To visit my brand new nephew, I had to take a trip to america’s heartland – Columbus, OH. When I landed, we headed right out for a quick lunch at North Market. It’s like the West Side Market in Cleveland, or the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, or like a ghetto version of the Ferry Building. But then every market is a ghetto version compared to Ferry Building. There is a farmers market outside on Saturdays. Inside, there are a wide variety of food vendors.

My bro picked out Lac Viet, a little vietnamese counter. Their menu only has thirteen items, which is awesome. The more focus, the better! They also have a proper restaurant in the suburbs. The prices here are dirt cheap. Their banh mi is supposed to be out of this world.

It was a thousand degrees out so I could not bring myself to eat pho. But my nutjob of a brother did. Yum! The broth was great, which is always my sign for excellent pho.

I ended up having something I’ve never had before. I love vermicelli bowls, and I equally love rice plates. But I always get one or the other. On the Lac Viet menu, the vermicelli bowl/rice plate items are listed as being together with a particular topping, with your choice of rice/noodles. I thought this was for picking either rice or noodles. So I ordered grilled chicken with noodles. Then he replied with, so no rice? And I said no, just noodles. And then I said, wait, I can get both? And he said of course! I didn’t know you could do this! So that’s what I got in the end, a combination vermicelli bowl/rice plate with grilled chicken. And damn, it was glorious. There were noodles, broken rice, all the veggies that come with the vermicelli bowls, nuoc cham, and heaps of delicious grilled chicken. It was a surprising delight! Now, every time I go to a vietnamese place, I’m going to want this!

It had been awhile since E and I had gotten together for our sunday night dinner adventures. When she suggested banh mi at pho & cafe viet huong, you know I couldn’t say no! I’ve been to viet huong countless times, but have never had their banh mi. And E had never had banh mi before, ever, so this was going to be a fun treat. Since this was her first banh mi she went safe with the grilled chicken banh mi. It comes nicely wrapped in paper so that everything stays inside and does not fall apart. E was a big fan of her first vietnamese hoagie. How can you not like this? It’s really the best of east meets west.

It was hot, so I didn’t necessarily want hot food, and I found the thought of the stewed beef with bread intriguing. I thought it would be a banh mi with the stewed meat inside. Oops! It turned out to be a bowl of stewed beef (a la the same beef from pho bo kho) with a toasted baguette. Well, I didn’t mind this at all! It’s like taking all the delicious hunks of meat from your pho bo kho and eating that with an amazingly warm and crusty piece of bread. There’s tons of broth to dip the bread into or you can even make little sandwiches yourself. We also got a couple of smoothies, because it was so muggy out. E tried the avocado smoothie, per my recommendation, and she really liked it. I had strawberry and it was perfect in every way. Service was speedy and efficient, as usual!

Pho & Cafe Viet Huong
1110 Washington Ave # 2A
Philadelphia, PA

While picking up some groceries at H Mart, I decided to be extra lazy and pick up some takout from Pho & Cafe Anh Hong. It hasn’t been around for too long and I’ve been meaning to try it. If it means a pho place within 10 minutes of me, then I’m extremely happy with this new addition already. I was also happy to find out that they have various banh mi and also bubble tea. They also have other takeaway treats, including this mysterious green goop. What is this exactly? Someone, please tell me! Since I was picking up food to-go, I got a vermicelli bowl with grilled pork and spring rolls.

This was great! The pork was flavored well and grilled so it was slightly crunchy. The veggies were fresh and plentiful. But it was the fried spring roll I really liked. The skin was different from ones I’ve had before. It was more like what you’d find being the crepe of a vietnamese crepe. It wasn’t a crunchy flaky rice paper outside, it was more chewy and thick. It seemed to be made from rice flour like the crepes are. And I really enjoyed it! Man alive, knowing that there’s a good and cheap vietnamese joint so close to my house is like music to my ears. Next visit, I’ll try the pho! I can’t wait!