TC's birthday dinner + dessert @ Pho Hiep & Grill + Tap Tap Boba

[As of late 2015, Tap Tap Boba is now called VaniTea Cafe]

We were originally going to have dinner here...

but there were no tables available and we didn't want to wait (it was already 7 pm)...

so Pho Hiep Grill  a few doors down it was!

Pho Hiep Grill in Eastlake for KD's birthday

So last night I went out to dinner with the girls, the Educator GF's (TORC, D and KD) for KD's birthday which was actually a few days ago. We wanted somewhere local so I chose the nicest Asian place down south, Pho Hiep Grill in Eastlake Village walk (see my first post here).

There are three Pho Hiep's in San Diego. The original location is on Linda Vista Road and is owned by Kevin's wife's parents. I think in a previous post I wrote it was owned by Kevin's parents. I stand corrected.   He and his wife own the 2nd location on Telegraph Canyon Road (near Vons) as well as this location which opened in early Spring 2010. They are quite the gracious couple (and stylish too!). As you walk into the Eastlake location, there is a spectacular water feature with two carved wooden panels from Vietnam.

I ordered a few appetizers for the group while the rest of the ladies figured out what they were going to order...

Not shown was the fresh spring roll. There was a misunderstanding with the waiter and he thought I wanted an order of the Goi Cuon along with the Nem Nuong Cuon. I didn't realize it until after we were halfway done eating the Shrimp and pork. The pork roll was really good and I ordered it because I knew the others hadn't tried this before. I am still itching to try Brodard's Nem Nuong Cuon.

All orders were shared by the four of us. TORC (The Other Rock Chick) got the fried rice with shrimp and chicken...

D chose the Com Tam Beef (broken rice) which we all liked. Mmmm, chargrilled edges and fat. Love it.

Calamari was also ordered - the pieces were thick and meaty with a nice and crunchy batter. I thought the portion was kind of small though.

I ordered the Caramelized catfish in a clay pot. I really liked the sweet sauce for this dish.

I also ordered the Banh Xeo crepe - Here is it with the plate of greens (lettuce, mint and pickled carrots and radish). I noticed the tia to (purple perilla leaf) was missing. Maybe they ran out or they don't include it anymore. I liked it and kinda missed it here.

I love how they do their crepes at Pho Hiep. Much smaller than at Que Huong. Not soggy either. The exterior is light and crispy. I ordered this without the pork so the filling was just bean sprouts and shrimp.

Right before we were about to leave, KD spied the bar through the wooden barrier and just had to sit here. (I have to confess this photo is from my March 2010 post) The bar is  electric blue  and lit up from underneath! It looks so cool! I'm reminded of James Cameron's "The Abyss"...

Here is Kevin who entertained us at the bar. Well, not Tom Cruise "Cocktail" style! He's such a supernice guy and he chatted with us about the different drinks and how he designed the restaurant.

This was KD's drink - a margarita...This shot was taken by her on her camera. Nice!

This was D's drink - something with fruit juice and vodka. She really wanted a "Surfer on Acid" but Kevin never heard of that drink before.

After that epic dinner, we headed back to my place for dessert. Bert did this nice set up. I just noticed this photo is marred by the ugly plastic bag in our sink! He also broke out our wedding china, Mikasa Wedding Band Platinum!

I forgot we even had this tray. Those wine glasses sure look swanky on that tray.

I couldn't find the regular birthday candles. I found this one that I picked up at Powell's Books in Portland from our Spring 2009 trip. I was supposed to used it for my 40th that year, but used something else. So, hey, let's put this candle to use shall we!

We didn't have regular coffee, just Vietnamese espresso so Bert made iced coffee. I declined since I already had two (Asia Cafe and the free one from Que Huong). I was pretty wired that night but somehow I was able to fall asleep around 11:30.

