Poor Pitiful Me - Not - Eating on Latest Trip Two

Vietnamese Culture Experience

I met Banker N at a networking event in So Cal almost a year ago. We were eating at a Thai restaurant that wasn't all that great with a person who dominated the conversation and who insisted that this was great Thai food. Banker N and I demurred. Banker N brought up the subject of balut eggs saying that I was way to white and round eyed to eat them. This brought up a challenge. Unfortunately N is way the heck down in Orange County where I rarely go. So it has taken all of this time before we could hook up for 'real' Vietnamese food in Fountain Valley, CA - a real little Viet Nam.

Actually N decided that balut eggs were too much but we did go to a place that was recommended to be authentic, Cloud Nine (sorry no web site). We started out with snails in coconut milk sauce and fresh oysters with a sauce of chiles, lime and fish sauce. Then we moved on to a lotus root salad with chicken and shrimp and grilled lamb ribs which were served on a sizzling platter.

Snails are snails and I've always found their flavor too subtle for even me. The coconut milk sauce was really addictive and I'm not that big a coconut milk fan. The sauce for the oysters was great - much better than cocktail sauce giving a zing but not overpowering the oysters. The lotus root salad was OK but similar to a lot of Southeast Asian salads I've had. The lamb ribs were great. So hot and not overpoweringly flavored with their marinade. You've got to like eating with your fingers for this one.

For drinks we had a yogurt sohju. Sohju is asian fire water - a clear distilled alcohol. It was mixed with some yogurt, served in a pitcher and poured out into sake cups. I could see one getting really blitzed on this. A little to sweet for my taste.

Then on to another place called Claws where we had steamed crayfish. Having spent a lot of time in Maryland and doing steamed crabs, this is very similar with paper on the table and a bag of crayfish, sausage, corn and potato. We downed a couple of pounds with some Newcastle Brown Ales.

We finished our evening at a bar with a scotch.

Plate of Snails, Pitcher of Yogurt Sohju
You can see we've already made a big dent in the Sohju and we just got our food!

de-I proves he's international by eating snails with chopsticks!

The Oysters

Lotus Root Salad

Lamb Ribs (mmmmmmm - my favorite)

Ebenezer Crayfish about to meet his doom at the hands of de-I
That's garlic all over it. A bit too much for my taste.

One of our guests showing crayfish in its best light