In Vancouver, it’s ridiculously easy to find Pho, especially along the Kingsway stretch from Nanaimo to Fraser. It is however a challenge to find a Vietnamese restaurant that isn’t focused on Pho, which has bullied other types of delicious food from Vietnam into submission here. Sure there is also bun and banh mi, but one can only eat so much before you get bored!
I have some Vietnamese friends, and I often bug them to let me come over and have some of their food, cause I want to have something other than Pho. I was happy to have tried Bun Bo Hue at Pho Nuanh , thanks to Jeff, and now I usually will look for that instead. One day at V’s house, her mom had brought home something similar to the rice rolls found in Chinese restaurants. A couple days later, a review of a restaurant that served this popped up on Foodosophy! (The review can be read here.)
What I had was Banh Cuon, and wiki explains it best.
Bánh cuốn: Rice flour rolls stuffed with ground pork, prawns and wood ear mushroom. They are eaten in a variety of ways with many side dishes, including one out of many kinds of chả (sausage).
It was delicious, not sure why, but I’ve been looking forward to trying it from an actual restaurant itself for a while now, and finally got a chance to this past Monday. Though it was not the same restaurant V’s mom got it from, she tells me that they used to go here for it too, but found their quality lacking after a while. Thankfully, the one that they did go to was not far, just a couple blocks West on Kingsway. (So convenient!)
It’s located in the same plaza as Pho Hoa, which I absolutely hate. Although the text on the window says pho, they actually don’t have it as you can see in their menu further down. That’s good, I’m not looking for it.
This is their menu, one piece of paper, typed and written on with the prices, taped to the mirrors. You can see that it’s not a lot, just 9 items (the bottom two are “1 box to go” and “1/2 box to go“). What I was interested in was #2 or #3. V didn’t know what nhan or chay was, and when the nice old lady (who was also making the food) came out front to take our order, they spoke in Vietnamese and I don’t think she even said a number.
Must have been something like this in Vietnamese:
“You want banh cuon?”
“yep”
Whatever, no big deal as it’s the same price and I’m a noob to this type of cuisine anyways. When it came, I found that it was warm, kind of like it just came out of the microwave. V mentioned that her mom used to come here to eat, but stopped and went somewhere else after she found the quality started to decline. Seems like they pre-make it and just heat it up when it’s ordered. Sure seemed that way, but it was still good to me!
It came with a dipping sauce, which I found was really plain and lacked some chili seeds and flakes (even though I finished it all), and a herb salad.
The “salad” that consisted of different types of lettuce, mint leaves, and some cilantro. The mint was very light and the lettuce leaves fresh and crunchy. I knew that it would come with it, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it and neither was V. Do we dip it into the sauce and eat it with the rolls, or is it really just a salad you eat on the side? I’m hoping someone more knowledgeable can tell me what to do with it! I ate most of it anyways though.
Halfway through the plate, I mentioned to V that we should try the other place, Truong Thanh (which Foodosophy also reviewed here) and compare it right away. I did think of trying the bun oc (Freshwater Snail Soup) or the bun rieu cua (Crab Cake and Seafood Soup), but decided to save space for the other restaurant. Another time perhaps. We finished the food and I found it okay, but I have no real knowledge or experience so take that with a grain of salt!
Next up shortly, Truong Thanh.
