I got my first taste of Vietnamese beefball noodles at a restaurant called the Vietnam House in California. It isn’t exactly Chinese food but it was close enough to curb my occasional craving for anything that even vaguely resembles the Chinese noodles I used to have back home.

Besides I’m a sucker for rice noodles. Vietnamese rice noodles tend to be flat though (just like linguine) while Chinese rice noodles are thin (just like vermicelli or angel hair pasta). Me, I’m not picky .

Flat noodles tend to have more of a bite so it goes well with a more robust soup like this Vietnamese beef ball soup (above). Lean a little closer and you’ll find this soup has a really strong pungent fragrance from the finely chopped cilantro, spring onions and a bunch of other exotic herbs.

Fresh bean sprouts, a sprig of fresh basil and chopped chillies come on a separate dish to be added to the steaming hot soup for that herbilicious freshness. By adding the bean sprouts just before you dig in, it’ll be lightly blanched to keep its wonderful crunchiness.

You also get three kinds of sauces to go with your noodles at Vietnam Kitchen. The spicy chilly paste on the right side of the little dish is the bit that spices it all up for me. The sweet and chilly sauces on the left of the dish are for dipping the beef balls.

The soup at the Vietnam Kitchen here is way too salty for my liking. Their service is not the friendliest either. Also at our last visit, we noticed they had new menus which can only mean they’ve increased the prices. They’ve also upgraded their crockery and changed some of the items on the menu.

Even though we’re regulars and they know we usually order one of the other set meals, the waitress served us the ala carte instead and charged us the ala carte price as per their new menu. Kinda makes you wonder if that’s how they really want to be treating their regular customers, eh?

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