“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has
not dined well.” - Virginia Woolf
Recently, I was encouraged by a reader to try out and
venture into other cuisines. There are less
conspicuous alternatives and out-of-the-ordinary but always full of flavor. In that “shortlist”, Vietnamese cuisine was mentioned
and as timing and fate would have it, I had already set my sights on this
Vietnamese restaurant in the suburbs of Pasig City, famous for the “food” strip
that features various kinds of cuisines and restaurants that foodies and food
enthusiasts alike make the long (or short) trip for.
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| Photographed By Foodie and the Feasts |
Along this stretch of road, I have been fortunate enough to
try three (3) food places already, including the topic of this article. In this feast, I dive into the, supposedly,
authentic Vietnamese flavors by BA NOIS located at 12 East Capitol, Dr. Kapitolyo,
Pasig City.
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| Photographed By Foodie and the Feasts |
In this modern age, interpretations, twists, and original
takes on various classical cuisines and dishes are prevalent and by no means is
this an easy feat. There is a reason
certain dishes are called “classic” or “staple”, because they have stood the test
of time and may be considered already as good as they will ever be. This is precisely why when a chef takes on or
re-invents a dish, it creates the “make-it-or-break-it” scenario. And most of them would say, “Go big or go
home!”. Clearly, in the food industry,
or in any industry for that matter, you have to be a step or two ahead of the
competition. This is how one’s
establishment gains its recognition and/or notoriety.
When you enter BA NOIS you immediately notice the simplicity
of their décor. The wooden chairs and
tables give it the rustic look, with plain white walls adorned by portraitures
of the food they serve, or will serve you.
I can appreciate art/photography as much as the next guy but your
attention may deviate from it by the dim and glum lighting conditions (as
evidenced by my photography). There is
just no vibrancy at all and the general atmosphere is, to be quite honest,
quite depressing.
The décor and lighting conditions aside, one might ask, is
the food worth the drive? Because let me be honest, if you love breaking a
sweat the only convenient way to get there is to drive or ride a tricycle that
would probably cost you a lot. While
there are other branches located in Makati City and in UP Town Center at Quezon
City, which may be more convenient for you, this post is strictly an insight on
this branch.
Gordon Ramsay once made a claim in an episode of Masterchef
that one of the best dishes he ever had was in Vietnam. It was a noodle soup made by an old lady on a
flimsy boat, as he put it, it was seemed so simple but the flavors were so
complex and well-developed that it was the best dish (Yes!"Dish") he had ever had. You can just imagine the amount of influence
a Michelin star Chef has on a food enthusiast and writer.
Needless to say this is what caused my excitement, the
thought of authentic Vietnamese noodle soup, and the hope that it would be just
like as Chef Ramsay described it, or at least better than the others I have had
in my lifetime.
Let us get down to brass tacks, and why you are really reading
this article, the food. I ordered 4 dishes on their menu, and sadly,
just like all the restaurants I have been to, they ran out of product and
ingredients, what is baffling and surprising, even borderline upsetting is said
dish was a “best-seller”. That is my
first “con” for Ba Nois or for any restaurant for that matter.
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GOI XOAI CA KHO
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To start of the meal I ordered their GOI XOAI CA KHO, their
green mango salad with toasted garlic, sweet basil, dried fish, shallots and
garlic, dressed by their nuoc mam house-dressing. On paper, the ingredients used are
appetizing, and would really share a complexity of flavors, savory, sweet, and
sour. Sadly though, the green mango, being
inherently acidic and sour, coupled by the disproportion of the other ingredients,
overpowers and takes over the whole salad that you no longer taste the individual
flavors of the saltiness of the dried fish, the sweetness of the shallots, the
sweetness of the basil, and the garlic as well.
In addition, if their “nuoc mam” is their house dressing/sauce, this
should highlight the dish so that they can promote it into something unique
only them. Unfortunately, with the utter
tartness of the green mango and the inadequacy of the other ingredients, what
should have been a medley of flavors, became a monotonous appetizer of tartness
which is neither refreshing nor cleansing to the palate.
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PHO BO
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For my entrée I had their PHO BO, basically it is beef rice
noodle soup with fresh herbs and spices and a price tag of Php 260.00. As staples go, rice noodle soup is one of
Vietnam’s staple food, the first spice that hit me was the Anise flavor, it
muddled and mouth-washed any other flavor of “herbs and spices” that could have
or would have been in that broth. Slightly salty, and maybe there is just a hint
of that lemon grass but altogether the Anise flavor was overpowering. Theirs is no complexity of flavors in the
dish. The beef does not add anything to
the dish flavor-wise either, it was chewy, and fibrous and pale n color which
tells me that it was merely boiled and overcooked, probably from keeping it in
the pot and reheating it for every order in, which dried it out and ultimately had
lost has all its potential flavor and what you are left with is a bland, boiled
strip of meat.
