incite wrote:Like everyone else in this thread, I shared a dinner with Laikom and a few others Wednesday night.

Pretty sure I would have remembered that.

incite wrote:
Chicken, livers, and egg, though the jury is still out on the exact story there. Hopefully Laikom can explain this a bit better...

The consensus was, and I think it is accurate, that those are under developed eggs which are found inside the chickens when slaughtered. This makes sense considering the chickens come live from next door.

how did they taste?

AlekH wrote:how did they taste?

The flavor was very much like an egg yolk, perhaps a bit more chicken flavor (maybe that was just that it was steamed with the chicken). It had a silkier, less powdery texture than a normal yolk. There was also an edible casing-like skin on it that snapped open as you bit into it.

New Asia gets some press!

"The secret weapon at New Asia? Freshly slaughtered chickens"

It is a very nice feature article about New Asia written by Mike Sula for The Reader.

The folks at Aden Live Poultry, who supply the New Asia Restaurant, are awfully nice people. Yesterday, a laying hen managed to get loose while they were receiving their delivery. By the time they could come to my front yard to retrieve their bird, one of the neighborhood kids had caught it and asked "can I keep it?" The delivery driver and the man from Aden looked at each other and said "sure".

Aden Live Poultry
2731 W. Lawrence Ave
Chicago IL 60625
773-506-0169

I was fortunate enough to have lunch yesterday with other LTHers.

I truly enjoyed each and every dish:

salt & pepper smelt
ribs in clay pot
goi ga
Rau Muong Xao Chao stir fried tong choy
oxtail pho
beef with mustard greens

The standouts for me being Rau Muong Xao Chao stir fried tong choy, Goi Ga (that chicken was amazing),
and beef with mustard greens.

mrsm wrote:The folks at Aden Live Poultry, who supply the New Asia Restaurant, are awfully nice people. Yesterday, a laying hen managed to get loose while they were receiving their delivery. By the time they could come to my front yard to retrieve their bird, one of the neighborhood kids had caught it and asked "can I keep it?" The delivery driver and the man from Aden looked at each other and said "sure".

Aden Live Poultry
2731 W. Lawrence Ave
Chicago IL 60625
773-506-0169

Why do I think that bird was probably escorted back to the store once the boy got it home...

laikom wrote:The consensus was, and I think it is accurate, that those are under developed eggs which are found inside the chickens when slaughtered. This makes sense considering the chickens come live from next door.

Yep: trung non (young egg).

I tried the pho ga the other day and I'd say it was one of the best versions in town - definitely better than Tank's. It came down to the broth which had a very nice flavor and just enough surface fat to coat the lips. I ordered it with the bone-in chicken and I'll admit I wouldn't do that again. It was just so difficult to eat the chicken the way it was cut. We're not talking wings, thighs, etc., but rather parts and small ones at that. By the end of the meal, I looked like I had barely survived Hurricane Pho.

As for this chewy chicken, I can see where it might be a little rough on the jaw if you have a lot of it (much chewing required), but I'll take it any day over the water-logged chickens served at so many other places.

laikom wrote:

incite wrote:
Chicken, livers, and egg, though the jury is still out on the exact story there. Hopefully Laikom can explain this a bit better...

The consensus was, and I think it is accurate, that those are under developed eggs which are found inside the chickens when slaughtered. This makes sense considering the chickens come live from next door.

This dish looks amazing. Is it the Vietnamese analogue to Hainanese Chicken? Was there also sauce on the side? Rice?

I'm really excited about trying this place. I practically grew up on Aden's chicken. Nearly every saturday I drove my grandma up there for half a dozen chickens, of which I would take half home. Nice proprietors.

I believe this is supposed to be the analogue to Hainanese Chicken, but for some reason (I think a communication error while asking about the rice, she though we were asking for it without?) we did not receive the rice which was supposed to come with it, and no sauce either which I'm not sure was supposed to come with it, so it wasn't very much like chicken rice. It was a bit bland without the rice or sauce, and while in this serving method I wouldn't order it often, I will go get it again soon to see what the rice is like. Between this and the Goi Ga, I would much prefer the Goi Ga, which is a not to be missed item, IMO.

