If you can and have the means, I highly recommend donating to Family Meal, a Portland-based nonprofit designed to help food service and agricultural workers during a medical debt crisis. Your help right now is needed more than ever. Thank you.
Heading into week two of January… how’re we all holding up? I hope you all have been doing well and staying safe, with all that’s happening in the world I understand we’re all going through a particularly turbulent time, but we’ll get through it. We will.
In any case, I’ll just say heading back into winter term has been a whirlwind! I’m doing my best everyday to not do too much doomscrolling, because it can eat up my entire day (and render me completely incapable of doing anything else). I’ve been doing Blogilates 21 day tone, plus all the other projects I keep getting myself drawn into, ahah…. but I did want to mention one particular thing, which was that this blog officially has over 50 followers!
Thank you all so much for having so much invested interest that you follow me! I’m still in disbelief about it, but seeing the notification when I did really helped me through a temporary rut I was going through. For all my feelings, check out my Instagram post all about it here. Seriously, I’m always in awe of everything that this blog baby of mine keeps bringing into my life – like all of you! I’m so thankful from the bottom of my heart, seriously.
But onto today’s topic: a review! I need to do more of these, they’re so much fun. (I always say that then go back to doing more essay style stuff, LOL – but if you have a place in mind I should review, let me know!)
On Saturday, I went to Tam’s Place Vietnamese Cuisine food truck with my best friend Ryan. We’d been itching to eat more places outside of our usual, and decided on going to Tam’s. Ryan and I had only previously heard stellar reviews, and so this was our first official time trying the food truck.
The route that we took to get there was kind of twisty and something I wasn’t really expecting – we don’t really go into this part of Eugene – but we almost would’ve missed it if we didn’t look at Google maps and try to find it, because it was in the parking lot of the pet supply store. Parking was fine, although I will say the road getting there is pretty bumpy, so do take proper precautions for your vehicle if it’s not the best at handling potholes or high bumps.
I will mention that there is outdoor seating! They have a covered area for three picnic tables, which is convenient, but Lane County is still in “extreme risk” level, meaning that we are in an area with many cases and many restrictions in place to try to contain further spread of COVID. Please take extra precautions if you do choose to eat out… I will say the best is to take food back to your own place to eat, because the quality is not at all diminished by sitting in the containers for the duration of your drive home. For me, that was about 10-15 minutes.
food
When Ryan and I got back to my place to eat, we were blown away by the value and overall quality of the food. I got their phở, while Ryan got their cơm tấm (broken rice plate with pork, shrimp and egg rolls). We shared an order of chả giò (Vietnamese style egg rolls) and cánh gà chiên nước mắm (fish sauce fried chicken).
The phở and cơm tấm were both $12, while the chả giò was $10 for four large and cánh gà chiên nước mắm was $8 for four large pieces. Although just hearing of the prices and size descriptions, you may think everything seems overpriced. The prices were adjusted, apparent by some markings on the sign, but with the pandemic going on, that’s been pretty standard for most places. The value of your meal is definitely worth the higher price tag though, because phew…
I had a couple bites of Ryan’s cơm tấm, and it was damn good. The grilled char on the pork and shrimp were just perfectly smoky, nothing overcooked. The egg roll in this dish is not the same as the side order of chả giò, but was still perfect to the standards of a traditional cơm tấm plate. The fresh and pickled vegetables were a pleasant compliment (I would’ve wanted more, but it was Ryan’s dish, not mine) and this is definitely a dish I would go back for just to eat all by myself.
To address the actual order of chả giò, like I mentioned, the filling was different from the egg roll cut up in the cơm tấm, and it was still HOT after the drive back and taking photos. I believe there was some mushrooms, pork, and egg, at the bare minimum. It wasn’t too full so that it made a mess of the wrapper, but it wasn’t overly wrapped that you only tasted the wrapper. However, it is a hearty egg roll that’s delicious on its own and/or dipped with a Thai-esque sweet chili sauce. I prefer sauce, and the two together is really nice, because the cool sauce was refreshing against my burned mouth– I mean the warm egg roll innards.
