Comfort food in the summer

When a hungry girl craves a hot soup, she will get a hot soup. No matter that it's 90 degrees outside... There's air conditioning in the restaurant, haha.

That's how Cashew and I felt a few weeks ago, when we decided to go to Quan Ba 9. I was really thankful that Cashew is Vietnamese because she had to explain all the things on the menu were. They do have pictures, but you can't always know if you'll like something if you don't know what the ingredients are. We started with goi xoai salad. It is made with green mangoes, papaya, and a lot of other really fresh goodies. This one came with dressing already in it, and extra fish sauce on the side if you felt like having the extra salt. I personally thought the salad was perfect without the side fish sauce. It was so good, we ate every single drop of it from the plate!

For the real meal, I ordered a traditional Pho because I had been craving it for a while. I got the one with beef and meatballs. I hadn't had the meatballs before, so I wanted to try them, but I doubt I ate more than a couple of them. There was something about them that made me not like them... I did enjoy the beef though. Cashew pointed out that the broth was very cinnamony, but I didn't notice the cinnamon taste.

Cashew ordered a porridge-like dish called chao vit, with duck meat and dipping sauce on the side. One of the ingredients was coagulated blood. I had to try it, but I didn't like it. I wonder how much of my dislike can be attributed to me knowing what I was eating... The porridge part was made from ground rice rather than wheat, so it was different. The duck and the dipping sauce were amazing.

We completed the night with a che thach, which resembles bubble tea and has jelly-like pieces made of agarose. The liquid part of the drink was quite sweet and tasty. It served as a great ending for our Vietnamese food night.