Return to Sang Dao

Once I get on a roll, I can't stop. 

Thus begins the glut of overdue posts. Except this post wasn't from weeks ago. Those will come soon.  This post was actually yesterday. Surprise, surprise.

After the shitty disappointment of going here way back in March when is was closed (note to self - do not go on Mondays), we wanted to go up North again for some Lao food.  We were on our way to the "Filipinos in San Diego" book launching and decided to have lunch before going to Balboa Park.

We found a spot in the really small parking lot (I've seen worse)...Luckily there were several tables available so we were seated at the corner on in the front, which was perfect for me and my not so surreptitious camera skills. This lunch party had one Asian in their midst. I overheard her explaining what each dish was and how to eat certain dishes with the plates of lettuce and herbs.  Cool - a cultural plunge!

I also had dinner scheduled later that night with my GF's (TORC, KD and Divalicious), so I didn't want to eat too much for lunch even though I was super hungry.

I liked the Thailand and Laos postcards undernearth the tabletop's glass, which were on top of native textiles.

Condiments - I liked how they were labeled. Included was chili oil, crushed peanuts, pickled peppers, chili peppers and chili garlic sauce. Plus you had your usual fish sauce, soy sauce and Sriracha.

Okay, this was someone else's food. I pretended to take a photo of TC but I had the zoom lense on the lady's plate behind TC. They ordered sausage and sticky rice (in the basket). Next time we go here, we have to order that because it looked so good! They also ordered Nam Khao (Lao fried rice), which isn't pictured.

The appetizer spring rolls were huge! The rice noodles in the spring rolls were also thick and round (like Asia Cafe's) but they put 4 shrimp instead of 3!

Here is Sang Dao's Nam Khao (which I supposed is also spelled as "Nem Khao"). The crispy rice bits weren't as crispy as Asia Cafe's version. Their sour sausage was also more meaty with less of the stringy pork skin that's usually attached to the sausage. They also don't top it off with cilantro but no matter, the lettuce and herbs were served on the side.

This was so fkg good, I just had to put in another photo...

We ordered the Fried Fish (tilapia)...

which, as you can see, we enjoyed and pretty much tore apart.

Just a little light lunch...

Remember people! Don't go on Mondays!

The yogurt place across the street is now out of business. When Bert and I went back in March on a progressive lunch adventure with a few friends, we ended up having dessert there (see that post here) after finding out that Sang Dao wasn't open on Mondays.

We took the scenic route to Balboa Park by travelling through El Cajon Blvd...

For old time's sake, here are my previous posts on Sang Dao here and here. 

Next up, dinner with the chicks...