Adventures on Buford Highway
We went to Chef Liu first, its on the left in what appears to have been a drive-thru only place at one time. They still use the drive-thru but the menu outside is only pictures of food! The front door is a sliding glass door. The place was packed at 3:30pm with only asians, mostly younger. that right there should tell you "SCORE!" We ordered the seaweed, sliced pig tongue, lamb kabobs, and Xiao long bao (juicy pork dumplings) it turned out to be quite a bit of food and was only $15.00. I ached to order the beef noodle soup but that would have been too filling.
We then headed over to Cook's Warehouse its their annual sidewalk sale. This place is full of lovely gadgets all too expensive for me to buy without permission. The sidewalk sale was so-so. The accompanying wine store was better. We picked up a couple of bottles of chardonnay for our wives, knowing we would drink it too.
Afterwards we headed back over to Buford Hwy to try the Banh-Mi at Quoc Huong which is a block down from Chef Liu and on the right in the 99 Ranch Market Plaza. The people there were super friendly, since we had just eaten we decided to order something as a snack. I was there to try the Banh Mi, so I ordered it with pork sausage ($2.00) and my buddy ordered the vietnamese eggrolls($5.99) from the chef's special menu section. Mine was good, the pork sausage turned out to be a head cheese. Beware the whole sliced jalapeno in this sandwich. I would not have minded had they seeded it and trimmed off the bitter white membrane. My buddy's dish came out with a large plate of green leaf lettuce with carrots, cucumber and basil and a basket of small pork eggrolls. This being a fairly foreign meal to us, we did not realize that his dish came with some assembly required. I had a suspicion that he was supposed to roll up the veggies in the lettuce leaf and dip it in the provided sauce. We also should have looked closer on entry, they only take cash, so I had to dash out to a ATM around the corner. When I got back my friend Dave told me the propritors had instructed him on how he should have eaten his eggrolls, rolled up with the veggies in the lettuce leaf and dipped in the sauce. Incidentally, the Banh Mi are buy 5 and get one free. That is a healthy quantity of food for $10, most everything else on the menu was pretty cheaply priced too. I shall be returning to both places.
We then headed to Buford Highway Farmer's Market. It was nicer than I remember it, but you could smell the seafood counter in the back when you walked in the door. As we were pressed for time I didn't get to peruse every item in every aisle as I normally would. I did look for palm sugar but did not find it. :(
Pig Tongue
Lamb Kabobs
We then headed over to Cook's Warehouse its their annual sidewalk sale. This place is full of lovely gadgets all too expensive for me to buy without permission. The sidewalk sale was so-so. The accompanying wine store was better. We picked up a couple of bottles of chardonnay for our wives, knowing we would drink it too.
Afterwards we headed back over to Buford Hwy to try the Banh-Mi at Quoc Huong which is a block down from Chef Liu and on the right in the 99 Ranch Market Plaza. The people there were super friendly, since we had just eaten we decided to order something as a snack. I was there to try the Banh Mi, so I ordered it with pork sausage ($2.00) and my buddy ordered the vietnamese eggrolls($5.99) from the chef's special menu section. Mine was good, the pork sausage turned out to be a head cheese. Beware the whole sliced jalapeno in this sandwich. I would not have minded had they seeded it and trimmed off the bitter white membrane. My buddy's dish came out with a large plate of green leaf lettuce with carrots, cucumber and basil and a basket of small pork eggrolls. This being a fairly foreign meal to us, we did not realize that his dish came with some assembly required. I had a suspicion that he was supposed to roll up the veggies in the lettuce leaf and dip it in the provided sauce. We also should have looked closer on entry, they only take cash, so I had to dash out to a ATM around the corner. When I got back my friend Dave told me the propritors had instructed him on how he should have eaten his eggrolls, rolled up with the veggies in the lettuce leaf and dipped in the sauce. Incidentally, the Banh Mi are buy 5 and get one free. That is a healthy quantity of food for $10, most everything else on the menu was pretty cheaply priced too. I shall be returning to both places.
We then headed to Buford Highway Farmer's Market. It was nicer than I remember it, but you could smell the seafood counter in the back when you walked in the door. As we were pressed for time I didn't get to peruse every item in every aisle as I normally would. I did look for palm sugar but did not find it. :(
Pig Tongue
Lamb Kabobs