Vietnamese Eats
San Jose, CA
A group of coworkers and I decided to make a jaunt down to San Jose for Vietnamese eats. We had been trying set this mini girls' trip for ages, but due to V's wedding and H1's kid stuff, it had been nearly impossible to set up. Lo and behold, we all were free today, April 8th, to be THE day to head out. A testosterone free day. A rain-free day. Yay!
After packing up the ladies in the noodleslinger-mobile, we zipped down to San Jose in record time due to the lack of traffic on 101 on Saturday. Exiting on Tully Road east, we headed to the Lion Plaza at the corner of Tully and King. We lucked into a primo spot right in front of the C & D (er, something like that) snack shop. After perusing the fresh fruit and the orchids available, our bellies sounded a hunger call so we headed into the food court. Tucked into the northeast corner of the complex, next door to Anh Hong, the food court contains 6 or 7 stall/vendors selling cháo (Vietnamese style rice porridge/congee), desserts, Huế specialties (like bánh xèo), rice plates, phở, smoothies, steamed buns, bánh cuố
Shown above is combo #8 from Tay Ho Quan ($6.xx). H1, I, and V all had this same combination which included (clockwise, from left) the shrimp cracker thing, a yam fritter, a fried bread ball with shelled and unshelled mung beans, side condiments of blanched bean sprouts, cucumbers, and cilantro, chả giò (fried spring roll), a container of a spicy nước chấm, about 8 bánh cuố
Shown above is my combo #2 ($7.34 total) which substitued the fried shrimp thingy with shrimp paste on sugarcane (hiding under the fancy pork slices and fried bread). H2 had a #10 which looked an awful lot like my dish. Anyway, all of these combos are a bargain, as I cannot finish even half of the dish. Hint: ask for it to go but heated so that your leftovers are easily packable. Luckily for our group, V is Vietnamese and can convey the heating part to the ladies. When I ask for it to go, it's usually unheated.
The fried bread ball slices were breadier than usual this time. I always thought it was some sort of lentil/mung bean fritter but this time, the slices were chewier. If it weren't deep fried, I'd eat a gazillion of these suckers. I really really love bánh cuố
Almost stuffed to the gills, we decided to check out the desserts booth (2nd on the right from the entrance). I'd been bugging V to help decipher some of the desserts, though I had a whole bunch of them figured out. I'm normally not an Asian dessert fan, but since V was there, I picked up a small container of coconutty cakes bathed in coconut cream sauce. The cake by itself is a kinda spongey, kinda chewy, not-too-sweet, possibly steamed dessert.
I admit, I liked the dessert, even though I'm not a huge coconut cream fan. Rich, but not really sweet-sweet. The toasted sesame seeds sprinked on top added a toasty, savory dimension to the dessert.
I also picked up some desserts for my family since they really like these types of chewy dessert things. Most of these have mung beans and some rice-flour or tapioca-starch based layer, akin to mochi but less chewy and more tender. I too amused by the striped layers! The second photo, the bánh dậu xanh lá dứa, are like tiny coconut covered softer, squishier mochi stuffed with a slightly sweetened mung bean (?) based filling. Rather cute and tasty! Also received grandma's thumbs-up! The singly wrapped green and yellow guy in the top photo has a nice sweetened mung bean filling surrounded by the green jelly-ish/starchy exterior that suspends slivers of coconut meat. My 98-year old grandma can loves those guys...I forget what they are called for the moment (3 for $1.20). If you squeeze them, they feel like those souvenirs found at museums that you can't quite hang onto.These are bigger than the Mai's Bakery ones available at various Asian stores in the Bay Area and fresher, IMO. I had a bad experience with moldy Mai's Bakery goods as a kid and have never touched any of their desserts again. Partial reason why I dislike many Asian desserts. =(
On our way out, I stopped off at C & K (?) for their summer rolls, or gỏi cuốn. Summer rolls, sometimes called spring rolls, are veggies, bean sprouts, rice vermicelli, and possibly meat wrapped in thin rice paper. These are the ubiquitous ones that make it onto Pan-Asian or fusion or chain restaurants. In front of the store are plant sellers and fruit sellers. I personally like this store's gỏi cuốn since they are huge and cheap ($3 for a 3 pack) and they sometimes they have the combo variety (1 shrimp, 1 egg, 1 pork shred). I was out of luck for the combo pack but I picked up the shrimp one instead. I like their shrimp gỏi cuốn since again, they are huge and contain a good ratio of rice vermicelli, thinly sliced cooked pork, 4 shrimp halves, lettuce, bean sprouts, mint, sometimes Thai basil, and sometimes lemony mint. These were packed up with a generous container of hoisin and peanut based sauce. I usually find this store's gỏi cuốn flavorful enough without dipping sauce. If I do dip, I prefer nước chấm over this peanut/hoisin stuff.
