Friday, October 21, 2011

Vietnamese Food Run

Mike has cravings for different kinds of food.  Last week he wanted to eat at the All-you-can-eat sushi place. For the past couple of weeks he's been wanting to eat good Vietnamese food.  He has also hinted that he wants to eat shepard's pie (I guess that means I'm in the kitchen this week).  So last Sunday we drove to Garland, TX with a couple of friends to a eat authentic Vietnamese food. 

Look at all the Vietnamese desserts!
Banh Xeo-Crispy pancake filled with vegetables, pork, and shrimp. You break off a piece of this pancake, wrap it in lettuce and add fresh herbs, and then dip it in a clear sauce (Nuoc Cham).
This is what my friend really enjoys eating
Vietnamese steamed sticky rice flour dessert coated with coconut and sesame seeds.  It had a similar texture to mochi.

Summer Rolls-The filling was different from the typical shrimp and vermicelli noodles. It contains lup cheong, egg, and pickled vegetables.
Spring Rolls
Meat Balls. There were three on the stick, but by the time I took a picture, there was only one left.
Banh Mi Sandwich with roast pork.

We then traveled to Quoc Bao bakery for some banh mi sandwiches. It's a good thing that my friend spoke Vietnamese. She ordered for us and explained that I wanted my vegetables on the side so that my sandwich would not be soggy for my lunch the next day.
Quoc Bao received rave reviews on Yelp and a Vietnamese co-worker of mine recommended it (so it must be good, right?) to another friend, who told me to go check it out.
Mike and I bought some extra loaves of bread (3 for $1). The bread was so light and fluffy!

Roast pork sandwich

Char siu-type pork sandwich

My squirreling habits have rubbed off on Mike and he purchased a couple more sandwiches so that he would have lunch and snacks later on in the week.

4 comments:

Cooking with tien said...

You are so lucky. I am really jealous over this meal. I wish that Champaign has more Vietnamese restaurants so that I do not have to learn to cook the dishes as much. -Tien :)

Anonymous said...

That looks awesome! My boss is Vietnamese, so I get some nice perks foodwise! :)

K and S said...

yum! I wish I could get a good banh mi over here!

genkitummy said...

Tien!! How are you? I wish I were like you and actually knew how to cook Vietnamese food!
Healthyfoodietravels-Thanks for visiting my blog.Lucky you! It'a always great to have someone in the know when it comes to eating authentic foods!
Kat-I'm surprised that Japan doesn't have any good banh mi places. With all the innovative food items in Japan, I am surprised that some kind of fusion sandwiches with Japanese pickled vegetables hasn't been created!