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Cheap Eats By Dan
Leone by dan leone Pho boy DID VI'S REOPEN , or was it only a dream? I think I might have dreamed that Vi's reopened, only under new management, only the new management was lunkheads. Did I dream that, or did someone else dream it and tell me? I wonder. –Meanwhile, you're wondering: Vi's? What's Vi's? Vi's was that great Vietnamese noodle joint in Oakland ... you know, that me and/or some other people still dream about. Almost a year later. Well, hell, it's been a lot longer than that since the days of Gravy's and Ann's Cafe, and if you don't think I don't still dream of those two Hall of Famers on an almost nightly basis. Then, um, I don't know what. I'm lost. Anyway, it doesn't matter. It matters, but not as much as it used to, thanks to Pho Ao Sen, this other great Vietnamese noodle joint in Oakland. My friend Deevee found it. I went there with her and Phenomenon one cold wintry night when big hot bowls of soup were entirely called for. I got pho tai, which is just rare steak, for $4.95. You can get a bigger bowl, a "medium," for $5.95, and an even bigger bowl, an "x-large," if I'm reading the menu right, for – get this – $5.95. But I didn't see either one of those options until after it was too late, so alls I got was a regular old small big bowl of soup. With just rare steak. Now of course the big question which I'm sure is on everyone's mind, because it's certainly been on mine for most of my life, is this: if you get just one thing instead of five things in your small big bowl of pho, does that mean you get five times as much of that one thing? In other words: rare steak. As opposed to rare steak, well-done flank, brisket, tendon, and tripe. The price is the same, either way. But I still don't know. The only way we can ever really know something of this magnitude, once and for all and for sure, is if god comes down in a chariot and tells us. Or I suppose another possibility would be to order both bowls somewhere and compare. But I don't like tendon and tripe. Phenomenon and Deevee, they don't even hardly like beef, although Deevee did get a special spicy beef-pork combo soup, bun bo hue ($5.95). Phenomenon got bun thit nuong cha gio, which is basically bun cha gio thit nuong in a different order ($6.25). Bun = vermicelli noodles. Cha gio = imperial rolls. And thit nuong = grilled pork. It's just a great dish, pretty much wherever you order it in whatever order they word it, but it did seem especially good here at Ao Sen. The imperial rolls were entirely crispy, the marinated pork grilled perfectly. Great rice noodles. Plenty of refreshments: mint and cucumber slivers – the whole caboodle drenched in fish sauce. "Hey, give me my bowl back," said Phenomenon. Our soups were served, but the plate of fixings was conspicuously missing basil leaves. There were the bean sprouts, check, the sliced jalapeños, check, and the lemon wedges ... but, instead of basil, there was mint. I like mint, but I flagged down a waiter and asked for basil too. He looked at us like we were crazy. "Basil," we said again, pointing to the huge pile of fresh, fragrant basil leaves on the table next to ours. He nodded knowingly, then came back from the kitchen with another plate of bean sprouts. Now, this is a good sign. If you're at all into authenticity, you gotta like a Vietnamese joint where they don't know basil from bean sprouts. I personally think authenticity is overrated. But I loved Ao Sen. The soup was great, even though they don't have the range of different kinds of it, like Vi's used to. (Duck noodle, I'm thinking. Won ton. But maybe those weren't authentic. See?) The atmosphere is excellent. Real gritty and unpretentious. Deevee said there were pigeons walking around inside one time she ate there. Our waitressperson was superfriendly, and by now she should know what basil is. We finally got through to her, with the kind cooperation of the good people at the next table with the heaps of basil on it. She kept practicing saying basil every time she came to our table. She even asked us how you say bean sprouts. "Bean sprouts," we said. Deevee drew and labeled two study pictures for her
on the back of a business card. God? Chariot? |
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