Aku Eats Oahu : a closer look : Pho Mai, a closer look

Pho Mai, a closer look

Aloha!

7/6/08 - Wifey is finally starting to eat again. She had all four wisdom's taken out and is now weaning off of soup and okayu, or rice porridge. I gotta give it to wifey, boy - she is one tough senbei. She was off the pain med's the very next day and hasn't complained one bit through it all, from being barely able to walk and communicating with a pad, pen, and desperate grunting noises to liquid meals and starchy mush (okayu) day and night.

After the first couple of days of her ordeal I was then making mashed potatoes mixed with strained Safeway soups (their tomato basil is a winner!), then yogurt w/diced fruit, then soba noodles. Today, for the first time in almost a week, we went out and got us one of wifey's all-time favorite noodles - Vietnamese pho. I guess you know why I've been writing about New Zealand recently!

Pho places are so abundant these days, popping up in little nooks and crannies all over town and offering simple and tasty meals at a very reasonable price. I don't know what it is, but I have yet to taste a pho that I didn't like. Yes, there are degrees and levels of satisfaction, but pretty much everywhere you go, a hot bowl of pho always turns out well.

Sometimes the dish comes with a darker, richer broth heavy on beef flavors while other times the broth will be lighter, reminding me more of a chicken broth, even when ordering beef pho. Personally, I love it when it comes with the strong aromas of star anise, cardomom, cinammon, or clove. These are, to me, what gives it that almost gourmet-ish type of exotic-ness that really kicks up a good bowl of pho. Of course, I'm guessing to someone from Vietnam, exotic may mean mustard, ketchup, and pickled relish!

Pho mai on S. King St. is a great place to experience many different types of Vietnamese cuisine. It is a small, unassuming place that is clean, cozy, and very friendly to non-Vietnamese diners - meaning, the customer service is always friendly and accomodating. I could barely understand our gracious host on this particular day, but he was fun and jovial, treating us warmly like we were long-time regulars. Not the shy type at all, he cracked us up with his good nature and bold, no-reservations attitude, reminding me of a Vietnamese version of Martin Yan from Yan Can Cook, or maybe Didi Ah Yo, and away we go! Maybe I should have gotten a picture other than the blurred, dark pic you see of him hiding in the far corner of the next shot.

The place is right next to La Pizza Rina and Sushi Sasabune, with parking on the street or on a right turn into the small lot immediately after the store.

Most Vietnamese restaurants have fried spring rolls or the non-fried, rice-paper-wrapped rolls of shrimp, veggies, and rice noodles called summer rolls. At Pho Mai, they don't play seasonal favoritism and keep it real all year round, with autumn and winter rolls, as well! Both are of the non-fried variety, winter rolls coming with lup cheong sausage and autumn rolls coming with shredded pork. Not being the biggest fan of the sweet lup cheong of Chinese origin, we went with autumn rolls instead.

Despite having one of the best spring rolls around, the Autumn roll we ordered didn't do much for either of us. The pork was right out of the refrigerator and still cold, white-fatty pieces and all!

The pho, on the other hand, was as delicious as it always is here. Wifey didn't finish all the beef, but being the first time eating meat for several days, she really enjoyed it.

And here are the sauces we whipped up ourselves from the condiment containers located at the table, to be enjoyed with wifey's pho as well as my dish, coming up real soon. Instead of getting too monotonous by explaining what we do with the sauces and side of veggies that are always given, please check out the main Vietnamese pages to find out, in case you're not sure. I'm almost positive most of you don't want to hear the same explanation everytime we hit a different Vietnamese restaurant!

I'm really not sure why they give so many fresh peppers when there are so many chili sauces at the table. I mean, a just two or three in your broth is more than sufficient to substantially heat things up. I just hope they don't re-use them! They do add a nice pepper flavor though, even beside the heat.

As usual, wifey can't get away from ordering pho, and I always want to explore with other dishes. She always gives me a taste, anyway. I chose a combination egg noodle and rice noodle dish with shrimp and pork in a garlic chili broth. The broth was served on the side as a dip. Or was it meant to be poured into the noodle bowl at the last minute? Our friendly host answered the question with a "Ey, you da boss, you do what you lai." With a big laugh, of course.

The egg noodles were the look fun noodles found in Chinese restaurants, while the rice noodles were the same variety used in pho. The slightly firmer, crisper egg noodles gave the dish more texture and base, while the softer rice noodles provided a slippery, easy-down-the-throat contrast that balanced well together. Like the autumn roll, the pork was, again, right out of the refrigerator. In fact, so was the shrimp! I quickly threw them both into the broth to warm up. No worries, though - I thoroughly enjoyed this dish and would order it again in a heartbeat!

The broth was actually identical to the pho broth except there was some built-in heat and it came in a much smaller portion. I forgot that there was supposed to be a garlic element to this dish, as I couldn't taste it at all. At first, I used the broth as a dip, but later got tired and dumped it all in my noodle bowl. Ey, I'm da boss, right?

I do love this little hide-away. And I wouldn't mind having a couple of beers with the host, or maybe some sake. You have no idea how badly wifey is craving sushi and sake after being shut down for so long. You can be sure I'll be giving you a closer look at sushi sometime real soon, as in the very next night I'm off soon.

For now, though, we were well-satisfied with lunch from one of our favorite Vietnamese haunts.

Aloha and see ya back soon!

Aku

Back to A Closer Look

Back to Vietnamese Restaurants, page 1

Post a Comment or just say hello! Don't worry about leaving REAL names if you don't want to! Changing to Code names are fine, but just stay consistent with your code names, allright? No e-mails will be posted without consent, either way! Hope to hear from you all!