On the subject of Pho, I probably said this before... I really enjoy the Oxtail Pho a lot. It is extremely rich and hearty, light on the sweet spices, and very different from any others around town. It didn't take long for it to surpass all others to become my favorite in the city.

We had lunch yesterday.
Beef with mustard greens, stir fried rabbit and chicken wings.
Warm Heineken over ice with peanuts.
Best Vietnamese food I have eaten and the rabbit was one of the best dishes I have ever eaten anywhere. The tofu skins are a nice addition.
Sourcing the rabbit from New Aden per the referenced article, explains the quality of the rabbit.
Most rabbit found today is from China.
Anyway, avoid Lawrence east of the location because the street in under construction unless you are an off roader. I thin we lost a wheel weight on the XC70!-Dick

Except for one patch in the westbound lane of Lawrence at Rockwell, all of the construction is part of the streetscaping project east of Western Avenue. Work from Western to the Chicago River is scheduled for 2015.

Four of us enjoyed our first meal at New Asia last night very much. The food was excellent, and the service was warm and efficient despite limited English. None of us is at all an expert in Vietnamese cuisine, and based on our experience, I would tell other newbies that this is a fine place to try the food.

Based on the recommendations in this thread and in Mike Sula's article, we had Pho Ga Chat (or whichever is the no bone chicken), which had deep chicken taste and, yes, an awful lot of rice noodles that they helpfully cut with a ready pair of scissors when we asked since we were sharing a large bowl. We loved the beef with pickled mustard greens (written as "beef sour mustarf picled" on the menu). Slightly sweet, very tender beef with onions and the tangy pickled greens--what's not to love? We also very much enjoyed stir-fried tong choy with tofu. The cubed tofu seemed to be deep-fried and was delicious, and the greens were just tender and full of garlic. The simmered pork ribs were also very good, mildly and just slightly sweetly spiced. And, of course, we had to try the Goi Ga. We thought it was delicious. The chicken was chewier than we are used to, but it was moist and had real flavor. We obviously ordered a lot of food but we ate every bit! My brother and SIL, with whom we ate, live 2 blocks away, and I know they're going to be regulars. We are all looking forward to trying more of the large menu.

laikom wrote:On the subject of Pho, I probably said this before... I really enjoy the Oxtail Pho a lot. It is extremely rich and hearty, light on the sweet spices, and very different from any others around town. It didn't take long for it to surpass all others to become my favorite in the city.

Quick solo lunch of New Asia ox tail pho. Deep flavored rich silky broth, plentiful belly filling rice noodle, crunchy counterpoint of fresh veg and lime, 1/2-inch cut ox tail providing easy gnawing access to long simmered flesh, soft cartilage and marrow filled nooks and crannies.

Terrific bowl of pho, especially coupled with a not so judicious dollop or three of house made chili oil.

G Wiv wrote:Quick solo lunch of New Asia ox tail pho. Deep flavored rich silky broth, plentiful belly filling rice noodle, crunchy counterpoint of fresh veg and lime, 1/2-inch cut ox tail providing easy gnawing access to long simmered flesh, soft cartilage and marrow filled nooks and crannies.

Terrific bowl of pho, especially coupled with a not so judicious dollop or three of house made chili oil.

Posted above in September, probably had New Asia's ox tail or mixed meat pho 10-12 times since. I also dig the thin crispy meat filled egg rolls.

New Asia Ox Tail Pho



New Asia, count me a Fan!

There are a lot posts on this thread from folks whose opinions I usually agree with but we're going to have to part ways over this one. I stopped in last week and was not very impressed with the food or the (lack of) hospitality.

Let me start by saying I didn't like the mean lady who works there. We arrived at 9:27 and she told us they were closed. Since the hours posted on their door (and on their menu and told to me when I'd called) indicate that they are open until 10:00, my companion had to plead with her to let us stay. She did but then treated us pretty annoyingly by hovering over us, glaring at us and never leaving the table until we ordered. At least we already knew a couple of dishes we wanted to try -- and we ordered those. As for perusing the rest of the rather large menu, that was clearly not going to be possible, so we quickly ordered a couple of other dishes and hoped for the best . . .


