Best for: Vietnamese
Location: Keeaumoku
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bánh mì, about $5
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One should always judge a city by both its quantity and quality of hole-in-the-wall restaurants. By that standard, Honolulu is doing fairly well, at least for Asian food. A few days ago Anthony and I had just finished shopping for Halloween costume supplies, e.g., washers, a cardboard box, door knobs, and agreed that we finally deserved our lunch. Not wanting to take the easy way out by ending up at Ala Moana, we crossed the street to avoid the slew of mediocre chain restaurants dotting the Wal-Mart side.
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chả giò, $7.95
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I had the sudden craving for Vietnamese food as soon as I read "pho" on a large glass window at the corner. We walked into Pho Saigon and were seated at one of the booths. We had the place all to ourselves, so we couldn't help but listen to the Sensa infomercial playing on the overhead TV. A restaurant really shouldn't promote a weight loss system. Especially when its food tastes this good.
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cà phê đá, about $3
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I ordered chả giò and an iced coffee. I know, I know, chả giò is probably the most cliché dish I could've ordered, but I was really craving spring rolls that day. My spring rolls were crispy, meaty, and came with lettuce, nước mắm pha (fish sauce with vinegar, water, sugar, garlic, chili pepper and carrot shreds), and rice vermicelli. The iced coffee, or cà phê đá, was served properly - finely ground dark roast coffee brewed in a small metal drip filter placed over a cup containing condensed milk, which is then stirred and poured over ice. Sweet and strong - the perfect combination. In case you haven't been paying attention, the mantra of this food blog is that Asians do everything better. Making iced coffee is no exception.
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| I think he likes my spring rolls as much as I do |
As I rolled up my chả giò with pieces of lettuce, I remembered exactly why I had missed Hawaii so much while away for college: the easy access to cheap, authentic Asian food, free from pretense. In Portland, my favorite Vietnamese restaurant was Silk, a beautiful restaurant in the Pearl District that served tasty but not very authentic Vietnamese dishes. While most restaurants in Portland serving "exotic" food are aesthetically pleasing (Portlanders love to design!), these restaurants in Hawaii could care less about whether or not the wall color conjures up images of Saigon; instead, real Vietnamese (not whites dressed up in silk tunics) serve the dishes they ate while growing up, in the hopes of making a living, as well as sharing a bit of their culture with the rest of us.
