Category

Rice Shopping Center, 4303 Rice St #B-1, Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii 96766. (808) 245-9858

Goi Cuon Tom Thit / Summer Rolls ($4) - With shrimp and pork. Served with a peanut dipping sauce. Dave says: The rolls were pretty standard. I normally don’t like it when they use shredded lettuce instead of sprouts, but it wasn’t bad. My only complaint was that some parts of the wrap were hard. I have a suspicion that the rolls are premade and when they sit around, the wrapping dries and hardens up, especially around the ends.

BBQ Pork Sandwich - This isn’t on their regular menu. You’ll find it on a sign near their counter. Back right: Ca Phe Sua Nong/Sua Da / Hot/Iced Coffee with Condensed Milk ($2.95). Dave says: The sandwich was pretty good. They use tomato which I haven’t seen before. They also didn’t put in any jalapenos. I’m used to having thinly sliced peppers to give the sandwich a little kick. The coffee was a delicious caffeine fix. It comes in a personal drip filter that dripped down into a cup partly filled with condensed milk. When it finishes you mix the coffee and milk thoroughly and pour it in the cup with ice.

Pho Ga / Chicken Noodle Soup ($7) - This is served with bean sprouts, basil, hot green pepper, and a wedge of lemon. This was a pretty large portion with lots of chicken. It was good.

Taste: 7.5/10
Presentation: 2/5
Service/Atmosphere: 3/5
Total: 12.5/20

9396-c Mira Mesa Blvd. San Diego, CA 92126. (858) 566 - 7711.

(Thats Minh right there. He proudly sports his bluetooth headset)

I came into the shop today and there was a couple of new changes at the front counter. They have a new Dreyer’s ice cream station and a fruit bar/popsicle refrigerator. The ice cream looked really good and so I ordered a couple of scoops of green tea and butter pecan ice cream. It was sooo good =) especially the butter pecan which tastes similar to pistachio almond ice cream.

I ordered the Xiu Mai Banh Mi today and I told Minh not to put too much of the mayo sauce in it. But I forgot to ask him to not include hot peppers. Doh! (>_<)!

The green tea and butter pecan ice cream (not visible) with finely grinded oreo bits on top.

Taste: 8/10
Service: 5/5
Atmosphere: 3/5
Total: 16/20

9396-c Mira Mesa Blvd. San Diego, CA 92126. (858) 566 - 7711.

Today is the change of ownership of Cali Cafe Sandwiches. My friend Minh and his family purchased this sandwich shop and are currently in the process of updating it with new prices and products. Some of the new price changs include:

• Cali Club Sandwiches ($3.75, was $6.00).
• Smoothies ($2.75, was $3.00).
• Espresso Coffee ($2.00, was $2.50).
• Espresso Iced Coffee ($2.00, was $2.50.)

Some new things that will soon be added to the store are frozen yogurt, ice cream, and fruit bars. Minh says that the frozen yogurt will cost $1.50, $2.00, and $3.00 for small, medium, and large respectively.

I tried the banh mi thit nuong today and it was pretty good. I forgot to ask them to make it without the green pepper in it (aiya!) and so I paid the ultimate price. The amount of meat they gave me was pretty good and the bread was really toasty. It was quite filling and satisfying except for one area of it where it has a bit too much butter. Other than that, I like it. I will just have to ask them to go light on the butter next time.

I’m not sure when the grand re-opening is going to be, but I will keep everyone updated as I found out.

7612 Linda Vista Road #117, San Diego, CA 92111

Anh Hong Pho Pasteur! Located between KB Books and K Sandwiches. If ever eating here, you should definitely order one of the self wrap spring roll dishes. They offer various different meats/fish/veggies on their menu that you could stuff in your rice paper. This is always a fun thing to do because most of the dishes require you to cook your own meat on a portable stove. Notice the “Special Bake Whole Catfish” in bold. My family ordered last time and got the 5 pounder cat fish! It was quite a site.. and the skin is baked to crispy perfection. Take a little bit of cat fish(and crispy skin of course), lettuce, rice noodles and mints; and your have yourself a baked fish wrapped spring roll.

