Mi Quang journey and Quan Nem's big move!

 Google reveals to me that mi quang is a central Vietnamese dish with yellow, flat noodles, shrimp, pork, herbs, peanuts and a crispy rice cracker. It says it's also known for minimal broth.

Co Do Deli is maybe the first place I ever had this dish? I have loved it there for many years, even as Co Do seems to have lost popularity. Yesterday (Sunday) at noon, it was sparsely populated, as other pockets of Little Saigon were hopping.

Co Do serves the broth on the side, which you pour over. The most notable herb they use is mint, and shredded lettuce gets nicely cooked. Cooked lettuce is underused I think. I don't remember what area of Japan, maybe Fukuoaka area? but there was an area where the meat skewers would often be wrapped in hot, juicy lettuce and it was brilliant!

Anyway, Co Do also serves the bowl with a shell-on shrimp, yummy ground pork, and peanuts. I have always loved it there. Co Do used to have a neon sign in the window that said "bun bo hue" so that's also a specialty and I'm sure I've had it there. The sign must have broken.

 (I'm going ot get to more about Mi Quang trust) Years ago, a Quan Nem Ninh Hoa sign went up where Yang's used to be on Stockton, but the old Quan Nem continued to do gangbuster business and I eventually assumed the move was off. But they have indeed finally moved. On Saturday at 2, they were packed. The dining room has a lot of chairs and communal tables in it, and a few booths. Some pillars in the room can make it hard to for customers and the servers to navigate. It's cramped feeling. I'm not sure how many additional tables they have due to the move, but they probably could have used even more space. They parking lot was full and I had to park on the side street.

The inside is colorful and bright, and there are murals that looks like Hanoi colonial houses. When Quan Nem posted on IG about their move, showing the dragon dancers, etc., they showed a bowl of Mi Quang, which got me thinking about ordering it there. 

Everyone knows what you get at Quan Nem: the nem nuong rolls, usually the ones you roll yourself unless it's to-go. I would say the banh beo and banh bot loc appetizers are also on many tables. But I was by myself so I didn't want to roll the rolls and plus I was fixated on this mi quang.

I also got a salty plum drink because I was dehydrated from gardening and it was the saltiest one I've ever had. It had a thick layer of salt in the bottom. I probably needed that.

When the soup came out, it was indeed a brothy soup, not a noodle dish with scant broth I could pour over. That was the first difference. Then, it had some chunks and I thought, potato? Oh god, pineapple??? WTF. OK, I guess this is not an unknown ingredient but it's unwelcome to me. The broth was bland. The pork was a tasteless chunk on a bone. There were slices of pork cake that seemed like each one was the hard butt end of the cake, like they saved it for this soup like you would the heel of the bread for breadcrumbs. Even the shrimp cracker was stale!! Truly sad.

Quan Nem I'm sure is still the best but you gotta stick to their specialties. Has anyone ever gotten their pho? I wonder what it's like.

So the next day I wanted to get carnitas. So I tried to go to Carnitas Marquez, but all evidence of it was gone. Then I started to trip that my article in Abridged got it shut down! It had been there a long time. I don't think I'm powerful or anything, just I have no idea how many people read Abridged. I guess I stupidly thought that Marquez was legit. I'm not going to panic just yet, I want to check back and also see if the one on Franklin is still there. I mean, Marquez had a spot on Google maps and reviews and stuff! Augh.

So then I needed something to eat and I thought I would try to erase the bad mi quang from my mind by eating good mi quang. So I went to Co Do. The bowl was wayyyy better than the other one but not as good as it used to be. The broth was not as deep and savory. All the other elements were there. When I finally want to try mi quang again I will try somewhere else. I got a recommendation to try Buon Cuon Tay Ho for it.

Oh yeah, and Co Do still has my review behind the counter.

BPNA monthly meeting report

So even though I live a teeny bit outside of Boulevard Park, I attended the monthly meeting with my neighbor Ashley. I have been curious before. It meets at Washington School, at 18th and E. There were a lot of people there, maybe 40? It was inspiring that there was a mix of ages, and the board president is young (compared to me). The board president of the midtown neighborhood association also spoke, and she looked to be in her 20s.

The meeting was the same day as the city council met, so Pluckebaum and McCarty sent spokespeople (also young!). A cop who is in charge of a big swath of downtown also reported on policing strategies to lower violent crime and subtract cops from mental health calls.

