After flying into Seattle, I drove down to Portland, because well, I love Portland. Not being able to wait until Portland to eat, especially because my flight was awfully late, we stopped in Olympia for a bite to eat. I had done some research and that’s how we ended up at Lemon Grass. It’s an adorable and attractive place in a really nice area of Olympia. There was lots of hustle and bustle and restaurants and it was just plain adorable.

We got some tea, which came in this heavy cast iron pot. The place was tastefully decorated and had two main dining areas. One was almost full when we got there and we pretty much snagged the last booth before a rush came on. Once we left, they had opened up the other dining area.

The Hot and Spicy Noodles, with wide rice noodles, prawns, eggs, broccoli, onions, bell peppers, cabbage, green beans, water chestnuts, baby corn, bamboo shoots, and carrots in a special sweet sauce. You can add spice to any dish and you can decide on your own level of spice. This was like drunken noodles, except not as hot, but just as tasty. Really, every bit of this was perfect.

But really, this Mee Quang was even more perfect. Lemon Grass is a thai restaurant, but they had two vietnamese dishes at the end of the menu. The absolute last thing on the menu was this mee quang. I had no idea what this was, I had never heard of it before, but it sounded amazing. And am I damn glad that I ordered it, because it was amazing! It is a central vietnamese style noodle salad, with thinly sliced pork, chicken, and prawns served over a bed of wide and thick yellow rice noodles with lettuce, cucumber, bean sprouts, and fresh herbs. It was like a vermicelli bowl, only with thicker and heartier noodles, with a variety of meats, served warm, and with even more flavor than you could ever imagine. It was one of the best things I’ve eaten in awhile. My experience in vietnamese food is actually quite narrow… I’ve always focused on pho, vermicelli bowls, and rice plates. I think this mee quang shows just how little I’ve tasted of a cuisine with such depth and breadth. This place was great! And portion sizes are large, the prices are reasonable, and the service was good. Highly recommended if you are in the area!

We were kickin it suburban style on new year’s day, but were desperately craving pho, so we trekked it on up to pho tai nam. But not before calling and making sure they were open. Maybe my memory had gone, but I remembered stuff always being open on new year’s, but for whatever reason this year, it seemed many businesses were closed, including tons of restaurants. Which did end up putting some cramps into our plans. I didn’t want any fresh spring rolls, but it worked out well because they have a lunch special, where you can include one spring roll to your pho.

J got the steak and brisket pho as part of his lunch special. Maybe I just didn’t remember from the first time I was here, but man, their pho is great. The broth is just excellent, not salty, and full of flavor. Really, their pho is tops! And both the steak and brisket, especially the brisket, were free of fat.

This is a thai and vietnamese place, so instead of us both getting pho, I got drunken noodles with chicken. Drunken noodles is my go-to dish when I eat thai food. I love the thick rice noodles and the spice. This dish was great here, and since we shared, we both got to eat pho and drunken noodles. We were both totally enamored by this place and agreed that this was one of the best meals we’ve had together in awhile. Pho tai nam – the best of both worlds! For those of you in montgo, get your pho here!

I met up with A in Burlingame after cruising around Monterey and the south bay. Burlingame is another cute little ritzy town with a strip of shops and restaurants. We decided on Mingalaba, which is burmese. I’ve only had burmese, years ago, and don’t remember too much from it. I think I remember that it was like thai food. The menu is a strange amalgam of indian, thai, and other asian cuisines. Which makes a helluva lot of sense when you look at a map of burma. It’s a rather large country, with india and the bay of bengal on its left, and thailand and china on its right. We ordered mango lassis, and we all know that’s traditionally indian/pakistani.We didn’t really know what to order, so we picked the House Special Noodle with chicken. It was a flat rice noodle dish with coconut chicken, lime leaves, cilantro, yellow pea’s powder, onion, and fried thin noodle on the top. It comes unmixed and then the server mixes it in front of you.
And here’s the result. We both enjoyed this a lot. I’m usually not into anything with coconut milk in it (like this chicken), but I still liked this. The one thing I absolutely did not care for was the lime leaves. I found them to be absolutely disgusting. They were sliced extremely thin but still gave off an extremely strong taste. Luckily, after realizing their awfulness, I was careful to avoid them.
We had to order something else so we just threw the dice and went with the Asparagus Spicy Chicken. This was pan fried chicken breast with asparagus, fresh basil, eggplant, fresh mushroom, and green chilies in a spicy sauce. This had a straight up thai basil flavor, reminiscent of many thai dishes. So if you’re into that, you’ll be into this. This also was not spicy at all, so don’t let the name fool you. It’s just a nice chicken stir fry dish. The asparagus were of the extremely fat variety, and I’m partial to the scrawny spears.

Service was fine, if not seemingly cold and robotic. But I think that was just the server’s personality, or lack thereof. One could not describe her as warm and fuzzy, but the service itself was fine. And the meal actually turned out to be quite a bargain! On this tuesday night, the place was packed! If you’re a fan of thai food, then you should definitely give Mingalaba a try. Heck, I can’t stop saying mingalaba!