Sunday, February 17, 2008

Other than Pho???


Have you ever been hit with a double craving? It's hard for me to go to a pho place and order something other than pho. I'd go in craving something else on the menu, but as soon as I follow my nose thru that door, I'm also craving pho. I know that the true foodies out there understand my angst.
Well, one night, I was hit with a craving for Vermicelli w/ Grilled Pork and Fried Spring Rolls. It is a cold vermicelli salad with marinated grilled pork, shredded veggies, roasted peanuts, and cut up pieces of egg rolls (the good kind with meat, none of that fake cabbage-filled stuff). Oh, and the vinegar and nuoc mam based dressing. So I head over to Cao Dao for an order to go. As soon as I smelled the delicious aroma of the pho broth and saw everone in the restaurant slurping on their soups, I got hit with an instant craving for pho. But my craving for the vermicelli was still as strong as ever. There was no way I would be able to eat both. Each of these dishes are enough to fill me up.
The nice guy at the counter waited very patiently while I was sorting out my dilemma. I went back and forth and it went something like this:
...I have pho almost everytime I'm here, I should get my vermicelli.
...Everyone looks so happy with their soups, it smells sooo good
...mmm...grilled pork
...tripe...flank...broth
...crispy, yummy spring rolls

...you can get pho next time you're here...
...if you don't get the vermicelli now, you'll be craving it for the next 2 weeks

So I ended up getting the vermicelli. The nice server even offered me a seat at one of the few empty tables and brought me a glass of ice water w/ a slice of lime while I waited for my to-go order.
As soon as I got home, I tore into the takeout box and mixed up everything except for the spring rolls. The pork coulda used more charring, but was tender and savory. The lightness of the vermicelli, shredded veggies, and vinegar dressing balanced out the strong flavors of the pork. Roasted peanuts added a nice crunchy texture. The fried spring rolls/egg rolls were crispy and had a good amount of meat filling. It wasn't like mom's, but it satisfied my craving.

3 comments:

  1. Don't you find, that sometimes taking care of one craving will just lead to another? LOL!

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  2. Yes! It seems that I've had so many double cravings that I'm still trying to catch up!

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  3. sigh, everytime I order something else at a Pho restaurant I almost always regret it.

    So now I just skip that problem and just eat Bun Bo hue at Meung Trung =P

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