SDPB Special Boston Edition: Just don't drive there

Location: 7 Beach St (between Washington St & Knapp St), Boston, MA
Hours: 10:30am - 10pm daily
Phone: (617) 422-0501
Website: Their Yelp page

Hao:

I think this place may be run by a non-Vietnamese family. Why? It opens late (pho is traditionally a breakfast food, or so Katie tells me), and they have decent service. Also, it's in the middle of chinatown.



Garnishes were standard, if lacking in the culantro (not too surprising, as it is rare) and jalapeños (?!). Still, since neither of those things are essential for MY pho experience, I wasn't too bothered.



The meat was on the bad side of mediocre, as you can tell from the image. Interestingly enough, the tripe was quite good with a tender texture. The same could not be said of the tendon, which came in large chewy chunks (rather than soft melty slices).

The broth started off overly sweet, but I quickly adapted and began to enjoy it. The noodles did not come in a clump, as is usual, but were otherwise standard fare.

Overall, not a bad bowl of pho, but I can't give it a nice rating given that it cost $7 (not including Boston parking). I'm not sure if that's the standard rate in Boston, or if it's unique to this one place. (and I'm too lazy to google it.)

I give Xinh Xinh 6 spoons, but I don't have the spoon pictures, so they're all imaginary. :)

SDPB Special Portland Edition! Pho Oregon

Hao recently made a trip up to Portland, to give a talk at a scientific conference. First, however, he dined on pho. Hey, it's just a few blocks from the MAX station on 82nd!

Location: 2518 NE 82nd Ave, Portland, Oregon
Phone: (503) 262-8816

Location: 6236 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR 97213
Phone: (503) 281-2990

The famous Russian author, Tolstoy, once wrote (new translation by Hao): "All good bowls of pho resemble one another, each crappy bowl of pho is crappy in its own way." To this, a translator footnote reads: "except for clumpy noodles, as it seems like every other pho restaurant is trying to create a gordian knot of densely packed rice noodles."

With an excellent broth, fresh and flavorful garnishes, and mostly good meat, Pho Oregon failed miserably in noodle clumpage, some of the worst I have ever seen, or attempted to separate. The sate sauce was another source of disappointment, having a pungent bean sauce odor rather than the fragrant aromas of roasted chili. Alas, the nail in the coffin was the price, a full $7 for a regular size bowl! Even given the lack of sales tax in Oregon, this only puts it a meager 6 cents cheaper than OB Noodle House.



At first taste, the broth seems almost bland. However, upon further inspection, one realizes that it is instead a masterful balance of flavors, sweet, salty, spicy, and umami. (God forbid your pho tastes sour!) The rare steak, still pink in areas not touching the broth, has just the right texture, as does the brisket, and 2/3 of the tendon. It's only 2/3, because Pho Oregon does not give you slices of tendon, but rather chunks, some of which turn out to be rather chewy and hard. The tripe is nothing great, but rarely is anyway. Garnish-wise, all the standard are present, with no surprises except for the strong flavor of the basil, a good sign of freshness.

The spring rolls, with fresh mint inside them, were also very good, although I did not care for the mucus-like consistency of the sauce. They did have all the standard fillings, including lettuce, vermicelli rice noodle, shrimp, and pork (I think). About standard at $4.25 for two large rolls sliced in half. (I saved one for a midnight snack while working on my slides.)



In conclusion, I feel much the same way about this place as OB Noodle House, it's a good place to go to while in the area, but there are plenty of other pho restaurants worth a try as well. Katie, for instance, swears by Pho Hung, which others have reported to be quite greasy. Still, I feel that for those who will be appreciated of the well-constructed broth at Pho Oregon, perhaps $7 is not TOO ridiculous to pass up. Would you rather have 3 bowls of really good pho or 4 bowls of bad pho?

SDPB Special Ramen Edition: Yakudori Ramen & Yakitori

Contrary to popular belief, the reviewers on this blog do not subsist entirely on pho. Occasionally, we eat other noodle soups that are made with other four-legged animals. Today, Hao will discuss a recent visit to the newly opened Yakyudori in Kearny Mesa.

Location: 4898 Convoy St., Suite 101 (look for the Dixieline sign)
Phone: ?
Hours: 11:30am - 3:00am
Website: http://www.yakyudori.us/ (does not indicate new location yet)

Update: I later went back and tried the shio ramen during lunchtime, thoughts are below the original entry.

Yakyudori officially opened its Kearny Mesa location on Monday (Feb 1); you can read reviews from Kirk and Chowhound. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this location is that it will be open until 3am everyday. (Compare to Tajima, which is only open until 3am Thur-Sat.) The original location in Hillcrest is only open until 1am, it seems.

Matus and I decided we needed to go to this place and check it out. We arrived at ~1:15am, having very little problems with notorious 805 traffic and were the only ones in the parking lot. Our drink order of hot green tea came out as heated cans of green tea, which our waitress then poured into teacups. A bit strange, and not very tasty, but this seemed like a place that would eventually focus on beer, once the liquor license came through. (judging by the beer advertisements on the walls) Matus ordered the miso ramen, while I had the shoyu (soy sauce) version.