Oxtail Pho (#23)
We read about this here and some friends also mentioned liking it. I thought it was the best thing we ordered and it wasn't that great. The broth was fine but not very aromatic -- tasted more like plain old beef broth than pho to me. The oxtails were mostly very tough with a few tender ones thrown in too. The uneven way these had been cooked did not give me any confidence about having ordered this dish. And fwiw, the noodles were quite mushy, too.



Goi Ga (#72)
A lot's been written about this dish on this thread, so we knew we wanted to try it. One might even call it a polarizing dish. I guess I'm somewhere in the middle on it. The chewiness of the chicken didn't bother me at all but still, I didn't really like it. The textures of all the ingredients created a nice variation but the flavors seemed muted and one dimensional to me. Basically, it was sweet, chewy chicken salad that I cannot envision ever wanting to eat again.



Lemon'd Beef (#78)
Hurried as we were, we took a flyer on this and it was essentially a beef version of the Goi Ga. And my take on it is about the same. One dimensional and sweet. Looking at the picture, it's hard to believe how little flavor from the non-beef ingredients came through in the overall dish, especially those red peppers. I could see them but I couldn't really taste them. Even when eaten individually, they were bland.



Chicken Wings Fried With Fish Sauce (#71)
Listed on the menu under the House Specialties section, I hoped we'd stumbled onto a winner here and there was absolutely nothing wrong with them. But nothing about them stood out, either. They were fine and again, surprisingly muted in the flavor department, especially relative to how they look.

Maybe we caught them on a bad night. Maybe we ordered wrong (though, based on this thread, that seems unlikely). Maybe they just weren't ready to cook their dishes as they should 30 minutes before they closed -- and we should have just left when the lady told us they were closed (though several other customers came in after us and were allowed to order carry-out). Whatever factors played into it, I didn't come close to seeing the beauty of this place.

=R=

I've never been to New Asia (so nothing personal here), and I am a firm believer that restaurants should strive to give you the same experience (food, plus service, plus general hospitality) at any time of their opening hours, but judging a meal prepared and served in the last half-hour of service at a place that clearly didn't want you there seems like judging a restaurant in its first days or weeks of operation. Just a much higher likelihood that what you got is not necessarily an accurate representation of what one might get under different circumstances.

I know it's not the way it's supposed to work, but my general rule of thumb -- with the exception of places for which I have a reservation late into their opening hours -- is to not go to dine in at a restaurant unless I'm reasonably confident I can get out of there by the posted "closing" time. Seems more courteous to the restaurant (although I recognize that they are in a service industry) and enhances the probability of getting a higher quality of food and service.

Matt wrote:I've never been to New Asia (so nothing personal here), and I am a firm believer that restaurants should strive to give you the same experience (food, plus service, plus general hospitality) at any time of their opening hours, but judging a meal prepared and served in the last half-hour of service at a place that clearly didn't want you there seems like judging a restaurant in its first days or weeks of operation.

Well, I completely disagree with last part of what you've written here. If you call and are told that the restaurant closes at 10, getting there at 9:27 should be good enough. It's not like we showed up there at 9:50. But our meal probably did suffer for it, which doesn't make it less egregious in my book. A friend who really likes their Goi Ga told me that the version shown in my picture above looks nothing like the version he's come to love. So, we probably got a lesser version. Oh well, that isn't exacly the kind of information that's going to bring me back there anytime soon. If you want to be out of your restaurant by 10 pm, make your closing time 9 pm.

=R=

Matt wrote:I know it's not the way it's supposed to work, but my general rule of thumb -- with the exception of places for which I have a reservation late into their opening hours -- is to not go to dine in at a restaurant unless I'm reasonably confident I can get out of there by the posted "closing" time. Seems more courteous to the restaurant (although I recognize that they are in a service industry) and enhances the probability of getting a higher quality of food and service.

Thinking about this a bit more, I want to make it clear that we didn't demand service. I was actually in the bathroom when the conversation took place but my friend is a very polite person and I'm sure he was his usual, charming self.