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PHO HAI SAN
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Next was their seafood rice noodle soup named on their menu
as PHO HAI SAN, it had a mix of Vermicelli noodles, a few pieces of shrimp and
squid and with a tag of Php 260.00. It
was just as good as any ordinary noodle soup that you could have, if I was
being honest, it reminded me of those noodle soups you’d have in any common Chinese
resto, which was disappointing because I wanted to taste something different,
something authentically Vietnamese. What
is even more unsatisfactory was the ratio of seafood to Vermicelli. Seafood dishes are rarely at par with pork or
meat dishes in terms of pricing in restos, since seafood is more expensive the
cost of the dish is higher and therefore you’d expect more protein in the
dish. But this dish is at the same price
as all the others, so I guess you could expect that amount of seafood.
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GA KHO CARL XA
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My final entrée is also my favorite protein, chicken, to be
more specific their GA KHO CARL XA, which is braised chicken slow-cooked in
lemon grass and curry powder, infused with chilies and spring onions. There
is potential in this dish, I am admittedly a curry lover, it is one of my
favorite spices. The chicken being
cooked “low and slow” was in fact fall-off-the-bone tender, and on the first
bite, you immediately get the sweet and earthy flavor of that curry, together
with the lemony fragrance of the lemongrass and the heat of the spring onions
and the chilies was immaculate. I said
the dish had potential, I did not say perfect though, the flavors are in fact there,
and they do hold up well, until the you’re midway into your dish, the chilies
are just overwhelming that they burn thru your palate that now it is more
scolding hot than savory spicy. The heat
becomes to apparent since the chilies were, in fact, not infused with the broth
but chopped and placed on the dish as garnish.
Infusing would mean that you cooked into the braising liquid or sauce
the ingredient to maximize and impart the flavor into the liquid itself.
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GA KHO CARL XA
Photographed By Foodie and the Feasts |
Another issue was the chicken’s skin was not
trimmed out, and we all know chicken skin is fatty and chewy when cooked. While there is flavor in fat, slow-cooked
chicken skin is gummy and not to mention slimy.
Despite these issues, the dish does give out good flavors and the chicken,
since it was braised, and cooked on the bone, retained a lot of its moisture
and flavor.
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BANH DAN LO
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To finish off the meal I tried out a dessert on their menu,
their BANH DAN LO, which translates to a pandan “cake” with mung beans and
drizzled with coconut milk and sesame seeds. No false impressions, it is not a cake of any sort, its texture
resembles your classic gelatin but more viscous and made from mung beans, or to
us Filipnos, it mimics one of our favorite rice cake snacks, known as the “kutsinta”. The nutty flavor of the sesame seeds, and the
sweetness of the coconut milk, adds well to the faint hint of the pandan go
well together.
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BANH DAN LO
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It really cleanses you
palate after a heavy meal of spice and saltiness. However, I would have wanted a little more
pandan flavor infused into it. Also, I think
the “cake” was too firm and thick that even a fork had to fight through it.
There were more lows than highs on this visit and it did
leave me a little disappointed, especially when I am not foreign to Vietnamese
cuisine. Without discounting anything,
if you are truly into food, deserves a first go-around and their menu is, within reason, affordable. However, I would not place
them on the top of the list of “go-to” restos for Vietnamese cuisine.
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| Photographed By Foodie and the Feasts |
Considering the volume of cars parked outside
this quaint and small resto, high expectations should not be far behind, and
with a framed award hung neatly on their wall as “one of the top 180 restos we
love of 2014”, I truly expected and was left wanting more from the meal I had. A classic is always a hard act to follow so
to speak, but if you play your cards just right, it can be magical sometimes incredibly
astounding.
Sadly, Ba Nois has a long way to go in terms of authenticity
and cookery. Authenticity is not about
using the same ingredients or doing it the same way but, rather, it should be
staying true to what made it a classic in the first place and then improving on
it. This holds true when you take that
first bite and immediately you are transported to a specific place where, even
for a brief moment you are reminded of, not only what you are eating, but also
where you are eating it.
If you have any suggestions or comments, even recommendations of places you'd like to know about. Leave me a comment. Thank you for following Foodie and the Feasts