We packed into the noodleslinger-mobile again, exited the Lion Plaza, turned right, flipped a U, and zoomed over to Huong Lan Sandwiches. Both V and I really like their cheapo sandwiches made on fresh little baguettes baked with hints of rice flour for extra crunchiness. My favorite here is the #1 combination with pâté, headcheese, and ham for $1.75. All sandwiches include mayo, cilantro, onions, jalapenos, cucumber, and pickled carrot and daikon. I decided to also try the meatball sandwich since I've been curious about it ($1.75). Honestly, I'm not a fan of chicken sandwiches here, either shredded or grilled - pork is where it's at (grilled or mystery variety). And the fish cake sandwich ($2) - my friend L swears by em.
I'd saved this sandwich for my dinner. The roll held up pretty well through heat and my trunk. =P The meatball did not hold onto its shape, but I had not expected it to be like an Italian meatball. It had become a spiced pork patty/spread. I really did like the sweet and savory seasonings in the pork, but a slightly firmer meatball would have been better for texture. And woo hoo...nice spicy jalapenos! The pickles and condiments were wonderfully sweet, spicy, tender-crunchy complements to the sandwich. Would I order it again? Sure, maybe this was a fluke...an oddly addicting fluke.
I haven't eaten the combo pork sandwich yet, but it never disappoints. Okay, the slight disappointment would be from unspicy jalapenos, but that's hit or miss. Huong Lan's combo pork is my gold standard for combo pork. It replaced Little Paris, my first bánh mì experience as a child. Cam Huong in Oakland is my gold standard for roasted/grilled chicken bánh mì. I haven't tried the other Huong Lan branches except for the Milpitas branch and I can say, the original San Jose location handily beats the Milpitas branch in terms of sandwich quality and price as well as prepackaged food items such as papaya salad with beef jerky, lotus root salad, and assorted rice plates. The sandwiches at the Milpitas ones are okay, but there's something about the San Jose sandwich makers...they have some secret sauce or something.
We also made a pit stop at the Grand Century Mall on Story at McLaughlin. V and H2 picked up goodies from the dried snack store while me, I, H1, and V also picked up fresh sugarcane + kumquat juice at one of the stalls in the mall.
Good times with good food with good friends. A wonderful day...=D
[Edit 04/09/06]: Grandma got curious and took a chunk out of the combo pork sandwich. Thank goodness she didn't get a bite of the very spicy jalapeno...whew! Here's a cross section:
A group of coworkers and I decided to make a jaunt down to San Jose for Vietnamese eats. We had been trying set this mini girls' trip for ages, but due to V's wedding and H1's kid stuff, it had been nearly impossible to set up. Lo and behold, we all were free today, April 8th, to be THE day to head out. A testosterone free day. A rain-free day. Yay!
After packing up the ladies in the noodleslinger-mobile, we zipped down to San Jose in record time due to the lack of traffic on 101 on Saturday. Exiting on Tully Road east, we headed to the Lion Plaza at the corner of Tully and King. We lucked into a primo spot right in front of the C & D (er, something like that) snack shop. After perusing the fresh fruit and the orchids available, our bellies sounded a hunger call so we headed into the food court. Tucked into the northeast corner of the complex, next door to Anh Hong, the food court contains 6 or 7 stall/vendors selling cháo (Vietnamese style rice porridge/congee), desserts, Huế specialties (like bánh xèo), rice plates, phở, smoothies, steamed buns, bánh cuố
Shown above is combo #8 from Tay Ho Quan ($6.xx). H1, I, and V all had this same combination which included (clockwise, from left) the shrimp cracker thing, a yam fritter, a fried bread ball with shelled and unshelled mung beans, side condiments of blanched bean sprouts, cucumbers, and cilantro, chả giò (fried spring roll), a container of a spicy nước chấm, about 8 bánh cuố
Shown above is my combo #2 ($7.34 total) which substitued the fried shrimp thingy with shrimp paste on sugarcane (hiding under the fancy pork slices and fried bread). H2 had a #10 which looked an awful lot like my dish. Anyway, all of these combos are a bargain, as I cannot finish even half of the dish. Hint: ask for it to go but heated so that your leftovers are easily packable. Luckily for our group, V is Vietnamese and can convey the heating part to the ladies. When I ask for it to go, it's usually unheated.
The fried bread ball slices were breadier than usual this time. I always thought it was some sort of lentil/mung bean fritter but this time, the slices were chewier. If it weren't deep fried, I'd eat a gazillion of these suckers. I really really love bánh cuố
Almost stuffed to the gills, we decided to check out the desserts booth (2nd on the right from the entrance). I'd been bugging V to help decipher some of the desserts, though I had a whole bunch of them figured out. I'm normally not an Asian dessert fan, but since V was there, I picked up a small container of coconutty cakes bathed in coconut cream sauce. The cake by itself is a kinda spongey, kinda chewy, not-too-sweet, possibly steamed dessert.
