stlbites.com – st. louis food blog of bill burge

Pho Long to Open Indochine in Old Pho Long Space

Feb 8, 2011 St. Louis, restaurants

As Gut Check reported last week, St. Louis favorite Pho Long has relocated a few doors down in Jeffrey Plaza to the space formerly occupied by Indian Food.  As an addition, looking for a to-go menu last night, I noticed Pho Long’s Facebook page stated a new concept, Indochine would soon be opening.

When picking up my order I put on my old and rarely-seen sleuthing cap and discovered that Indochine will be a new restaurant opening in the former Pho Long space that will “offer more dry items.”  Though these include dry noodle offerings and “more rice dishes” the most notable item is that Indochine will be baking their own bread in house so that they can offer the freshest banh mi sandwiches in St. Louis.  They hope to open within three months and, after a lengthy conversation last night about the care that goes into making their beef broth at Pho Long (they were out and I had to order chicken pho for the first time), I imagine this will be a concept that pays off.

Also, of note, now that they have more space to work with, Pho Long will also look to expand their menu offerings.  No word on what those offerings will include other than the same “dry dishes”, but I cast my vote for bánh xèo.

Tags: banh mi, Bánh-xèo, gut check, Indochine, jeffrey plaza, Pho Long, Vietnamese

A Pho Long Tweet Explained in List Form

Apr 8, 2009 St. Louis, missouri, restaurants

stlbites Pho Long attempt 3=success. Preferential treatment was had! Apparently you want to ask for Nuoc Beo for the best pho. It’s the skimmed fat.

@stlbites I have no idea what any of that meant

• Pho Long is a Vietnamese restaurant.
• Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup.
• Today was the third time I’ve attempted to go with my Vietnamese coworker, and the first time we’ve pulled it off and eaten.
• We got preferential treatment because he is and speaks Vietnamese.
• Nuoc Beo is the fat that congeals on the top of the boiling broth. I found this out today. Vietnamese people want it, but in America they skim it off. It makes it tasty, or as my buddy Van says, “testy”. I thought he was talking about testes at first, and I’d never heard of testicle Pho.
• If you ask for it they will give it to you in a bowl on the side with scallions.

Side note: The Vietnamese language is apparently very up down for lack of a better descriptor.  First word up, second word down.  They actually accent mark the words this way.  So Bánh xèo is sort of slurred up for the Bánh, and down for the xèo.  Americans pretty much pronounce it all wrong, and to actually find all the special characters to write Vietnamese words correctly would be a chore.

Side note 2 (hooray for the Lou):

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Pho, Pho Long, Twitter, Vietnamese

Banh Mi So #1

Sep 26, 2007 restaurants, reviews

I would like to introduce you to one of my new favorite foods, Bánh xèo.

I’d never knowingly seen it at any Vietnamese restaurant until two weeks ago when I finally made it to Banh Mi So #1.

Bánh xèo is a pan fried rice flour and coconut milk crepe stuffed with pork, shrimp, bean sprouts, and onions. As you can probably see it was served with lettuce, mint and some sort of sweet and sour like sauce that I believe to be nuoc cham (sweet and sour fish sauce basically).

Almost like a Vietnamese taco, it was a study in texture, with each element adding it’s own distinctive crunch. With it’s delicate pan-fry, it was balanced beautifully by the freshness of the lettuce and mint. It was easily one of the best, and most interesting, things I’ve eaten in a long time.

next was the Banh Mi Dat Biet. The Signature Triple Crown Pork sandwich had seasoned pork, specialty ham, pork slices, and pate layered onto a perfectly crusty French loaf and topped with daikon, cilantro and jalapeno peppers. When the owner delivered the Banh Mi, he motioned to the nuoc cham suggesting I dip the sandwich in it.

This too had a wonderfully complex taste. The crusty bread; the rich fattiness of the pork; the bite of the cilantro; the heat of the jalapeño; and the sour sweetness of the nuoc cham. Each element took my mouth in a different –always-sublime– direction leaving me thinking about just how fresh everything was in this restaurant. Even with my crumby pictures, the color on both these dishes is vibrant and green unlike the greasy drabness of most items in an inexpensive American restaurant.

Add to the great food the presence of the owner, whom I assume was Mr. Truong, and it really couldn’t have gotten much better. He graciously answered my questions about ingredients on the menu I wasn’t totally familiar with. One in particular, mung beans, seemed to excite him and he told me a story about when he was a boy living “overseas”. In short, apparently the mung bean is the Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup as they would boil it down when people were sick.

It was a wonderful experience, and I can’t wait to go back.

Tags: Banh-Mi-Dat-Biet, Bánh-xèo, Banh_Mi_So_#1, Vietnamese