Flavor Boulevard

There is no Hong Kong Market or Bellaire (or 99 Ranch Market or Bolsa, if you are Californian) in College Station, but there is Vietnamese food here. Rosie’s Pho (noodle soup) opened about two years ago. We were among their first customers, and the owner of the place, Ms Hồng, even remembered me when I came back a few months later with my friends. Talk about hospitality. (Guess how we know she’s the owner: hồng means rose in Vietnamese.)

We came early for lunch. When we finished our meal at around 12:30, the place was a whole lot more crowded. It’s good to sit again at the familiar booth we always sit, close to the entrance and far away from the kitchen’s action. It’s also good to see the same ole expression on the cashier’s face, definitely not unfriendly, but so contemplative that makes me wonder if he has important exchange going on at the stock market or something of sort. It feels casual, and you don’t need to put up big smiles here for a show of warmth. The warmth comes to you in a bowl.

I ordered a the-more-the-merrier karnival of beef brisket, tendon, flank, and tripe phở. Large bowl. Huge mistake. No, WAIT. No. Don’t leave. Let me explain. The mistake is mine, not the pho’s or the cook’s. I had no idea what I was up against (I don’t remember it being like this before). For all its goodness and meatiness and brothiness, as you can see above, look at the size of the bowl! I could take a bath in there. And I would drown. But before I do, shall we take a minute to spot the white bundle at 4-5 o’clock of the bowl? It’s Tripe. Tendon and Flank were camera-shy and hidden under Brisket. If you are grossed out by the thought of eating anything animalia, muscle, but non-flesh, offensively commonly known as offals, and think that they taste gross, let me beg to differ that they are texture food, and they do have their unique charms. If you chew gum, why not give tripe a try?

The herb plate accompanying the USS Pho here has the basics: cilantro, rau hung, rau ram, bean sprout, interestingly-cut pieces of lime, and (the American substitution for cayenne pepper) jalapeno. I eat my pho without any condiments or herbs, but little mom likes the greens and the bean sprout…

… which makes her bowl look so much prettier than mine.

(To be continued)

Address: Rosie’s Phở – Asian noodle soup
2001 Texas Ave S #300
College Station, TX 77840

On her road trip from Boulder, CO to Miami, FL, my friend Aimee and her friend Sunny were kind enough to swing by little College Station to visit me today. 🙂 It’s embarrassing being the hostess and all as I told them the wrong thing to look for when we were trying to find Square One Bistro in Bryan. I told them it’s a red brick building, but it was white. But, I have my excuses. The place was standing next to a red brick building, and has no visible sign. I mean it has a sign on the door, about the size of a DVD case, and visible from like 4 feet away from the door. There has been not one occasion that my companies and I didn’t have to drive around the block a few times to find it, granted today was the 3rd or 4th time I’ve eaten there. Square One plays hide-n-seek with me.

The food is definitely worth it, though. Aimee and Sunny enjoyed it (I hope they weren’t just being nice), and finished everything. The three of us got Chipotle Beef Pasta, Cranberry Turkey sandwich, Penne Florentine, and 3 desserts. We were too busy chatting to take pictures, but here’s my leftover:

Certainly my polysterene display doesn’t look as attractive as the restaurant’s warm and inviting creation, but tastes just as good. “Prosciutto ham sauteed with fresh mushrooms and spinach. Tossed in penne pasta and topped with parmesan cheese.” More on the menu. This is a nice escape from the usual pool of cheese or tomato sauce (or both) of Italian dishes. Good garlic bread to munch on while waiting, and generous portions of dessert, especially the chocolate bundt cake with vanilla ice cream. I’m bloated.

Everything on the lunch menu was less than $8. Entrees are only served after 5 pm.
The whole event was wonderful, except for yet another embarrassing moment of mine, when I choked on a piece of cheese and coughed, and coughed, for 5 minutes. One of the hostesses came over to ask if I was ok, and I managed to stop coughing to answer her. 🙂