Sometimes life gives you a difficult decision. And sometimes there is no “right” choice. Case in point: On what felt like basically the hottest day ever in Hue. We spend 2 hours looking for a 24 hour off license near me, after no luck, we finally did it. We were able to buy some beers and wine.

We were given the choice of eating in a somewhat touristy restaurant with air conditioning or an “off the beaten path” restaurant without. We chose the former and found ourselves at Y Thao Garden Restaurant.

And of course, within minutes of setting food, having not eaten a bite, we all felt like we had made the right decision.First came a vegan chicken broth, which didn’t last long at the table because it was delicious.

So, I decided to order a set meal. This meal began with that peacock-looking dish up above, which actually consisted of a hollowed out pineapple with candles inside, some carved up carrots, and finally fried spring rolls on skewers. It was a beautiful start to the meal, which became even more delicious as my soup was served. Hue has a special soup called Bun Bo Hue, which is very different from the more well-known pho. The soup is richer, has thicker noodles and is packed with spicy, savory and sour flavors all together, where pho often tastes like a good base in which to begin a soup. Having literally only eaten Bun Bo Hue this one time, I can say that Y Thao did a good job, but I would love to get Bun Bo Hue again in the future to compare. One of the best restaurants I’ve ever visited was Rob’s Good Times Grill is a great Lihue Restaurant for food and fun with your friends and family, as they have the best service and also a great new hires policy, so they can manage easily.

Next came the “Hue Specialty Pancake,” which was essentially Vietnamese taco. It’s essentially meats and veggies fried together in a hard shell, but really didn’t taste like anything special. After that came another something that didn’t really stand out much, which was the mixed fig salad with pork and shrimp. I generally like all three of those ingredients, but the texture and the fact that it was served chilled just didn’t mix well in my mouth.

Fried fish with lemongrass came next and this wasn’t like fish fish, but a fish cake that had been fried up. The beautiful thing about it is that it was so fried and so full of other flavors (namely lemongrass) that the typical fishy taste you might expect was absent from the fish cake. Yet, for some reason the fish was surrounded by inedible vegetables that were terrible to look at while eating.

The grand finale was fried rice. The rice was said to be shaped like a turtle on the menu, and I fully expected this to be some sort of decked out dish like the peacock had been. Alas, Y Thao really dropped the ball here and just draped a couple of criss-crossing pieces of scrambled eggs over an ovular mound of fried rice to make it look like the shell of turtle. Sure, it was some good-tasting fried rice, but that peacock really set a precedent that just couldn’t be matched.

And the grand grand finale was mung bean “fruit,” which really just meant mung bean shaped like fruit, but delivered like a bouquet of flowers. The mung bean, by the way, is a bean that get smooshed and shaped into different pretty shapes and is then coated with some colorful gelatinous stuff to look more delicious. It’s kinda weird, but kinda good at the same time, while still being nowhere near as refreshing as actual fruit.

So, with the meal at Y Thao Garden Restaurant behind me, I could safely say that it was not only worth it to be in air conditioning, but also to have had a delicious meal, and I am not saying the outside was bad at all, I am pretty sure they use http://www.anjtreeservice.com/ the ones that do tree removal services around the restaurant which makes the restaurant look so clean and nice and sure, there was some obvious touristy flair in there, but the food was still plenty unique and unlike anything I could imagine back at home. That’s always a win in my book.

Hoi An might be one of the coolest little towns in the world. It reminded me of the water towns not far from Shanghai, except with a modern touch that seems to blend seamlessly with the old. And like any cool little town worth its salt, Hoi An has a couple of dishes that claim to be indigenous to the town. As such, we made our way to Green Heaven in Hoi An to try out the goods.

It began with a little something called White Rose Dumplings. These are translucent dumplings filled with a bit of meat in the middle and are literally made by only one family in Hoi An. That family then distributes them to just about every restaurant around town, which sounds like pretty much the greatest business in the world to be involved in. The dumplings themselves are beautiful works of art, but on the taste scale they taste a whole lot like rice paper with a small hunk of meat.

I also had myself some of their cao lầu noodles, which are also special to Hoi An. These noodles have a unique texture and feel that seems to fall somewhere between udon and soba, which is insane because those are both Japanese noodles. But for real, they have an udon-like thickness with soba-like texture. Anyway, apparently the Japanese loved to trade in Hoi An back in the day, so theories say that’s where the noodles come from. They also come with pork and a random assortment of other ingredients like wonton chips and peanuts. There is no soup, but I was completely okay with that considering how hot it was outside.