Slow Down Sacramento creator Isaac Gonzalez came to talk about how we have wayyyy too many traffic deaths here. I agree! He expressed frustration that the city has budgeted for several positions (championed by Caity Maple) almost  a year ago to help create slower street and that still no hiring has occurred. 

Cutest of all, a guy who created Rewild Sacramento came to talk about planting trees and needing volunteers. His group has planted over a hundred treees.

I marveled that people find the time to do these kinds of things. I have been letting my community garden plot languish for months, but I guess my extra time often goes to freelance writing. I wish I had time to do more. 

I had an idea that I could create a program where people could adopt a block of protected bike lane to clean up during fall/leaf season. It's been driving me crazy how many of the lanes are filled with leaf piles, or even worse, sticks and other plant stuff that are under leaves and could make you slip or crash. To get that off the ground I would have to focus just on that probably for like a year. 

People care about their communities and are doing cool things! 

My Iconic 11

 I thought I'd do a lil check-in post. I don't really have time for a real post. I'd like to do a series about Japan so that it could serve as my external memory bank and mayhaps entertain you a smidge. But I just don't have the time.

I'm reading about (cringe) AI erotica in a NYT op-ed and I just can't believe that I'm actually alive in a time when folks are being driven to madness by their imaginary friends. I use chatgpt to ask travel planning questions and it occasionally has a good tip and I recently used it to get me started on a bat safety fact sheet for work. It will never life coach me etc. etc.

I watched Pyscho 2 last night because I heard that Quentin T. prefers it to Psycho and that is a truly contrarian and silly opinion but it is pretty fun. Meg Tilly is so pretty and Anthony Perkins is so method twitchy and sweaty. 

Benjy's take on the iconic 11 Sac restaurants is a take for sure. I have eaten everywhere except Localis. I'm not sure why limit it at 11 and I would have taken out Freeport (bakery, no savory food except quiche), Corti (deli, not restaurant) and Gunther's (sort of a restaurant but not really about the sandwiches). I just can't count Jimboy's as a restaurant either. If it was my piece I would have set out restaurant parameters and then worked within that. But lists are fun and fun to argue about. I started trying to quickly toss out some names and I got stymied, so it's not easy. I even have to go to "iconic" definition, representative symbol or worthy of veneration

Waterboy
Kru
Pho Bac (not the best, I'm working within the "iconic" vein but it's fallen off so hard. I want to put Quan Nem instead, also Duc Huong (Benjy's pick) is not bad or Huong Lan even though the banh mi aren't quite as good but it's more a full restaurant with decent bun as well)
Ugh, Tower I guess he's right would never eat there
Frank Fat's
Zelda's
Tres Hermanas
Urban Roots (representative of our place on the national beer scene and a popular gathering place for all)
It's crazy to not include dim sum but I really miss New Canton and dim sum cart places have fallen off while dumpling-focused places have surged
Southside Super
Majka (these latter 2 encapsulate Sac dining as it is now)

There's my quick 11. It hurts me not to include Masullo which I find to be by far the best pizza in Sac. But I have my reasons. Or maybe I take out Tower and put in Masullo? But that's 3 pizzas, but Sac really is all about pizza which is a curse and a blessing. 

Guantonio's!!!

It was smiller's birthday so I let him choose the restaurant (I let him choose once a year). He chose Guantonio's. I'm just going to assume you've been, if not go directly outside, get in your car and go there. Oh, who am I kidding, it's only open a few hours a week! Seriously, it has some of the most limited hours around, 14 hours open per week. We got there on a Wednesday at 545 and got a table right away. I have waited more than an hour in the past but have gotten lucky the last couple of times. You can either try to get lucky or if you don't mind eating later, I think going at 7 you'd almost always get a seat. Or also if you don't mind sitting at the teeny seats by the pizza oven.

The nice thing about waiting is you can drink some beer or wine while you wait, and you end up chatting with folks.

Above is a meat salad. I almost didn't get it but I was like anchovy? rice powder? Sounds up my alley. OMG it was the best thing I've maybe eaten all year. It was so creative, so bright, fun textural elements. Every time I go I saw that Nick should write a cook book. The meat was room temp, chewy spare ribs. The anchovy added a fish sauce element. It had pluot, mint and Italian parsley, Armenian cukes. It was firing on all cylinders!! Oh yeah, and fennel.

Watermelon and tomato salad why is this underlined sigh blogger. This had another interesting use of Italian parsley where you would expect mint or basil. Pickled red onions too it was bomb.

