VIETNAMESE FOOD TOUR | Best PHO & CHEAP EATS in Houston Texas

Hi, finally back at the Dallas Fort Worth area. Uh first day, I just got back last night. Slept a little later trying to figure out what I want to eat today. I feel like every time I leave new food places just start popping up. I mean this area is definitely growing, especially I'm in Carrollton right now. I feel like a ton of Korean restaurants are opening left and right. I found a malatang slash mala xiang guo place. Actually there were a couple of malatang places, but this one does both malatang and mala xiang guo. If you don't know what that is, it's just the most... Let me show you. Malatang is like a personalized hot pot without the fire. And mala xiang guo is like the dry hot pot version of hot pots. That make sense? Dry hot pot version of hot pot? They're popular Chinese dishes, but this is like, this is in Koreatown. This is a Korean restaurant. Let's see how it is. So first thing you do, here you choose all your stuff, all your ingredients. And you put them into this bowl. Skewers, 99 cents. Okay, so these are the skewers. They're 99 cents. You can get udon or ramen for $1.99. Every now and then I like to tease broccoli a little bit, just to make it think we made up. We haven't. All right, once the tripod is done, gonna get a soup pot. Oh, what? I feel like they should have a warning, you know, that you put on the reverie mirror on the side of your reverie mirror. Objects actually are closer than it appears or something like that, because this, this is like a minimum of six pounds, seven pounds. All right, this looks amazing. Cilantro on top. I got a lot of tofu because especially this fried tofu soaks up the broth so well. In here, I think it's, it's a pound of meat. I think each one of these, we got about a pound of meat. Frozen tofu as well. Great broth soaker upper. Wow, this is a lot of stuff. Oh, instant noodles on the bottom. This is like a, almost like a Chinese budae jjigae in the dry version. Cilantro on top. Similar ingredients in here as well. So this is all the stuff I pick. Oh, spam. Oh, this is gonna be so good. Spam. I got fatty beef, which I think is the best ingredient for any one of these dishes. A lot of beef in here. Frozen tofu, potatoes. Some fried tofu as well, covered in the sauce. Wow, this looks so good. You do actually see a lot of these places, mala xiang guo, mala chong places in Korea. I just never saw one in Koreatown before in the US. Well, that's a cute little bowl of rice. It's like a one biter. This looks and smells amazing. I don't even care if I overwatered. Can we finish this? Yeah? I like that attitude of yours. Broth is good. It's gonna be, I think it's gonna be too spicy for you. I thought this one's not spicy enough. It's not spicy enough? Wow, did your tolerance go up? You've been practicing your spice kung fu? This broth tastes a little peanutty. It's kind of like they added peanut sauce into xin ramen broth, which, I mean, I'm a big fan of xin ramen. I've been eating that ever since I came to New York. Oh, this is really spicy. I mean, I like it. I like it a lot. You definitely need a bib for this. 100%. This will destroy whatever shirt or outfit you're wearing. 100% bib up. This will splatter. And they don't really have bigger napkins, so. Better than nothing. Also, don't forget, you have to meet at the cash register. So don't fill up on the skewers if you're into the thin slices of meat, which is more suitable for this type of dish. Fried tofu, one of my favorite ingredients, soaks up that broth well. Wait, what level was the spice for the stir-fry? Two? I think we could have done three on both, right? Yeah, I think level two is good, but if you want a good burn with your food, and I know a lot of you do, 100% go for level three. Whatever sauce they put into this, you don't see a lot of peppercorn, so you're not going to get like landmined by a peppercorn. That's delicious, though. The sauce is a tiny bit sweet and very fragrant, and it's so saucy. So this is something that's really perfect to eat with a bowl of rice. And I wish the rice was bigger, though. It's definitely different than the traditional Chinese mala xiang guo. I think the Chinese mala xiang guo, the ma, the numbness, would be a lot more obvious, but here the flavor is really, really good. Oh, I know what they put into the stir-fry to give it some extra kick. So there's these peanut snacks called hong fei hong, and they have these like crispy chilies. You can actually eat these. They put a pack of that into this as well. That's very genius. I think they put xin ramen packs into the soup, and the peanut packs into the stir-fry. I like it. Oh, man. I'm sweating, crying. But almost