A Taste of Vietnamese at the Lucky Bà ngoại's Kitchen #9 Vietnamese Street Food Restaurant!
The "Bahn mi" (Php 110.00), a traditional Vietnamese sandwich. Marinated pork cutlets together with onions, dressing and other vegetables are stuffed inside a crispy, toasted bun. Only at Lucky Bà ngoại's.
So many people nowadays vow to "try something new" to spice up their lives a little bit, but only a few will have the courage to "try doing something they were initially strongly prejudiced about." This is something I have witnessed first-hand around three weeks ago when I took my best friend and my mother to eat at a cute but cozy Vietnamese joint in Dagupan City which I discovered from the "Suggested Pages" in my Facebook.
The Lucky Bà ngoại's Kitchen #9 Vietnamese Street Food Restaurant at Malta Village, Amado District, Dagupan City.
My best guy friend, who will be visiting Vietnam sometime in the second quarter of 2017, is a bit of a picky eater. This is probably because he grew up in a family purely composed of Filipinos (food-savvy Ilocanos, specifically) so he probably did not see many opportunities to sample other ways of cooking except for the one he grew up with. However, he wanted to know what kinds of food Vietnam has to offer for him before he visits so I took him to The Lucky Bà ngoại's Kitchen #9 Vietnamese Street Food, which is a casual restaurant that I frequent to ever since its warm ambiance exuded by its wooden panels and colorful window art caught my eye.
Two days after I took my best friend, I treated my mom to the same restaurant. Compared to my best friend, my mom, although well-traveled all over Asia and in some parts of North America, is extremely wary of Asian cuisines that are neither Filipino nor Chinese. Asked why she couldn't tolerate the richness of Indian curry, the refreshing taste of Japanese sushi, or the strength of the spices in Malaysian goreng and Thai fried noodles, she gave a simple answer: she just could not stand the taste. She was a little ambivalent about trying out Vietnamese at first, but I reassured her that she would love the food.
The restaurant is small but cute and cozy!
Check out all the window art and wall art. So cool!
The menu. The food here are very affordable!
At first, we didn't know what to order so we had to ask the courteous waitress for her recommendations. The bestsellers were: the Pho-Bo (beef stock Vietnamese noodle soup, Php 178.00 per bowl good for 2-3 persons), Cha Gio (Vietnamese spring rolls-slash-lettuce wraps, Php 128.00 for four pieces), and Goi Cuon (vermicelli and shrimp wrapped in transparent rice-flour wrapper, Php 50.00 per roll).
Cha Gio-- my mom's ultimate favorite. You wrap the fried spring roll with a piece of lettuce and dip it in seasoned vinegar. It was delicious! I thought it tasted a bit like Chinese kikiam but with more ingredients contained within.
Pho-Bo. The soup is also available in chicken and seafood. The broth was very rich with the taste of slow-cooked beef and the noodles were firm and tasty.
Seafood-flavored Pho.
Goi Cuon with rich peanut sauce. My go-to healthy option. I bought this once for a friend I was trying to make amends with. I guess it has the tendency to warm the heart!
Nem Nuong Cuon is somewhat similar to Cha Gio except it has deep-fried sausage in the middle instead of shrimps.
Vietnamese fried chicken! Very delicious, as it was tender and not too heavily-seasoned.
Grilled lemongrass pork chop! The combination of lemongrass and pork will hit you like a soothing charm.
Banh Xeo, Vietnamese savory pancake filled with sprouts and ground meat. You eat it by wrapping pieces of it with lettuce and dipping it in seasoned vinegar. This is actually quite good, too!
Iced Vietnamese coffee. It came in a decanter and condensed milk, and it was amusing to watch the dark drops of coffee slowly dripping into the glass. You can also order it hot.
Iced Tra (Green) Milk tea and Iced Lime and Lemongrass tea. Both were really good, but for the customer with more of a sweet tooth the green milk tea is excellent! It tasted like melted matcha ice cream!
My sweetheart really loved the iced green milk tea!
Vietnamese coconut! I was so surprised to find out that it did not only contain coconut juice and meat but it was upgraded with the addition of coconut jelly and coconut milk jelly! It was so delicious, even my mom and my picky little baby girl loved it to bits!
In the end, my best friend and my mom had one thing in common: they both LOVED the Vietnamese comfort food that Lucky Bà ngoại's had to offer! Considering that the taste did not significantly deviate from that of authentic street food found in the streets of Vietnam (as claimed by those who have already gone to the country), I thought they became considerably closer to shaking off their xenophobic perspective about foreign cuisines. That everyone has a distinct preference with the food that they eat is beside the point. Being open-minded and brave enough to tackle something that was so rigorously avoided in the past is an important task and an achievement to be proud of-- and so I go on to say that I am proud of the two of them and that I'm sooooo excited to have more people that I can drag whenever I crave for the restaurant's signature Goi Cuon!
*Note: "Bà ngoại" is a Vietnamese word meaning "maternal grandmother". Maybe that's the same reason why the place itself and food here are very hearty and fulfilling-- just like a kindly grandmother's cooking filled with so much warmth and love.
*Lucky Bà ngoại's Kitchen #9 Vietnamese Street Food Restaurant
Hours of business: 12:00 PM- 10:00 PM daily
Malta Village, Tapuac District, Dagupan City
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