Awaze Ethiopian

Awaze Ethiopian is now open.

They took over the previously closed Ashee Ethiopian restaurant.

They say they have some differences from the previous owner's take on Ethiopian, but those subtleties are beyond my taste range.

Still the same basic good Ethiopian food to me. Slightly spicy, with lots of injera bread. (Ok, their injera might be a little better than the previous style.)

Two thumbs up, if you're in the mood for Ethiopian in Cary.

Good Morning Pho Vietnam!

On the way to a nice hike at Yates Millpond to take advantage of this rare good-weather day, we decided to risk our lives in the Crossroads traffic and lunch at Pho Vietnam.

I'd been here a year ago and was thoroughly unimpressed.
Luckily we decided to give it another chance because we were surprised at how much they've improved here.
We had an excellent lunch of overindulgence!

The Vermicelli Tofu was huge and very good. The Bánh Mì sandwich was a perfect compliment; a fairly small entree by itself, but an excellent side when sharing two dishes.

We also splurged $6 for the avocado durian fruit smoothie: quite tasty, but afterward we found out it's basically just a milkshake with a tiny bit of flavoring added (i.e.: heavy cream and milk with just a slice or two of avocado). We'll stick with the Thai iced tea (or water) next time.

Pho Vietnam doesn't seem to have a website yet, but we did snag a menu:

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7/9/2015 Update:

We went back again and got a similar (but not quite as good) dish.

The breaded/fried tofu "strips" weren't quite as good as the style we had last time, plus, the sauce was way too fishy...
The Bánh Mì sandwich was still excellent though.

Yuri again

Visited our old fave Yuri again, on our way to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's as usual.

Excellent as always.

A nice ginger salad and miso soup comes with most entrees.

This time, instead of the usual Sukiyaki, we tried the Tofu Teriyaki and a Veggie Maki roll.