Pho Sho!

So...a round trip to Vietnam is going for around $800-ish, depending on where you fly out of. Off the top of my head, it's cheapest to fly round trip out of Oakland into Saigon. I want to go over Thanksgiving. I reckon, being freshly separated and likely freshly divorced by then, I'll have no reason to be around Sac as I have no family here anymore and my job schedule would allow me to get out of town for two weeks. Depending on the cost, the plan will be to fly into Saigon and work my way north to Hanoi, stopping along the way in Hội An and random other places. Besides those three places, the plan will be to have no plan; to just wander aimlessly and anonymously- invisible, surrounded by unfamiliar words, foods, and faces. To be honest, I'd like to go now to escape the relentless tedium of current real life, but I have some actually enjoyable responsibilities that I can't just drop in spite of the unenjoyable stuff.

For now, I've got to take the bitter with the sweet...like the old blues song sings.
(Maybe the song was about Durian...huh? We'll get there soon enough.)

Barring some miraculous lottery win that allows me to get lost, I can take solace driving down Stockton Boulevard. In Sacramento, Stockton Boulevard is to Asian Food as Franklin Boulevard is to Mexican/Latin American food.

Like Franklin, Stockton Boulevard is one LONG street. It runs 17 miles from the very urban Alhambra Boulevard, on the edge of Midtown, south all the way to the very rural Kammerer Road on the outskirts of Elk Grove. The heart of it, however, lies between Broadway (where the old Fairgrounds once stood) and Florin Road. This is, for all intents and purposes the part of the 'hood where some of the best Asian food in the city is to be found. Granted, being in diverse Sacramento, there is a sprinkling of Mexican and Soul Food restaurants, but the main food to be found there is Asian, with a leaning towards Vietnamese food.

Today my food accompanist was my friend Dawn, who was excited to participate in the Hood Food experience. When we spoke to make arrangements, I told her it was time to head down Stockton Boulevard since I had had way too much Mexican food over the past week...which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I needed some new food to taste and write about. So after meeting at the good ol' and centrally located Espresso Metro, we ditched my car and she drove down 12th Avenue into the hood. What a difference a freeway makes.

From Land Park through Curtis Park through Oak Park, we turned right on Stockton and just drove.

"Anywhere in particular?"
"Nah...we'll know it when we see it"

So down we drove, passing the old Colonial Theater, the cemetery and just as we reached Fruitridge she looked left and pointed.

"I've been there. They have good food."

And there is was:

PHO XE LUA!

That was good enough for me.

I love pho and Vietnamese food in general. I think being Mexican makes it easier to love Vietnamese food and Asian food in general. These foods, though literally a world apart, share many of the same flavors and ingredients along with a penchant for peppers fueled heat- the glorious make you sweat under your eyes kind.

Wait...am I at a Mexican joint on Franklin or a Vietnamese joint on Stockton? Doesn't matter. Jalapeños, for the win!

So I knew this was going to be good when we were greeted by the following things as we entered:

I love rock walls of any kind.

Yes...I know you're thinking the same thing: WTF? (but in an appreciation of life's little randomnesses)

So once we got beyond the sheer awe of the awesome rock walled entrance and water buffalo pied piper awesomeness, we sat down and got to business.

We sat and got our menus from the overly-attentive-in-a-good-way/just-on-the-edge-of-too-attentive waitress and took the whole scene in: Paintings on the walls depicting scenes from the farming fields of Vietnam. Random sculptures of seafood. Families with their faces in huge bowls of pho.

What really tied the whole thing together though, was the music that was piped through the sound system in the restaurant. It was cheesy Southeast Asian pop music, which I love. Don't ask me why. I just do.

[Brief musician sidebar: some of the microtonal stuff played by guitars in Asian music is so bluesy and incredibly funky, not in a James Brown kind of way, but in a Mississippi Delta Juke Joint kind of way]

As we peruse the menus Dawn opted for some grilled chicken with spring rolls and an avocado milkshake...

"They make milkshakes out of avocado? Seriously?"

"Yeah, their drink menu is on the back."

Again, the Asian/Mexican connection made with the avocado. Curious as to what other kinds of milkshakes they might whip up I scanned the drink selection and found It.

