That's me, in the white hoodie. Not the one with the blonde hair. I wish I had blonde hair. But I prefer short hair and white hoodies. Anyways, before I get sidetracked, that's me. Looking cluelessly at a wonderful orchestra of a family made of the son and daughter as cashiers, dad as the manager, and the mum back in the kitchen.
The orchestra of their team effort didn't leave me clueless. It was everything except that, actually. I was blankly switching between the giant menu on the blackboard and the tiny paper menu on the table. This was my first time experiencing authentic Vietnamese food, and I didn't have a clue what to expect.
The overhead menu was very legible. A wide range of different options to choose from and enjoy. Turns out, the family took a wild bet at opening their humble family business in the mall after having a great run for years in the local bazaar. I think it's a great move. The locals are beginning to love Asian cuisine more and more, and the mall is an easily reachable place for the locals.
The only thing setting me back was that I couldn't really make out much of the menu. It was neatly dissected into sections, of which I could only make out "rice", "noodles", "soups", "rolls" and "salads". What was the rest? Your guess is as good as mine. I had no clue what was under these sections. I didn't want to end up eating something I would regret.
I have said numerous times that any Russian written in anything except "default" fonts is an alien language to me. It was the same case here. I could have used the help of the cashier, but I really didn't want to hold up the growing line.
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I ended up doing the smarter thing. Using a translator...not. Instead, I did what seemed to be the smarter thing. "Match the picture to the words". Remember that little game you played as a kid? I did that. I cross referred the picture frames to the words on the menu and went with that.
Looking back, that seems so not smart, but it worked out. The pictures looked really amazing and the aroma sneaking out of the kitchen and filling the area was tempting. I wish I had a stomach with an endless pit because I could really eat everything if I were to go with just the looks.
I went with a variety including chicken and veg spring rolls, a Fo Bo soup, and a plate of mango and shrimp salad.
This is all freshly made. Which is very good when it comes to food, but really annoying how long the wait would be. Also, I had originally ordered a "minced tofu" but that was not available so I decided to swap it with the salad.
The Fo Bo soup comes with rice noodles, thinly sliced beef, soup, and herbs. With every soup, they also give extra Vietnamese sauce and lime. It is super light and the flavor comes in waves.
I have had my share of Asian spring rolls in UAE. The Ukrainian spring rolls are made and filled very differently. But freshly made authentic spring rolls are a different ball game completely. Here, they use a very different recipe one that I have never had the chance to try before.
Spring rolls also come with extra sauce and a nut sauce. The filling is made of chicken filet, pineapple, salad, omelet, vermicelli, pepper, pickles, and many other things before being wrapped in rice paper and fried.
Even though it is stuffed so much, the flavor is surprisingly soft and mellow. It is very delicious and I could go for seconds.
The highlight of the day was the mango and shrimp salad. Mangoes are incredibly rare here since it has to be imported and growing them locally is a challenge. To make this even more special, they used green mangoes in this recipe.
The salad has green mangoes, shrimp, soy, nuts, pepper, pickle, herbs, among many other things. I honestly wasn't expecting to be completely blown away by this. It is very special and the price tag doesn't do any justice. Having green mangoes on the table automatically makes this extra special!
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