Hương Giang – Savour Huế in Houston
I lost my memory card. If you’re a food blogger too you’d know how devastated I felt: the first advice to a food blogger these days is “good pictures”. Well, the pictures I took at Hương Giang are amazing, they just no longer exist. But, pictures or not, as my professor Lawrence Hall would say in his British tongue, “you can’t stop me,” or in this case, I can’t stop myself from blogging about the restaurant.
Is their food that good? Hương Giang takes a shy, small square in the parking lot at the corner of Bellaire and Boone. If you drive westward on Bellaire Blvd, you’ll see its sign on the left before you reach Hong Kong Market. It’s really a tucked-away place for scoffers, the outlook unimpressive, the sign blue and white like a tired worker shirt. The inside is similar to any average pho joints you’ve seen, wiped clean and plastic cheap. I knew my mom wouldn’t come here if not for blogging’s sake, but in this city it’d be hard to get a menu more Huế than this one.
There are pictures in the menu and printouts taped to the wall to tell you what the specials are. For us it’s a matter of getting what we’ve heard of but not had: gỏi mít tôm thịt, bánh ít ram, cơm hến, and bún suông.
Gỏi mít tôm thịt is jackfruit salad with boiled shrimp and pork, and like other Vietnamese gỏi, it’s served cold with rice cracker (bánh tráng nướng) for shoveling and scooping. The airy blandness of a coal-toasted sesame rice paper elevates the lime juice, the pepper, the cilantro in a gỏi. The kitchen makes a slight mistake by bringing out a plate of gỏi mít hến instead, where the boiled pork and shrimp are replaced by handfuls of tiny basket clams (hến). These freshwater bivalves are connected to Huế like McDonald’s to Americanization. As small as a finger nail, each hến constitutes a second of chewing. As a stir-fried bunch mixed with young jackfruit flesh, the collection feels grainy and humble like a fisherman’s kitchen by the riverside. The color, too, is earthy: blackish-lined ivory hến, pale brown jackfruit, and a bit of green cilantro.
Cơm hến offers more or less the same atmosphere as the salad, except the rice amplifies the grainy texture in place of the jackfruit’s fleshy blend, no rice cracker presents to break the unanimity, and the hến‘s natural sweetness here isn’t damped by any lime juice. When there isn’t just a few, but at least a hundred of these quiet lives in a bowl of cơm hến, you can’t help but feel the responsibility to treasure each spoonful. It’s the least you can do for the dignity of those tiny freshwater basket clams.
If cơm hến were hamburger, then bánh ít ram would be mac ‘n cheese. It’s not super well known, but anyone who knows Hue food knows this sticky (rice) business. I first learned of bánh ít ram from noodlepie, Ravenous Couple call them fried mochi dumpling (and you really can’t get a better looking picture of bánh ít ram than what the couple styled on their site). Each ping-pong-sized dumpling carries a marvelously inviting look: a plump, shiny round ball on a golden base, cut in half and there snuggle rosy bits of shrimp and char siu pork. Each bite is a step into a river: first soft, then sinking, then hitting the crusty bottom. With or without the mixed fish sauce, savory bánh ít ram, also called bánh ram ít by the natives, is a fair partnership between the steamed bánh ít and the deep fried bánh ram, with each component designed to excite the other. So why is it not as popular as bánh bèo? Because it’s hard to go down the second time. One bánh ít ram is good, two are too many. Ten on a plate, like what we get at Hương Giang, becomes a bloody battlefield.
Thankfully we are a team of three, and we rotates plates to share both the good and the challenging. And thankfully we get bún suông. This noodle soup draws a fine but successful line between being too meaty and being too thin, as it contains both. Ample cuts of chả cá (fish cake, similar to eomuk), chả lụa (silk sausage), and juicy shrimps weave among the angel hair rice vermicelli, all soaked in a slim sweet broth. Bún suông at Hương Giang tastes pure like bún mộc, quite a contrast from the definitions I’ve found online, whose broth is as thick as a deep South accent of the cooks said to invent the noodle soup.
If there are indeed two types of bún suông, the southern style and the Hương Giang style, then I’d choose the latter any day. If the southern style is really the only traditional style, then I’d go to Hương Giang just for their bún suông. You know you can trust a chef who has created something so delicate, so heart-warming, so balanced, and so very Huế.
Address: Hue Huong Giang (near Hong Kong Market)
11113 Bellaire Boulevard
Houston, TX 77072-2607
(832) 328-1308
Money matter:
gỏi mít hến (6.25) + bánh ít ram (6.50) + bún suông (6.50) + cơm hến (8.50)
= $27.25 a big lunch for three
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your blog. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Fantastic work!
1Thanks for sharing excellent informations. Your web site is very cool. I’m impressed by the details that you have on this blog. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this website page, will come back for more articles. You, my friend, ROCK! I found just the information I already searched everywhere and just could not come across. What an ideal site.
2The subsequent time I learn a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as a lot as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I truly thought youd have one thing attention-grabbing to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about one thing that you could fix for those who werent too busy looking for attention.
3There is noticeably a bundle to know about this. I assume you made certain nice points in features also.
4Just desire to say your article is as astonishing. The clearness on your put up is simply excellent and i can assume you’re a professional in this subject. Fine together with your permission let me to take hold of your RSS feed to keep up to date with approaching post. Thank you one million and please carry on the gratifying work.
