Thursday, October 17, 2013

It's a Pho King Long story



This week I found myself in Silicon Valley for my company MobileIron's annual global sales meeting. I always like coming out to California and one of the main reasons is because there are so very many delicious things to eat. That usually means Mexican food, In-N-Out Burger, and of course, my most favorite food of all, noodles. Luckily for me, the valley is jam packed with noodle-loving Asian engineers. By the way, someone out here suggested I change the name of my blog to "White Boy Does Noodles"-- I might just have to go and do that.

Marlon, Patrick, and I all work for MobileIron in NY, so when our colleague Stacy from our Mountain View office  invited us to a local Pho place, we were excited to check it out. The name of the joint was Pho King Long (no joke) just South of Milpitas in San Jose. We rolled up around a quarter to 9 - the place was busy but they gave us the stink-eye as we walked in... most of the noodle places close at 8 or 9 PM, and so we were the last table to be seated, and also the last to leave.

Thanks for the bean sprout Marlon


We started out with some summer rolls. I have to say these were nice big ones, and pretty fresh too. You can always tell when a summer roll has been sitting around too long, the rice paper starts get a little tough and the shrimp are a little too bouncy.  Incidentally they aren't called summer rolls here- instead they were listed on the menu as spring rolls. I wonder if calling them summer rolls is just a NY thing?

Summer Rolls were fresh and tasty

Everyone ordered Pho except Patrick, who opted for a very tasty and spicy Bu Bon Hue. He loved it and mentioned there were small snails in it which is interesting but I was too distracted by absolutely massive bowl of very beefy Pho to pay attention. Actually I was so distracted I didn't even remember to snap a picture of his soup. Good thing I don't do this for a living!


Stacy actually has the "small" bowl in front of her

If the Pho is good I usually finish the bowl. But these servings were so massive that it just wasn't possible. The broth was a deep brown and somewhat cloudy. It's not a very nuanced broth - for instance it was difficult to taste the star anise in it, but it was beefy and hearty in a really satisfying way. it It also wasn't too salty, like the Pho I has a few nights earlier at another place in San Jose. The noodles were thinner than the ones I am used to in NY and also a little softer, almost like an egg noodle, and just as fun to eat. It was like an immersion chamber, only I was floating on Pho. 

My Universe

Check out the skills on Stacy- the chopsticks are a blur
Pho King Long is really Pho King good. I'm ready for another bowl already. It was a great finish to a day that also included an animal style detour to In-N-Out Burger for lunch. And yes, I will probably die young, but at least I won't be hungry.

Animal Style for three