Unfortunately for us all, this could be my last blog entry for a while due to the fact that I’ve run out of money and a job I was supposed to be starting moved the start date until February which has left me in a difficult financial position. I’m currently trying sort that out as writing this blather is something that keeps me slightly sane. I’m at about number 31/32 from memory and I know I can get to 52, but maybe not in the year’s timeframe I originally set myself. Bit of a bummer, but hey- there are worse things going on in the world.
My original plan to cover Vietnamese food was to visit Minh Ky Vietnam Cuisine over in Xizhi as it is considered THE best place for it, but that would require a special journey and as Vietnamese food is everywhere now, and I ate it last night next to the missus’ office, I figured I would include that meal here before what I hope is a brief intermission. My original aim also wasn’t to always find the best, but more to find what is out there, so I’m not actually breaking my own rules.
There has been a definite marked increase in Vietnamese food in Taiwan in the last few years, as always some good, some bad. I have been visiting Madame Jill’s in Gongguan for many years (in fact, I went there with The Other Stew a few weeks back but didn’t include it here), always enjoyed it. I discovered that pho had become a thing in the US with the yoga pants wearing food fad set and didn’t know I’d been eating it long before it became fashionable. As you can tell: I don’t follow fashion honey, I start it.
Or something.
So yeah, the weekly ritual of Friday evenings, I finish one of my only classes I have right now at the university and then walk over to the kindergarten to pick up Preschooler, and then wait about 20minutes for Mrs. Bao to come downstairs from her ivory tower so we can go to eat. Unusually this week, we ate close by as we were all hungry and couldn’t be bothered with the wait to get back to Xindian. She was in the mood for something a bit sour and she remembered a Vietnamese place in one of the alleys in the labyrinth of alleys and side streets near Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.
Pho 168 越南河粉 is a small, friendly neighbourhood kind of place, white walls, functional with the odd bit of Vietnamese stuff on the walls. As you should have noticed by now I am no expert, so I decided to compare something I’ve enjoyed in other Vietnamese places (such as the aforementioned Madame Jill’s) to one they served here Banh mi cari or curry chicken with French bread. The wife split her pho ga (chicken pho) with Preschooler. This curry was definitely different to the ones I’ve had before, more coconutty and with peanuts. I’m not always a big fan of peanuts and hadn’t been aware that they would be there as I’d never experienced them in this dish elsewhere, but I like it a lot and for 110NT, bargain. They also weren’t stingy on the baguette which was pretty big itself. I’ve been fascinated by the French influence on their food ever since I discovered it, but I’ve been too lazy to read up on it.
I didn’t get to try the pho, but I was reliably informed by her indoors that yep, it was good. If you can’t trust your spouse’s opinion then who can you trust?
Well we will certainly be back because of proximity to wife’s office and kindergarten, price and food is good enough. It isn’t the Ritz, but it doesn’t have to be or even pretend to be.
Now I just have to find the bloody place again…
Menu:
Address: No. 3弄1號, Lane 108, Section 1, Nanchang Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, 100
Best way to get there: Probably Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall MRT Exit 2, and then Google Maps. I walked there from her office but I might as well have been wearing a blindfold or been severely drunk because I dunno how we got there. So, many alleys…
So there we are, sadly I have to leave it there for a bit. Let’s hope I’m back sooner rather than later or I get handed a briefcase full of money from a mysterious benefactor in the next few days. Fingers crossed.
Thanks for being around for part one, it means a lot!
(intro photo taken from Pho 168 website)
52 Cuisines? 