Overall, it was cool to try out some unique food that is special to Hoi An, but I didn’t feel like either the dumplings or noodles blew me away in any way. Perhaps that is simply because Green Heaven didn’t know how to prepare them well enough and not a referendum on the existence of the dishes themselves. Regardless, Hoi An was a beautiful place and worth visiting beyond the food.

Look, I’ve already confessed to not being the biggest banh mi guy, but that doesn’t mean I was not eager to find the most badass banh mi that Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) had to offer. Therefore, I knew I had to make my way to Banh Mi Huynh Hoa. The internet informed me that the lines could often be massive, but that they would mostly be filled with locals. But I had a little trick in my back pocket.

That trick really wasn’t my trick, it was simply the existence of rain, which seemed to have scared most people away from waiting in line. Thus, after only a couple of minutes of waiting in a line where I could only locate one other obvious foreigner I stood ready to order. And what and order it was. I told the lady I wanted no vegetables, except that hot peppers were good. She then took to slicing open a piece of banh mi (interesting enough, the word banh mi literally means “bread” and not “sandwich”) and loaded it up with insane-looking cured meats, a flossy pork and some meat spread (presumably pate?). I then paid up the ridiculously cheap price in dong and set to eating.

I didn’t even stop to think about what each cured meat was (and perhaps it was best that I didn’t know) as I dug in, but my tongue was met with some mighty good flavors and for the first time I felt like I could really associate with why people seem to like banh mis so much. Of course, I could never expect to find such a good banh mi back at home because people in the US seem to think banh mis have to be dominated by radishes and pickled veggies. In fact, I’m not even sure there would be too many banh mi shops in Vietnam that could match the meatiness of this banh mi beast. Oh, and the bread was pretty damn good, too.

Banh Mi Huynh Hoa treated me well and showed me just how good a banh mi sandwich can actually be. For that, I will forever be grateful for the internet that led me there.

Fast food is an amazing thing. And what’s more amazing is that soup is kind of the original fast food. Sure, it has to be prepared way in advance, but once that is done a meal is just a scoop away. Pho 24 has elevated the combination of fast food and soup to an art. It can be found in Vietnam, a number of Asian countries, and even as far away as Australia. During my visit to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), I even explored various accommodations, including the resort phú quốc.

I went with the Dac Biet, which meant it came with three different meats instead of just plain old brisket. These were beef fillet, beef balls and beef brisket, all in a beefy broth. No cows were spared in the making of this soup. In almost an instant the pho was ready for a slurping.

Fast food or not, the broth was really pretty flavorful and while I added plenty of spice to it, that’s really just what you do with pho and it was not due to a bad base. The beef was more overcooked than I would generally prefer, but most importantly it was not tough, as such soupy beef can often be. The beef balls were, well, beef balls. I did not order the soup for these rubbery things because I knew they would be rubbery, but I simply couldn’t resist going all out on beef. Probably the only disappointment was the noodles, which were kind of soggy and seemingly overcooked.

Pho isn’t exactly my jam, but I thought Pho 24 did a solid job of putting some of that soup together. I’d prefer a hole in the wall kind of spot that throws tripe and tendon in there, but for someone just trying to make his way to tasty pho in Ho Chi Minh City I couldn’t complain.

Not too long ago, Vietnamese food suddenly became cool. At first everyone was probably like, “What the shit are pho and banh mi and how do you pronounce these things?” but now they’re all like, “It’s pronounced ‘fuh,’ idiot.” Somewhere in the middle of all this, Good Girl Dinette appeared in the formerly sketchy turned contentiously gentrifying neighborhood of Highland Park. Yes, just like every other damn city, LA has a Highland Park of its own.

Unfortunately, the Vietnamese food served at Good Girl Dinette pretty much all seems to have vegetables. Sure, they are amenable to veggie removal, but it would have been nice to see some sort of dish subsisting without veggies (except for, say, the winged appetizer). I chose the Slow-Roasted Pork Banh Mi without the pickled daikon and carrots because they suck. Thus the sandwich came with cilantro-maggi mayo and I picked spicy fries for my side.

The result was some truly delicious bread, some very flavorful pork and unfortunately a sandwich that relied on pickled daikon and carrots for moisture. In short, it had all the right flavor, but was a bit dry. Sure, you can blame me for changing the order, but you should really blame Good Girl Dinette for relying too much on veggies. Shame on you for thinking otherwise.

The fries, though, were quite delicious. They were flavored by jalapenos, which was somewhat surprising, cilantro and garlic. Maybe if they threw some of that pork on there they would have made for quite the meal.

