Not in the Tenderloin, or even SF, but there is a new hu tieu place called Kali Noodles and Tea Bar near downtown San Jose, and they do hu tieu nam vang. I’ll have to go to compare against Ha Nam Ninh’s.
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Thanks for the tip! That’s a delicious bowl of noodles and a fun game of “what do I want my next bite to be?”
What’s the preferred way of eating this? I dumped on the black sauce and enough soup to wetten the dish, sloshed everything around and added cilantro, and some of the house chili sauce to taste. The noodles never completely disentangled, but I managed.
What’s in the black sauce? Tasted like dark soy with some other seasonings and the article @atomica mentioned suspects it’s Maggi sauce.
There’s no wrong way to consume #25 dry, but I once tried putting the entire bowl of broth into the noodles and I don’t recommend that at all.
Usually I moisturize the noodles with just a few spoons of the broth, and maybe add a spoonful of the dark sauce. Then I put the cilantro and warmed bean sprouts along with a little of the hot sauce and a squeeze of lemon or lime in the noodle bowl and mix it all together, adding a little more broth if the noodles stick. I use the dark sauce like a dip for the meat toppings or a chopstick full of noodles.
I think there’s definitely some maggi in the dark sauce, along with a little oil and probably black pepper, and some tiny bits of translucent things on the bottom that kind of taste like onion or shallot, or maybe garlic.
Do they still take their time in the kitchen?
On recent visits, I’ve found that service was better than it was, say 1.5 years ago. When they first moved into the new space, it was always super slow, but I think now they are more like any normal restaurant.
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Went to Hai Ky Mi Gia and had the #7 Mi Hai Ky - House Special Egg Noodle Soup, dry, with thick noodles ($8.06). Kind of like a hu tieu nam vang but with egg noodles instead of rice noodles. Came with kidney, ground pork, chicken I think, sliced pork, fish balls, fish cake, shrimp, cilantro, and a little crunchy fried garlic on top. Very good, I think they may splash some sauce or seasoning atop the noodles, they tasted very savory, like there was some msg in there. Noodles were good and chewy. Maybe not quite as addictive as the #25 dry from Ha Nam Ninh across the street.
Another noodle place is opening where Mangosteen used to be, called Lapats Thai Noodles Bar.
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Not to be confused with Laphet, the Burmese restaurant in the works by William Lue down the street at 448 Larkin.
Didn’t know about that one, maybe we will get the Mohinga from his (now closed) Tender Loving Food in the Tenderloin again.
It has apparently already operated on a pop-up basis earlier this year.
Lapats Thai Noodle, mentioned as an aside recently by @Mr_Happy, is now open.
Pretty impressive menu beyond noodles, especially for dinner. One noodle item on the menu, Kuay Tiew Nuer Num Tok, is, I believe, a. k. a. Boat Noodles.
It is indeed impressive, with the number of varieties available. Have to go soon.
Please note that they open at 2pm on weekends. My plan to eat there was foiled since I didn’t expect them to be closed for lunch…
