Prawn spring rolls – Siam Saigon

Project 365: Day 126

Only worked a half day today so I could go to the dentist and get my teeth cleaned. I’m kind of annoyed with them because they thought I was a different person and had pulled the wrong records and even greeted me as the other person. Shouldn’t they know who I am when I make the appointment!? Gonna have to keep my eye on them from now on!

Prawn spring rolls - Siam Saigon
Fresh wrap in rice paper with bean sprout, mint, carrot, cilantro, lettuce and vermicelli noodles served with peanut sauce and hoisin sauce. $7
Siam Saigon, San Francisco CA

Prawn spring rolls - Siam Saigon
This tasted great. The shrimp was good (not old or grainy) and the other ingredients were fresh and clean. There’s not much shrimp in the rolls, but the flavors were there. Their peanut sauce is on the thick, creamy side and I like that they also give you the hoisin sauce as an alternative.

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.

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!

Gold bags & crispy egg rolls – Krua Thai

Gold bags & crispy egg rolls Krua Thai

Golden fried bags filled with chicken, shrimp, chestnut, corn and vermicelli noodles. Thai-style vegetable egg rolls served with sweet and sour sauce. Krua appetizer sampler, $11
Krua Thai, San Francisco

The gold bags were so cute!  Alan told me that they tie them closed with vermicelli noodles and they shrivel up once they’re deep fried.  Ingenious!  This is pretty much the same appetizer served two different ways – in bags and in rolls.  They were both very tasty!

Gold bags Krua Thai

Combination vermicelli clay pot – Xiao Long Bao Kitchen

Combination vermicelli clay pot Xiao Long Bao Kitchen

Wow!  I could eat this every day.  It’s so warm, rich, and comforting.  It had a little bit of everything in it: chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, and squid!  The sauce was absolutely amazing and the vermicelli noodles soaked up all of the delicious flavors.  Thank you, XLB Kitchen! 2 person lunch combo $14.95
Xiao Long Bao Kitchen, South San Francisco

Combination vermicelli clay pot Xiao Long Bao Kitchen

Slanted Door & Vegetarian spring rolls – The Slanted Door

Slanted Door and Vegetarian spring rolls

Slanted Door spring rolls (foreground): shrimp, pork, mint, lettuce, vermicelli noodles.
Vegetarian spring rolls (background): tofu, shiitakes, cabbage, mint, lettuce, vermicelli noodles.
Served with peanut sauce.  $10 for a half and half order
The Slanted Door, San Francisco

These were so good and refreshing.  When we were ordering I only wanted the Slanted Door spring rolls, but the waiter suggested that we get half and half.  I’m so glad we did because the Vegetarian spring rolls were amazing.  I actually liked them better, hehe.  The Vegetarian rolls had more flavor, mostly from the shiitake mushrooms.  I did like how there was a thin slice of pork rolled throughout the Slanted Door rolls.  The peanut sauce was different from others I’ve tried.  It almost had mayo texture and flavor in it, very creamy.  I wasn’t a fan at first, but it grew on me.

Bun cha ha noi – Turtle Tower Restaurant

Bun cha ha noi Turtle Tower Restaurant

Grilled pork patty and sliced pork with sliced carrots and fennel bulb(?), vermicelli noodles, lettuce, mint, and cilantro.  $8.20
Turtle Tower Restaurant, San Francisco

I’ve never had this before, but it was really good!  I think this was the only non-pho dish ordered in the entire restaurant.  Seriously, lol!  I wanted to try something new and this fit the bill.  The grilled pork slices were yummy.  These were cut thicker than at other Vietnamese places.  The pork patties were flavorful, but way too fatty for my taste.  They left that gross fatty film in your mouth.  The sweet, fish saucey liquid that it came in was delicious.  The fresh herbs were great and really made the Vietnamese flavor.  I wasn’t really sure how to eat this so I made things up!  I first wrapped everything in some of the lettuce, but that proved too messy.  I ended up using a small bowl to mix everything in small batches, poured some sauce over it and enjoyed!