Right.... It says in the title of this blog that there will be musings about food. I've been intensely negligent on that front. I also learned last night that this blog is going to be posted on an expat website (http://www.expat-blog.com/) so I figured it might be a good idea to offer up information that is actually useful. Although, in my own defense, a pilgrimage to The Urinal Box is worth your time.
I tend to be a little wimpy about trying new places, but there just aren't that many places that serve really good vegetarian food. Wait. Let me rephrase that. There aren't many places that serve things that aren't ramen noodles with vegetables as their veg offering. I'm fine eating that, but a little goes a long way. I get tired of it quickly. An additional consequence is that, because I don't eat meat, I miss out on the vast majority of Vietnamese fare; which I'm told is excellent.
I think it's impossible to live here and not soften the rules on your particular brand of vegetarianism if you plan on eating out. There are a lot of excellent restaurants where the vegetarian offerings that simply aren't great (Refinery* anyone?). When you order them they kind of taste like an afterthought. Sounding good on paper but being quite bland. To that end, I've found myself eating fish at certain places. I'm not sure if that forces me to relenquish my V-Card, which I held with an iron grip for over ten years in the US, but it's just the way it is. Sometimes you're just stupid if you don't go with what a restaurant is good at preparing.
*I kind of threw Refinery (74 Hai Ba Trung, Dist. 1) under the bus a moment ago, which is unfair. Yes, their vegetarian main course menu option ( brown rice with eggplant, goat cheese and a tomato mint sauce**) falls on the lame end of the taste spectrum; and their various gnocchi specials generally fall somewhere between uninspired and good-but-I-don't-know-if-I'd-order-it-again; but the blackened swordfish is fantastic. I'm mildly disappointed that they don't make it as spicy as they used to, but I learned the hard way that you can ask for it to be prepared the old (spicy) way. I shed a tear on the toilet the next morning, but going down it was sublime. The swordfish at Refinery was the first time in almost 15 years I'd ordered a piece of cooked fish for dinner (sushi was an occasional indulgence before we moved, but that's it). Unfortunately, when I called my EPA employed mother to brag that I'd done it, her response was, "You ate swordfish? That's the worst possible thing you could have ordered! They're at the top of the food chain; the worst mercury bioaccumulators out there." Well Mom, the mercury must be doing something because it tastes gooooood.
**I like brown rice, but it is rare that I have a dish at a restaurant that both includes brown rice and tastes like anything other than, well, brown rice. Yes it is flavorful for rice, but I'm going to need a little more than a bowl of rice with a half-assed topping. In Refinery's case, the whole thing is just dense as hell and kind of eats like a brick.
Anyway, Reyna wanted sushi, which is not exactly rare. I eat sushi here because I love her and she loves sushi. I, however, do not love the sushi here. I prefer the gigantic rolls in Vegas to the little makis you get here. This is probably due to the fact that I don't particularly like the taste of fish, but if you disguise it with enough spice and "fixins" I'll eat it and enjoy it. As it happens, there's a sushi joint right around the corner from our house -Tamago. We had avoided going to Tamago because there had been an uproar on the An Phu Neighbors Google Group about them raising their prices when we first moved into the neighborhood; and, because the new Sushi Bar 3 is about 10 feet from my office. Basically we hadn't heard anything positive about the place, but also didn't know anyone who had eaten there. On Wednesday night, however, as we sat and ate our hundredth meal across the street at Pendalasco, I promised Reyna we'd have sushi the next night. We ended up at Tamago mainly out of laziness. We'd already driven home, and didn't feel like driving back into town for dinner.
We sat outside on the patio, which is quite comfortable. Considering that there was only one other table there when we arrived at 7:30, I felt like the tables were rather close together (more on that later). I had already made up my mind to have something other than sushi rolls for dinner. Our server came around about 15 seconds after we sat down and asked us what we wanted. This was not a, "what would you like to drink" call, but a, "let's order some food" call. I was feverishly searching through the menu to find a noodle dish that didn't have chicken, pork or beef. No luck. Reyna ordered her obligatory rolls, edamame and miso soup. I ordered a miso soup, a beer, and then there was a pregnant silence while I tried to find a vegetarian noodle dish. Finally, after two minutes of standing and waiting, the server said, "are you vegetarian?"
"Yes."
