crab people

hay.

shortly after, I took the BART to SF to meet w/ my cousin and in-law, and they took me out for some dungeness crab at a Vietnamese joint. They put bibs on you, which reminded me of Boiling Crab...

We ordered two crabs:

Drunken crab. Sweet, strong alcohol taste to it.

I forget what the other crab was (roasted?), but equally delicious.

Always need some veggies to go along with the meal.

Asparagus with oyster sauce and garlic.

Sauteed eggplant with garlic and basil leaves

Garlic noodles. Buttery and addicting. Along with some white rice, I was in heaven. Def. the best meal of the trip.

Everything was so damn good, and (as usual) I ate way too much. Thanks once again for the meal and your hospitality Y&T!

Pho Noodle House

The day after a hard night's drinking. I'm hungover and need some warm beefy soup to dilute all that poison I took in just hours before. My body is tired and miserable...I need PHOOOO! And so off I went to Pho Noodle House on Colima, a relatively new pho place that I had been wanting to try. I came in at their opening hours and found the place empty.


Nem Cuon (pork sausage rolls) $3.49. I had never had these before and decided to try them out. Sausage, cucumber, lettuce, vermicelli wrapped in rice paper. The menu described the sausage as being charbroiled, but it didn't look(where's the marks?) or taste that way to me. The sausage itself had a bit of nuttiness. Otherwise, I found the roll to be fairly bland, although the peanut sauce gave it some flavor.


Standard garnish of lime, jalapeno, basil and sprouts.


Tai Chin (rare steak, well-done brisket) as always for me, regular size for $5.50. (Large for $5.99.) Soup came out hot, which was nice. There was a decent amount of okay quality meat...nothin special. The broth wasn't bad, but I thought there was a little too much fish sauce in it, which was the first time I've ever said that about a bowl of pho I've had. Overall, an average bowl of pho, which didn't really stand out to me from the rest of mediocre pho joints around the area...Still, my stomach thanked me for the pleasant soup.



19756 E. Colima Rd. C & E
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
Open 7 days a week, 10:00am - 9:00pm

how now cow. and how!

As I left my last class, I sang, "Halle halle halle loo ooo yaa!" God, I love Thursdays!

You know how I do it after class. Beer. I was thinking about Porter's Pub or Round Tables at UCSD and wished that they had something like that at SAC, where you could come in and have a nice pint and relax.


What I've been drinking this month. Ever have a beer and have certain thoughts about it, only drink it a couple months or a year later, and find your opinion on it changed, for better or worse? Yup. I found it a lot different, than what I thought it tasted like, probably because it had been well over a year or more since I last had it, but still found it enjoyable. I read that the same company makes Corona.

I ate at Pho Express today across the street from Mt. Sac. A previous post with no pictures can be found here .

Same ol same but this time with an order of cha gio (5) for 5.25.


They were pretty big. I thought they were a bit overcooked because the insides were almost mushy. Taste wise was good. It'd have been nice if there would have been some mint, but that's just a personal preference. The cucumbers were a nice touch though.


Same ol veggies....nothing special to see here.

Regular sized Pho tai gau, rare steak and well done brisket for $4.75.
For a regular size, I thought the bowl was a bit smaller than other places. A good amount of meat however, more steak than brisket. The soup had a very strong beef flavor to it, which would have been more enjoyable if it hadn't been so salty. I also wanted to get a sandwich to go, but after my last experience, I decided against it, although I am willing to give the place another try. Actually what I've been craving lately is The Hat....I want a pastrami sandwich or fries.

Pho Express
20747 Amar Road Suite 8D
Walnut, CA 91789
Not sure about the hours, but I think they close at 9:00 PM
*CASH ONLY*

And lastly...

Lemonhead AND Friends. Chewy. Something I haven't seen before, until a couple weeks back, when this treat showed up in a goody bag. The only friend not shown is Orangehead, and I have never seen an Orangehead by itself either. They were a bit like jelly beans, but I preferred the hard version of these candies. Overall, I enjoyed it since it gave a variety of flavors in one box. For the poor college student and sugar junkie, Lemonheads or any other variety is a good buy because they are only a quarter, and you get a good amount of them.

Four more weeks of school...

i have a horrible phoking headache

and my gums are killing me. In other more relevant and important news, a new era has begun. I went to the polls around 6:50 AM today because that was the only time I could vote, and was surprised to see that people were already lined up. I thought that there would not be that many people at this time, since they have to work early. I was wrong, and ended up late to work. Luckily, my boss was cool with it. If anyone goes to Cal Poly or Mt. SAC and is reading this, you understand my pain of driving through this bs traffic due to the road construction on Grand/Temple....needless to say, it sucked. I wish my school closed for Election Day. Enough on the dithering, and on with the food.

During the spring or summer, I noticed that the Jolly Bagel, which had been around for quite some time on DB Blvd had closed down, and in its place was a little love shack called Pho Super Bowl. I hadn't had a chance to try it out until a few weeks ago, and let the pho adventure begin.