done. I think we did good. I think the auntie will be shocked. Do you think she'll be shocked? I love shocking Asian aunties, especially when they doubt you in the beginning. It's like my favorite game to play at a restaurant. It just motivates me to eat more. Doesn't it motivate you when someone's like, you can't do it, but we can. Oh, this place looks good. Ice cream and pastries. This is so good. The ice cream is stretchy because they add orchid roots and mastic to it. Oh, this is the Arabic ice cream. This is really good. I think this is the best one. Oh, the knafeh is here. Fresh out of the oven. I mean, fresh out of the fire. I love it. If you guys never had anything like this before, it's cheese inside with like these little fried noodles on the outside. And this thing is soaked in syrup. So this whole thing is crunchy. It's sweet. It's syrupy. It's cheesy. So this is our newest product. It has Nutella and hazelnut inside. That looks beautiful. But it's baklava. So it's baklava with Nutella and hazelnut. And then you have this one. This is my favorite personally. This is baklava with cream. It's like milk cream. And we bake it inside with the baklava. And this is the most original one, which is the pistachio one, which I feel like everybody should try. But you guys enjoy it all, okay? Thank you so much. Look at this. Nutella baklava. This could afford the most expensive hotel suite in Las Vegas. Because it is that rich. First of all, I feel like I need a cup of tea for each bite I'm taking. Secondly, worth it. Oh, so good, so good, so good. Wow, this is like fragile. Look at this. Mmm. This is my favorite thing. Oh, this is so good. This is so light. It could whisk Aladdin and Jasmine away on its back. Wow, that's good. Must try when you come here. Besides everything being so delicious, everybody inside is just ridiculously nice. Hey, it's been a couple days. Let's go to Houston. I'm gonna get some food on the road. No better place than the Beaver right here. Oh, Bucky's Club Melts. Smoked turkey, bacon, chopped brisket, sliced brisket, sliced turkey, sausage. I remember the pulled pork being really good. Always look forward to this. Bucky's pulled pork. I remember this being really, really good at one time I had it. I kind of really don't see the pork in here. It's not bad. For some reason, I remember this being a lot better though. The speed sandwich from Bucky's. I love this so much. This is so good. The only thing I feel bad about what just happened is I lost some of the ingredients on the sandwich. And I just, I gotta eat quick. Gotta get to my Airbnb before they won't check me in anymore. Hello there. Well, it's a nice place. Bedroom. Nice view of a building with a crown on top. Airbnbs are super affordable in Houston right now. So I've got a great deal on this one. Well, I'm gonna be here for the next three days. So sleep first and the food hunt begins tomorrow morning. See ya. Good morning, Houston. So before coming here, I was looking at all the food places that I haven't been to that I missed out on last time. I was just feeling more and more excited. And even though the air is, that's pretty moist. And I think we're nearing hurricane season right now. I'm still so happy to be here. All right, first stop. I think this is gonna be good. I really do. I really do. This place looks amazing. It is a mom-and-pop place. And first of all, are you seeing how much meat is in this pho? So right away, oxtail, giant oxtail, tons of noodles, good-sized beef rib, and a bone marrow just to make things interesting. And they covered it with some kind of pepper seasoning. And this broth, also, look how clear this broth is. So I got this and I got the dip sandwich, which is a banh mi. And of course, broth to dip it in. I am very excited about this. This is amazing broth. Who would have thought? Oh my goodness, this is good. This might be the best pho I had in Houston so far. Wait, you've lived in Houston. This is the best pho you had in Houston so far? Yeah? Let's check out this marrow. I think this would be better with the banh mi than mixing it with the soup. I really do. But I just want to give this a try. It's so buttery and nice, right? Wow. Slices of brisket and saucy too. This broth though, you know whatever you dip it in is going to be good. That's delicious. I like the bread. Super toasty and soft on the inside. Meat is pretty good. Sauce is good. Hoisin sauce on top. There's not a traditional banh mi. I'm telling you, with the bone marrow on the banh mi, it's gonna be so much better. Incredible. That would be my recommendation. If you come here, put the marrow in the banh mi. Let's try the noodles here. Broth steeped into the noodles so well. Like I said, anything in this broth is automatically going to taste good. Always appreciate a nice rib in my pho. This is what I'm really interested in though. Giant piece of oxtail. That is so tender. Wow. I'm just so in love with this pho place. Guys, do yourselves a favor. If you haven't been here yet, love pho in Houston. Come try this out. This might be the first time I'm eating pho. I'm not just dousing it with sriracha. It is that good. What a great way to start off today. Who would have thought? I love surprises like these. Just beyond impressed with this place. Oh! Oh, that is a giant chunk. Definitely do that when you come here. At the end though, don't forget your dip in broth. This is amazing. 