| A word of advice to would-be criminals: never try to hold up Bagolac Saigon, and don't even think about lighting up a spliff in the parking lot.
I was pointed to Bagolac (#8, 6130 - 1A St. S.W., phone 252-5588, turn east at Home Depot on Macleod Trail South, and keep your eyes peeled on the south side, where it's in a strip mall) by a policeman friend, who assures me that it's the Calgary Police Service's favourite Vietnamese place.
In this way, the police are like truck drivers or cabbies. They're on the road all day and try all sorts of food, so their advice is pretty reliable. That doughnut stereotype is stale as a week-old cruller – instead, Calgary cops are chowing on pho and bun and spring rolls. Another reason to be a proud Calgarian.
Bagolac is advertised as a Vietnamese and Thai restaurant, and the menu does reflect some Thai influence, but at heart this is Vietnamese cuisine. True to form, the menu has heaps of noodles, noodle soups and rice vermicelli, as well as stir-fried dishes with coconut rice. Everything is presented beautifully and is springy and fresh – the bean sprouts are crisp, and the basil is minty and green.
We began with a couple of Sea Ghost Fingers ($2.95 each), a pork and seafood ball wrapped around a crab claw and deep-fried, which ends up looking like big taupe Tootsie Pops. It's a very cool appetizer, which got some added zip from some hot sauce.
The appetizer highlight was the combination of grilled skewers ($8.95 for beef, chicken and shrimp), and especially the beef satay. The beef – a little piece of flank that is tender and hot as hell – is wrapped around a hot pepper and grilled. It's a perfect scene-setter.
The main dishes were very good – nothing was super-spicy, but everything was piping hot and fresh. The Saigon chow mein ($7.75) had cabbage and large pieces of deep-fried tofu, and was garnished with tons of cilantro. The Bagolac special soup ($6.95) is chock-full of ingredients, so you don’t have dig to the bottom of the bowl for one piece of barbecue pork or a lonely shrimp amid a surfeit of noodles.
In a Chinese vein, the stir-fried noodle with barbecue pork, seafood and vegetables ($8.95) was also good, but could have used a bit of oomph. The tamarind chicken with onion ($9.50), on the other hand, was rich with the exotic, dark and fruity scent of tamarind.
Bagolac isn't the cheapest noodle house in town, but it's better appointed than others and there's a commitment to freshness in the kitchen. When you're stuck in traffic on Macleod Trail, take a detour to Bagolac Saigon – you'll still have to battle the traffic, but you'll be happier.
NEW AND NOT SO NEW ON THE FOOD FRONT
The Naam Café in Vancouver, a pioneering vegetarian restaurant, has started producing their own bottled sauces. Community Natural Foods has The Naam Miso Gravy, an addictive dipping sauce for fries or vegetables or just about anything else.
Tropika Malaysian Restaurant on Centre Street and 14th Avenue North has an interesting (and picture-filled) menu, and an impossible location inside a condo complex. This place is worth checking out (wait a few weeks for a detailed review), but be sure to take the waiter's advice on what to order – especially the Malaysian bread.
The poster child for customer service in the coffee business must be Azeem, who runs Timothy's Coffee in Bankers Hall. He knows all his customers (hundreds of them) by name and what they order, and is totally wired all the time. How else could he compete with all the Starbucks locations popping up around him? Go Azeem go! |