I got the fruit tart from Hans and Harry Bakery in Bonita. It was a sugared puff pastry shell topped with custard and glazed fresh fruit.  Heh, heh...Don't you love my "paint" skillz on the "Happy Birthday" circle?

I even did it on this photos but the "spray paint" feature was too thick! Here we are: D, TORC, KD the birthday girl and me...

A lovely evening spent with great company!

Previous outings for KD's birthday:
2010 at Sab e Lee in Santee
2009 at Romesco's
2008 at Frida's

We did go out in 2007 but I didn't post it and in 2006, I wasn't blogging until Spring. This was also the first birthday (for KD) in 5 years that the Chargers weren't in the playoffs.

Only one more day of vacation and it's back to work next week.

Pho Hiep, Korean & Kalamansi

We recently had dinner at Pho Hiep on Telegraph Canyon Road near Vons. See a previous post here . It was just us, my parents, Bert's mom, brother and his brother's friend. It was stillpretty early for dinner, around 6 pm...We sat in the far corner towards the back wall. The owner Kevin was there making his rounds, greeting customers...
That's my dad's striped shirt you see...
I actually got something different today. Every time we go to Pho Hiep, I usually get the bun with char grilled shrimp with egg rolls or with char grilled beef. This time, I got the Vietnamese Chicken Salad I(see 2nd to last item on the menu below):
But first, we ordered fried eggrolls to share. Notice that they are pretty stingy with the mint? Just one sprig. Also, the lettuce was not in abundance like you would get if you were in Linda Vista or somewhere on Convoy.
We also got the fresh spring rolls (2 orders) since TC likes it so much. This is the one with just shrimp inside.
The garnishes for the pho:
Here's my Vietnamese Chicken Salad. Those big wafer things are fried shrimp chips (kind of like Indonesian krupuk but bigger). The chicken is mixed with shredded lettuce, onions, fried shallots, rau ram (a type of Vietnamese herb) in a lemon sauce, topped with peanuts and seasoned with black pepper. This was really good. I could have done without the chicken and eaten this vegetarian style. I just may order this again!
TC got the seafood soup with shrimp and fake crab, which she liked. I, on the other hand, am not a fan of the fake crab meat, especially in soup. I'd rather eat it in a cream cheese won ton.
My mom got the chicken soup...
Here's that super hot fried egg roll:
My mother in law got the broken rice with chicken. It was quite a bit of food and she ended up taking half home. I really like the marinade they use in the chicken. Very sweet but not overly sweet. Tastes good with the pickled vegetables (radish and carrot).
I forgot who ordered this - oh wait, it was my brother in law because I just recognized his Hawaiian shirt. It was the bun with chicken (or is that pork?).
This was my dad's order - Bun with grilled chicken and egg rolls. My dad likes to eat his bun not with the nuoc cham but with a bowl of broth (which they sometimes give to you at certain places, but you have to request it at Pho Hiep).
This was my bro-in-law's friend's food - Bun with Chicken. Yeah, I know, bun bun bun, blah blah blah.
Bert had the...wait for it...the Bun...with chicken and grilled shrimp.
Had enough of bun? I know those pictures were so exciting. Like throw your panties at Tom Jones exciting.