I admit, I liked the dessert, even though I'm not a huge coconut cream fan. Rich, but not really sweet-sweet. The toasted sesame seeds sprinked on top added a toasty, savory dimension to the dessert.
I also picked up some desserts for my family since they really like these types of chewy dessert things. Most of these have mung beans and some rice-flour or tapioca-starch based layer, akin to mochi but less chewy and more tender. I too amused by the striped layers! The second photo, the bánh dậu xanh lá dứa, are like tiny coconut covered softer, squishier mochi stuffed with a slightly sweetened mung bean (?) based filling. Rather cute and tasty! Also received grandma's thumbs-up! The singly wrapped green and yellow guy in the top photo has a nice sweetened mung bean filling surrounded by the green jelly-ish/starchy exterior that suspends slivers of coconut meat. My 98-year old grandma can loves those guys...I forget what they are called for the moment (3 for $1.20). If you squeeze them, they feel like those souvenirs found at museums that you can't quite hang onto.These are bigger than the Mai's Bakery ones available at various Asian stores in the Bay Area and fresher, IMO. I had a bad experience with moldy Mai's Bakery goods as a kid and have never touched any of their desserts again. Partial reason why I dislike many Asian desserts. =(
On our way out, I stopped off at C & K (?) for their summer rolls, or gỏi cuốn. Summer rolls, sometimes called spring rolls, are veggies, bean sprouts, rice vermicelli, and possibly meat wrapped in thin rice paper. These are the ubiquitous ones that make it onto Pan-Asian or fusion or chain restaurants. In front of the store are plant sellers and fruit sellers. I personally like this store's gỏi cuốn since they are huge and cheap ($3 for a 3 pack) and they sometimes they have the combo variety (1 shrimp, 1 egg, 1 pork shred). I was out of luck for the combo pack but I picked up the shrimp one instead. I like their shrimp gỏi cuốn since again, they are huge and contain a good ratio of rice vermicelli, thinly sliced cooked pork, 4 shrimp halves, lettuce, bean sprouts, mint, sometimes Thai basil, and sometimes lemony mint. These were packed up with a generous container of hoisin and peanut based sauce. I usually find this store's gỏi cuốn flavorful enough without dipping sauce. If I do dip, I prefer nước chấm over this peanut/hoisin stuff.
We packed into the noodleslinger-mobile again, exited the Lion Plaza, turned right, flipped a U, and zoomed over to Huong Lan Sandwiches. Both V and I really like their cheapo sandwiches made on fresh little baguettes baked with hints of rice flour for extra crunchiness. My favorite here is the #1 combination with pâté, headcheese, and ham for $1.75. All sandwiches include mayo, cilantro, onions, jalapenos, cucumber, and pickled carrot and daikon. I decided to also try the meatball sandwich since I've been curious about it ($1.75). Honestly, I'm not a fan of chicken sandwiches here, either shredded or grilled - pork is where it's at (grilled or mystery variety). And the fish cake sandwich ($2) - my friend L swears by em.
I'd saved this sandwich for my dinner. The roll held up pretty well through heat and my trunk. =P The meatball did not hold onto its shape, but I had not expected it to be like an Italian meatball. It had become a spiced pork patty/spread. I really did like the sweet and savory seasonings in the pork, but a slightly firmer meatball would have been better for texture. And woo hoo...nice spicy jalapenos! The pickles and condiments were wonderfully sweet, spicy, tender-crunchy complements to the sandwich. Would I order it again? Sure, maybe this was a fluke...an oddly addicting fluke.I haven't eaten the combo pork sandwich yet, but it never disappoints. Okay, the slight disappointment would be from unspicy jalapenos, but that's hit or miss. Huong Lan's combo pork is my gold standard for combo pork. It replaced Little Paris, my first bánh mì experience as a child. Cam Huong in Oakland is my gold standard for roasted/grilled chicken bánh mì. I haven't tried the other Huong Lan branches except for the Milpitas branch and I can say, the original San Jose location handily beats the Milpitas branch in terms of sandwich quality and price as well as prepackaged food items such as papaya salad with beef jerky, lotus root salad, and assorted rice plates. The sandwiches at the Milpitas ones are okay, but there's something about the San Jose sandwich makers...they have some secret sauce or something.
We also made a pit stop at the Grand Century Mall on Story at McLaughlin. V and H2 picked up goodies from the dried snack store while me, I, H1, and V also picked up fresh sugarcane + kumquat juice at one of the stalls in the mall.
Good times with good food with good friends. A wonderful day...=D
[Edit 04/09/06]: Grandma got curious and took a chunk out of the combo pork sandwich. Thank goodness she didn't get a bite of the very spicy jalapeno...whew! Here's a cross section:
posted by Manda at
4/08/2006 08:22:00 PM
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