Bliss on a Plate & Pumpkin Patch

I was dead tired after a hard workout and on the drive home my stomach started telling me to get some food. Justyn and I drove to a nearby strip mall intending on getting some banh mi sammiches but apparently the place he was thinking of had closed. By this point I was getting pretty cranky due to what I think was low blood sugar so we went to a pho place in the same shopping center instead. I had really low expectations going in because of the lack of customers. The menu was huge which is normally another bad sign but they had one of my favorite dishes which is boiled chicken with rice. I actually made this dish before: http://jadedskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/09/cooking-hainese-chicken-rice.html. I can tell you from making it that it's harder than it looks.

When I'm this hungry, I have to have something to eat right away so we ordered some spring rolls as well. Justyn ordered some rare steak and well done flank pho.

Just so you know, this place blatantly advertises being a beef pho place..

So I was completely suprised that my chicken dish was SO good. I even told Justyn that this was my new favorite pho place. That's saying a lot since we have so many of these restaurants around our area.

The broth was clear and extremely clean tasting. There was none of that cloying after taste to it at all. I knew right then that we had been going to all the wrong pho places. My chicken was tender and juicy. The sauce it came with was a wonderful balance of sweet, salty and sour. Justyn's pho broth was different but equally as delicious. Oh and the spring rolls? OMG! Crunchy and fresh tasting. It was unlike any other spring roll I had ever had. The sauce it came with wasn't that goopy peanut butter based sauce either. It was light and fresh, close to the sauce my chicken came with but different in flavor.

After what I'd like to call bliss on a plate, we went to the pumpkin patch to finally get our pumpkins. I had been waiting all week to go but earlier this week the rain ruined my mood for going. We picked up two medium sized pumpkins and a baby one. You'll have to stay tuned to see what we do with them ;)