Hu Tieu Mi Lacay Cholon, Eden Center

[ziv]

I stopped by Hu Tieu Mi Cafe on the far left side of Eden Center last month a time or two, and again last night, excellent signature dish (hu tieu mi) and rather tasty fried cha gio spring rolls as well! The rolls come with a mild nuoc mam which hotted up nicely with a little help from the chili tray. Wrapped in the lettuce with a few extras they went down a treat. The signature dish comes dry or wet and I have usually ordered it as a soup, tho I have had it elsewhere with the soup on the side. The house special comes with 2 or 3 types of pork, a shrimp or two, some beef liver, and a quail egg, plus a crispy cracker with a shrimp fried into it resembling nothing so much as a very tasty trilobite mounted in sedementary rock! But delicious, crispy, perfectly prepared rock, mind you! This month I switched up to the seafood soup with calamari, shrimp and beef liver and it was good, but next week when I go back it will be for the soup with the noodles and pork again. The first time I went it was #7 on the menu and last night it was #23 with the seafood soup being #24 if memory serves, so they may have different numbers for the lunch and dinner menus. But the cafe is named after it so they better get it right and they do. Fairly crowded all three times, and the lady actually seemed to recognize me the last time, or faked it rather convincingly, which was nice. Betweem XO Taste, Huoung Viet and Hu Tieu Mi there are a world of rather good choices relatively nearby in western Arlington/Eastern Falls Church.

[DonRocks]

See also the discussion of Hu Tieu (the food, not the restaurant) here.

[Escoffier]

a crispy cracker with a shrimp fried into it resembling nothing so much as a very tasty trilobite mounted in sedimentary rock! But delicious, crispy, perfectly prepared rock, mind you!

That's shrimp toast (heavily Americanized name for sure) but if you dip them in nuoc mam with lots of chili sauce, nothing better.

[KMango]

I stopped by Hu Tieu Mi Cafe on the far left side of Eden Center last month a time or two, and again last night, excellent signature dish (hu tieu mi) and rather tasty fried cha gio spring rolls as well! The rolls come with a mild nuoc mam which hotted up nicely with a little help from the chili tray. Wrapped in the lettuce with a few extras they went down a treat. The signature dish comes dry or wet and I have usually ordered it as a soup, tho I have had it elsewhere with the soup on the side. The house special comes with 2 or 3 types of pork, a shrimp or two, some beef liver, and a quail egg, plus a crispy cracker with a shrimp fried into it resembling nothing so much as a very tasty trilobite mounted in sedementary rock! But delicious, crispy, perfectly prepared rock, mind you! This month I switched up to the seafood soup with calamari, shrimp and beef liver and it was good, but next week when I go back it will be for the soup with the noodles and pork again. The first time I went it was #7 on the menu and last night it was #23 with the seafood soup being #24 if memory serves, so they may have different numbers for the lunch and dinner menus. But the cafe is named after it so they better get it right and they do. Fairly crowded all three times, and the lady actually seemed to recognize me the last time, or faked it rather convincingly, which was nice. Betweem XO Taste, Huoung Viet and Hu Tieu Mi there are a world of rather good choices relatively nearby in western Arlington/Eastern Falls Church.

Excellent details, thanks for this post.

[DonRocks]

Fairly crowded all three times, and the lady actually seemed to recognize me the last time, or faked it rather convincingly, which was nice.

It wasn't crowded this morning at 9:30.

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ETA - Nor were they out of MSG.

Edited January 28, 2010 by DonRocks

[Toogs]

So this place has mi lacay in the name. The wheaton one is named mi la cay. So it must mean something specific. I feel compelled to get to the bottom of this!

[finecognac]

I think "mi" means "egg noodle" and "lacay" means "soup." ("Hu tieu" means "rice noodle.")

Speaking of noodles, I wonder how Greg Oden's (*) week is going (probably better than John Edwards').

(*) Get it? Noodle? Oden? Wo[n]ton?

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ETA - "You fucked up. You trusted us." -- Otter

I think Lacay either was the name of the the area or a famous noodle house within a Chinese enclave ( Cholon) in Saigon. I incline to think the earlier.

Hu tieu is the broth which can be used with either rice noodle (Pho noodle) or tapioca noode ( Hu Tieu Dai-dai means chewy).

When a dish is referred to a area, it indicates what kind of tradition that dish is based on. Hu Tieu My Tho should be made according to the My Tho tradition with southern Vietnam and Cambode influence ( clearer broth) as opposed to Lacay which is more of Chinese influence ( broth is similar to Chinese noodle house).

