Tag Archives: Vietnam

Revisiting SE Asia

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Vietnam II

Earlier in the week Yelp thought I should know about a new hot restaurant in the area, Be’s Noodle & Banh Mi.  Since I have other plans for the weekend this seemed like a perfect suggestion for a Friday lunch and a use of the blog scheduler.

This little restaurant is in a popular little shopping area off North Community House road in Ballantyne.  I went during a less busy time of the day but there was still a bit of traffic in and out while I was there.  The place is very new and clean and the staff was friendly and welcomed everyone that came in the door.

This is another order at the counter and they bring it to your table kind of place.  They have a limited menu and it looks like pho is their star player followed by banh mi and some rice dishes.  The pho looked good but that’s what I had at the last Vietnamese place and as much as I loved it I decided to try something else just to expand the experience.  I went with their “original” banh mi sandwich and I got the grilled pork belly skewers appetizer just because.  The appetizer actually came out just a few minutes behind the sandwich but close enough that I still started with it.

The first thing I noticed was they jammed those skewers pretty tight so there was a decent amount of pork belly on each one.  The next was they did use real flame grilling as you can see from the little bit of char.  So let me just say this is pork belly and if you don’t like fatty meats you need to bypass this.  Don’t get me wrong it’s not all fat but hey, it’s pork belly.  Now that we’ve gotten past the caution, on to the taste test.  It passed.  There was a mild sweetness added to the flavor of the grilled pork and the sauce it came with added a little bit more smoky taste plus some spicy heat.  Nice start to the meal.

The banh mi I got was the original cold cut version and had three types of pork; pork roll, ham and pork pâté.  Along with those we had some cucumber, carrot, daikon radish, jalapenos and cilantro all on a 10″ baguette.  As far as I’m concerned they could have put just about anything in that baguette and it would have been good.  It was wonderfully crusty on the outside and properly soft and slightly chewy inside.  The sandwich as a whole was good.  The meats weren’t outstanding but the pâté was interesting, in a good way.  I think I’ll try them again for the pho at some point in the future but I’m not rush to have this sandwich again.   Overall I think this is a good addition to the area and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it for a quick bite.

 

Luck O’ the Vietnamese?

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Vietnam (by way of Ireland)

Vietnam

When I left the house today for lunch it was to have a taste of Ireland in honor of St Patrick’s day.  My destination was Belfast Mill located in Charlotte’s Brevard Court.  Guess when Charlotte’s St Patrick’s day parade was?  Guess what was very close to the parade route?  That’s right, Today & Belfast Mill pub.  Undeterred I worked around the closed streets and found a parking deck a couple of block away that was reasonably priced.  On the way over I came across the streets closed off and covered with vendors of such Irish treats at funnel cake & fried what nots and a stage where some troubadours were belting out Star of the County Down.

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Short walk later I head into the Belfast Mill.  The bottom floor is a smallish pub with a bar area and there are some stairs going up to two other rooms with bars.  One had some folks watching soccer, excuse me, football to them, and the other just a bar and a few tables.  As I bellied up to the bar and ordered meself a pint I found out two things; they don’t serve food any longer and they are renovating the place.  I had brief chat with the bartender, knocked back the Guinness and headed out in search lunch and as luck would have it Brevard Court offered me some options like the Pho Plus noodle restaurant.

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The Pho Plus is a nice place right across from the cupcake shop (I pointedly ignored the siren’s call of those evil baked goods).  There weren’t very many people in the place when I got there, in fact the staff outnumbered the patrons at that point.  That worked in my favor since I told the guy I had never been to a pho place before and asked for recommendation.  He hooked me up with the beef pho and explained the condiments you could just dump in what you liked and helpfully pointed out the sriracha and hoisin sauces.  He did tell me if I didn’t add any of the other condiments I should at least squeeze the lime into the soup.

The soup was delicious.  I don’t know what was in the broth but it was good by itself and then the beef strips and chunks of beef ball (I didn’t ask too many questions) plus the bean sprouts, cilantro and peppers thrown in with the noodles plus that squeeze of lime and you had a hearty meal.  I didn’t have any of the tea options they offered but they did have a number of hot teas, cold teas, teas with milk plus some beer and soft drinks.  If I go back, and that’s very likely, I think I’m going to try the passion fruit tea.

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So while I didn’t start out for Vietnamese I’m happy that circumstances led me to the Pho Plus Vietnamese Noodle restaurant and Brevard Court.  Below is the link to their website and don’t forget to check out Tell Me More for bonus content on Vietnam.