10 out of 10 start to the day so far. I don't even know how it gets better than this. I don't even know how it's going to get better than this. Heard good things about this place. Khoa Ma. I heard the egg noodles here are amazing, even though this place is known for Hu Tieu. Ever had Hu Tieu? It's like pho, but it's pork broth. Pork bone soup. Wow. $3.25 for this? It's got onions and fried onions on top. Two ginormous pork bones. For $3.25. At this point, it doesn't even matter if this tastes good. It's just... I mean, I'm gonna love it no matter what. Rest of our food is here. This is the Hu Tieu and this is the Mee Go. Egg noodles, dry egg noodles. This looks so good. Fried onions, paper-thin slices of pork. And look at these egg noodles on the bottom. Wow. Oh, that is saucy. That looks tremendous. These are just thing of beauty. Super thin, completely, completely sauced up. The smell is incredible. And then this, chicharron on top. Some scallions. Same paper-thin slices of pork. Some beef balls, ribs. And beautiful noodles on the bottom. Oh. All right, I just want to turn my attention back to these pork balls for a second again. Look how... Look how tender this is. What? I'm barely scraping my chopsticks and this thing is just falling apart. This place is exhibiting everything I love. Everything I love. Slightly sweet, pretty mild flavor. That meat is awesome. If we dip it in something, it might make it even better. I feel like just in something a little spicier, a little, maybe a little soy saucy. Dip it into the soy sauce. This is the best part. The tendon and cartilage right here. This is my favorite. Dip it in there. Awesome. That's an outstanding deal for $3.25. The noodle broth is really, really flavorful. Tiny bit sweet. Really good with a little added sriracha. Noodles delicious. Thin slices of pork. Mmm. And a little rib too. Again, comes right off the bones. I actually came here for this, for the egg noodles. Dry egg noodles. I think that's my favorite out of the two. Really just depends on what you're gonna root for. Some soup or not. The crispy pork, difference maker. So good. So important. Dry chilies with dry noodles. Some chilies with the noodles. Then take a swig of soup. Try that when you come here. That's a McDonald's bite. You ever heard of a McDonald's bite? I'm loving it. Yeah, that's that bite right there. Oh, they're so nice. They brought over a dessert for us. This is rice crackers with sugar. No, this is so light. And I think some shaved coconuts in here as well. Look at this. They're a giant tortilla. That's super interesting. It's like a giant rice cracker with shaved coconut and sugar inside. I like it. I mean I remember describing exactly what it is. This is really light. It's not overly sweet. Again, the best compliment Asians can give to the dessert. Not really sweet. This is really good. This is another thing that the more you eat, the better it gets. Because the coconut just gets better and better. And the crunch becomes even more addictive. I've never had anything like this before. You can eat all of this even though it looks massive. It's actually not. It's just rice. A lot of air. This is the type of food I love. Looks really pretty and big. But it doesn't actually fill you up. So you can eat more later. Absolutely love the Asian area of Houston. So this is Bellary Avenue. This is like when I drove here last time. And I drove on Bellary and I looked at all the places that were like the Vietnamese restaurants, the Chinese restaurants, so many Asian places. That was when I kind of questioned whether I moved to the correct Texas city. Luckily, only about three and a half hours apart. Anyway, this is the place I'm checking out. I was told that if I came here, I got to try the kakko toh? Fish and clay pot. Also the autumn rolls. And honestly, this is the type of food I love. The mom-and-pop places. The family-owned restaurants. Super traditional. Been cooking these dishes for a long, long time. Love places like these. And I like the more