Phở was definitely a lot lighter than I think other places I’ve previously had – not as fatty, which is apparent by the mostly clear broth. They were quite heavy handed on the sesame oil, which I believe was to help for the noodles to be added back into the soup, but I love the taste and smell so it was a happy addition. There was a good ratio of meat (no vegetarian option, to my knowledge) and I would approximate the serving size to be a medium, almost large restaurant bowl of phở.
If it were up to me, I wish the sauces weren’t all mixed up in the same container, but I understand that a lot of people enjoy it like that. The amount of vegetables was great! I’m all for adding in everything… almost too much so. (see photo of my bowl for reference)
Oh, don’t worry, I saved the best for last… the cánh gà chiên nước mắm, fried chicken wings in fish sauce. At whatever Vietnamese eatery I’m at, I always try my best to order this dish because I love these two ingredients so much it’s unhealthy. Tam’s Place did not disappoint – the giant wings were still warm and crunchy even after basking in sauce! If you’re not a big fan of saucy wings, I would say I’d lean on the side of not ordering this dish. Although the fish sauce isn’t drenched in it like a Buffalo Wild Wing’s might coat their wings, but the sauce is thick enough that it can soggy it down some. I will mention that it’s resting in the sauce rather than being covered all over in it, so the parts that weren’t directly in sauce for the car ride still had a satisfying crunch to it. Ryan was surprised at how spicy it was (he can’t handle much spice, which is a shame) but I thought the spice level was pleasantly at “spicy enough to feel something” but not painful – which should be doable for most people.
I highly recommend getting the cánh gà chiên nước mắm if nothing else really appeals to you (although, how could the other items not??) because the portion is enough to be a filling snack and/or a small meal (if you added rice or a side of noodles at home, it’d be the perfect entrée.) Next time I go, I’m going to try their cánh gà rang me (tamarind chicken wings) to see if they hold as much weight against the cánh gà chiên nước mắm. We’ll see!
So, overall: the food was absolutely divine… I knocked out for two and half hours from the sheer amount of food and bliss I was in afterward. (My afternoon of productivity, dashed by the presence of cánh gà chiên nước mắm… so worth it.) If you’re looking to try something new in Eugene and get a bang for your buck, Tam’s Place is SUPER well priced, best shared, and a 10/10. I will DEFINITELY be going again soon.
Phew! Just writing this was making me want to eat it all over again… I even got a message from Ryan saying he missed it, ahah. Let me know what your thoughts are – have you eaten at Tam’s Place? What did you think of it? I want to know, so comment or connect with me over Twitter or Instagram.
I was actually inspired to eat here after writing about it for the Daily Emerald, for a piece about overlooked eateries that people should try! If you can give it a read, I would really appreciate it. Thank goodness I wrote about it, otherwise I think I still would’ve put it on the backburner on my list of places in Eugene to try.
An update to #cookJan… I didn’t forget! I’m still editing my first video I did cooking lemon butter chicken pasta… see, I was previously editing my videos on my phone (I know) but my app and phone processer finally went kaput so I had to find a program for my laptop. Suffice to say, I am a slow learner to this program, and also because I was over halfway done with editing it on my phone that it was kind of soul crushing to have to start all over again. But it happens! I will be blasting it all over my socials when I do finish it, so hang tight! This YouTuber stuff is fun, just more challenging to balance alongside school and work. Plus, I want to make the videos good!
Finally, the podcast I help cohost is back! We recorded our fifth episode yesterday (at the time this is going up) and I’m really excited to back in the groove of these creative endeavors. We’re taking questions to answer on the podcast, so if you do have any, feel free to email foodfumblehotlinepodcast@gmail.com OR use this Google Form, to make things simpler for you.
As always, stay safe and well in these challenging times. Don’t give up on your healthy eating or other goal-related activities – the only way to get results is to stay consistent. You’ve got this, I believe in you! Until next week~
Have you eaten yet? If not, don’t forget to!
Em
Originally published on sikfanmei.home.blog on January 12, 2021.
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