I really love this dish here! It's not quite pho as the owner, Sophia (an Anglicized version of her real name, but I'll get that straight one of these days) is from Cambodia (via New Zealand!) and thinks that the typical Vietnamese noodle soup has too many strong flavors going on.
This is a simpler broth, though simmered with chicken and pork bones for 8 hours. Despite the inclusion of imitation crabmeat - among the rice noodles, chicken, shrimp, beef, and sometimes pork, scallops and squid - this combination rice noodle soup has become a front-line favorite.
In fact, the whole experience of driving over the bridge to East Providence [Washington, or sometimes Henderson ('Red') - gotta mix it up!] and sitting down to this big steaming bowl has become a comfort ritual.
Plus, Sophia is a hoot! She's so gracious, accomodating, funny, and sweet to all her customers. So down to earth, she frequently tells me to relax and go home to have sex with my boyfriend! She is a beautiful woman with a lively and free spirit. Though the restaurant is very casual - comfortably divey, kind of red, and sparsely kitschy - it serves some of my favorite Asian food in the Providence area.
So many factors converge to make a dining establishment a regular destination for me. It's not just what I stab with a fork or pinch with a set of chopsticks. It's not the threadcount of the tablecloths or how comfy my ass is in the booth. Rather, it's the depth and richness of the whole dining experience - the humanity, the thread that runs through our common need to feed ourselves, to sit around a table and fill up with so much more than what goes into our mouths.
That is harder to come by, and worth seeking out. When I find it, I hold it close.
An example of that sitting-'round-the-table-family-is-the-glue-that-keeps-you-from-disintigrating-in-life thing, which I felt privileged to witness, occurred on Labor Day, in the late afternoon. I wandered in for my bowl of soup and saw a long table set in the middle of the restaurant. It was set with stand-alone burners and plates of uncooked meat, seafood, and vegetables - even beautiful watercress! Clearly this was to be a hotpot extravaganza. Family and friends straggled in - some bearing gifts, all speaking in language unfamiliar to my ugly-American ears - and I at once felt like an honored guest and an intruder.
When Sophia's beautiful daughter (who I thought was her sister at first!) brought me my check, I asked if it was a holiday party. She said that yes, it was a good chance for the family to get together, Labor Day being notoriously slow. On my way out I said to Sophia, "Watercress?". She said yes, call a day ahead and she'd get it for me...and my boyfriend!
I've been eating at Hong Meas steadily for at least 7 years. So much has changed in my life during that time, but this place, like other things that continue to provide me comfort, has remained a constant.
Hong Meas Restaurant
332 Warren Avenue
East Providence, RI 02914
(401) 438-5227
3 comments:
I love this post--and I love those restaurants that provide safe harbor through our lives. You're right, they're worth hanging onto.
Thanks for this post! I work in EP and have been dying for a hot noodle soup-y kind of a place. Perfect timing.
Tea: Thank you! I tend to visit homey, familiar restaurants exclusively at this point, after having been disappointed with flashy new places too many times.
Anonymous: You're welcome. I am so happy to be able to point you in the right direction! Enjoy!
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