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Homemade Vietnamese Sandwich with Grilled Chicken

I really love Vietnamese Submarines, and these days, it seems to be hard to find some in the city – for a reasonable price. I had to make a few modifications as I didn’t have all the ingredients, but the sandwich sure tasted great!

Ingredients:
1 French Roll or similar bun (crusty outside, soft inside)
1 chicken breast or 2 chicken thighs (boneless and skinless)
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 or 2 slices of cucumbers
cilantro
pickled carrots
chili pepper (optional)
onions
soy sauce
fish sauce
white soft cheese (I use mozzarella cheese)

To make this, I actually made my own pickled carrots, which is really simple to do. Some people have a mixture of pickled daikon and carrots, but I opted for just carrots as that’s the way I’m use to! If you’re making it, make this step at least an hour ahead of time.

Pan sear the chicken thigh or breast with some oil, salt and pepper. Once it’s cooked, take off the stove and let it rest.

In the mean time, cut your bun, spread one side with mayonnaise and the other side with a few shakes of soy sauce and fish sauce, and salt and pepper.

Place the meat on the bun, and top it with some cheese and bake until the cheese melts in a 350F oven, which takes a few minutes. Then, take the submarine out of the oven, and top it off with the pickled carrots, cilantro and other fresh vegetables. (I usually don’t put the raw onions on as I’m worried about onion breath at work – if I’m having this for lunch) Put the top of the sandwich on and you’re ready to enjoy!

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Pho Taurus – Calgary, Alberta

We really like Vietnamese cuisine, not only are they filling, but they usually are very reasonable in prices – especially when you can find a location that is really delicious! We’ve been going to Pho Taurus for a few years now, and we stopped with a 2 year period in between… and in which they’ve renovated the place and the food it seems.

I love their appetizers especially their Roasted Quail dish! It comes in a plate with 2 quails, and they are always perfectly cooked and tastes delicious! The skin is always crispy and the meat remains juicy. They are something I always get from Pho Taurus and I still love it! And, of course when you visit a Vietnamese restaurant, you always have to order their Vietnamese Spring Roll and these come in a plate of 4 crispy fried spring rolls filled with ground pork, chicken & vegetable

For the actual meal, I like to get the Rare Beef with Beef Balls Noodle Soup which seems to be my trend, while my husband just gets the Rare Beef Noodle Soup which is the same thing without the beef balls. Usually, this place makes these bowls of pho packed with flavour, but this time, it seemed quite watered down. We don’t normally stock up on tons of Hoisin Sauce and Srichacha Sauce but this time we weren’t left with any choice but to do so…

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As Pho Taurus was once my favourite locations back in 2008/09 and suddenly upon returning, it was quite disappointing that the soup was watered down so badly we didn’t know what to do with our noodle soups. Hopefully it’s a phase they’ll soon recover from.

Pho Taurus

#311-500 Country Hills Blvd NE
Calgary, AB T3K5G9
(403) 567-1228

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The Noodle Bus – Food Truck Calgary

One of Calgary’s newest Street Food would be The Noodle Bus which is a food truck with Vietnamese cuisine on-board! This truck is wonderful, fast and delicious as it offers great quality food at reasonable price — really quickly! It’s actually faster to get food from The Noodle Bus than it is to order and wait at the food court.

We tried a few things just to get a good sample of the food. The first thing we ordered was the Lemongrass Chicken Skewer and it came in a little tray of 3 skewers covered in sauce. The sauce was really good, but it seems like they put a little too much alcohol which was weird as normally they don’t have alcohol in lemongrass chicken… but, regardless, the taste wasn’t bad, just a little off! And, it’s okay to me, as they just opened up less than a week. As for the lemon grass flavour, that we definitely there and I enjoyed my skewers! It got a little messy to eat as the chicken didn’t slide off the skewers, but that’s why I got paper napkins!

We had an appetizer which was the Springrolls and it came in a tray of 3 springrolls. These were gems as we loved it! Even though it was cold out, it stayed hot forever! It was really crispy on the outside and the inside was packed with goodness!! It is one of the best fried springrolls I’ve had in awhile, and I’m so excited to say it was off a food truck! What are others doing!? Oh well.

Finally, we had a Beef Noodle Soup and we didn’t do the Satay flavour. I think the soup was prepared for customers to order it with the satay sauce, so I found the soup to be lacking in some salt. This does make sense, otherwise when you do order it with Satay, it would be way too salty. It was alright anyway, because we poured the rest of the fish sauce from the spring roll in and turn the bowl of noodles to extra-delicious! The saltiness from the fish sauce was really all it was needing! The bowl of noodles was very large in size and probably bigger than some local restaurants that charge more for it!

