Pho' Nam Dinh

Glad you could make it back for another episode of this funky little blog. For this one, we are going to go down a road I'm not all that familiar with. NO, this is nothing sexual, even though after I wrote that last sentence, that is exactly where my mind went. What I'm talking about is the very cool, very awesome world of Vietnamese food.

Personally, me experiences in the world of Vietnamese food have been limited. A few bowls of Pho' here and there, a few bites of food from a friends lunch, and that's all I really have to go on. But, the few things I have tried have been really good. I figured if the opportunity ever presented itself, I'd be more willing to venture into restaurants I probably wouldn't try at first.

I ended up at this little place after getting some Christmas shopping done. I had been on a real ramen binge the last few days, so a chance for a big ass bowl of pho' sounded pretty good.

It was around 1pm or so, and the place had about 4 or open seats. Hey, a packed house means that they are doing something right.

As I walked in, there wasn't really anyone working at a host station to seat you. I just asked one of the employees if I could just sit anywhere, and he said sit where ever. That's cool with me.

I sat down and an old guy came up and dropped off a menu. It was about 4 pages total. Everything from Pho', steamed rice meals, broken rice meals, and bunch of other shit I can't quite remember. But I will say everything sounded good and was reasonably priced. Most meals ranged from about $6.99 to $8.99. That's tough to beat.

After a couple minutes, the old guy came back and asked "Do you know what you want?" I said "I'm not quite.." and before I could even say the word "sure", he took off! I was like "Damn. Couldn't even finish the sentence." Oh well...

A couple minutes later, he came back and said "Know what you want now?" I said "Yeah, I want the #48." while pointing at it on the menu. He goes "No. We don't have that anymore." Mother fucka.... WHY HAVE IT ON THE MENU THEN???? That's what I thought anyway. But, I didn't trip.

I started flipping through the menu again, and the old guy says "What, you want soup?!?" I said yeah. He goes "Get the #8, it's got everything. It's good." At this point, I figured he wasn't bullshitin'. He just didn't have time for dum-dums like me dicking around over a simple question like 'what do you want to eat'.

Me-Gimme the #8

Old Guy-GOOD! What size?

Me-I'll go with the small.

Old Guy-Aww C'mon! You're a big guy!

Me-Alright, I'll go with the medium!

Old Guy-GOOOD! Drink?

Me-Iced tea.

Old Guy-goood.

I swear to God that's how the convo went down! This old muh fucka was on his game! Much respect!

A couple minutes later, my food and drink came out. I know I keep saying "A couple minutes", but that's how long it took. Everything happened kinda quick.

This is what I got.

A closer look.

And here is some art that was on the wall next to my table.

Before I get into the food, let me just say that when I got it, they gave me a fork and spoon with it. Did use them. Yes, I did. Even though everyone else was using chop sticks, I used that fork. Why? Not to be disrespectful or anything like that. The fact is, I'm better with a fork than I am with chop sticks. If you, or anyone that was there is taking offense to that, then that's just too fucking bad. My opinion is this: If they didn't want me using a fork, THEY WOULDN'T HAVE FUCKING GIVEN ME ONE!!

Now, for the food.

It was good. It was damn good! The broth was flavorful, yet not overpowering or overly salted. The strips of beef and pork were very tender. I will say that the pork strips were a bit on the fatty side.

One thing that was very apparent was the temperature. I was extremely hot! We are talking lava-like temperatures! It's not a bad thing, I'm just giving you fair warning.

On the plate of goodies to with the soup, it had a few slices of jalapeno on it. I tossed them in the soup, no problem there. I got some noodles and a jalapeno slice and took a bite. HOLY FUCKING SHIT! That was the hottest jalapeno I have ever tasted! Maybe they found a fat ass serrano pepper and sliced that up for me, cuz I've never had a jalapeno that goddam hot in my life! My upper lip was burning for half the meal! Ugh.

I finished as much of the soup as I could. There must have been about a quart of broth in the bowl, but I managed to get most of it. Plus, there was tripe in it. I'm not crazy about tripe. I ate a couple pieces, but left the rest.

The meal came up to eight bucks and some change. Not a bad deal, especially seeing that it filled me up.

One more shot of the restaurant.

That's it for this one. I had some good food and met a wild ass old man serving it up. It doesn't get too much better than that. If you are ever in Garden Grove, check this one out.

Pho' Nam Dinh

13032 Harbor Blvd
Garden Grove, CA 92843
(714) 539-0186
http://www.phonamdinh.com

One more thing. With the year winding down, I'm only going to get in one more new post for 2012. It's not going to be anything too crazy, but as always, it will be something to look forward to. Until then, take care!

I'm out.

J. Miller