we went to another place that same morning for better coffee...
You can't go wrong at Bird Rock Coffee; this was the Bay Park outpost (or Morena District if you are to believe the banners hanging along the main road).
The menu is short and simple. Cortado in the back for me and macchiato in the front for him.
Real milk. Hmmm...
Both drinks were excellent...one friendly lady who was visiting from out of town (Reno to be exact) was fascinated with Bert's macchiato. She ended up ordering the same drink and loved it.
I'd asked Bert to drive by K Sandwiches so I could check out their grand opening sign...While in the same strip mall, we both decided to stop in Pho Pasteur. I'd never blogged the place and it was the very first Vietnamese restaurant we ever tried back in 1996. Our food guide was Superman's girlfriend at the time (his soon to be wife as of 2001). I remember she ordered the "greatest hits" for us (pho tai, a noodle dish, fried rolls plus spring rolls), a tame introduction but a great one for us newbies at the time.
We'd gone back in subsequent years, ordering bun with grilled beef or the seven course beef (one of my favorites here). These visits were pre blogging days which makes it pre-March 2006 which seems like forever...
We sat at Table 3, near Cathy and her Mister's regular (not by choice) Table 4 (four is an "unlucky" number). There were actually no white folks seated at table 4 during the time of our visit. Later, an Asian family was seated there.
Their menu is super long. These are just a few pages. We ordered the fried rolls, bun with grilled beef, plus a new to us item, the stuffed squid (stuffed with pork, glass noodles and wood ear mushrooms; basically the same filling as the fried rolls).
We liked the flavor of the stuffed squid, paired with the raw onion and tomatoes, this was a great appetizer. We were pacing ourselves and only had a few pieces (TC ended up eating the rest later).
I like how they roll their grilled beef here. You'll see that cooked white onion is inside. At Pho Cow Calli (which used to be called Pho Hoa Calli), they rolled the beef around long green onions; the rolls are longer and thinner. Both are tasty versions. Underneath the noodles were loads of chopped lettuce, mint, and cucumbers. So much better than the abomination they serve at Pho Convoy down in Chula Vista; their bun anything is mostly noodles which sucks.
The sauce for the bun here seemed a bit watered down though and kind of on the skimpy side too. I was happy to see that they use the rice wrappers for their fried rolls. I love the blistered look on these. You kind of have to wait awhile before biting into one, you know to prevent totally scorching the roof of your mouth.
Lettuce and mint were also abundant. We're talking full size lettuce leaves here and more than one measly mint sprig (I'm talking to you Pho Convoy in Chula Vista). It was so nice having this version of fried rolls once again.
Please check out Cathy of mmm-yoso's posts for Anh Hong Pho Pasteur - She has visited many times over the years
Previous visit to Bird Rock Coffee, Bay Park:
October 2017 (drinks round up post)
Anh Hong Pho Pasteur
7612 Linda Vista Rd., Suite 117
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 569-7515
Their fb page hasn't been updated since late Nov. 2016; here are the reveiws from that four lettered site
Just a few more days 'til K Sandwiches reopens!
No comments:
Post a Comment