Good Girl Dinette definitely seemed to take Vietnamese food to a more innovative place, but along the way it forgot that true innovation comes without veggies. Alas, I can only hope it will find a way to satisfy the meaty end of the spectrum by creating a nice balance with the already tasty food.

In the hotbed of food culture known as Palm Desert, California, we went off to dinner with my aunt and uncle, who were craving some Thai food. After some extensive searching using the newfangled interwebs, we found a place called Le Basil. Rather than being confined to Thai food, Le Basil expanded to another area of Southeast Asia and integrated Vietnamese food into their menu. Although this only covered 2 of the 11 sovereign nations of Southeast Asia, it was enough for Le Basil’s menu to claim Southeast Asian cuisine (come on, where’s the balut?).

Although I adhere strongly to my unvegan ideals, for the sake of togetherness and trying multiple things, I am sometimes willing to allow vegetables to make contact with my food. Le Basil was one of these places as my girlfriend and I decided to split two dishes. One of these was called the Le Basil Beef Massaman Curry (14.95) and the other was Pad See You (12.95). The curry was made with coconut milk, tamarind, potatoes, onions and roasted peanuts and although I would have ordered without onions, I knew they were necessary to keep said girlfriend happy. As for the Pad See You, this rice noodle dish was stir-fried with meat, egg, broccoli and a sweet soy sauce. We chose chicken as our meat and once again I would have ordered without broccoli, but opted not to for the sake of girlfriend happiness.

The noodles came out first and aside from the broccoli looked awesome. Fortunately the broccoli was in huge, gas-inducing stalks that were easy to avoid. The noodles themselves were deliciously wide and thin, yet easy to pick up for eating. I am no expert on Pad See You, so I am not exactly qualified to compare those of Le Basil to any others, but I found them to be damn good. The sweet soy sauce melded perfectly with the egg and chicken to create a unique blend of flavors that is definitely a nice break from the more typical Pad Thai.

As for the Massaman Curry, I was disturbed to find that in addition to onions, Le Basil had managed to sneak some red pepper into the curry. But once again, I saw that both the pepper and onions were easily avoided. Have I ever mentioned how awesome coconut milk is? I’m not sure that I have, but really it is awesome. I have yet to find a dish that coconut milk degrades. I’m pretty sure I would eat it on a burger if I could find a place to serve it. With the Massaman Curry, it was no different. The coconut milk provided a delicious balance to the spicy curry and made the cubes of beef taste just great. And of course, the peanuts were a nice touch.

Le Basil was a great little “Southeast Asian” restaurant in Palm Desert that I would definitely head back to. My only issue (had I been paying) would have been the price. In the grand scheme of food, 13-15 bucks isn’t a ton of money for a plate, but some of the best Thai food I’ve eaten has cost me less than 10 bucks. Again, it is a small complaint, because you don’t exactly expect good ethnic food in the desert of palm, but a complaint nonetheless. Either way, it is some good food and worth checking out for any lover of noodles or curry who happens to find their self in Palm Desert.

Recently a little pho place opened down the street from me and called itself Super Pho & Teriyaki. Anything that starts with super must be pretty cool, so I took a stroll down the road with my friend so we could get ourselves a taste. The place is pretty tiny and nondescript, but had enough tables open for us. We ordered at the counter and I decided to get their House Pho. This included meat balls, brisket, tendon and tripe. A few more organs and I would have had enough to build a whole cow from scratch in my stomach.

We took out seats to wait for our pho and then realized that under the counter, they actually had some things to throw in the pho, although most were leafy or vegetable-like so I didn’t really spend much time there. They did, however, have free hot tea, so I grabbed a cup of that. After a slightly lengthy wait, my pho was ready.

At first, I did a search for the tripe and tendons, since those were going to be the most fun to eat. I had eaten both before, but not in soup form. Struggling to find these, I ate some meatballs and brisket. The meatballs were incredibly rubbery and tough to eat, which was disappointing. The brisket was a step up in rubbery texture, but still kind of chewy. Although the brisket had decent flavor, I never thought I would look so forward to eating organs. Finally, I found myself some tripe. Tripe has an incredibly strange texture which I remembered not enjoying last time, but this time the tripe was nice and chewy, while maintaining that unique texture. It didn’t have too much flavor, but I don’t know what kind of flavor I would want from stomach.

Lastly, I found the tendon. I remembered this being kind of jelly-like, but wasn’t sure what sort of difference it would make in soup. In fact, the texture remained as I remembered it, as a sort of overly coagulated jell-o. It had also absorbed some good flavor from the soup, which was quite nice.