[anhdeluxe]

I can do a literal translation -

Mi means any kind of noodle (which is confusing because pho, which looks like a noodle is called banh pho (banh also means cake) and is not called mi pho)

However Hu Tieu can refer to the clear chewy noodle itself or the cooked dish which can also be served with or without broth, as in a dry dish.

La Cay means leaves of a tree.

Cho Lon is a district in Saigon that is a big Chinese-centric marketplace.

I just went to this place in Eden Center because I was craving hu tieu with the clear chewy noodles. I had gone to other Vietnamese places (Ba Le in Falls Church for one) and I realized that I wasn't ordering it right! You have to specify that you want the clear chewy noodles otherwise you'll get pho flat rice noodles, and to me, that just ain't right. I ordered the Hu Tieu Dac Biet (which translates to hu tieu deluxe) and it came with both tender, scored squid tubes, three huge shrimp, slices of char siu pork, ground pork, a slice of beef or pork liver, a quail egg, a mysterious but tasty meatball, a slice of fishcake, a few leaves of lettuce and bok choy, fried shallots, and a really lovely shrimp toast to dip into the chicken broth or nuoc mam.

I loved it. I am going all the time now. Be warned that they close at 9:30 and stop serving after 9 pm. My friend had the duck noodles and it was also really good - different broth, richer and darker. She got a whole quarter duck leg in her bowl!

It was 8 bucks and change for each bowl. Cash only.

[BklynBoy]

After reading this thread this morning, I realized that unbeknownst to me I had hu tieu a few weeks ago in NYC in Chinatown. Not having eaten in Chinatown many times in the past 10 years, I was surprised at the number of Vietnamese restaurants there now, but I was in the mood for Chinese noodle soup and, as I usually do, found a place with lots of ducks, pigs and chickens in the windows and no round eyes to be seen. To my surprise, when I got inside and looked at the menu, I saw that it was not Hong Kong style but Vietnamese. I ordered what turned out to be one of the best bowls of noodle soup I ever had. The soup had clear noodles and lots of pork parts, plus fish cake, shrimp and other goodies. It did not have the fabulous shrimp toast described above

Guess where I went for lunch today :-) The soup at Hu Tieu Mi was as good as the one I had in NY. This place is a keeper! I had the Hu Tieu Mi and Cha Gio, and brought home an order of the duck soup for my wife. The duck soup was also terrific mmmm!

[weinoo]

After reading this thread this morning, I realized that unbeknownst to me I had hu tieu a few weeks ago in NYC in Chinatown. Not having eaten in Chinatown many times in the past 10 years, I was surprised at the number of Vietnamese restaurants there now, but I was in the mood for Chinese noodle soup and, as I usually do, found a place with lots of ducks, pigs and chickens in the windows and no round eyes to be seen. To my surprise, when I got inside and looked at the menu, I saw that it was not Hong Kong style but Vietnamese. I ordered what turned out to be one of the best bowls of noodle soup I ever had. The soup had clear noodles and lots of pork parts, plus fish cake, shrimp and other goodies. It did not have the fabulous shrimp toast described above

Guess where I went for lunch today :-) The soup at Hu Tieu Mi was as good as the one I had in NY. This place is a keeper! I had the Hu Tieu Mi and Cha Gio, and brought home an order of the duck soup for my wife. The duck soup was also terrific mmmm!

What was the place in NY called? Or address?

[BklynBoy]

What was the place in NY called? Or address?

Bo Ky at 80 Bayard Street. I think they are Viet-Chiu (Chinese ethnic Vietnamese) and the food is a combination of Chinese and Vietnamese

[Ericandblueboy]

Went there for lunch yesterday. I ordered from the Hu Tieu section but ended up with an egg noodle soup dish. To be honest, I'm not a fan of the broth (supposedly pork and chicken based) - it's mild compared to pho or bun bo hue, not very rich at all. The shrimp in there has no flavor so after trying one, I left the rest behind. I can't say that I enjoyed any of the protein in the bowl. What I did like were the tons of chives in the soup. I also ordered some curried goat with bread (having read they do it well). I didn't take a picture until I ate most of the goat, but you can still see the broth, which is a bit oily, a little spicy, and a little sweat. The goat was served with quite a bit of skin. This joint is cash only and they speak a little English. I really wanted to try the glass noodles and I have no idea why my dish came with egg noodles. According to one Yelper, the owner of Hu Tieu Mi Lacay is the owner of Hai Ky Mi Gia's sibling. They both use to run Hai Ky Mi Gia until one sibling opened up Hu Tieu Mi Lacay in competition with Hai Ky Mi Gia. For this type of Vietnamese/Chinese cuisine, I also recommend Pho Sate, which is on Graham Rd.