Pho Viet Cali

Lunch report... Pho Viet Cali is on the regular rotation. The Mira Mesa eatery is conveniently located in a hotbed of tech and biotech companies. It's packed for lunch, so the best time is to go before or after 12pm. I wouldn't call it the best Vietnamese I've ever had, but it's not bad. Their pho is middling and the broken rice dishes (com tam) are decent. Service-wise, they're excellent. I usually get the com tam cha bo nuong, which is grilled beef slices flavored with lemongrass and garlic, a piece of a quiche-esque pork casserole, and rice. It's garnished with fresh and pickled veggies. Yum.

Broken rice stemmed from the days when people would take the broken, unsellable rice grains and use them for their own meals. I've seen bags of broken rice at 99 Ranch, so I take that it's turned one of those "let's not waste anything" practices to a dish in its own right. That's pretty awesome. Anyway, there's nothing quite like rice and meat drizzled with fish sauce.