January 23rd 2014: Lunch and Dinner with a Friend in Worcester

My friend from NYC came to town to visit yesterday night, so I decided to take a break from work to have lunch with him, at Pho Dakao in Worcester.

This time, I decided to try the Bo 7 Mon (Seven Courses of Beef), since my friend had never had it before. Unfortunately, they had run out of Bo La Lot (Leaf Wrapped Beef Skewers), so we decided to get an extra portion of Bo Nuong Vi (Beef Fried in Butter) instead.

 The other dishes included in the meal were the Tai Chanh (Rare Steak marinated with Lemon),

the Bo Lui (Beef Skewers Marinated with Lemongrass),

the Bo Nhung Dam (Beef Boiled in Vinegar),

the Cha Dum (Steamed Ground Beef with Lemongrass)

and the Chao Bo (Beef Rice Soup).

Of the dishes, the meatball was disappointingly bland, while the vinegar beef tasted a bit weird totally due to the pineapple in the pot. The rare beef was excellent, while we managed to put so much butter on the hot plate that it actually got set on fire. It gave the butter a burnt taste after that and basically killed the dish. Thankfully, we only had one more piece of beef to cook. Overall, an excellent meal once again.

After lunch, I still had some work to do, and as my friend wanted to hang around, I decided to give him a tour of my office, and after my work was done, we headed to the Showcase Cinemas Worcester North to watch the movie "Lone Survivor", which is based on a true story about a failed U.S. marine mission to kill a Taliban terrorist in Afghanistan, where only one marine managed to make it out alive, though just barely. Pretty good movie, although it was a little boring for my friend.

We headed to dinner next. My friend wanted Japanese, so I decided to take him to Kenichi Bistro in town, which I have been to once. My friend wanted something to help with the frigid cold, so he got the only noodle soup dish on the menu, the Nabeyaki Udon (Thick udon noodles served in a light fish broth w. shrimp tempura, chicken, vegetables and topped with an egg in hot pot),

while I got only the Mirai Maki (Tuna tempura, cucumber, Japanese hot chili, topped with tuna, shrimp and mango), as I was feeling a little nauseous after the movie.

My friend's noodles were actually pretty good, although I was totally disappointed with mine, as the tuna was so cooked that it was dry, and pretty much spoilt the rest of the roll for me.

Definitely not bringing my friends back to this place again. With that, my friend dropped me off and headed back to NYC. It was nice having him here these 2 days.