BEST Pho (Vietnamese Noodle Soup) in Allston

Foodies in Allston, if you are a fan of Vietnamese/Asian cuisine, you don't wanna miss Le’s Restaurant, which is my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Allston. It is so great that I have to introduce it to you, although this blog is supposed to be about Chinese food… However, many Vietnamese actually speak Cantonese, because their ancestors were from Canton, which makes me feel home. Also, the Chinese concept of yin and yang—the balance of complementary opposites—has contributed to Vietnamese cuisine.

Le’s Restaurant, located at 137 Brighton Ave, Allston MA02134, has the best Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), and summer rolls I’ve ever tasted in Allston! The atmosphere is super nice, services are great and the people there are friendly!

Le’s Restaurant in Allston

Pho, which is “SPECIAL (DAC BIET)” on their menu, is their “most popular beef noodle soup combining sliced rare eye round, well done brisket, flank, tendon and tripe”. The Pho also has scallions, onions and cilantro, but you could tell your waiter/waitress that you want your Pho without them when you order.

Pho (Vietnamese Noodle Soup)

They serve the soup with “a plate of bean sprouts, fresh basil, sliced lime and green chili pepper on the side.” You can add some or all of them into the soup according to your personal preference. Personally, I like to put a little bit of everything into the broth, and wait for around 30 seconds to let the broth absorb the essence of the herbs.

bean sprouts, fresh basil, sliced lime and green chili pepper

Traditionally, Vietnamese have a special way to eat the meat in the soup. They combine the sweet & sour sauce (the black sauce on the table) and spicy sauce (the red sauce on the table) at the proportion of 2:1, and dip the meat into the mixed sauce to make a more authentic flavor. The broth is clear, flavorful, and not oily at all, with smooth noodle and tender meat. BEST Pho ever!

They also serve the BEST summer roll, which I’ll talk about in the next post. So stay tune :)

Cantonese Noodle in Newton

Today, my badminton teammies and I really craved for Cantonese noodles, and really wanted to explore one new restaurant that we have never been to, so we decided to try this noodle house—No.1 Noodle House, located at 51 Langley Road, Newton Center, MA 02459.

It is petite noodle house, nothing fancy about it. Like in a fast-food place, we ordered our noodles at the counter, and grabbed chopsticks and napkins by ourselves, but the only difference was that our waitress brought the dishes to our table. The owner and most of the staff are friendly Cantonese people.

I really recommend their Laksa, which is coconut milk and curry noodle soup. We ordered two Laksa—Seafood Laksa and B.B.Q. Pork Laksa. The noodle soup is a perfect combination of slightly sweet coconut milk and mild spicy curry. Yummy!

Seafood Laksa

B.B.Q. Pork Laksa

I don’t recommend any of their Stir Fried Noodles. We order two of them—Beef Stir Fried Noodle and Seafood Stir Fried Noodle, both of which were dry and had plain flavors…

Beef Stir Fried Noodle

Seafood Stir Fried Noodle

Sichuan Food in Cambridge

After the Sichuan intro in last post, now let's taste some real authentic Sichuan cuisine!!

Thailand Café, located at 302 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, is actually a Sichuan cuisine restaurant, despite its name—I am still confused why it is called that way. It is not a spacious and fancy decorated restaurant, but it is close to Harvard and MIT, and it has some good dishes (not every dish is great though). Here are the dishes we ordered:

Roast beef, tongue & tripe with chili-peanut vinaigrette: it is a hot appetizer. It is one of the best house special dishes. Tender beef with flavorful chili-peanut vinaigrette. Yummy! Strongly recommend it if you are into spicy food.

Roast beef, tongue & tripe with chili-peanut vinaigrette

Poached chicken with chili sauce: it is a hot appetizer. Tender chicken with authentic Sichuan chili sauce, and a mixed flavor if you eat it with the peanut on the top. Another dish I'd recommend :)

Poached chicken with chili sauce

Double cooked Chinese style bacon: it is not a spicy dish, so you might want to try it if you are not a big fan of spicy food. But I’ve had better in other restaurants which I’ll write about later.

Double cooked Chinese style bacon

Chong Tsing dry hot chicken: not recommend—it is supposed to be a hot dish, but to me, it is neither dry nor hot enough.

Chong Tsing dry hot chicken

Braised whole fish with Sichuan chili sauce: not recommend—it is supposed to be a spicy dish, but still, it is not spicy enough, and it even tasted a little bit sweet…

Braised whole fish with Sichuan chili sauce

Szechuan Beef

Sichuan Brunch in Belmont

HI foodies, how do you like the previous post on Shanghai brunch? I hope you love brunch as I do, because... we are gonna do Sichuan (which is spelt as Szechuan in many Chinese restaurants) brunch today!!

Shangri-La, located at 149 Belmont Street, Belmont, MA, 02478, is the place my friends and I would go to when we crave for a traditional Sichuan brunch. Be aware that they are usually super busy on weekends. Here are the dishes we ordered:

Roast beef in soy sauce (cold dish): perfectly cooked beef, chewy but not too chewy, not like the well-done steak nor the soft stewed beef.

Roast Beef in Soy Sauce

Beef noodle soup: tender beef and soft and thick noodles with flavorful soup.

Beef Noodle Soup

Five flavor beef with pancake: I don’t know for sure if it has exact five flavor, but definitely tasty beef and crispy pancake.

Five Flavor Beef with Pancake

Steamed pork chop with rice flour: a traditional Sichuan dish that not every Chinese restaurant has to offer. A mixed flavor with soft pork chop and sticky rice—strongly recommend it if you have never tried.

Steamed Pork Chop with Rice Flour

Chinese Lunch Special in Allston

For Chinese food lovers, one advantage of living in Allston is that you can easily find a decent, authentic and inexpensive Chinese lunch special around the neighborhood.

Jo Jo Taipei, located at 103 Brighton Ave, Allston, MA 02134, is one of my roomies’ and my favorite places when we crave for good Chinese food for lunch but don’t wanna spend too much money and time.

From Monday to Friday, each lunch special combo costs $6.99, including a soup, dish and rice. Pretty good deal! Here are four combos that my roomies and I had for lunch today. Yum yum :)

Shredded Pork with Garlic Sauce

Beef Sauteed with Long Horn Peper

Fish Fillet with Sweet and Sour Sauce

Spicy Szechuan Twice-cooked Pork