Nardellos!!!!!!!!!!! They had some parm or pecorino shaved on top and a very savory sauce that I think had tomatillo? And something crunchy like breadcrumbs. I was licking up the sauce.

Then the pizza, again Scott's choice as he was the birthday boy. Corn and green tomatoes. Although I prefer a tomato sauce pie, the green tomatoes almost counted.

The only disappointment for me was I didn't want to get wine by the glass because it was almost all Lodi or surrounding area wine, and I want to drink Euro wine but I mean, look where it's located. They have really good beer too but they had nothing at all on draft at the moment. But that's ok cuz I was driving. I love Guantonio's!!!

 

Insight/Japanese Buddhist Bazaar

I feel that I should blog because I was on Insight yesterday (you can listen here) and Vicki mentioned Heckasac as if it's a going concern so I must make it one. We talked about the Buddhist Bazaar (this Saturday!!!) and I had a whole litany of foods I wanted to mention but the only one I did mention was the big dog below.

The teriyaki chicken. Damn, look at it, so good. Huh, I said it came with rice and that was my memory but this picture is making me a liar. It is so fucking hard to be factual I understand why most of the world have just given up. I am saying this out of anxiety because my Corti Brother rav article just dropped and I'm sure (even though I did fact check) that I got SOMETHING wrong and after re-reading it I realized that I said "poultry" and then was unsure if the current version of the holiday flavor contains chicken or turkey (it used to be turkey) but then I was like well poultry, while not precise, is correct but if Darrell reads it.....

=More after the jump. People don't really write that anymore because endless scroll is the norm

New Birrieria Just Dropped

 I've been eyeing this spot as it prepared to open. It's on Franklin, right next to El Gallo Giro. El Gallo Giro used to be Mariscos Mazatlan, and I liked it. Not sure about El Gallo.

Anyway, I've been watching this spot because Guadalajara is known for goat birria, and I had the best of my life there. So yay, it's open and they said they opened in April.

Here's the cute interior, some murals of old-timey Guadalajara. Paper towels on the table (good sign), menu that ONLY offers goat and beef birria (great sign!)

Picture of Pedro Infante, even though I know from having spent time in Mazatlan that he is from Mazatlan. But I guess everyone can claim him,

Serious-looking chili oil on the table.

After a wee bit of a wait, my two tacos of birria de chivo arrived. I was there around 130, a sign in the restaurant said that there were tortillas hecho a mano from 7 am (!) to noon on the weekends, with a little portable grill set up but not on. From the look of these tortillas, on weekends they probably make a big stack and then reheat throughout the day. So not fresh off the grill, but not packaged either. I am looking forward to coming back and getting the caldo de chivo.

Goat on the way out the door telling me to come bbbaaaaa-ck and I will.

New York City review

 Best city in the world?!?!? Just might be.

Other than that, went to see double feature of The Queen/Funeral Parade of Roses last night for the Dreamland takeover of The Crest. 

The Queen is just a classic, classic top documentary. Gorgeous to look at I could just eat up all the clothes and interesting faces and accents. It's only an hour and it's set in a 1967 drag competition. Do yourself a favor and watch it. Crystal Labeija going off about the competition winner is a must-see

I will admit that I was quite tired by the time Funeral Parade of Roses started. It was the late late hour of 845. For one, I woke up at 530 am as I often do. For two, I had  had 2 Reality Czech pilsners from Moonlight Brewing from Empress ($12 each! am I at the fair?) For 3 full disclosure I had also eaten: 3 birriera tacos one small popcorn (light butter), and a piece of banana bread sold by the nice Bread by Beth lady who was holding a pop-up inside Empress.

Also, the Crest seemed to be *lightly* airconditioned if at all by this point in the eve. And I was developing a headache, probably due to all the aforementioned factors. So the deck was stacked against me on enjoying this movie. But I was oh-so-brave and persevered, mostly because I did not want the Dreamland peeps to see me puss out and leave this movie that I know is very near and dear to them and therefore dear to me as well.

Funeral Parade of Roses is an absolutely bonkers artifact of a Japanese art film. It's transgressive if it was made today: reader, it came out in 1969!!!! I don't want to ruin any twist in case you want to watch it but let's just say it reminds one of a certain film whose name rhymes with moldtoy. 

Don't laugh when I say that I  kept my old ass out until past 11 to see this movie because I was inspired in New York to celebrate Art and Beauty when I can find it and nothing about this miserable crummy world can keep me from doing that. As smiller will point out from the song that he hates "these streets will inspire you"