No. 9 Please

So Monday's entries are going to be dedicated to food and drink.  What I've been eating and drinking around town. Whats new in the gourmet food seen here in the burbs and what the newest and latest fad and trends are in intoxicating bubbles.  Now, we were just talking about Zoobilee yesterday, and i could go on and on about the great food and even better beer's they had there.  I drank Tallgrass 8-Bit and Drifter Pale Ale until they ran out. I could talk about sitting at Buffalo Wild Wings yesterday for an hour before i even had the courage to shove a wing down my gullet for fear that it wouldn't stay there to long because of the amount of pure liquid barley and hops gold i consumed the night before. Either discussion, whether it be the unlimited amounts of microbrew drinks at Zoobilee or the pure ecstasy that can be a deep fried spicy garlic chicken wing, would warrant its own entire entry, but neither can compare with the pure unadulterated infatuation I have with Vietnamese food. Today was an example of that infatuation.

In Wichita, we have an unusually high number of extraordinary Asian and Hispanic restaurants. You have to get away from the Panda Express' and the On the Borders that dot every corner. You have to skip past the P.F. Changs and the Chipolte's and get out of your comfort zone to find the really good places, but their there if you want to look for them. You have to be ok with possibly being the only person in the place who speaks English. You have to be able to choose what you want to order by either number or by simply pointing at a picture because you don't speak the language. For a lot of people this might be intimidating.  For people used to having taco Tuesdays, and meatloaf Mondays, walking into your neighborhood pho' shop can be intimidating. For me though there's nothing better then a big bowl of noodles.

Pho Hein, Sit @ Thai, My Tho', Pho' Hot, Little Saigon, and the classic Saigon itself. You can't go wrong with any of these places and we went back to my tried and true favorite Saigon. Its not just the food though, its the experience. Everyone has their favorite place and everyone has their entry that they choose over and over again. No. 1, No. 49, No. 28. You talk to any person who regularly goes to one of these hidden gems and they can tell you exactly what that number represents. Me, I went for the number 9 today. Regular pho' with tendon, stripe, meatball and flank. Lot's of lime. Lot's of siracha. Lot's of sprouts, hosin, and chili's. i want it hot and i want it now. At Saigon it literally takes less then 5 minutes after you order your food before its served back to you. It's hot, salty, sweet, spicy and oh so good. Chopsticks in one hand and a spoon in another and i dig down deep and don't stop until the last drops done.  If need be, I'll take a straw or tip the bowl so that i get every last bit of that sweet nectar of the gods.

Am i supposed to love some soup and noodle dish I've never grown up with? I'm not sure that I am. Am I supposed to spur the norm and stay away from the places that are "supposed" to be good but aren't? Don't know.  What i know is whats good and these places are.  Sometimes its ok to not pay $20 for a single meal.  Sometimes its ok to drop $6 bucks on a big ol' bowl of soup. Get out of the cul-de-sac, find a hole in the wall where no one speaks your language and belly up to closest table you can. Point to the picture you want and enjoy the ride. If you're the only white guy in the place, you picked a good one.