'Seafood Bún Riêu' at Morsels

The girlfriend made a reservation at Morsels for lunch. The restaurant offers 'Taco Thursdays' and their noodle lunch menus are brilliant. Rotated weekly, the menu is innovative and delicious. The last three weeks saw Beef Noodles, Pork Jowl Char Siew Wonton Mee (I like), then Herbal Duck Lor Mee (I no like so much). I didn't ask if these noodle lunches are coming back next year. No reason why they shouldn't. I haven't had time to go for lunch in a while. I was so thrilled meet the girlfriend there that afternoon. 

This week saw a noodle soup set trotted out as 'Seafood Bún Riêu'. The very long description read, 'broth cooked with lobster shells, homemade chicken mortadella, and crab cake, beancurd puff and pickled Roma tomatoes to go alongside. Served with rice noodles and Yuzu tamarind fermented Chili. Topped with Nori chicharron.' It's pretty much using lobster stock, and got its inspiration from Vietnamese bún riêu. I hadn't tasted this at all and was really curious about it.

I couldn't resist getting a salad- a burrata with golden beets, tomato sago cracker, plum salsa, and umeboshi vinaigrette. The noodles set came with an appetizer of slow-cooked beef tongue cubes drizzled with pepper-yoghurt sauce on a rice cracker. Heh. Tiny little tasty cubes. I had no idea what they actually term it since the menu didn't specify anything beyond 'snack of the week', and our server simply said "beef tongue." It was a happy bowl of noodles that arrived. The portions, as usual, wouldn't be filling enough for some, but it was sufficient for us. The noodles aren't pho. But okay lah, I eat this version too. I'm generally fine with all types of rice noodles.  

Obviously we couldn't deal with the desserts on the menu. Dessert for us would be to finish our wine, and sip a cup of piccolo latte. Ahhh bliss! I was done with my work year and had a hectic but happy two weeks of DocuSign and billing. Hurhurhur. All work contracts begin in mid January. This lunch was a nice way to remind me to take time out for friends, and appreciate what the year has provided instead of what the (pandemic) year took away.