DURIAN

What, you might as, is durian? Well I didn't know what it was until I saw an episode of Anthony Bourdain visiting Singapore. It is a fruit found in Southeast Asia with a stench so putrid that it is actually banned from public transportation and many hotels. Yet in spite of that, people eat it and like it.

Here's the wikipedia lowdown on durian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian

My favorite part of the entry:

"The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia."

I had to try it. If Mr. Bourdain went there, then surely I must. Dawn was a little skeptical after I explained what it was, followed by a quick wikipedia consultation via the blackberry.

"It looks like brains. Like liver! Do you even know what it smells like?"

I didn't, but I was dying to find out. We did agree that I would wait until we were done to order the dreaded durian milkshake. In the mean time I ordered pho with beef and tripe (which I just called menudo since that's what Mexicans call it) and an appetizer of shrimp and pork spring rolls. Our food arrived promptly, ending our debate about durian.

Grilled Chicken & Egg Rolls

Avocado Milkshake

Pork & Shrimp Spring Rolls

Vietnamese Coffee (the durian milkshake had to wait)

Pho with Beef & Tripe

The food was great- fresh tasting, which made me feel like I was actually eating healthy...I especially loved the pork and shrimp spring rolls if for no other reason than pork makes everything taste better. Combined with the medium sized whole shrimp surrounded by the crunchy greens...the whole thing was good. It was like pork without the guilt.

The pho was total comfort food, just like mom would have made, if we were a Vietnamese family. I did, however, have to spice it up. I love pho for this reason. It comes very basic and it leaves it up to you to make as hellishly spicy as you please. And believe me, I went a little crazy with the heat. Add some jalapeños and chili oil to the mix and Voila!

3 Alarm Spicy Goodness...Vietnamese/Mexican Unity...Orale!

So after a good sweat on my part and some sensible, healthy freshness on Dawn's part we had reached The Moment of Reckoning.

"Are you really going to order the durian milkshake?"

"Hell yes I am. If Bourdain could do it, then I must."

"OK, but if it stinks, you have to put it over on the other table."

"Fine. We'll see how bad it really is based on how the waitress reacts when I order it."

We managed to flag down our waitress, who was all smiles until the words came out of my mouth.

"Can I get a durian milkshake?"

Dawn had to hold back the laughter as we saw her subtlely roll her eyes, a look of near disgust replacing her once happy face. She said "OK" in a way that meant "What kind of moron are you? Do you know what you're getting yourself into? Oh well...the customer is always right, unless it's durian."

We envisioned the staff having to don hazmat suits as they cursed the guy ordering the durian, all supplies used in making the shake having to be either sterilized after use or dumped in a state approved bio-hazard bin.

The milkshake of doom...

We giggled as we saw it in a covered plastic cup, a contrast to the presentation of the avocado shake Dawn had ordered earlier. Was it really so bad that it had to come sealed in a plastic container. Scared & excited, I tasted it.

It was hard to describe at first. Durian is a two-step flavor. The first is a bitter and slightly sulfur (the sulfur flavor was described to me by a buddy of mine that I conned into tasting without knowing what it was later). The aftertaste was actually really good- a sweet almond custard flavor. Dawn opened up the container to smell it and see what the shake looked like. To an unsuspecting victim, it looked like an innocent custard.

"Eww! This smells like B.O. No, wait, seriously, it's like tasting dirty socks!"

Needless to say, she was not a fan. I was fascinated. Not to say I'm a fan, but it wasn't as horrible as I was expecting. Slightly gross? Yes. End of the world? No.

After paying the check, we headed out into the perfect Sacramento spring evening and we drove back to Espresso Metro, with Dawn making sure to let me know that my breath smelled like ass. Which was fine. My belly was too happy to care. She dropped me off at my car and off I went to meet some friends for bowling in West Sac, moon roof open dwelling on durian...and it occurred to me:

Durian is kind of like life. Sometimes you have to endure a whole lot of bitter to taste the sweet...a notion that resonates with me as of late.

Pho Xe Lua is located at 5331 Stockton Blvd.