Pho Cyclo Cafe (Broadway)

Official Site

Pho Cyclo sprang from Huong Binh's loins, and it shows in the quality of the food. Everything I've had there is extremely good, which is why the restaurant is almost always full, even if Celine Dion is blasting from the speakers.

CONDIMENTS ON THE TABLE
Soy sauce, chili sauce, Sriracha, hoisin sauce, and pepper. And they have the loveliest green plastic spoons and chopsticks, they're so cool.

BEVERAGES
Their coffee is a nice size and really good, and they also serve bubble tea, beer, wine, and other beverages. It's a shame about bubble tea; I love it, but almost never have it any more because it's available at or near places where I've just eaten a huge meal. Tea is complimentary, and brought before you even order your food. Just as it should be. Sometimes their water tastes a little funny, but that's not a surprise on Capitol Hill, where you learn to run it a bit before holding your glass under the faucet.

THE FOOD
I just ate their bun thit cha gio, which is the same thing as bun thit nuong cha gio at other places, but they seem to like shorter names. I'm pretty sure "nuong'" just means "grilled." The bun with shrimp cake is another favorite, and if I'm starving I order bun cyclo, which has pork, shrimp, meatballs, and shrimp cake. Their pho is amazing, and they have interesting varieties you won't find elsewhere. It's the only place I've ever eaten quail egg. Their sandwiches are incredible, and i'm looking forward to having more of them again soon now that my work schedule is about to shift at least an hour later. Since it changed a few months ago, there just hasn't been time to go to Pho Cyclo and make it to my bus in time.

They also have rice dishes, and appetizers such as spring rolls. There are four tofu choices on the menu for vegetarians, which I think is three more than at Huong Binh. I do wish they had some more exotic dishes, like at Huong Binh, because I'd like to experiment more with the unfamiliar dishes, but not when I'm in a hurry. Pho Cyclo is a good place to wind down and enjoy your food, whereas Huong Binh is efficient and a bit harried. The decor is also really cool. The walls are life-sized murals of street scenes, and one wall has color-changing fiber optic lights. There's also an actual cyclo (bicycle cab) in the entry.

I haven't actually eaten at their original location on First Avenue South, mainly because it's across the street from the Starbucks headquarters, whose 3,000 employees mob the few restaurants in the area for most of the afternoon. I did pick up a to-go order there once, and noticed that they also sell little models of cyclos made from beer cans. A gentleman I met once said that the First Avenune location doesn't offer vegetarian pho, though.

A few people complained that Pho Cyclo was somehow treading on turf owned by the Than Brothers, but I say you can't compare the two. Than Brothers only serves soup, and they do it well, and for very little money. They have their fan base (including me) but there will also be people who want to eat other dishes (also me). Since Pho Cyclo opened, Cafe Da Lat, Pho Bac, and Pho Ga 900 have all moved  onto Broadway as well, so they've all got their work cut out if they want to ensure a loyal following.

Morvern Callar

Info at imdb

If your boyfriend slashed his wrists in the living room, but left you his bank card and an unpublished novel, would you:

a) Call the police, get the mess cleaned up, and settle his affairs?

b) Live with his body for a week (including jumping over him because he's blocking the kitchen door), hack up his body in the bathtub, bury the pieces, clean up the mess, empty his bank account to take your friend to Ibiza, ditch your friend in the middle of nowhere, sell the novel as your own, collect 100,000 pounds, find your friend again and ask her to leave Scotland with you, and when she says no, say you are going to the bathroom and then disappear?

Samantha Morton's titular Morvern Callar chooses the latter. It's the road less traveled, for obvious reasons, and it takes a certain (sociopath's) mind to choose to do it. Morton's performance makes you get it, though. For the first half hour, you want to call the police yourself, but as you watch her you begin to feel the same disconnect with her life that she feels. Her eyes go from emphatic to empty, and you feel the blood drain from your own heart along with hers. She just isn't all there as she follows bugs around and feels a small tree from root to tip. Her ability to play so distant and detached is perfect in her other movies about the future.

The soundtrack (a mix tape left for her as part of the suicide note) is varied and interesting. My only real gripe about this movie is that half the time they're too quiet, and the other half you can't understand what they're saying. Movies filmed in Scotland should have English subtitles.