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When in Asia…

Modern French bistro decor and soft jazz. Lots of white brick with dark wood and simple framed black and white photos. This is clearly not Chinese! We found ourselves in Nha Trang, a Vietnamese restaurant that’s becoming popular in Hong Kong. Perusing through the English menu found all our usual American Vietnamese delights like Pho and Banh Mi, plus some more Chinified dishes.

  
I started with my favorite Vietnamese iced coffee, but double-shot to wake me up. Also shown, a sweet drink with orange candied orange peel and candied pineapple which was too sweet and could really have benefitted from the tartness of fresh pineapple.

  
My wife went with a noodle soup, with a broth a little richer than typical pho. Filled with tender slices of pork, beef, fish cake, and all the usual proteins. The noodles had perfect texture and the broth savory and slightly sweet and spicy – simultaneously rich and light. I was scared by the mention of fish paste in the broth, but I found it amazing!

  
For myself I selected the pork chop banh mi. They warned me it would take an extra 15 minutes, which surprised me. How long does it take to assemble a sandwich? It didn’t actually take that long, probably because they grabbed pork that had already been cooked – it was clearly not “sizzling” as the menu described. Still good, with a great crispy crust baguette and crispy pork. Too much mayo though kinda killed it all leaving it a bit bland.

  
So how does Hong Kong Vietnamese compare to the American stuff? While I’ve had much better banh mi sandwiches stateside, I don’t think I’ve ever had pho that could top the rich stuff found here. I guess proximity does help somewhat.

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Super-cheap Sunday breakfast

Early on a Sunday morning there isn’t much available. Even Sha Tin boasts the 2nd largest mall in Hong Kong, most of the shops and dinig are closed. We stumbled into a modern diner chain called Fairwood featuring a strange breakfast fusion of food combos like macaroni noodles with grilled got dogs or vermicelli with fried eggs and toast.


I went with what turned out to be essentially steak and eggs. Black Pepper beef, 2 fried eggs and a thick piece of toast. The beef was tender and the black pepper sauce had the perfect level of spice. The eggs were simple but perfect temperature. Also came with coffee which had milk and cocoa added already. Delicious!


Pearl desperately wanted congee, the rice porridge she is so fond of complete with her favorite 1000 year egg and minced pork. It was part of a meal as well, with fried daikon cakes and coffee as well.

  1. Both meals were pretty good, and the pest part? The entire meal was 52.5 Hong Kong dollars – that’s only US $6.75 total!!
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High-altitude air fare

How jaded are we that the incredibly avanced technology that lets us hop around the globe in less than a day leaves us complaining about the quality of the food en-route.

  
Remember when airlines used to feed you? Well they still do on international flights. Here’s Cathay Pacific’s LAX to Hong Kong economy plus lunch lineup. A roll, some microwaved veggies, half a grilled potato and a small piece of steak. The beef had decent flavor (if a bit dry and overdone) and the veggies aren’t worth writing about. The shrimp and quinoa salad was different and reminiscent of tabouleh.

  
The Mrs. had a lactose free special meal which was mango chicken over rice with grilled veggies and a side of pineapple. Her salad was a basic one but with more grilled chicken and a vinaigrette. I guess they assembled her meal from others? I think she got the better meal.

  
The best part was real silverware, including this cute little demitasse spoon for our coffee. Oh, I almost forgot. Ice cream! And since the wife is avoiding lactose, I get two individual servings of Haagen-Daz vanilla!

 
7 hours later we picked up with dinner. I had a spicy pork and tofu dish with rice. A side of fruit and a red bean mousse finished it off. Not the most visually appealing dish, but it was tasty.

  
What I didn’t understand was my wife’s meal. Agains it was specially prepared and was items not on the regular menu. An excellently prepared fish dish with a spicy salsa served on mixed rice. What’s weird is that she easily could have had my meal – no dairy except for the desert. Either way it was quite delicious and worthy of being a regular item.

  

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A last taste of home

It’s been a while – so let’s pick things up as I sit in the terminal waiting for my flight. Recently LAX built a whole new international terminal with a pleathora of flagship dining options. We opted for Umami Burger, that SoCal chain that gets even more rabid fan frothing than In N Out. 

  
While the choices are limited, the definitely hold up to their equivalents at full locations, although u was surprised they didn’t carry the signature namesake Umami Burger. So instead I took my second favorite, the Manly Burger with loads of beer cheddar and bacon. Pearl went with my second fav, the Hatch Burger with a grilled Hatch chile pepper.

  
While the cool wrapper was a neat touch, the selection was sad, and they were out of key ingredients for the location-signature “LAX Burger” with port onions and Stilton Blue. Worst of all was the lack of the usual extravagent beer selection. We were limited to 4 domestic macrobrews 🙁

  
All in all a little disappointing for those familiar with Umami, but still a fantastic option for terminal dining.

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Deep in the heart of Dallas-Fort Worth

After my last experience with airport dining, I’m not expecting much. But the smell of BBQ as I left the plane overwhelmed my trepidations. Enter Cousin’s BBQ, a counter establishment in Dallas Fort Worth Terminal D. Again I’m surprised at the reasonable pricing. $11 gets you a dinner plate with two sides and Texas toast.

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The pulled pork has a perfect tender texture, but is lacking in bark. There’s great smokey flavor and color all the way through the meat. It’s slathered with a generous amount of a rather bland sauce. Skip the mac and cheese; way overcooked noodles and blue-box cheese is worthless. The potatoes are also a miss. They taste like the boxed stuff with a little bit of fresh spuds mixed in for color and texture. Lastly, the Texas toast: nothing worth saying, but then again, what do you expect for double-thick Wonderbread.

Long story short, if you’re going to hit up Texas, at least have the decency to exit the airport before seeking out BBQ.