"We have a vegetarian menu, you want to see it?"
"Yes!"
Score one for Tamago! I can't remember another place that has an entirely separate vegetarian menu, although it would be quicker and easier to simply include it in the normal menu. Why send me into a "this place has no non-meat dishes" panic unecessarily? I found a noodle dish on the veg menu and we settled in. Drinks came and we chatted about this and that. Reyna's rolls and the edamames came out in less than five minutes. Quite impressive. Reyna ate and I waited. And waited. And waited. Reyna finished her first round and my food had not arrived yet, though I had managed to eat all the edamame and finish my beer. The edamame had good flavor, but was overcooked, and a little soggy as a consequence. I'm not a real stickler for firm edamame, but apparently some people are. A group had taken the table next to us, ordered the same thing, and sent it back for being overcooked. I guess there's a first time for everything.
Finally after about thirty minutes a small plate of noodles arrived. As the server placed it in front of me I asked for another beer. She nodded and walked away purposefully, but the beer never came. My noodles were good, not great. I'm going to assume they weren't prepared with it, but they had a distinct A1 Steak Sauce flavor. Not neccessarily a bad thing, but for the price, I expected flavors that are a little more exotic and vegetables ranging beyond two types of cabbage. Note to Tamago: If you're going to have a special vegetarian menu, and make your vegetarian bretheren feel important, make good vegetarian food.
As I was eating, Reyna's second round of rolls came (yes she had time to order, eat and order again in the time it took for me to get my food). We finished about the same time and dedicated our energy to tracking down a server for my missing beer and a menu. We got one's attention and asked for another beer. This one managed to bring menus, but not the vegetarian apocrypha, and the beer continued to be MIA. I'd been sitting with an empty glass on the table for nearly an hour. We worked through our miso soup, which was very good*.
*I didn't realize until we moved to Aisa how difficult it can be to find miso soup that both tastes good and is vegetarian. In the US it's pretty much a given that miso soup is meat-free. Definitely not the case in Vietnam. We've had miso with okra in it, fish heads, pork, chicken and many other "surprises." I'd actually stopped ordering it, but asked our server to make sure it was vegetarian. I'm glad I did: yum.
We sat, unintentionally eavesdropping on the insufferably pretentious conversation eminating from the edamame sender-backer's table (remember how I said the tables were to close together? Here's your proof)*. Finally, the manager came over to our table to check in. We then had fantastic service. She got the beer and asked if we wanted more. I'd had my eye on the Tofu Gyorza, so I ordered it, but they didn't have it. At this point I was ready to go home and eat leftover pizza, but the manager actually recommended a dish; Fresh Tofu with Honey and Sesame Glaze over Rice. I said sure. She recognized that I was ordering off the vegetarian menu and recommended something. Nicely done. No fumbling around sending minions to fetch the other menu.
*I think complaining about pretentious overheard conversation in a blog about food (especially this particular blog) has something of a "pot and kettle" ring to it, but there you are. If you want to debate the connections between Facebook and the Russian mob talk quietly. If they can infiltrate Facebook, they can infiltrate a restaurant in the chi-chi part of town that's open nightly. You never know who's sitting at the a-little-to-close table next to you.
My next round came quickly. I think the manager realized that I'd had to wait a long time for everything and put the hammer down in the kitchen. The dish didn't score any presentation points. It was slimy in both the tofu way and the sauce way, but had a very nice, delicate flavor. I would order it again (assuming it came less than an hour after I ordered it).
Overall the food was good, but I didn't get the feeling we'd indulged. However, when the bill came, we paid like we had. Now I understand why all the An Phu Neighbors were up in arms about the price hike in the fall. It was close to double what we would have paid for a similar meal at Sushi Bar, and more than double dinner at Sushi Deli. I would not say the food at Tamago was better than either of those places. Atmospherically it's considerably better than Sushi Deli, but that doesnt justify the price. Especially considering that 80% of my meal was spent without anything to eat on the table. I don't mind paying and going out for fancy dinner, but this was neither fancy enough or good enough.
So let's do a little rating here. Out of five stars:
Food ***.5
Service *
Atmosphere ***
Veggie Friendliness ****
Who would like it: The sushi version of people that order the Gotta Have It! size at Cold Stone Creamery, live in District 2 and don't have access to transportation.
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