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Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Baguette Box

I enjoyed a really tasty variation on the typical vegetarian tofu vietnamese sandwich at the baguette box, the Braised Tofu sandwich. Like most tofu vietnamese sandwiches, it consisted of chunks of fried tofu, carrots, pickeled (?) radish, cilantro, onions, etc, but the high quality bread and the exceptionally delicious tofu made this sandwich stick out.

I also had the beet salad, and it was super good... thin tender slices of beets swimming in garlicy olive oil.

Downsides: a little bit expensive, and parking can indeed be difficult if you plan on arriving via car.

Baguette Box in Seattle

Friday, January 13, 2006

Pho Cyclo

Pho Cycle has an incredibly satisfying vegetarian dish: the Spicy Lemongrass tofu with noodles. It comes in typical Vietnamese noodle bowl fashon with a big bunch of basil and herbs, a nest of tender rice noodles, chopped peanuts, cucumber, shaved radish, carrot etc with some really tasty slightly smoky spicy strips of lemongrass tofu and a cup of soy (vegan) based broth to pour over the whole thing.

If I ate meat I'd likely go for the charred pork version of this dish, which looks similar but replace the tofu with large flat strips of really good looking charred pork and includes some fish sauce in the broth.

The staff is always really friendly too.

8/11/07 Addition...
Holy Cow, I just had the vegetarian Pho at pho cyclo and I don't know what took me so long!! Only the Broadway location has the vegetarian version (the 1st ave one has a bowl with tofu, but it has chicken broth instead of vegi broth). In addition to the regular pho stuff, this one comes with chunks of cauliflower and carrot, roasted garlic, and a little bowl of the MOST AMAZING spicy red ginger sauce that you can dump in. I am a big fan of Than Brothers, but I might have a new favorite. This bowl, with the ample vegis and tofu that somehow feels less fried than Than Bro's, actually feels more like a balanced meal. Delicious!!!
Pho Cyclo Cafe in Seattle