A few weeks later during Memorial Day weekend, we had a mini lunch with some friends. Their daughter is one of TC's classmates and very good friends. Her mom is one of my good friends and like me, is totally Robsessed! Ha ha. So, we hosted that day and had Korean food. After the Ethnic Food Fair at Balboa Park, we stopped by Zion to pick up stuff for the next day's lunch. This here is the Korean potato salad (they used apples this time instead of Asian pears) along with Chap Jae noodles...One package in $2.99. It works if you want noodles in a pinch instead of making it yourself because it's pretty time consuming to make (at least for me, and yes, I have made Chap Jae before).
We also got the Seaweed Salad, which we bought for the first time. I really liked it and would definitely get it again. I really like the seasoning and the texture of the different types of seaweed used in there. The clover shaped bowl held various panchan - seasoned beansprouts, spinach, and fern bracken (not so much a fan of that).
Man, everyone and their mother was in line waiting to get meat to grill at Zion. The bone in Kalbi ribs were on sale for $3.99 instead of $5.99. We got about $15 worth...Oh yeah...
Red Leaf lettuce was dirt cheap at Zion! They were going for 5 for .99! I just bought 2 heads of lettuce...
That same day, TC and her friend set out to do a chore for me. They were to squeeze the living life out of these kalamansi fruits, which were picked the night before from Robsessed friend's neighbor's tree. That neighbor has two trees, one in his back yard and on in the front. The night before, TC, her friend, and another friend had a good ole time straddling the fence (supervised, of course) and hand picking the fruits. They filled up a plastic bag with these native Philippine citrus fruits. The neighbor was an older Filipino man who said my friend was welcome to get the fruits any time. I prepped the kalamansis by washing them and halving them for the girls...
Then, in the back yard, I put some newspapers on our patio table. The girls squeezed the fruits over a strainer that was resting on a spouted bowl.
The strainer would catch the seeds. The girls did a really good job of extracting as much juice as possible...
Don't these fruits look mouthwatering? Oh my gosh, I love kalamansi juice so much! Tastes even better on pancit bihon!
Here are the rinds...
Look at that juice! I ended up using some of it to make some kalamansi cupcakes. Unfortunately, the flour I used was not so good and it had an off flavor, so I think I will make another batch with new flour.
The girls had so much doing this that they begged to do it again really soon. Hmmm, cheap child labor? Free fruits! I just might take them up on their offer!

Pho Vinh

Last week, TC and I went out while Bert helped his older brother clean their shed and garage. Last year when they did this, they found the liquefied remains of a couple of 'possums. Niice. So, with my check off list in hand, we headed towards the Chula Vista Library to drop off book donations after church. While making our way up Broadway in Chula Vista, I saw this place, which I hadn't been to in more than a year. It's between F & G street and it's next to a seedy tattoo parlor and a Hotel 7.

It was cold that day and it was also supposed to rain (luckily it didn't THAT DAY). That was the weekend of the really heavy rain. I ordered a large pho with brisket and flank for TC and I to share.

This is the only Vietnamese place on the West Side of Chula Vista, as far as I know. On the East side of Chula Vista (East meaning West of the 805), there's Pho Hiep & Grill on Telegraph and father down, near Eastlake, Pho Vien Dong. It's smallish inside and family run. There were a lot of people there that day, mostly families. They all seemed to be Filipino too, judging from the chattering I heard in Tagalog. Here's a photo TC took. We sat on the far left side, across from this mural of goldfish.

The condiments tray. I see that they have red chopsticks here. Pho Hoacalli has green. I bought pairs just like those at the Vietnamese grocery store behind Pho Ca Dao (on University). I used them as accents in a tallv ase during Christmas time. As you can see by the dark green faux marble table, they must have given decorating tips to the folks over at Pho Vien Dong in Eastlake. Barf! So ugly! The little booklet is my Ugly Dolls mini notebook. I use it to write down my observations and grocery lists and other mundane things.

We were seated in the booths near the far left wall. On the right are the bathrooms, which by the way, are kind of gross. Don't go there unless you want to assault your senses with urine.

My downfall that day, Cafe Sua Da. I shouldn't have ordered this. Although I really like Vietnamese iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk, if I have it after 12 noon, I'm pretty much up all night. And that's what happened. My non-coffee taking wuss of a body was wired until about 2 or 3 in the morning.

The pho with flank and brisket...

Our goi cuon with peanut sauce:

Mmm...fat!

I didn't really eat much of the pho that day. I ended up giving most of it to TC. She really liked the noodles, but the meat - not so much. After having had a crappy bowl of what they called pho from Pho Hiep, this was much better. There was greenery in it (green onions) and the broth had a good flavor, as opposed to the watery swill they served TC a few days before.