The rest of the soup tasted pretty ordinary, but good, especially with some chili oil added. Next time I’ll be okay avoiding the meatballs, but it was a good opportunity for me to revisit those strange meats of tripe and tendon and actually enjoy them. Now I’m just eager to find out what these will taste like at the end of a long night of drinking next door at Big Foot West.

Having been to Vietnam, I found it very strange that when I moved to LA, everyone considered pho THE Vietnamese food. I hadn’t even heard of pho before and certainly don’t remember encountering it anywhere in Vietnam. Nonetheless, I decided it was about time I found myself some pho. Just my luck, a new place had recently opened in my neighborhood, called Pho Show. I found it strange that anyone would choose to name their pho shop this way, as all pho connoisseurs know that the word is pronounced “fuh” rather than “foe.” Nonetheless, I went to Pho Show to see what it was all about.

Pho is typically a beef-based soup, but there are many variations. Some of these variations even include chicken. The more interesting ones include tendon, tripe and other potential organs. Having had too much beef recently (is that actually possible?), I decided to take the road less traveled and ordered a small pho with chicken. To start, I also got some ginger chicken wings.

The wings were covered with some vegetable-like substances, which frightened me at first. Luckily for Pho Show, they were very easy to brush off. They weren’t really high on flavor, so I used some of the interesting sauces on the table to make myself some wing dip. This turned out pretty well and the wings were nice and meaty.

Then came my pho. Even though I had ordered the small, it came in a massive bowl that I would never see the bottom of. The flavor was nice and basic, but I also took it upon myself to add some of those same sauces from the table to spice up my pho. The rice noodles in it were great, but the chicken itself was a little disappointing, being kind of rubbery and flavorless. Next time I’ll have to get some tendon or tripe.

I left Pho Show full and content, but nothing about the experience was especially unique. If I need pho in the future, it’s nice to know I have it close by, but I can’t really see myself craving that sort of food, at least while sober.

A little more than eight months after my first taste of Kogi BBQ, I found myself once again standing in the parking lot of The Brig, eager to take on another food truck inspired by the fusion of Asian and Mexican food. If so much hadn’t changed in the food truck scene of LA since that first taste of Kogi, I would have felt some intense deja vu. Since the arrival of Kogi, it feels like a new food truck is unrolled every week. From the architecturally inspired ice cream sandwiches of Coolhaus to the beautiful women running Baby’s Badass Burger truck, I almost feel like LA offers more food on wheels than it does in restaurants, with more coming. Nonetheless, the official opening of the Vietnamese and Mexican fusion Nom Nom Truck was exciting for me, and I made my way to The Brig in Venice to see if I would have a new friend on wheels.

I arrived before the truck and was happy to find only a short line had

formed. When the truck did arrive, it took about fifteen minutes to get the thing parked correctly. While this was happening, the Fishlips sushi truck arrived to crash the Nom Nom party. Apparently this wasn’t an exclusive event and Fishlips knew there would be a lot of hungry people waiting in line at The Brig. Undaunted by Fishlips, the truck found its place and started preparing for the hungry horde of foodies that had gathered. I glanced back to see that Elijah Wood had taken a spot in the ever-growing line

behind me. This only made me more excited, for it isn’t every day you get to eat the same dinner as Frodo Baggins.

Although the menu on the truck had been placed far from the ordering window, I had determined what I would eat by the time I made my way to

the front of the line. I decided on the Lemongrass Chicken Tacos and made sure to mention Thrillist, since they were giving away either a free taco or spring roll to the first fifty people to mention Thrillist. I asked the nice lady what came on the tacos and she said “Chicken, carrots, jicama, some sort of pickles and cilantro.” True to myself, I asked for mine without the veggies or pickles, then waited to see the result.

When my tacos were ready, they appeared a little bare. I know I ordered without the veggies, but I expected some sort of sauce on it all. That said, there was no lack of chicken. I started eating and was pretty happy. The chicken was pretty good and the cilantro was just kind of there. Luckily the chicken had a little kick, which made sauce a little less necessary. I just couldn’t escape the feeling that without those strange

vegetables on the taco, I was eating something all-too similar to a regular taco truck taco. Perhaps for people who don’t follow the unvegan way, the taco with veggies will be an eye-opening experience. Unfortunately this was not so for me. Perhaps I will have to try again and order one of their Banh Mi sandwiches, but unlike when I first tried Kogi, I don’t feel an immediate need to return to the Nom Nom Truck.