Nocsta and Friends: Food Adventure take you this time to yet another Asian Cuisine, to Vietnamese Food to be precisely. This time was with two lovely ladies, who I had met during my student days. In the past we got together multiple times to have sushi or korean food. It was the time when we were the early-adopters of the now mainstream sushi and korean food.

The ladies and I have decided to meet up on 14th of Jan at Amsterdam Central. That day was a rainy day like buckets pouring out of the sky. Normally I would have been more prepared and on time, but this time I made the ladies wait. :s I was fifteen minutes late, supposed to meet them at 19:00. We greeted in a quickly and were heading off in the rain to Taste of Vietnam at Herenstraat 28c. The girls were starved after a long day of work and I was ready to taste Vietnam as well.

Walking through the Jordaan in the city center of Amsterdam, I noticed a lot of shops and restaurants. the Jordaan a neighbourhood that I still need to explore.. It was dark, cold and wet so, we hurried to the place. In the far we saw the signpost of the restaurant, we quickly entered into a warm, light and bright restaurant. Upon entering we were lead to our table by the two employees. The restaurant was hosted by a guy and a girl, (the girl was kinda cute.)

While seating we ordered some drinks, ice tea for the two ladies and I just stick it to water. My friends were hungry so we took a look at the menu and ordered an entree to begin with.

The three entree’s were a shrimp roll, fried shrimps and a beef roll. We decided to share the entree’s, to have a taste of each dish. The first dish is the shrimp roll with veggies, shrimps and vermicelli inside, on the sides are three dipping sauce, peanut sauce, sweet and sour vinegar and Hoi sin sauce. The shrimp roll definitely needed the sauce to give it a flavourful taste.
The second is a deep-fried prawn wrapped in a crunchy skin, accompanied by a sweet and sour chili. Nothing special, but always nice to have a crunchy fried prawn.
The third is similar to the first roll, however it had more flavour to it with out the sauce. The beef in it was seasoned well and it was the better one of the two rolls.

On to the main dish, all three of us had chosen for a beef Phô. It tasted great, but the soup was a bit oily and not as clear as some other I had. I expected the noodles of the Phô to be bit thinner, but at least it wasn’t a thick rice noodles that was sticky and starchy. The ladies and I quickly devoured our foods and talked about how everyone is doing. The two were both happy in life, one was married and the other was engaged to be married by the end of this year.

It was fun meeting the girls again, I have not seen them for a long time. The food was nice, the service was good and the atmosphere of the place was great.

Try this place out and see for yourself the Taste of Vietnam.