Pho as big as your head and Frost City deliciousness

July 5, 2012

I am so incredibly full with such delicious food. I want to just curl up and sleep but I know I will forget details if I wait until tomorrow.

I woke early this morning and got to work at 7. I worked on finishing up the links and bibliography information I was working on. A nice quiet morning. For lunch I ate my leftovers from the food I cooked this weekend - the rice, cilantro, ginger/onion dressing and the broccoli rabe and chinese broccoli. I also had a juicy peach. It was fine but not thrilling. Shu gave me a packet of stuff that when you add warm water makes a pudding type sweet made of black sesame. I have no idea how it will be but I'm willing to try it!

After lunch I went back to work and finished up the bibliography and links. Sent that to Ann and it is finished. We are making up the report on the DVFR data but that will take a bit to get together. I needed to work on and tidy up some of the charts to plug into the report. So I tweaked those till the end of my work day. Shu had her daughter there for a short bit so I took a picture. She had been on a trip to the beach. So cute!

I managed to be a temptress and talked Lisa into an evening out (bad me!). We made a quick stop at Marukai so I could get some of the li hing mui candies (Hunter liked them and wanted more). Those are the ones that taste a bit like honey drops with the salty seed inside - so sweet and salty mixed. I also got more shrimp chip crackers! SO GOOD! Lisa got some hot (as in spicy) dried cuttlefish shreds for me to try. i was impressed! I liked it a lot!

After Marukai we went to meet Wayne at a Vietnamese restaurant. The place is called Pho Bistro 2 and is on Kalakaua Avenue.

We started with an order of spring rolls. They are cut in half and the way to eat them is to take a small leaf of lettuce and place the half spring roll inside, then add some noodles, thin shreds of pickled veggies, fresh cucumber then wrap it up leaving one end open. Take a spoonful of the clear sauce and add it into the open end (which is also the cut open end of the spring roll). The sauce soaks down into inside of the roll. Then eat. It is VERY good. Crispy outside, not overly greasy. It tasted wonderful!

After the spring rolls our food started arriving. First is the plate of veggies you can add to the pho. Pho is prounounced fa. The veggies include bean sprouts, thai basil, sliced limes, jalapeno pepper slices and culantro. Culantro (yes it is spelled correctly) is a spiky edged leaf that tastes like super strong cilantro, but the spiky edges will poke you. You put whatever you like into the soup while it is hot and let the flavors blend as the heat releases the flavors of the herbs and citrus.

Lisa and I both ordered large #14, Pho with rare steak and beef balls (Pho taibo vien). I did check to be sure what beef balls were because I didn't want surprises. Beef balls are just meatballs and nothing scary.

Papa George got large #13, Pho with rare steak (Pho tai). I didn't take a photo since it looked like mine and Lisa's. Wayne ordered the superbowl #12 Pho combination (Pho dac bief). It comes with beef flank, rare steak, brisket, tripe, beef balls and tendon. His bowl was ENORMOUS!

Wayne and I both like the broth the best whereas Lisa and Papa George like the noodles best. There are small dishes on the table and condiments. There are 2 types of red chili in oil mixtures, sriracha, shoyu (soy sauce), hoisin sauce, salt and pepper. You mix the sauces however you like for your personal taste either in the small dishes or you can add it right into the pho. You can dip the meat from the pho into the sauce if you like, and/or the noodles, or add it straight into the broth. Or you can not use any. You also can choose the meat inside the bowl or outside the bowl. The rare beef is cooking in the hot broth, so many people have it served outside the bowl so they can just dip it into the broth and eat rather that having it served inside the broth where it is cooking.

Wayne ate his entire superbowl! The owner was impressed. This is her in the first picture. She stopped by the table and gave him a free tapioca. It was a lovely purple color - it was okinawan sweet potato tapioca. It was really good. it doesn't taste like the sweet potatoes/yams back home. This is not a great picture but you can get the idea. We each had a few bites.

We left and went to get dessert #2. We went to Frost City. This is me and Papa George in front of the store.

This place is amazing. There were so many choices! This is unlike anything I have every had before. Shave ice here is a block of frozen water that is shaved super fine and then syrup, condensed milk or others things poured over top. This is Vietnamese snow desserts. Like a cross between shave ice and ice cream. It is flavored milk or water frozen into blocks, then shaved in strips and served in a delicious heap of yumminess. I am not describing it well, please go this this link and see a better description. Here are several pictures of us in the store.

Lisa got the summer lychee and shared it with her dad. Papa George is diabetic so shouldn't be eating much sugar. The summer lychee isn't as strong a flavor as the regular lychee but I liked it. It was served with a few small side items as you can see on the plate.

I got the mango. It was VERY GOOD. I couldn't finish it all after the huge dinner and then this huge dessert.

Wayne got the haupia-mango-pumelo. WOW. It was haupia ice cream shavings (remember haupia is the coconut milk custard dessert) with chunks of mango and shredded pumelo (pumelo is a lot like a red grapefruit). FREAKING AMAZING.

After this we were all stuffed and ready to fall over in a heap from so much food. Lisa and Papa George dropped me off and headed home. I have done the blog and am now ready to fall into a food coma. Packing the boxes to ship home will just have to wait another day! I'm too tired to do it tonight.

Malama pono, (Take care)
~Melissa