Piment D'Or - Paris

Welcome to the Deep Freeze!
Air France is on strike - what's new?  I got swapped over to a Singapore Airlines flight, which is like escaping the slums for a penthouse.  When we landed it took me a while to calculate what the pilot said.  "Moins neuf" - multiply by two, subtract 33, carry the nine and, and.....  SIXTEEN DEGREES??  What the fuck?  I thought of hiding in the bathroom on the outbound back to Singapore.  I didn't bring a coat so it was an extra joy shivering at the empty taxi stand for 20 minutes.  Strikes, freezing cold, non-existent taxis.....welcome back to the 3rd world, kid.  At least I can warm up with a delicious bowl at Piment D'Or!

Co Do - Melbourne

Finding Vietnamese Goodness on Foot
Sometimes we just luck out.  We trammed our way over to Richmond, a suburb NE of Melbourne a few clicks, known for being the cross hairs of the Viet community.  We employed an old-fashioned analog technique called "footing it" which is simple and effective - walk down the main drag and peek in restaurant windows until you find a full one (in this case, full of Vietnamese.)  This is how we found ourselves in Co Do and Dodo in front of a plate of Cơm tấm, otherwise known as "broken rice."

Banh Mi - Paris

New Banh Mi Shop Opens in Lil Wenzhou
I love banh mi, Puffin - I cannot seem to get enough of it. It's cheap, quick, fresh, spicy and delicious. This new shop is genius - it's simply named after the sandwich! It opened this week, within 50 feet of my front door in Lil Wenzhou. That's what I call the small area near Arts & Metier which is chock full of Chinese restaurants and shops, many opened by immigrants from Wenzhou, China.

Paris Hanoi - Paris

We're On a Vietnamese Kick These Days.....
Hey, what do you want from me? I'm tired of French food at the moment so I'm looking for other things. When I learned of a nearby Vietnamese restaurant I talked a somewhat reluctant colleague into joining me for lunch. I couldn't resist when I saw Banh Cuon on the menu. It was ok, but since I was mentally comparing it to this, there was little chance for it to stand out.

Saigon Sandwich - Paris

Cheap, Fast, Spicy! Are We in Paris??
Kinda tired of French cuisine at the moment so I was looking for a spicy jolt out of the doldrums. I'd read some nice things about this banh mi spot in Belleville called Saigon Sandwich (not to be confused with Paris Sandwich in NY's Chinatown) and went to try it for lunch. Belleville's not exactly around the corner from where I work, but thanks to my employer's generous two hour lunch rule (ok, I actually made up the rule) I had plenty of time to jump two trains to check it out.

La Place Cafe - Hanoi

A Different Kind of Juice Place
We tried the street juice in the morning and turned in a different direction later in the day. La Place cafe had air conditioning and even colder juices, hard for the street sellers to beat when it's close to 100 degrees.

Juice Sellers - Hanoi

Vietnamese Juice With a Smile
Forgive me, this is likely to be the least informative post I've ever done. I don't know the name of this place, the address or what juice I drank. It's hard to find certain things out here in Hanoi if you don't speak Vietnamese. Puffin is good at jumping into stuff and pointing, but not the local language. And me? Well, I'm practically useless. All I know is we were thirsty, it was like 100 degrees and the mom and daughter of this juice shop looked very friendly. Pingle pointed at a juice and they invited her in to sit on one of the small seats against the wall.

Banh Cuon Nong - Hanoi

Diving Into the Street Food Scene
You know how someone you love makes you better? That's Puffin. I do stuff with her that I wouldn't do by myself. Case in point - we were walking around Hanoi last night looking for food and she saw a street vendor making something unknown. Check it out. After she watched, Puffin said "that stuff looks good, come on."

Hidden Cafe - Hanoi

Half the Fun is the Climb Up
I will explain what the means shortly. Café Pho Co (Hidden Cafe) has some interesting coffees - this is Egg Milk Coffee. Yes, a coffee with a thick foam of egg and milk on the top. Puffin says it looked like brain, but it was actually quite nice. Thick rich coffee at the bottom with an extra-rich foam that tasted like heavy cream to me. Puffin said it was too "eggy" but I disagree.

Moca Cafe - Hanoi

Warming Up with Something Easy
Puffin and I arrived in Hanoi this afternoon and were starving. We looked for something quick, easy and undaring (more adventurous eating to come.) We were in luck because the Moca Cafe was right across the street from our hotel. She got the beef noodles which were studded with greens, red peppers and mushrooms. (Shhhhh, don't tell her Dad, the practicing Buddhist vegetarion.) She described them as "not bad", which in a Singaporean way means she will eat it but won't necessarily list it for her girlfriends, who arrive a month from now on their own trip.

Ba Xuyen - Brooklyn

Ba Down to the Master?
NY's banh mi title is hotly contested in the blogosphere. Some proffer Ba Xuyen as the title-holder. First things first, at $3.75 for a large sandwich, I doubt you can find one a lot cheaper. I chose the shredded pork because I love all things pork. It came stuffed inside a toasty baguette, that had a nice crust.

Baoguette - Manhattan

Banh Mi Pushes into Curry Hill
The Vietnamese sandwich newcomer with the cute name is scrambling to keep up with the crush of patrons and the learning curve.

H3C - Paris, Redux

Had to Try the Pho
There is a French custom of shaking everyone's hand when you arrive at work in the morning. I like it generally, but wonder how smart it is during flu and cold season. Everyone at work has been coughing and wheezing so when I started to feel a little flu-ish, I popped over to H3C for some Pho. In my mind, this would be akin to chicken soup and I was eager to feel better prior to jumping on my flight back to Brooklyn. I have a longer write-up of H3C here, from a previous visit.

This was just what the doctor ordered. I dipped the tender beef in the side-sauce, then slurped up the noodles with my chopsticks and finally drained the remaining broth, one spoonful at a time. Ok, time for my eight hour flight.....

9, Rue de Renard
4th Arondissement
Paris

H3C - Paris

Minh Chau's Little Brother
This sleek vietnamese eatery is owned and run by the same family that started Minh Chau. It is the younger, cooler, hipper version. The exterior belies what waits within.

Minh Chau - Paris

The Puff List Goes to Paris
One of the benefits of working for a French company is going to Paris for "work" every now and then. This time, I had the Puffin in tow - poor thing, how she suffers. We are staying in the Marais and while walking around, stumbled into a small Vietnamese restaurant called Minh Chau. To be clear, it was the bucket of spring rolls displayed in the window that caught my attention.

Hanco's - Brooklyn

Banh Mi in the BK
This tiny Bergen St sandwich maker never ceases to please. Lately, it has become my go-to Sunday football half-time meal. The menu is limited, which jibes well with my indecisiveness.

Pho Bang - Manhattan

Vietnamese Lunch in Chinatown

I went to Chinatown to get a Banh Mi sandwich from Banh Mi Saigon but since I am unlucky, I picked the one day that it happened to be closed. Not one to quit easily, I wandered around looking for some Vietnamese and ended up at Pho Bang.

As soon as I read the words "Salty Lemonade", I had to try it. It was a little too salty for me.