This was a wonderful truck, and I think it will do well – in any season as it can warm you up with their selection of hot food, or cool you down with refreshing vermicelli bowls. I’m sure I’ll be returning when we cross paths with the food trucks again! I love the food truck community! 🙂

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Colonial Fusion Cuisine – Calgary, Alberta

We drove by Quarry Park randomly and saw Colonial Fusion Cuisine and immediately we knew it was a location we wanted to try. We were excited about fusion restaurants as we always hear about them, yet we never go in to try. The fusion was a mix between Vietnamese plus Thai and some French, which is kind of awkward if you think about it – but they seem to make it work with subtle modifications to traditional Vietnamese recipes for most items on the menu.

We started the evening with Mango Salad Rolls which takes a spin off your regular Vietnamese Salad rolls, as the rice papers are stuffed with mango, prawns, vermicelli, vegetables and herbs. It also comes with a coconut hoisin sauce to dip. This starter is really different as you do taste the mango, but it is a delicious combination of mangoes into the traditional rolls. I actually didn’t taste any coconut in the dipping sauce, so the coconut taste was really subtle against the mango. It is really light and refreshing appetizer.

For the main course, I ordered Caramelized Salmon – salmon with fish sauce and jalapenos, severed with rice and vegetables. The salmon was cooked perfectly, and it tasted so good, I ended up just eating the entire piece of salmon! 🙂 It had the perfect amount of heat and sweetness what was really special!! Great flavours, and great dish altogether!

We ordered the Mahogany Quail which is quail glazed in honey, garlic, onions, coconut juice and served with coconut rice. This dish was quite far from ordinary, which was really special! the quail was chopped into quarters, and smothered in their honey garlic sauce, with sauteed onions! This dish, you definitely had to eat with your hands, and the waitress realized that and brought us a bowl of water, with a beautiful flower floating in the bowl for us to wash our hands. The rice and the sauce that was eaten afterwards went in perfect harmony as well!! In more traditional Vietnamese locations, the quail would just be deep-fried so it’s crispy. Their spin here was the sauce which was really delicious!

Curry Stir-Fry with Chicken and vegetables served with rice was the last entree that we had, and it was really flavourful. The bowl of curry was really large, and it wasn’t filled with all sauce. It almost seemed like the pile of rice was too small for the amount of curry that was given! The chicken was tender and juicy, and had great flavours of curry, and a hint of ginger.

We ended our night with Iced Coffee which was really different than the traditional iced coffee. In my optional, in this case, I prefer the normal iced coffee. This glass was filled with ice, and it didn’t have sweet condensed milk, which is what I like!

We ordered dessert, a Mango Creme brulee which was your typical creme brulee, but with mango puree. I can’t say that I would get this dessert again, as it wasn’t a nice brulee texture. It wasn’t smooth, creamy and thick. It was like a pudding with a sugar topping, instead of a custard. They probably put too much milk or cream in, but it tasted a lot like mangoes! 🙂

Overall, this is a very fancy Vietnamese restaurant, and the seating, ambiance and quality of food was really good. The price tag to the dishes seemed a little high for what it is, but we had a wonderful experience. In actuality, I’m undecided if I will return! Go figure…

Colonial Fusion Cuisine

163 Quarry Park Blvd. SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 723-6669

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Thi Thi Vietnamese Submarine

I’ve been going to Thi Thi Vietnamese Submarine for about 11 years now, of course with about 7 years in between when we stopped going – as we weren’t going to Chinatown as much. We went back, and there’s still a line up outside — just as we remembered the good old days! It’s the same owner and his wife, and now with someone else as well. The line does seem to move faster, no matter how big of an order ahead of us placed. It is often that a representative from a company or something would put in a huge order of 10+ subs right in front of you! Everyone knows this is a great place to go if you’re willing to wait outside.

The prices are still very reasonable and competitive to other submarine locations, Vietnamese subs or not. I got my peppered chicken for $6.50, which seems less than I recalled, which is a good thing!

I had the Peppered Chicken which has always been my all time favourite from Thi Thi. Yes, the amount of chicken has seemed to reduce, and it’s not nearly as peppery as it use to be. But it still tastes wonderful!! The pickled carrots are really tasty unlike some other Vietnamese locations that seem to just use normal matchstick carrots. The sauce was really tasty, the meat was tender and juicy!

The subs from Thi Thi quite big and full of flavor!! The bun is toasted nicely, crispy on the outside, but still soft in the inside. The cheese is melted perfectly! I don’t know how they do it, but they sure mastered the art of Vietnamese submarines.

I think over so many years, this place hasn’t changed, and it’s a great thing! I will be back, and hopefully it won’t take me another 5 years to return! 🙂 This location is a take-out only location, and cash only! Such a small & great place!

Thi Thi Vietnamese Submarine

209 1st St SE
Calgary, AB T2G2G3
(403) 265-5452