Pho do bien – Hometown Noodle 2

Pho do bien - Hometown Noodle 2
Seafood noodle soup with prawns, fish balls, and squid, accompanied with a plate of bean sprouts, basil leaves, lime wedge, and sliced jalapenos. Large $7.95
Hometown Noodle 2, San Bruno CA

This tasted pretty good, but they were definitely skimpy with the seafood. You got two pieces of each if you count that the fish balls were cut in half. Meh.

Purple blazing star flowers (Liatris spicata, Asteraceae)

Purple blazing star or prairie gay feather flowers (Liatris spicata, Asteraceae), West Field Road. It’s always interesting to post flower pics on this blog because that’s usually when I find out what the actual names are. I can usually get them to at least the family level before I have to do additional research, but there are just way too many ornamentals out there! 🙂

Bun with beef rolls – Hometown Noodle 2

Project 365: Day 81

Argh, I’m back in the real world! Had to go into work of a couple hours today. Kinda glad because I really need the money after that trip! Went to Whole Foods to grab groceries for my lunches this week. Ended up meeting Hubbs for catching up and drinks in the Castro. I hadn’t seen him in a while so I got a little too crazy with the drinks then ended up at 7-11 for nachos, lol!

Bun with beef rolls Hometown Noodle 2

Bun thit nuong bo cuon. Cold vermicelli, a thin rice noodle, is call “bun” in Vietnamese. With pickled carrots and radish, cucumber, and garnished with toasted peanuts and green onions. Served with fish sauce and choice of meat. Large $8.25
Hometown Noodle 2, San Bruno CA

Bun with egg rolls and grilled pork – Hometown Noodle 2

Project 365: Day 80

We’ve landed in San Juan PR and it’s departure day. We had brunch with the gang up in the Oceanview Cafe then headed down to the theater to await our disembarkation announcements. The 6 of us who were flying out today shared a cab to the airport. Our flight back was SJU-JFK-SFO. We were a little delayed leaving SJU but we made time in the air and arrived at JFK on time. As our connection was leaving the gate at JFK, some girl wanted to get off the plane so we had to return to the gate and wait for her to leave (so annoying!). Even though we had a super late departure, we still made it back to SFO at a decent time and I was in my bed before 1 AM.

Bun with egg rolls and grilled pork Hometown Noodle 2

Bun cha gio voi heo. Cold vermicelli, a thin rice noodle, is call “bun” in Vietnamese. It’s with pickled carrots and radish, cucumber, and garnished with toasted peanuts and green onions. Served with fish sauce and choice of meat. Large $8.25
Hometown Noodle 2, San Bruno CA

Diet Coke Hometown Noodle 2

Diet Coke.

Rice with egg rolls and grilled pork – Hometown Noodle 2

Project 365: Day 79

Today was the last sea day on the boat before returning to San Juan PR. I had mixed emotions – I was glad to be heading home after a long fun trip but sad to actually return to the real world. I’ll miss the constantly available food and waking up each morning to find myself at a new and exciting island. We decided to have a slow and relaxing day. We had brunch in the main dining room, had multiple snacks up in the Oceanview Cafe, played a slot tournment, played Bingo hosted by Jackie Beat, attend an Over The Rainbow T-Dance, had dinner in the main dining room, watched the Miss Richfield 1981 show (omg, SO funny!), packed our bags and called it a night.

Rice with egg rolls and grilled pork Hometown Noodle 2

Steamed rice, pickled carrots and radish, sliced cucumber, fried egg, egg rolls, and grilled pork with green onions. $8.95
Hometown Noodle 2, San Bruno CA

Hot chili oil Hometown Noodle 2

Hot chili oil.

Bun with grilled prawns – Hometown Noodle 2

Project 365: Day 78

Finally, we’ve made it to Gustavia, Saint Barthelemy (St. Barths)! We had a small breakfast at the Oceanview Cafe, then met the gang to tender to shore. Gustavia is really clean and pretty and EXPENSIVE! Everything is also in Euros so it’s more expensive than you think. We made our way to Shell Beach and rented chairs for the day. Thank goodness because there were a few downpours but we stayed mostly dry. We had a fabulous lunch at Do Brazil, laid out and swam all day, did some shopping in town, had coffee at a cafe, then tendered back to the ship. So sad to leave such a beautiful and relaxing island. We relaxed in our cabin for a little bit, then I went for a snack at Oceanview Cafe, met Silverfox for drinks at the Martini Bar, had dinner with the gang in the main dining room, took a disco nap, then partied the night away at the White Party!

Bun with grilled prawns Hometown Noodle 2

Bun tom nuong. Cold vermicelli, a thin rice noodle, is call “bun” in Vietnamese. With pickled carrots and radish, cucumber, and garnished with toasted peanuts and green onions. Served with fish sauce and choice of meat. Large $8.25
Hometown Noodle 2, San Bruno CA

Shrimp spring rolls – Hometown Noodle 2

Project 365: Day 77

Roseau, Dominica! The exclamation point means “get me out of here!” No joke, this place was super scary and the people were NOT friendly. I had 2 breakfasts this morning, one at Oceanview Cafe and the other at AquaSpa Cafe. Then we were stupid enough to go explore Roseau by ourselves instead of doing an excursion elsewhere on the island. The town was pretty dirty and some of the people were scary and mean. We walked around town just checking the non-existent sites, looked for a bookstore, visited Our Lady of Fair Haven Cathedral, had a Jamaican beef patty at Patty Shack, then ran back to the ship. We tried to decompress in the solarium while eating food from the AquaSpa Cafe and the Pool/Mast Grill. We then attended the 70’s T-Dance, had drinks at the Martini Bar, had a couple’s dinner at the main dining room, watch Mario Cantone, then went to the Oceanview Cafe for ice cream.

Shrimp spring rolls Hometown Noodle 2

2 large rolls with boiled shrimp, lettuce, bean sprouts and rice noodle are wrapped in thin rice sheets. Served with house special peanut sauce. $5.25
Hometown Noodle 2, San Bruno CA

Green tea Hometown Noodle 2

Green tea. Complimentary.

Banh hoi with grilled prawns and pork – Hometown Noodle 2

Project 365: Day 6

Went to try this Vietnamese restaurant for lunch because this was the last day of their Grand Opening special. Free soda and 20% off the entire bill. Heck yeah! I guess this is their second location – the original restaurant is down in Redwood City. The food was pretty good and the lady was super nice, but a little slow and forgetful.

Can’t wait to bike to work tomorrow! I love the early morning cardio. My legs are still a little sore from squats at the gym yesterday. Rapunzel, Papa Chang and I are also gonna go for a quick ride during our lunch break. We’re gonna rule the road, lol!

Banh hoi with grilled prawns and pork Hometown Noodle 2

Banh hoi tom heo nuong. “Banh Hoi” is made by packing thin rice noodles together tightly into patties, then cut into squares. Banh hoi is combined with mint leaves, lettuce, cucumber, carrot, radish, cilantro, green onions, and ground peanuts. Served with house special fish sauce. $9.95
Hometown Noodle 2, San Bruno CA

This was very tasty, but you really can’t go wrong with Vietnamese food – the flavors are bright and refreshing. Both the pork and prawns were tender and flavorful. I really like the compressed vermicelli noodles! I don’t think I’ve had them like that before. I made one lettuce roll, but it was too messy so I ended up just dumping the fish sauce (and some chili oil) over the whole plate and using chopsticks to eat everything. I’m a simple man!