Today we decided on the “Bo 7 Mon” which serves 2 people (beef prepared 7 different ways 15.99). It comes with rice paper and a gigantic plate of various veggies and mints. Before I start, let me briefly explain how to wrap a perfect roll(there are other ways, but I feel that this works the best).
1. Place a piece of rice paper on your plate.
2. Tear off a good size lettuce and place it at the end of the rice paper.
3. Choose either a cucumber slice, plantain slice, or/and pickled carrots or leeks to be placed on top of the lettuce (I prefer the plantain over the cucumber, and I also like the pickled leeks as well).
4. Place some rice noodles on top of the lettuce.
5. Bean Sprouts and mints if you choose (I reccomend both)
6. Place the meat on top of the rice noodles.
7. Begin to roll like you would a burrito.

Numbers 3 to 6 can be switched around however you like, but numbers 1 and 2 are key if you don’t want your roll breaking on you. Also Don’t over stuff your roll or you won’t be able to roll it. Then finally enjoy with some fish sauce(I like my sauce spicey, so I always add a little extra chili to it).

The first beef dish is prepared by lightly boiling the meat with some onions. You’ll want to start boiling the onions first. Don’t overcook the beef because it will get tough on you and a tough spring roll is the last thing you want. Nothing too crazy is done to this dish, so that you may taste the natural flavor and freshness of the beef.

The second dish is sauteed in a pan of oil and butter. The meat is flavored with sesame seeds and lemon grass. This time the beef is accentuated with a little bit of butter and sesame seeds. What doesn’t taste good with a bit of butter!

This next dish is really deceptive because our waiter had told us that this dish counted as 4 out of the 7 beef dishes we were suppose to get. I suppose the sausage shaped beef pieces were prepared 3 different ways, but I honestly couldn’t tell the difference. The beef pieces were well seasoned and was a burst of flavor in my mouth. The big beef ball is moister and just as flavorful, but softer in texture. This dish can be eaten rolled up or with the cracker.

The 7th dish was a beef porridge and wasn’t anything special. I had already eaten and forgotten to take a picture. I was in need of the porridge because at the time I was really sick. We used the left over veggies at the end to make vegetarian rolls.

Taste: 7/10
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 2/5
Total: 12/20

9330 Mira Mesa Blvd. #A. San Diego, CA 92126. (858) 689 - 9589.

I had a craving for some wide rice noodle seafood soup. The same craving I had about a week ago (but it wasn’t satisfied) so Dennis took me to this Vietnamese place with a name too hard to remember. It’s never good to crave a type of something (without knowing specifically where to get it) and then set out for it because you’re almost always sorely disappointed.

The service was good, but maybe a little too good. The waiter kind of stood over our shoulder the minute we walked in the door…expecting us to know what we wanted. There was prompt refill of water though, which I defintiely loved. It was a small restaurant and was pretty empty, there was maybe one other table of patrons. OH! And the bowls were ugly! They looked like the kind you can buy at Ranch 99 on sale. It looked “earthy” with its dark colors and didn’t make for good presentation.

I ordered the Seafood Rice Noodle or Egg Noodle ($5.25) and opted for the wide rice noodles. I didn’t get my hopes up with images of a cornucopia of vegetables but I did expect more than I was presented with. I love green onions but the bowl was swimming with them…and the 1-2″ kind, not the sliced shallots. And then on the other extreme, there were barely any bean sprouts! The wide rice noodles were good (not too hard — i.e. old). The soup flavoring was good, but a little too salty for my taste but Dennis said it was normal. The “seafood” consisted of three pieces of shrimp and other flour products that didn’t even look like seafood (e.g. imitation crab, fish cakes, fish balls). I expected the imitation crab but I think they should have at least tried to put some squid or scallop in it. The taste was average to me; but I always douse my soups with chilli and lime, so after I modified it a bit I thought it tasted very good, just still a little too salty. And that was it for me.

Dennis says (Seafood Combination Fried Rice):

For one thing, the rice was too white. I usually like my rice GOLDEN!! It has to have the egg mixed in with it, it doesn’t have that presentation that I like! And…so it was a little bit dry. They had some good portions of seafood combination in it. Scallop was pretty tasty, shrimp was thick, which was good. And it didn’t have the annoying tail on it (Vida says: I like the tail!!) so I didn’t have to eat around it. There was good portions to it. Very filling but, uh, I don’t know, I still didn’t like it that much. It wasn’t worth $6.25 plus tax and tip. Soup (that came with it) was okay. That’s it! [hand gestures]

Taste: 7/10
Presentation: 2/5
Service: 3/5

TOTAL: 12/20