The restaurant is in a big space, but the actual number of tables and seating is small from what I remember. I went in for lunch around 11:30ish AM and there were a few other people eating as well. I opted for the Pho tai nam chin, rare beef and well done beef brisket, which I pretty much always get, regular size for $5.25, the large costs $5.95.

Service, like most other pho places, was prompt, as I got my standard sprouts, sliced jalapenos, basil, and a wedge of lime, shortly after I put in my order. I have yet to see a place around here give ngo gai (saw leaf herb)....I love that stuff. I also requested some sliced onions because I like extra onions in my soup, as well as mixing some with hoisin and siracha sauce, and eating it as a kind of "kimchi."


Here is the pho, after I put in the basil, which is why it may look greener than usual. There was a good amount of beef, and it was okay. I may be mixing this up with another place, but I remember the brisket being sub par because the pieces were very small. The broth on the other hand was good. Something was familiar about its taste that I just could not put my finger on, but I knew that I had also tasted this once or twice at a pho place in San Diego. I want to say it was a bit sweet, and while I'm not sure if that is the right word to describe it, it took away from the taste that I like. I'll have to ask the owner next time, if he/she is willing to share with me. Needless to say, I enjoyed this broth a lot more than Saigon Noodle House or Pho Hana in Diamond Bar, both of which I'd say aren't very good. In retrospect, since I do not enjoy Saigon nor Hana, it would not be completely correct to say that Pho Superbowl's broth is good. Rather the broth is better than Saigon or Hana. So far, I haven't found a place around the area whose broth I enjoy as much as Pho Pasteur in San Diego.

Lastly, there was a surprise. I got up to pay for my bill, which I'm used to doing at the other two pho places mentioned above, when the owner? or staff quickly ushered me back to my seat, telling me that he'd bring me the check. With the check, he set down this delicious treat.

(Yes this picture sucks. I took all these pictures with my cell phone. I think the other two came out well though. It's not the best quality, but it's clear enough for me.)
I was taken aback because 1) I thought he had misplaced his order, and 2) I've never received a free dessert at a vietnamese place (not to say that I've eaten at a lot), let alone a pho place. When i asked him what it was, he told me something in Vietnamese that I could not understand. I asked him to repeat it, and he simply said, "Coconut Milk." It certainly wasn't just coconut milk, but it was good, and he can call it whatever he wants, as long as I get it again next time. It was a warm and rich desert, which was kind of like a gelatinous pudding/porridge, with some kind of bean/rice in it. Sorry, that is a pretty crappy description. I asked a friend about it, and he told me that it was probably che dau xanh, which when I looked it up, translates to sweet mung bean soup.

I would definitely come here again. My only complaint is that they don't serve Vietnamese sandwiches, as I was looking forward to getting one to go. Yes, I know I can go to Lee's or other places, but I'm not really sure where the closest sandwich shop is around Diamond Bar, and I do not consider Irvine or Santa Ana close by any means. There is one more pho place that I haven't checked out yet, and that is Lucky Pho on the corner of Colima and Fairway...

Pho Super Bowl
329 S. Diamond Bar Blvd.
Diamond Bar, CA 91765
Open Everyday 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM

pho express

i've been eating around the mt. sac area more lately, and have discovered some places i never knew were there. like pho express, which was right across the street. i'm not sure how long they've been open for, but i never knew there was a pho restaurant there. i was on my class break, and didn't want to smell like pho, but i decided phok it since i hadn't had it for a long time. i ordered the regular size with steak and brisket for $4.75. the sides were like every other place around here: sprouts, jalapenos, and basil. i love pho broth, so i always like to try a nice spoonful before adding any condiments. it was good. not a whole lot going on in the soup, but it was much richer and oily than pho hana or saigon noodle around diamond bar. my only complaints were that the portion was a bit small, and the meat you get was even smaller than i was used too...maybe 5 good sized pieces total. or is that normal? i don't even remember the last time i had pho before that...

i was still hungry and ordered a sandwich with chicken to go, and was pretty disappointed. first was the bread. i thought it was too thin, and reminded me of those oily slices of bread i once had at this chinese porridge place in sf. second was the vegetables. they put some salad in there no joke. there were cut up salad pieces of iceberg lettuce, carrots...and some kind of weird dressing with the mayo, that made it too rich and gooey for me...the chicken had some kind of chinese style flavoring going on with it too, but it wasn't too strong. it was 3.25.

overall, i thought it was ok. i don't plan to go anytime soon because there are 2 other pho places around db that i want to try, as well as some other restaurants around the area that i want to go to too.

btw sake sushi in that same plaza has a nice beer happy hour on mon-sat, 50% off beer, so i drank a big bottle of asahi for 3 bucks. they also have sushi happy hour too, i think its 30% off for dinner. good deal in my book for the beer. the sushi, well i only tried the ikura, yellowtail, and hirame, and none were very fresh, esp the halibut. but it might be a good place for rolls. the chicken teriyaki bowl i give a C. the sauce was generic, chicken portion was small, so overall an average type of chicken bowl.