Pho 68

I’ve been craving dumplings; almost every night since dining at Jabu I have requested them for my dinner. Apparently they’re very easy, I think I should try and make them tonight. With this in mind you can tell my second venture into dumpling consumption has done nothing to put me off, in fact it has only encouraged me to seek them out all the more. Tonight we dined at Pho 68 a Vietnamese restaurant, I was content as long as the served dumplings, and of course they did. Bliss. Fried dumplings for starters begrudgingly shared with Steve and his aromatic crispy pork. Both starters were charming, the dumplings differed from those of Jabu, the frying made them darker and more like tiny Cornish pasties, the frying had given them a slightly charred flavour but ultimately did them no harm. Their contents tasted heavenly, exquisitely flavourful with the distinct taste of ginger and soy sauce. The pork was also nice, I usually refrain from eating anything with a noticeable amount of fat in it, the texture just creeps me out, but here the bite in the pork and the crispy crackling works well with the soft layer of fat, and the taste was great too. That was until I heaped on a molasses smelling dip that was on the table that had an unpleasant flavour of chilli infused tea leaves.
The next course was brought without much of a wait and we tucked into Vietnemese green curry, chicken with lemongrass and chilli and noodles. The chicken was delicious with subtle hints at warmth and sharpness, the curry was more powerful, and unfortunately overwhelmed the flavours of the other dish. The chicken itself was soft and slippery, the prawns in the curry had just the right amount of bite, although the flavours were great they both had a bizarre thickness to the sauce, with a glueyness one associates with gravy not curry. The meal was lovely, with plenty to spare for today’s lunch – and reheating did it no harm I can tell you.
Despite all of these gastronomic treats on show Steve still manages to out do our dining out experiences without fail in our hovel of a kitchen. His pork with actual gravy is better, his curries are even more tasty and he leaves out the gloop factor, if he can master dumplings I'll never have to eat out again, after we've concluded the clock of course.