That said, this was a bit ironic because one reason I really wanted to eat there on that particular night is because it was the only night on which I could do so before the GNR discussion period ended. So, for better or worse we got what they served us.

=R=

I think diners generally deserve the same quality of food and service at opening of service, in the middle of the dinner rush, and just before posted closing time. But I also think one should not be surprised if that is not the case when dining at the margins of a place's opening hours or in other circumstances in which the conditions are less-than-optimal for getting the a-team/a-game of an establishment. (I seem to remember a line of discussion recently where some people had the view that restaurant week is a bad time to judge a restaurant, for instance.)

I think this variability is especially a risk at a smaller restaurant (presumably?) operated by a family, where decisions have to be made about whether/when to send waitstaff and kitchen staff home on a slow weekday (not saying this was the case in your experience -- who knows?), rather than at a place that is part of a more polished ownership group with higher margins and the ability to send out freebies to discerning patrons or keep the dining room/bar open for a particular group or whatever in the interest of cultivating a client/customer base, generating favorable word of mouth, or what have you.

It's unfortunate that you had a less-than-optimal experience here in what were arguably less-than-optimal conditions for a great meal, particularly considering that this is one of the last words on the place as it is up for a GNR, but I guess that, to use the words of the father of (soon-to-be-national-champion) LSU's starting shooting guard, that's just the way it is.

ronnie_suburban wrote:If you call and are told that the restaurant closes at 10, getting there at 9:27 should be good enough. It's not like we showed up there at 9:50.

9:27 is okay but 9:50 is not? Why is there anything wrong under your view with 9:50 (or 9:59) if the posted close is 10:00? How's 9:38? Or 9:44?

I've always taken restaurant closing times to be the time that I should be largely done with my meal, not the time by which I have to start my meal. if I had any doubts I'd call and confirm I could start a meal at whatever time I intended.

ChrisH wrote:9:27 is okay but 9:50 is not? Why is there anything wrong under your view with 9:50 (or 9:59) if the posted close is 10:00? How's 9:38? Or 9:44?

I would have felt worse showing up that much closer to closing time. 10 minutes is cutting it pretty close, whereas 30+ minutes before closing seems more reasonable. But you're right -- 9:59 should have been fine, too.

I've always taken closing time to mean the time by which it's ok to arrive -- mainly because most of my experiences with this type of situation (relatively few, for the most part) have gone that way over the years.

In this case, when we arrived the kitchen was still open (carry-out customers even came in after us and ordered), the lights were on and the doors were unlocked.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

ChrisH wrote:9:27 is okay but 9:50 is not? Why is there anything wrong under your view with 9:50 (or 9:59) if the posted close is 10:00? How's 9:38? Or 9:44?

I would have felt worse showing up that much closer to closing time. 10 minutes is cutting it pretty close, whereas 30+ minutes before closing seems more reasonable. But you're right -- 9:59 should have been fine, too.

I've always taken closing time to mean the time by which it's ok to arrive -- mainly because most of my experiences with this type of situation (relatively few, for the most part) have gone that way over the years.

In this case, when we arrived the kitchen was still open (carry-out customers even came in after us and ordered), the lights were on and the doors were unlocked.

=R=

I guess I see things a different way, but whenever I call a restaurant to inquire about their closing time I always ask specifically "what time is your last seating". In the dozens of calls I've made, I don't think I remember a single time when the answer was the same as the closing times, and it varies greatly usually depending on how long a meal takes to prepare/eat. A half hour is not uncommon in my experience. A lot of the time the answer is along the lines of "we're not going to throw you out, but it would be nice if you got here by X time".

If you ever had the chance to work a grueling, severely underpaid job of kitchen staff (especially in a family run ethnic restaurant) you would probably have a little more sympathy, or at the very least more reticent to blast them publicly after one clearly miffed meal. I know you don't want to hear excuses, but often times the staff is being paid a barely legal, sometimes not, day rate where they are paid the same stipend no matter if they walk out the door right at 10 or at 12. Not saying it's right, or fair, or even your personal problem, just how it is.

