doubt the first customers of the day, and were both impressed by the pictures and memorabilia of Iraq that covered two walls of the restaurant:

Looking at the photos closest to us, you can see a wide range of vistas and individuals in Iraq. So many of the images seem to have a personal meaning and there was a poignancy just looking at the decor. It reminded me that exile from one’s friends, family, and native land is often very sad. Americans picture Iraq the way we see it on TV, full of violence, dust, rubble, and chaos. It wasn’t always like that:

Tina and I each ordered a soup. Her chickpea and onion soup (leblebi) was wonderful and healthy, flavors brightened by lemon juice:

I had the adis, an extremely smooth soup based on red lentils spiced with garlic and zatar:

Both soups were outstanding.

A large warm pita bread arrived next:

The joys of fresh Middle Eastern flatbreads. I pity those poor people (like us in Yuma) buying their pita bread in Kroger’s or Albertson’s. The bread came with a small bowl of all of olive oil and zatar:

Truth be told, neither Tina nor I used much of the flavored oil because the mezza plate showed up:

We loved it. The tzatziki was fresh and tangy. The hummus smooth and perfectly flavored. The baba ghanouj was perfect, extremely smoky and extremely flavorful. Good enough for a close-up:

The falafel was crunchy, rustic, and flavorful:

Overall the meal was as good as I could imagine. A perfect expression of Iraqi cuisine. Everything is prepared from scratch by the owner and his mother, truly prepared with love. I wish I could return and explore the whole menu.

And the bill was downright cheap:

Dar Salam, 2921 NE Alberta St., Portland, OR 97211, (503) 206 – 6148.

 

Ly Heng Asian Restaurant Revisited

There were a couple of fairly cool (for San Diego) mornings during April, so I decided to give Ly Heng as visit on a Honey-doo weekend morning since it had been a while since I'd eaten there.

I was in for a couple of surprises. First off, the configuration of the place had changed, with the register and counter now on the west side of the place.

Another big surprise; was the menu. There was a larger variety of dishes, with items like Bo Luc Lac and....gasp...Hainan Chicken!

So you know I just had to order it. I wasn't sure what I was going to get and was a bit shock at the portion size of this as it was just eight bucks! Man, that chicken was succulent and tender, but the flavor was really lacking in chicken flavor, nor the mild ginger or salt. I'm used to two different sauce with Hainan Chicken, the scallion-ginger sauce, which was absent, and a chili based sauce, with lime, chicken broth, and a touch of sweetness. This sauce really lacked zip. The worse part of the whole thing was that it was served with regular jasmine rice.....a ton of rice mind you, but I really missed the typical chicken-mild ginger flavored rice.

I was bummed, but the pork bone soup, porky and salty saved the meal for me. Ly Heng serves a falling off the bone chunk of pork rib in the soup which is just fine by me.

I returned a couple of weekends later, with the thought of trying something else new from the menu, but decided to just stick with the Pho Nam Vang......

Which turned out to be the right move on this day as I've mentioned before, in spite of tending to overcook the noodles a bit, of all the places that serve this in the area, Ly Heng is my favorite.

And that bone soup on this day was delicious.

And at $5.99, I ain't going to complain too much.

Perhaps I'll try some of the other dishes one of these days, but right now, I'm happy with that Pho Nam Vang.

Ly Heng
4451 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105
Hours:
Thurs - Tues 8am - 8pm

Ly Heng Asian Restaurant

Back in January, I noticed that Hao Vi was gone, replaced by Ly Heng. I was intrigued so I decided to stop by for a some noodle soup.

The interior look basically the same.... it seems like a nice family is running the place now.

The menu looked overwhelmingly Vietnamese, having seen the writing on the window, I asked the nice young man where their family was from. It turns out that they are from Cambodia. So, Ly Heng is one of those hybrid noodle houses, like Trieu Chau and 777 which reflect the family's travels.

I wanted to try the Hu Tieu Nam Vang - Phnom Penh Noodles, but they only had a Banh Pho version on the menu - which I ordered.

Served with blanched bean sprouts, I found the broth to be a bit too salty for me. The noodles were overcooked as well.

There was a nice variety of protein items, but nothing really stood out.

The nice young man told me that they had just opened and would soon be adding more items to the menu. So I decided to wait a couple of months to return.

Flash forward a whole six months....Ly Heng had slipped my mind. One Friday evening, MrQ mentioned how much he missed Hao Vi...... which reminded me that I had always intended to return to Ly Heng.

Man, look at the grafitti on the sign.....why on earth would folks waste their time defacing a business's sign like that?

The same folks were running the place and there seemed to be a few more items on the menu. I took my time looking over the menu this time and found one of my favorite dishes; Beef Sate Noodles, which I ordered "dry".

And guess what? They even had Hu Tieu.

