Vietnamese food is one of the Asian cuisines I’ve had the most difficulty growing to like, although I’ll note that I haven’t given it many opportunities.  When I was a kid and my parents would order Vietnamese take-out, I would turn my nose up at it (along with my siblings) and we’d have some other kid-friendly meal.  Back then, though, I think it was more that it was “different” as the only Asian cuisine we ate was Chinese.  (Now I love Thai, Indian, Burmese, Japanese, and Chinese!)

I think part of my “slow-to-like”ness partly stems from the infrequency of Vietnamese restaurant availability (Thai and Indian are so much more mainstream it seems).  Additionally, I fall in the boat of Cilantrophobes – I HATE cilantro. It’s funny how such a small, simple, popular herb can cause so much controversy.  When I searched “cilantro aversion,” Google provided me about 15,000 results! If you’re unfamiliar with the aversion, check out the NYT article I read on it: The Curious Cook.  A lot of cilantro-haters tend to describe its flavor as “soapy” – I’m not sure that’s exactly what my aversion is, though I can’t quite pinpoint it.  All I know is that it makes me nauseous when I eat it and when I smell it.  Oddly, however, sometimes I don’t notice it and other times it knocks me out (perhaps it’s how it’s prepared… the article suggests that ground cilantro is less offending to us cilantrophobes).

Anyway, the cilantro aversion has been a big reason I’ve avoided Vietnamese, but more specifically Pho.  I had one experience with Pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup) in Charlotte and no one warned me ahead of time of all the “green” thrown on the soup, cilantro being one of the main herbs.  Although I picked out most of the green, I couldn’t get past the cilantro taste and pushed my bowl away.

This week, however, I decided to give it another go (I am a big proponent of retrying the foods I dislike as I’ve seen my taste buds “develop” over time).  My friend invited me to the Lemongrass Café on Eastern, advising that the food was great and cheap.  The restaurant appears to have taken over an old diner (like the Silver Diner for my Maryland friends), but the inside has been converted to a very nice Vietnamese theme from the artwork to the colors to the music.

Upon entering around lunch time, we were directed to a booth and began perusing the menu (though my friend knew exactly what he would be getting).  I skimmed the Pho menu with a bit of trepidation but decided on a dish that was recommended.  I noted that the menu showed a dish on the side that contained the herbs and that made me feel a bit more confident that my herbs would be my own to place in the soup.

My friend suggested we order the spring rolls and I’m glad we did.  The menu described them as rice paper rolls with lettuce, bean sprouts (which I tend not to like), rice noodles (which I LOVE), fresh herbs (uh oh! cilantro?), shrimp and pork with a peanut sauce on the side.  These were wonderful! Very fresh and flavorful with a very hidden amount of cilantro which didn’t take away from the rest of the dish.

Just as we were finishing our spring rolls, our pho was served.  I went with the Pho Ga or the Chicken Pho which is beef noodle soup with rice noodles and skinless, boneless grilled chicken.  In the bowl, there was also onions (red and green) and some cilantro.  Luckily, though I was able to pick out a bunch of the green onion and cilantro (not a fan of green onion either).  I only had one bite/soup spoon that had a taste of cilantro in it so this dish was a win for me!

Once the dish of “herbs” was on the table, I was quite happy they served it in that way so I could avoid everything on the plate The lemon might have been nice (and I did mean to put Sriracha in and forgot!), but the soup itself hit the spot.

In general, the service was pretty good.  Our waiter was attentive, but not overly so and the food came out quickly, which was appreciated due to a limited time frame for lunch during the work week.  The food was excellent and cheap ($7 for the giant soup, which was the “small”).  I look forward to going back and hopefully expanding my Vietnamese palate!