5Today, I went to the beachfront with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!
6After study a few of the blog posts on your website now, and I truly like your way of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark website list and will be checking back soon. Pls check out my web site as well and let me know what you think.
7Great post. I was checking continuously this blog and I am impressed! Extremely helpful info specifically the last part 🙂 I care for such info a lot. I was looking for this certain info for a long time. Thank you and best of luck.
8I have been exploring for a little bit for any high-quality articles or blog posts on this kind of space . Exploring in Yahoo I finally stumbled upon this web site. Reading this information So i’m satisfied to convey that I’ve an incredibly good uncanny feeling I found out just what I needed. I so much definitely will make sure to do not disregard this site and provides it a glance on a constant basis.
9I do agree with all of the ideas you have presented to your post. They are very convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are too quick for novices. May you please prolong them a bit from subsequent time? Thank you for the post.
10Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all of us you really realize what you are speaking approximately! Bookmarked. Kindly additionally seek advice from my web site =). We may have a hyperlink exchange contract between us!
11Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it. Look advanced to far added agreeable from you! However, how can we communicate?
12Elektrofirma Amberg Solar Hameln
13photovoltaik firma nahe hanau 8 kW Wechselrichter mit Speicher
14I really like your writing style, excellent information, thank you for putting up :D. “The superfluous is very necessary.” by Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire.
15Hey, you used to write excellent, but the last several posts have been kinda boring?K I miss your great writings. Past few posts are just a little out of track! come on!
16Well I truly liked studying it. This tip procured by you is very effective for accurate planning.
17Have you ever considered about including a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is valuable and all. Nevertheless think about if you added some great pictures or video clips to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with pics and videos, this website could definitely be one of the most beneficial in its field. Excellent blog!
18With havin so much written content do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright violation? My site has a lot of unique content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced but it looks like a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my agreement. Do you know any techniques to help protect against content from being ripped off? I’d definitely appreciate it.
19Some really rattling work on behalf of the owner of this website , utterly great content material.
20I’m extremely inspired with your writing abilities as well as with the format on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it your self? Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it is uncommon to see a great blog like this one nowadays..
21You made some respectable factors there. I appeared on the web for the issue and located most people will go together with with your website.
22I love it when people come together and share opinions, great blog, keep it up.
23I’m impressed, I must say. Really hardly ever do I encounter a weblog that’s each educative and entertaining, and let me inform you, you have got hit the nail on the head. Your concept is outstanding; the issue is one thing that not sufficient persons are talking intelligently about. I am very completely happy that I stumbled across this in my search for something referring to this.
24This internet site is my aspiration, real fantastic style and design and perfect written content.
25There are some attention-grabbing points in time in this article but I don’t know if I see all of them middle to heart. There is some validity however I will take maintain opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we would like extra! Added to FeedBurner as nicely
26Can I just say what a reduction to search out somebody who really is aware of what theyre speaking about on the internet. You undoubtedly know the best way to carry a problem to mild and make it important. Extra individuals must learn this and understand this side of the story. I cant consider youre no more widespread since you undoubtedly have the gift.
27I’m impressed, I need to say. Actually rarely do I encounter a blog that’s both educative and entertaining, and let me inform you, you will have hit the nail on the head. Your idea is outstanding; the problem is something that not sufficient individuals are talking intelligently about. I am very joyful that I stumbled throughout this in my seek for one thing regarding this.
28My developer is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on a number of websites for about a year and am worried about switching to another platform. I have heard good things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress content into it? Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!
29My brother suggested I might like this blog. He was totally right. This post actually made my day. You cann’t imagine simply how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
30Good day very cool blog!! Man .. Excellent .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your website and take the feeds additionally…I am happy to search out numerous useful information right here in the post, we want work out extra strategies in this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .
31photovoltaik unternehmen nahe offenbach am main Beste Solar Komplettanlage mit Speicher
32Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon your web site and in accession capital to assert that I acquire actually enjoyed account your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your augment and even I achievement you access consistently fast.
33I also conceive thence, perfectly pent post! .
34I was studying some of your articles on this internet site and I believe this site is real instructive! Keep on posting.
35Enjoyed studying this, very good stuff, thankyou.
36I really like looking at and I think this website got some genuinely utilitarian stuff on it! .
37Thanks for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbor were just preparing to do some research on this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such great information being shared freely out there.
38This is a very good tips especially to those new to blogosphere, brief and accurate information… Thanks for sharing this one. A must read article.
39Hello, you used to write excellent, but the last several posts have been kinda boring… I miss your super writings. Past several posts are just a bit out of track! come on!
40Very interesting details you have observed, regards for putting up.
41As I site possessor I believe the content material here is rattling excellent , appreciate it for your efforts. You should keep it up forever! Best of luck.
42This is very interesting, You are a very skilled blogger. I have joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your excellent post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social networks!
43I got what you mean ,saved to favorites, very decent internet site.
44This is the right blog for anyone who wants to find out about this topic. You realize so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I actually would want…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a topic thats been written about for years. Great stuff, just great!
45Some genuinely interesting points you have written.Helped me a lot, just what I was searching for :D.
46Betrupi official giriş platformu ve resmi adresi
47psychologist
48Betrupi official giriş platformu ve resmi adresi
49My developer is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on a number of websites for about a year and am anxious about switching to another platform. I have heard great things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
50