To be perfectly honest, the highlite of the meal was the pork bone soup, which, though a bit on the salty side hit the spot, as did all that tender pork. This was more of a rib than pork leg bone, which suited me just fine.

There were a couple of slices of fairly tender beef. The "sate" in this case was mainly peanut and chili paste, lacking the shallots and other flavors that add complexity to the sauce. I will say that it might be the spiciest sate I've had.

The portion of noodles was very generous, and it was prepared well, with a nice stretch and not mushy.

While I wish the menu was more diverse, it's heavy on Vietnamese style noodles dishes - thre are many places in the area that do it just as well or better, I'll probably return and try something else.... so long it has that pork soup!

Nice people and decent prices.

Ly Heng
4451 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105
Hours:
Thurs - Tues 8am - 8pm

 

777 Noodle House

About seven or eight months ago, I noticed that a new shop had opened across the street from the now (sadly) defunct 79 Supermarket. In the place of.... if I recall correctly a Billiard Hall, was a noodle shop called 777 Noodle House.

And while I initially thought it was just another "Mi" (egg noodle soup) joint, I noticed the script on the window, along with Hủ Tiếu Nam Vang written everywhere. Hủ Tiếu Nam Vang, also known as Phenom Penh Noodles or Chazhou Noodle, a tapioca noodle based dish that from what I have read originated in Cambodia, and evolved as it made it's into Southern Vietnam, becoming a dish I've had a couple of times Hủ tiếu Mỹ Tho(named after the city of Mỹ Tho) . Much more info can be found on this post on Viet World Kitchen. I was fascinated so I decided to check the place out.

The interior is fairly spartan, and the plasma television is always on Fox News for some reason. You can see the bones of what the place was in a former life. The menu is fairly large, with over 100 dishes.... and yes, all the prices end with '7'. The prices are very inexpensive, with bowls of noodle soup starting at $4.77, and the upper range of prices of $6.77 for items like seafood dishes at $6.77.

And yes, the owners are Cambodian, and also Chazhou (Chiuchow), so in case you were expecting the fragrances of Kroeung or Prahok  wafting through the air, and Khmer dishes like A-Mok or Samla Kako, you'll be sorely disappointed. Most everything takes a Chazhou turn, with a few Thai style and Vietnamese style dishes.

So of course I had the Hủ Tiếu Nam Vang (Chazhou Noodle Soup - $4.77), which is pretty much a bargain.

I believe this is the first time I've had this without any offal in it. There are two slices of pretty lean, and somewhat chewy pork, that are decently flavored, and a couple of shrimp. Some ground pork floats around in the broth which is fairly light, somewhat porky, with some nice salty tones (MSG). The blanched bean sprouts adds texture and flavor to everything. But........ this doesn't hold a candle to the "dry" (Kho) version, also $4.77:

The noodles had been blanched in broth and was mixed with a bit of what tasted like oyster sauce. One time the noodles were perfect, the second a bit too mushy and overcooked. But what I really enjoyed about this version was the soup on the side.... well not exactly only the soup on the side.

You see what I mean, right? Honestly, which would you choose? This really isn't going to win any culinary prizes, but it left me more than satisfied. And the price was right.....

There's one more item that I really enjoyed.... the Fried Leek Cakes ($2.97):

The folks always apologize because this takes a while.... but it is worth it. The dough for the cakes is made with glutinous rice flour, making it both sticky, a bit gooey, and crunchy at the same time. The leek filling is molten as well. The flavors are like life... a little sweet, a little salty, a little bitter.

I brought my leftovers home, and the Missus really enjoyed it even though it was cold and had loss it's crunch. She wasn't a big fan of the Nuoc Mam Cham, which She found took away from the flavor of the leek cake. Speaking of the Nuoc Mam Cham. the folks here are really nice. When they packed the remaining two leek cakes to go, they made sure to add a little container of Nuoc Mam Cham. Those little things matter. 

Some of the other dishes aren't as successful in my opinion. Once I had the Crispy Egg Noodles with Beef ($5.77), which was pretty cheap.

The noodles were either packaged or made far in advance. They were more crumbly than crisp. The beef was fairly tough, but at least they used Gailan. There's a combo Chinese Fast Food - Louisiana Fried Chicken Shop next door (I kid you not), and I think they share the same kitchen. This was very fast-foodish. I've heard that some of the other dishes (there are a bunch of dinner specials - many seem Thai, aka curries and tom yum) like the Fried Rice (I was listening "Little K") are pretty good.

I like the folks here, the two women are very nice, the gentleman is reserved but very nice as well. He laughed when I actually bought a lottery ticket here..... I told him it had to be lucky since I got it from "777", right? Well, maybe next time......

777 Noodle House
4686 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105

Open Daily 8am - 9pm