{"id":217,"date":"2011-06-03T15:57:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T15:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/f587b5e9-b5dc-475c-8c69-37965afabe46"},"modified":"2011-06-03T15:57:40","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T15:57:40","slug":"ngon-bistro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homeschoolfarm.com\/?p=217","title":{"rendered":"Ngon Bistro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For my recent birthday I wanted to do something special. So Proeun and I took the children on a date for dinner and a movie. And since it was my birthday I got to pick the restaurant.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: 0px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px solid\" src=\"http:\/\/images.quickblogcast.com\/7\/2\/6\/0\/8\/191317-180627\/DSC04261.JPG?a=32\"><\/p>\n<p>I chose <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ngonbistro.com\" target=\"\">Ngon Bistro<\/a>&nbsp;on University Ave in St. Paul. This area of St. Paul has in the past 20 or so years become the heart of the Southeast Asian immigrant\/refugee economy in Minnesota. Groceries, numerous restaurants, stores, and services have all revitalized the area. Now Ngon has become a destination for many non-Asians. <\/p>\n<p>I met Hai Truong, owner and chef at the Immigrant Farming Conference hosted by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mnfoodassociation.org\" target=\"\">Minnesota Food Association<\/a>&nbsp;back in February. Ngon Bistro is one of the few area restaurants I know of that supports both local food and immigrant farmers. Truong was at the Conference hoping to connect with area growers. Since meeting him I was interested to see what his restaurant looked like and try the food. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: 0px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px solid\" src=\"http:\/\/images.quickblogcast.com\/7\/2\/6\/0\/8\/191317-180627\/DSC0432.JPG?a=67\"><\/p>\n<p>Though Two was initially disappointed that there was no fried chicken wings on the menu he consoled himself with 2 orders of eggrolls. <\/p>\n<p>For me it was a bit harder to decide. I am allergic to dairy and have always enjoyed the fact that traditional Southeast Asian food doesn&#8217;t have dairy in it. However Ngon has a fusion restaurant does. After my 1st 2 choices had dairy I settled on the mock duck with mixed vegetables. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: 0px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px solid\" src=\"http:\/\/images.quickblogcast.com\/7\/2\/6\/0\/8\/191317-180627\/DSC0429.JPG?a=21\"><\/p>\n<p>If you have never tried Pho (pronouced Fu) before you really should.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: 0px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px solid\" src=\"http:\/\/images.quickblogcast.com\/7\/2\/6\/0\/8\/191317-180627\/DSC0430.JPG?a=55\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelchannel.com\/TV_Shows\/Anthony_Bourdain\" target=\"\">Anthony Bourdain<\/a>&nbsp;describes Pho as &#8220;ambrosia&#8221; and it really is a great family meal. Start with a great basic beef broth, a helping for rice noodles and toppings to personalize the experience. Proeun likes the &#8220;special&#8221; with meatball, beef, tripe and tendon&#8211;very traditional. Onions, cilantro, lime and basil often accompany it and then each person adds their favorite sauces like several varieties of spice, sweet, sour and salty.<\/p>\n<p>What I really liked about Ngon though is their slogan.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: 0px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px solid\" src=\"http:\/\/images.quickblogcast.com\/7\/2\/6\/0\/8\/191317-180627\/DSC0427.JPG?a=66\"><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s such a great circle when local restaurants support local growers and local consumers support them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For my recent birthday I wanted to do something special. So Proeun and I took the children on a date for dinner and a movie. And since it was my birthday I got to pick the restaurant. I chose Ngon Bistro&nbsp;on University Ave in St. Paul. This area of St. Paul has in the past [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeschoolfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeschoolfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeschoolfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeschoolfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeschoolfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/homeschoolfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeschoolfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeschoolfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeschoolfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}