Of the three standard ramen broths (miso, shoyu: soy sauce, shio: salt), both the miso and shio versions come with corn by default. You can of course, ask for the corn to be omitted, but adding it will incur a surcharge, as they do charge for extra toppings. The pork chashu came in large, thick slices with the perfect taste and consistency, but the egg is the winner here. Apparently, it is a Hanjyuku tamago, almost a soft-boiled egg, but marinated so that extra flavor seeps into both the yolk and egg white. The spinach, green onions, and bamboo shoots were standard and did not stand out particularly. Texturally, I thought the noodles were perfect, being cooked all the way through, yet still maintaining some pull and the expected chewiness. The broth had a strong soy sauce flavor as expected, perhaps a little too strong, as it seemed to overpower any other flavors. I should mention two caveats though, lest you think the broth is bad by any means. For one thing, it's likely that I've grown accustomed to the rich tonkotsu broth they serve over at Santouka as well as the complex beef broth used in the better pho restaurants. I'll be sure to try the shio broth next time for comparison. It may allow the other ingredients to come through better. (FYI, Matus had the miso and was not a fan. Without trying it, I can't really give my opinion, but he did finish most of it, so it can't have been too bad. Turns out, Matus is one of those people who finishes off his plate no matter what - he strongly suggests that you avoid the miso ramen.)


I also ordered the tori kara-age (fried chicken), just to see what they put out here. At $4, it's relatively cheap, but not worth getting. There were numerous pieces, but they were all rather dense (perhaps overcooked?). They also didn't come with any sauces, which might have helped to cut through the deep fried nature. It's possible that having it with beer would have made the chicken more enjoyable, but it's a sad day when food tastes better because it's being washed down with beer. Given Kirk's thoughts on the takoyaki, I think I will pass on the non-ramen until yakitori is online. Hopefully, that won't have similar problems.

EDIT: I did go back and try the shio ramen during lunchtime. I did like it a little better than the shoyu, still not as much as the tonkotsu broth at Santouka, but this will be my go-to place for ramen that doesn't weigh me down. The broth was still on the simple side, and I felt that the sweetness of the corn actually gave it some needed complexity, although having actual corn kernels was a bit weird. Also, although the egg looks fairly normal in this picture, it was still fantastic. (but maybe not so much as it was when I had the shoyu ramen)

Two more things I should point out are that during lunchtime, they give you free barley tea and a half-bowl of rice with every ramen order. The barley tea, although probably made from a bag, is significantly better than the green tea that comes in a can. (And I'm not just saying that because it was free.)

SDPB Special Winnipeg Edition! Com Tam Thuan Kieu

Location: 661 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Insert crazy Canadian zipcode here)
Phone: (204)949-9081
Website: A Review from the Winnipeg Free Press

Beth:

Happy 2010 Pho Lovers! I rang in the new decade in the fair city of Winnipeg, Manitoba this year. A long way from San Diego, and quite a change in climate. But there's nothing like a delicious bowl of hot pho to warm up a cold winter day.

(O, Canada)

My special man-friend and I took the time to visit a relatively new Vietnamese restaurant in Winnipeg (there are several, FYI, if you ever make the jaunt up to Manitoba- just look it up on Yelp) called Com Tam Thuan Kieu. Apparently there are several other Vietnamese places with the same name in other places.

The restaurant is fairly subtle in terms of decor- there are some Asian elements. The menu has an amazing variety of dishes- they go way beyond pho. I would love to try the other dishes sometime.

Service was good, but our waitress was very quiet. She just kind of put her order pad down and looked at us until we figured she wanted us to order. The food also took a little longer to come than I'm used to. But it was worth the wait.

The spring rolls were very good- I think the lettuce may have been something other than leaf lettuce, as it was pretty crunchy. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The pork also seems to have had some kind of spice rub on the outsides of the slices. I thought the spice was a nice touch, but purists may not agree. The peanut sauce was great- just slightly too much hoisin, but hey, I can let that go. The cionsistency was just right- not too runny, not too thick.

The garnishes included most of the standards- basil, bean sprouts, lime- no jalapenos or culantro, though. Culantro seems to be somewhat uncommon to begin with, and I didn't mind the lack of jalapenos, since I usually use sriracha for the heat in my soup. Everything was fresh and flavorful.

The broth had pronounced spice flavors- there were notable but not overwhelming flavors of anise and cinnamon. At first it didn't have much of a beefy flavor and was slightly sweet, but the beef flavor came out more as time went on. By the time I got to the bottom of the bowl, the broth was amazing. I was full, but it was hard to stop eating.

There were a lot of noodles in the soup- I like the noodles, so I didn't mind. They were slightly more cooked than I like them.

The meat was the only thing that was slightly lacking- I got flank and rare steak in my soup. I expected there to be fat on the flank, but even the steak slices had a significant amount of fat. The meat was tender (but not the most tender I've had) and flavorful, but I really didn't need that fat on the steak.

The restaurant has Banh Mi, but I didn't get a chance to try them. But hey, I'm here for 3 more days, so there's still time.

The price of a regular-sized pho at Thuan Kieu is $ 6.95 Canadian (that's $6.62 US), so it was a little steep compared to San Diego, but it was totally worth it.

I highly recommend the Pho at Thuan Kieu- so if you ever find yourself in Winnipeg, make sure you check it out!

8.5 spoons out of 10, eh! (sorry, couldn't resist)