Vietnamese soup at Pho Nomenon in Hoboken, NJ

We were excited to go to Pho Nomenon, one of the new restaurants that opened recently in Hoboken. It replaced Hoboken Cottage that was really not one of my favorites. Well, think about it: they were proposing Chinese and Turkish cuisine; not sure what the link between the two is...Nevertheless, I tried both and did not like it.

So, we arrived in the restaurant that had a medium size dining room, dominated by a painting of Buddha. 

As soon as we sat, they brought us some green tea that was welcome considering the temperature outside, and kept serving it as soon as our cups were half empty.

As an appetizer, we ordered Goi Cuon Chav or vegetarian Summer rolls:

Contrary to spring rolls, they are not fried, making it a healthier version. It was made of rice noodles, fried tofu, picked carrots, daikon, lettuce and mint, wrapped in rice paper.

It has been a while since I ate this kind of roll and it was delicious, very refreshing, especially thanks to the mint. I ate it with the peanut sauce that came with and I also tried with some hoisin sauce that added some sweetness.

Pho at Pho 66 in Hell's Kitchen - NYC, New York

There are days where you are fixated on a particular dish. This time (shall I say again?), it was ramen! We were planning on going to Sapporo ramen, but it was packed. So Jodi and I decided to walk on 9th avenue, aka Hell's Kitchen, and see if any restaurant would erase our disappointment. We noticed Pho 66. The location looked familiar and it is only after we entered the restaurant that we realized that we went there several months ago, at the time it was a Colombian place called Farmers Rotisseria A La Brasa.  I could not believe it!

If you do not know what Pho is, it is Vietnamese dish consisting of broth, noodles usually made from rice, herbs, vegetables and meat. Well, it was as close to the ramen craving as it could be...

What I really liked is the fact that they offer different sizes of bowl: large, medium and small, to accommodate any appetite.

Jodi ordered the Pho Verte:

Verte means green in France and here, it relates to the fact that it is a vegetarian dish. 

On my side, I ordered the Pho Bun Bo Hue:

Vietnamese Food at Chapa's in NYC, New York

We passed by ChaPa's Noodles and Grill, a Vietnamese eatery, several times and each time, this restaurant was packed. So we decided to give it a try. In fact, we gave it two tries! The first time we went and picked various dishes and then saw many people ordering their Pho (a Vietnamese dish consisting of broth,  rice noodles, herbs, and meat); so we decided to go another time to try the Pho.

So, the first time we went, we shared several plates.

The crispy calamari or Muc Chien Don:

I loved it: the calamari was not rubbery, the batter well cooked and very crispy, not greasy at all. The sweet chili sauce gave a nice Asian twist to this dish!

The veggie dumplings - steamed: