Vietnamese food

Last Sunday TM texted me and J. a photo of a bowl of phở with a message saying that he needed to take us out to dinner at this Vietnamese restaurant he found. Dinner out? With one of our children? Vietnamese food? It took me about two seconds to accept the offer. Tonight was the date and we had a lovely dinner with TM and a friend of his.

And the food...

We love Vietnamese food. We try to make some ourselves, but it is rare to find food that matches what we had on our trips to Vietnam. Even now, sixteen years later, it takes very little for the family members who have been there to spend more than a little time reminiscing about our favorite meals there. 

When we were in Evanston, we had multiple Vietnamese restaurants that we enjoyed going to... a couple little hole in the wall places and some more upscale restaurants. I had actual Vietnamese markets nearby where we could stock up on favorite snacks and vegetables. And I admit I took it all for granted.

Then we moved out here where there was... pretty much nothing. We eventually found one restaurant that was okay about 30 minutes away and I've made do with Korean and Chinese grocery stores. It's not the same, though. 

So back to our dinner tonight. Not only was it fairly close (just a few minutes away from our church, actually), but it was good. Really good. Even walking into the restaurant smelled right. We ended our meal having a long and lovely conversation with the woman who helps run the place. We will definitely be back.

So here is my unsolicited plug for a new restaurant serving food that people are probably unfamiliar with. If you are local, please go give it a try. The restaurant is Phở Xích Lô and is on Third Street in Geneva just across from the Metra station.  Have some phở (which is noodle soup... and is pronounced fuh) or, if you are a fan of bún chã like me, the grilled pork vermicelli dish is the closest I've ever come to having it in the US. 

I'd love to see this restaurant make it, both because it's delicious, but also because I want to keep it in my life. Now, if we could get an affordable Indian restaurant and an Ethiopian restaurant out here, that would be awesome.

Comments

tara said…
Good to know - didn’t know they were open! Have you tried Pho 95 in st Charles? It’s not bad!
9/22/2022 10:46 PM
thecurryseven said…
Tara,
Yes, we've had Pho95. It was good (though a bit far from us),but Pho Xich Lo is even better imo. 😀

e
9/22/2022 10:51 PM
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