Ah, it was such a nice birthday weekend. Where to start.... hmmm, the highlights? Kyle came by on Friday to show us his sweet new bike. That night we went out for tofu soon at an old Korean haunt (had been ages since our last visit). Their English and our Korean is limited at best but we all speak Foodish. Saturday we walked and lazed around before going out for Ethiopian that night. SUNDAY was grand. Started with homemade lattes and our favorite Santa Rosa hens' eggs on toast... followed by truffles from my SLO peeps (my faves were mixes of fruit and spice like cherry-chipotle and apricot-habanero). Mother nature was putting on a show outside (good luck, LA marathoners). Just past midday, I was jonesing for pho ga so went yelping. Amid the Thai listings (??), found a place with three main menu items. Stands to reason they must be quite good at those three offerings. So we braved crazy road conditions to seek out this little Vietnamese place tucked into a corner of China town obscured by fried-food and shark-fin vendors. Ooo la la - what a find. Delectable home-made rice noodles with chicken soup, rice crepes with pork, lemonade and iced coffee. Northern Vietnamese pho ga is quite different from what we most often find in these parts. There is a lemon-ginger dipping sauce on the side for your chicken. If your constitution needs a healthful heat boost, you can pour it into your soup. This is not your plum/chili-spiked concoction. Instead, it's about a carefully developed balance of flavors and temperatures to tickle the palate and stimulants to detox/boost the body (lemon, ginger, mint, hint of pepper). After that rejuvenating experience, we strolled the stormy streets of C-town then moved on to Echo Lake for a full lap. Not that Echo Lake is big but the gusts and showers made for a big adventure and a wet ride home. Maybe next year calls for an around-the-world adventure but this year's small weekend celebration was wholly satisfying.
