Summer Vacation 2007: Going Home … and West Lake Vietnamese Cuisine

That’s it … our summer vacation. Hope you all enjoyed following this series as much as I had blogging about it. I think when I look back over the years, we will remember this particular vacation like no other vacations we ever had — this time we had documented it.

Looking back over the past month blogging about this vacation, it is amazing we managed to do everything we did. Some of them counts for one vacation alone to most but being able to do all these within two weeks were unbelievable to us.

In case, just in case, you want to re-read our entire vacation, I have categorized them under the following links:

• We started off in Las Vegas where we had some of the best buffet. We managed to visit the Hoover Dam and the Fremont Street Experience made a lasting impression on us.
• We then drove past Death Valley on our way to the Yosemite National Park. One word describe the entire trip … jaw-dropping!
• Next came our visit to the Bay Area during which the high-point was the day spent at the Great America theme park. Our boys enjoyed this the most.
• San Francisco was absolutely marvelous. We all love SF and did all the sights we wanted — Alcatraz, Fishermans Wharf. Chinatown and rode the Cable Car. Oh … the sourdough bread too!
• We then moved on to Reno and Lake Tahoe for the final leg of the trip.

We landed in Bellingham, WA in late afternoon. As much as we enjoyed the trip, it was really good to be back home again. Before we headed home, we knew already what we wanted to have — Vietnamese noodles. Despite all the great food we had during the vacation, we simply miss good old Asian food.

This restaurant is located in the Empire Square strip mall on No 3 Road in Richmond. It’s on the same strip mall as Hon’s.

It’s strange why we had never blogged about the Westlake Vietnamese Cuisine restaurant before. We had been coming here for lunch at least once a month and is our boys’ favourite place.

What we particularly like about this restaurant is the low prices and that they have a free drink with any set ordered. Their menu is really like the many HK-Style cafes around Richmond except that it is with a Vietnamese twist.

We tried the Salted Lemon Soda — it is really good. You can sweeten it with the included sugar syrup if you like.

Their bean sprouts were blanched. We prefer blanched over raw ones.

The House Special Beef Noodle Soup costs only $5.95. It does not come in a big huge bowl like those you normally see in other Vietnamese restaurants because its the Happy Hour Menu and considering that it came with a drink of your choice, this is really cheap.

Nanzaro ordered the Spicy Noodle Soup with Pork Hock and Beef Flank for $6.25.

I shared the Curry Rice with Chicken with Suanne.

This costs $5.95 too. The curry gravy is thick and rich but not as spicy as I wished. They make really decent curries.

The total bill was $22 which includes tips. You should try this restaurant if you had not yet.

Anyway, here ends our series on our summer vacation. I hope you are entertained … but do tell me your opinion on our series here. Is that too long, too tedious? What did you like and what did you prefer we blog less of? At any rate, thanks for the many comments.