I would not necessarily chalk up your experience merely to ordering close to closing time. Although I like New Asia well enough to pay the occasional visit, I've never been all that impressed with most of the food, regardless of the time of day. I'm glad the restaurant is there for times when I just don't feel like driving all the way to Argyle, but it's not a top tier choice for me, either.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I would have felt worse showing up that much closer to closing time. 10 minutes is cutting it pretty close, whereas 30+ minutes before closing seems more reasonable. But you're right -- 9:59 should have been fine, too.

I've always taken closing time to mean the time by which it's ok to arrive -- mainly because most of my experiences with this type of situation (relatively few, for the most part) have gone that way over the years.

In this case, when we arrived the kitchen was still open (carry-out customers even came in after us and ordered), the lights were on and the doors were unlocked.

Under your view of the world, why would you feel bad about showing up at 9:50 or 9:59? The reason you would is because we all understand that showing up at 9:50 for a sit down meal (and surely you see some distinctions between customers who are dining in versus taking out? and if you are accepting take out orders, you probably do so with the lights on and the doors unlocked) is a dick move. I don't think you would have posted your complaint about service if you'd arrived at 9:59 because you wouldn't expect much agreement. Given that the closing time, at least in my view, is not dispositive, the question then becomes when are you out of dick move territory. And here, to me, it depends on the establishment. If it were a place I knew had customers routinely finishing up their meals a half hour or hour after the closing time, I then 30 minutes (and certainly 33 minutes) prior to close might be fine. If it's a smaller establishment I'm not familiar with, I would call and ask. If I chanced it and showed up and was told they were closed for dine in, I'd take it for what it was. Their mistake was probably in acceding to your friend's request. Though if they hadn't I suppose there would just have been a different complaint.

I appreciate that Ronnie was up front about exactly what happened. I enjoyed my first visit to New Asia and have since tried to return twice. Both times I called to put in a take out order but the phone was off the hook. So I stopped in and couldn't find anyone who worked at the restaurant for more than 10 minutes. The first time I went, someone eventually came out and told me the wait for take out orders was over an hour. No problem, I figured I'd just come back. The second time after about 15 minutes I decided to just to take off.

I agree with those who say they generally plan to be done with their meal by closing time. That doesn't make what happened to Ronnie an isolated incident unique to the situation. I can think of many examples where a restaurant would go the extra mile to make sure I received top quality food and service no matter what time I visit. In my experience, New Asia is having some growing pains, likely because the demand for their food is so high. I'm sure they'll smooth things out over time, but for now, experiences like Ronnie's underscore my impression that they are still working things out.

I've never been to Vietnam but from my experiences at New Asia, your not in Kansas anymore.
English is not the language of choice and communication can be difficult.
Beer is warm served over ice. Ask me how I know. We arrived noting the place was BYOB but I didn;t want to trek and bring back some beer so the nice lady gave, the operable word is gave, me a Heineken and a glass of ice. I suspect that the beer is kept for regulars.
I ask for authentic heat and explain that we are perfectly comfortable with spice and heat at all restaurants.
My experience at most Asian restayrants is that even if you tell them you are ok with heat, you still get a watered down version of the dish prepared for Asians.
Being told by the owner that the restaurant is closed, should be a clue.
Watching other patrons pick up or order while being closed, lets one know how it feels to 'ride in the back of the bus'.
I have experienced mild cultural discrimimination at other Asian restaurants where the clientel is not predominately non Asian.
Seating in a far corner at Phoenix, I now just go and pick out a table near the window.
Sitting at New China restaurant on a busy Saturday morning with 6 older Chinese gentleman who completely ignored my wife and myself.
Some ethnic restaurants go out of there way to welcome patrons and ascertain whether or not they used to the cusine, New Asia does not.
As to the chicken, I suspect that the combination of freshly killed and quickly boiled chicken, maybe even using stewing hens results in the chewy chicken. I also suspect that our tender supermarket chickens do not exist in Vietnam.
I also suspect that the Wings are not served for you and me as they would be prepared for any Vietnamese, nice and crispy but no fish sauce flavor.
In any event, I patronize ethnic restaurants all over Chicago and most are hits.-Dick