Improvements Pho the Future: Pho 14 in Columbia Heights will be expanding its space on Park Road NW and its menu. [PoP]

Those Aren't Bay Leaves: The owner of Diredawa Cafe on Georgia Avenue, already tied to the taxicab bribery scandal from two years ago, is also accused of dealing khat, the leafy drug popular in East Africa and parts of the Middle East. [City Desk]

Hostess Hazards: El Centro, D.F., is now open on 14th Street NW near the Black Cat. But watch your step when you waltz in! "There's a tricky bottle neck by the hostess stand – servers are bringing out trays of food right where the servers are leading guests to tables. I watched servers trying to get past guests and thought 'this is a disaster waiting to happen.' If you go, please watch out for the servers until you are safely seated!" [DonRocks]

Pop Tarts Keep Popping Up: Buzz Bakery of Alexandria is opening up a new location in Ballston, and "will add treats like breakfast pop tarts, made-to-order waffles, individual serving quiches, homemade ice cream, sorbets, popsicles and 'take-and-bake' products." [ARLNow]

Photo by Flickr user Mr. T in D.C. using an Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license

A friend of mine has been in the mood for pho. And the winter blast we're having makes for a perfect excuse to go seek out the traditional Vietnamese soup. I've been thinking of pho places accessible by public transit and within a 20-minute Metrorail ride of downtown D.C. I'm catching a movie tonight, and I'm pondering my options.

Pho 75, the pho-only, cafeteria-style restaurant on Wilson Boulevard between the Rosslyn and Court House stations, immediately comes to mind. Pho 75 is cash-only and features shared table seating, which really seems to upset some folks (tough luck, quite your bellyaching), but here's what The Washington Post's Tom Sietsema wrote five years ago about the place: "Pho 75's dining hall is not much to look at, just row after row of tables in a utilitarian box, and the service, while speedy, can vary from cheerful to sullen. But in all likelihood, you'll be too busy slurping your meal-in-a-bowl ($5.45) to care." I wonder if those prices have stayed the same. It's been awhile since I've been there and seems like a top contender to check out tonight.

Those particular about their pho seem to generally poo-poo Cleveland Park's Nam-Viet outpost. But it's been a generally reliable place when I want Vietnamese that's nearby and when I've wanted something more than just pho. And I've always liked gawking at the collection of pictures of all the famous patrons on the wall, including one of then-Attorney General Janet Reno awkwardly holding a baby. Because Nam-Viet serves more than just pho, you can have a much larger meal if you like. But with pho, what's the point in overstuffing yourself with distractions? It's definitely convenient, regardless of anything else.

Pho 14 in Columbia Heights gets good marks and is definitely within my downtown-proximity window, but has a reputation for being packed. (Washington City Paper readers named best pho restaurant earlier this year.) Maybe Pho Viet up the street instead?

Minh's on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington is another option. Washingtonian says it's "one of the area’s preeminent destinations for Vietnamese cooking," but doesn't mention anything about pho. I've been to Mihn's a handful of times in the past few years and have never ordered pho there. And while it's not good to put all one's faith in the Yelp community for guidance, but one common Mihn's-related thread you see pop up is "go to Pho 75" instead for pho.

Now, I really want to go to Toan in Montgomery County. But that's not going to happen, because it's no longer in business. Which is sad. Just read this mouth-watering Tim Carman description from Jaunary:

The pho at Toan goes down like liquid foie gras. Or pâtè soup. Or rendered beef marrow. You get the idea: The broth is slippery rich. It's so rich, flavorful, and full bodied, in fact, that I feel very little need to doctor the broth with Sriracha sauce and hoisin.

Hmmm, I'm getting very hungry for dinner. Maybe I should eat some lunch, first?

Any pho suggestions for tonight that fit my movie plans?

Photo of Toan's pho with added fat by Tim Carman

The pork-laden product at Pho 14

Salad or garden rolls, not to be confused by their deep-fried cousin, the spring roll, have always been one of my favorite Vietnamese appetizers. These gorgeous, transparent cylinders of rice paper come stuffed with a jungle of rice vermicelli, thin strips of pork, crispy lettuce, bright orange curls of shrimp, and light, refreshing leaves of mint, cilantro, and Thai basil (or some variation on the herbs). When dipped in a "peanut" sauce — which, more accurately, should be a cooked-down hoisin sauce with chopped peanuts as a garnish — garden rolls may be my definition of the perfect bite.

They're meaty, nutty, cool, light, crunchy, fragrant, and gummy in the best way possible. Plus, you eat them with your hands, giving you the soft, tactile immediacy that's often missing in utensil-driven food.

But the key to a great garden roll, for me at least, is balance. Each ingredient must know its place — like a worker in a Socialist production collective — and never try to dominate the others.

Lately, however, I've noticed that garden-roll makers at the new Vietnamese outlets in D.C. — specifically Saigon Bistro near Dupont Circle and Pho 14 in Columbia Heights — have taken to overstuffing their appetizers with pork. Far from giving you more meat for your money, this piggy indulgence merely disturbs the delicate balance of a garden roll. The dry, bland flavors of boiled (or maybe roasted) pork dominate in the most unpleasant way.

I brought my complaints to Hoa Lai, head chef at that Vietnamese institution now known just as Four Sisters, who told me something interesting. He says garden rolls are typically eaten as entrees in Vietnam. When a family has garden rolls for dinner, they will typically spread out the ingredients on a table, so that each person can build their own rice-wrapper meal. Frequently, Lai adds, family members will pile on the pork, to the detriment of the other ingredients in the roll. They'll do so for one basic reason: Pork is cheaper than shrimp.

This Vietnamese household approach to garden rolls may be finding its way into the Vietnamese-American restaurant scene for the same reason: Pork is cheaper than shrimp. Then again, it could be that some Vietnamese cooks just prefer this approach because they grew up with it. Frankly, I tend to think it must be a cultural carryover from Vietnam, since I don't see any less shrimp in my roll than usual — just more pork.

Whatever the reason, I don't like it. Maybe you do. Obviously some Vietnamese like it that way (though Lai himself prefers the more balanced garden roll and serves one of the best at Four Sisters). Perhaps the solution is to serve garden rolls like they do in Vietnam: as a spread of ingredients that we can use to build our own.

Personally, I'd really dig that.

It's long been a truism that if you wanted good (or even decent) pho or ramen or soba soups, you had to drive to the 'burbs, whether Falls Church or Rockville, to get your fill. But there's been encouraging news lately for Washingtonians who want to stay closer to home for noodle soups.

First up is Saigon Bistro, an inviting Vietnamese shop that recently opened in the old Fractured Prune spot on P Street NW off Dupont Circle.  According to the restaurant's Web site, it is owned by "Luna Howard, a native Washingtonian and entrepreneur, and her relatives, who recently emigrated to the U.S. after running an exquisite Vietnamese gourmet restaurant in their native homeland." Aside from the usual Vietnamese options, Saigon is serving up not only pho but also hu tieu and mi soups.

Next on the horizon appears to be Pho 14, a Vietnamese noodle shop on Park Road NW in Columbia Heights. But now comes the word, via the Washington Business Journal, that London-based Wagamama will open one of its pan-Asian noodle shops in the former Olsson's Books & Records location on Seventh Street NW in Penn Quarter. Wagamama is aiming for a 2010 opening.

Don't know about you, but I'm ready to start slurpin'.