Hole in the Wall

Hidden treasure in the big city One thing that all people can relate to is the love for wonderful food. You never see people not wanting to share a great dining experience with friends, family, or the world through social websites. In every person you see the excitement of trying new foods and restaurants. We have all had that perfect dining experiences that have made an imprint on our lives. Well what I want to share with you is a place that is hidden within the growing metro of Magmata in an unlikely place.This little place is a hole in the wall restaurant allied Baa Not, this little restaurant strives to deliver an authentic Vietnamese experience to their customers in the big city of Magmata. Let me go into the history of Baa Non briefly. As explained by the owner, this restaurant is being managed by two men a Filipino and a Vietnamese, who got all the dishes from his grandmother. Which also became the name since Baa Non meaner grandmother in the father's side in Vietnamese. Baa N on puts pride that they serve some of the best authentic Vietnamese food in manila.Well enough about the history, let's get down to business, I know what you all want o hear. Let's talk about the FOOD. Well in total I tried nine different dishes each with its own individual flavor that stood out from the rest. First off the bat would be the Pooh Boo which is a homemade beef noodle soup with spices and fresh herbs. The broth was tasty without being overpowering that would normally overpower the flavors of the spices and the fresh herbs but this was not the case you could taste every flavor in the dish.The balance of the dish is worth mentioning since you rarely get such good beef noodles which is not overpowering in taste. What also interested e was the fact that in the menu, there was a guide on how to eat the dish. First, you need to squeeze the lime on your pooh then add the bean sprouts and the basil after that, put the chili depending on your taste and finally, add the black bea n paste and stir or mix it. We decided to try the two kinds of spring rolls they had to offer, it was Go Con and Chaw Gig and the difference between the two is that Go Con was a fresh spring roll while the Chaw Gig was fried spring roll.Go Con is made of pork, shrimp and vermicelli attractively rolled in rice paper served with their famous meant sauce which I think was a marvelous peanut sauce. It had lots of flavor and also was not to thick a great accompaniment to the Go Con . The Chaw Gig is a mixture of ground pork, shrimp, taro, and black fungus wrapped and deep fried and served with fresh greens and traditional NCO AMA dipping sauce. Between the two spring rolls I have to put my money on the Go Con which was very well balanced and add that with the peanut sauce, you are asking for a recipe for success.We had four main dishes for our meal. We chose all the house-favorites/recommendations. The first of the dish was the Boo Luck Lack stir-fried spiced beef served with fried basil . The beef was cooked medium rare with sesame seeds and the beef had a good flavor and when eaten with the fried basil it blends since the basil was fried the intense flavor was mellowed to allow a good combination with the beef. The owner told us meat could not meet the standards of the owners.The second dish was the Ga Among which is grilled chicken in rich lemongrass marinade. The grilling of the chicken was amazing it was moist but also tasty and the taste of the lemon grass was intense which gave it a nice flavor. The third is had Soon Mongo Xa, pork rabbets flavored with their special lemongrass fusion, pan-fried and served with soy-chili sauce. This dish was a tad plain but I still got the good fusion of flavors but it was not strong enough to compare to the other two dishes I tried earlier.The That Hoe KHz Truing is a sweet-savory dish of pork and egg simmered in coconut Juice this dish I think was a mistake to order. It was very salty and didn't fit with all the other dishe s we ordered. The main course was good overall with three hits and a miss. We had Ban Dan Loon for our dessert. This dessert made everything worthwhile; the dish is eke a mixture of Spain-Spain and stating but with a filling in the middle topped with a coconut cream and sesame seeds.The dish was sweet but not too sweet to make you forget all the other flavors you had during your meal. I think this is one of the highlights of our dining experience. For the drink I had their new Vietnamese Blended Mocha which is not yet in their menu since the owner is still testing it out and is looking for feedback from guest before placing it on their menu. The flavor of the strong coffee and the nice sweetness of the chocolate made the drink a big plus n my books. The drink was balanced and very good since that day was quite hot.Well I guess this has to conclude recount of my visit to Baa Not. I will leave you with this, everyone has good dining experiences but it takes a good combination of servi ce and food to make this experience a memorable one and I must say Baa Non has made an impression of me. I for one am confident to call it a hidden treasure. So why not try it yourself to see if what I wrote is true. I bid thee farewell and hope you had as much fun reading as I had recalling and writing this article.