modern places that are popping up everywhere. And a lot of them are really good. But there's just something super comforting and nice about eating traditional food like this. Autumn rolls. So this is made with grilled beef. Delicious. That is a tender beef. I like the fact that there's four seasons of rolls. Spring, summer, autumn, winter. I got autumn because I like autumn the most. And it has treated me well. Whoa! Oh, it's so good. Thank you. Yeah, yummy. Yum come to me. This is the kakko toh. Wow. Thank you. So this is the kakko toh. Caramelized fish. Look at this. Three pieces of caramelized fish. It looks like pepper and spices on top of this. Look how saucy. This is good. This is gonna be delicious over rice. And look at this Mekong soup. Oh my goodness. This thing is filled just like the Mekong River. What? Pineapples. Okra. Tomatoes. Onions. All sorts of herbs. Giant pieces of catfish. Oh, that's super, super tropical. Like very pineapple-y. I didn't think it was gonna be this sweet. Sweet and sour. I mean, it's sweet, but the sourness definitely balances it out. It's 100% more sour than sweet, which is what I like. Oh, and a little spicy. I feel like the soup definitely needs to add some chilies in here. But the taste definitely is reminiscent of the Mekong River. I mean, my biggest memories about being on the river is basically three things. Soup, fish, fresh pineapples. That fish is good. Actually, that fish is really good. There's something really unique about the flavor of this fish. Combine it with the rice. Just keep chewing it. I mean, the fish releases just this really nice, delicate, smoky flavor. It's a little sweet, a little peppery, but so tender and nice. Again, this is something that you need a few chews to kind of extract the full flavor of this fish. Taste that with a little sweet and sour soup. Definitely one of the most unique Vietnamese dishes I've had in this country. Again, that's what I love about Houston. There's such a huge Vietnamese population here. You're going to find a lot of traditional Vietnamese dishes that you may only find in Vietnam right here. Definitely one of the more authentic Vietnamese places I've been to. Also, the value. You cannot beat it. That bowl of soup for $10. That massive pile of rice and the delicious fish for about $10. There's enough food here for about four people. If you want to try something that's amazingly authentic and super affordable, this is the place right here. I think for me, maybe a little bubble tea and I'm going to call it a good food day. Fresh sugarcane juice. Nothing like it. How do you like the coconut one? I love it. Christine never had a sugarcane juice until last time I gave it to you. And you thought that was the best thing you ever had. Try this one. Kumquat, try it. Okay, this is the ultimate one. That's the ultimate one? So you see why I wanted to open one of these places? Maybe one day, when this YouTube thing kind of fails, just open a couple of sugarcane juice places. We'll call it Sugar Chen? No. Um, Sugar Mike? No. Work with Magic Mike doesn't work with Sugar Mike? No. Okay. Mikey Cane? Mikey Chen? Mikey? No. No? I'll keep working on it. And also, like I mentioned in the beginning, this video is sponsored by HelloFresh. Christine, you actually have HelloFresh. Like, this is not, you don't even use my promo code. No. But you just have it because, you know. It's convenient. It's convenient, yeah. And this is before we met. It's not like I sold you on HelloFresh. Anyway, I love HelloFresh. Like you said, it's super convenient. I hate going to the grocery store. I hate grocery shopping. Getting a box of HelloFresh is so much more convenient. All the ingredients are pre-portioned. You can customize, you can customize delivery. If you want to skip a week, you want to add on some protein, some extra meals. Whatever you want to do. Absolutely delicious because HelloFresh has more five-star recipes than any other meal kit. And it's so fast. You can get a meal on the table in about 30 minutes or even around 20 with your quick and easy recipes. Like I said, they got pre-portioned ingredients, so it's less prep time for you and less food waste. Also, starting in August, HelloFresh is going to have their Taste of Summer series, where they're going to provide grilled main dishes and farm-fresh side dishes. And it's an effort to keep you away from the oven because it's pretty hot already. So if you want to give this a try, go to my link down below or just go to Use my promo code, the Chen14. You're going to get 14 free meals and free shipping. And as always, all the places I went to listed down below for you guys. Thank you all so much for watching. And until we eat again, see you later.