Went to Thien Dang Loving Hut last night. Believe it or not, this was only my second visit to this LH branch, and ever since I heard that they added pho to their menu, I'd been meaning to return! I looove pho from the bottom of my heart and I still get cravings for the amazing vegan pho I had at Cali last year, so it's a bit of an understatement to say that I was excited to try Thien Dang's version.
Pho (8,000 won)
So how was it? Hm... it was aiight. Okay, to be honest, it was a bit of a miss for me. I really wanted to like it, but the rice noodles were too thick, bloated, and soft that they kept breaking apart. The soup also wasn't very flavorful and they didn't have hoisin or sriracha sauce on the side to make the pho experience complete. I know I shouldn't expect so much since they're not a specialized pho restaurant, and perhaps my past vegan pho experience has set the bar too high, but still... There was only one lady in the kitchen doing everything from taking orders to cooking, so I think my dish ended up sitting on the counter for some time before serving. Moreover, I think pho noodles really ought to be eaten with rounder plastic chopsticks that won't cut into the noodles the way flat metal chopsticks do. Overall, the whole thing was just a bit awkward to eat. But on a positive note, the veg meat slices were a nice addition and the portion was quite large. And as the only restaurant in Seoul with vegan pho, I gotta give them props. Next time though, I think I'll stick to their rice dishes, or their burger which is juicy delicious. Yunseo and Chris ordered different dishes which they both said they enjoyed.
Yunseo ordered the Tomato spaghetti
Chris got the Tom Yum Goong with rice noodles.
the sides
Anywayyy~ After dinner, we ended up hanging out at my place. My first house guests (besides my parents)! Chris offered to hook up my new wireless router for me (I'm technologically-challenged), so while he was busy doing that, I helped Yunseo bake her first ever batch of cookies!
We picked the Cherry Almond Cookies recipe from VCIYCJ which is super easy since they're just drop cookies, but we replaced the cherries with cranberries. The recipe says it yields 2 dozen cookies, but I guess we made ours a little bigger and got 16.
As Yunseo's first cookie-baking experience, she did an awesome job. They turned out delicious!
Slightly firm and crispy on the edges yet chewy and soft on the inside. Chris gave his manly stamp of approval by gobbling down about five cookies.
So yea, what could be better than hanging out with chingus at home, blasting some tunes and baking late-night vegan cookies? Oh, and for the first time in my life, I have wifi in my own home! Wooottt~! Now i can take my laptop outside on the patio and blog from there~~ I've entered the twenty-first century. :)