Pad Thai from Pho Haven

This Pad Thai is not from Pho Haven. It is just a picture of Pad Thai, origin unknown.

Pad Thai is one of my worst weaknesses. I love it. I crave it pretty much all the time. Good Pad Thai is something to celebrate and eat as often as possible. Pad Thai, by the way, is usually either Chicken or Seafood combined with spicy rice noodles, strips of tofu, bean sprouts and usually a few other vegetables. I have tried several times to make Pad Thai at home. My efforts haven't come close to the quality or deliciousness of good restaurant Pad Thai. I have given up on making it at home because others are just so good at it.

A restaurant called Pho Haven opened up a while ago, specializing in Vietnamese food. Despite being a Vietnamese place, they offer pad thai on their menu. It is way closer to my house than any other good Pad Thai source that I know of. I tried their Pad Thai for the first time last week and it was outstanding, the best I've had in London. The tofu was sliced nice and thin and perfectly prepared, and the veg had a fresh crispness to it that is often lacking.

Ever since I had that Pad Thai from Pho Haven, I have been a little bit obsessed about keeping my supply safe. I have not seen a lot of people eating there in the evenings, despite reading generally good online reviews for the place. Perhaps they do a great lunch or takeout business. I hope so. As we all know, making a go of it in the restaurant business is hard. I am calling on every Londoner who reads this to try Pho Haven. I'm sure most of what they make is great. It is a small, nicely decorated restaurant located near Commissioners and Wellington. It is the kind of place I would happily go on a date; tasteful but not snooty.

Pho Haven

519 686 3838

http://www.phohaven.com/

The good people at Pho Haven have no idea that I am writing this and I have not received any consideration for this review / recommendation. My motivation for asking you to go there is completely selfish. I just don't want the supplier of my personal culinary crack to go away.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - If anybody is in possession of a good Pad Thai recipe, pass it on. I'll think of it as insurance against a shortage.
PPS (Nov 23 Update) - Hey look, I found a video! This gives an idea of what the restaurant looks like inside. It would seem that they already knew that the Pad Thai was awesome...

RANTWICK's 2010 Christmas List and The Perils of Affiliate Marketing

I am not a greedy man. I am not a rich man. I do, however, find myself wanting things despite the fact that I don't "need" them. My material desires are small compared to many. Nice cars, for example, I am happy to enjoy vicariously through others. In other ways I am a good little consumer who has the requisite well-developed acquisition gland that made the Western World what it is today, for good and for ill.

Most of my itchings to purchase can be rationalized and paid for by yours truly, with no need for xmas listing behaviour. Other things, however, I simply can not jam into a mental framework that allows me to spend the money personally. These things belong on my Christmas List.

I am in something of a quandary this Christmas, because the things I want are also things that are advertised over there >, so if somebody buys me something I will make a small commission on the sale. It was bound to happen, of course, when I started running ads for stuff I liked rather than ads that just appeared based on what content was on my pages without my input, that I would want some of them. I guess this bit is aimed at being open and honest about it. Now, to what I desire!

Here is my Christmas List. Attention, friends, family and anybody else who wants to buy me something, I want:

1) This WWF T-Shirt (size XL)

End of list.

I'm not kidding. I want it bad.

R A N T W I C K

Commuter Cycling and Secure Parking - Bike Tree

Maybe everybody else has already seen this thing, but I hadn't. It really appeals to me somehow. It could be that I'm just an aesthetics junkie, but I think this thing looks great and the way it is powered and operates seems pretty nifty. Seems difficult to scale or steal from too, and your bike is out of the rain. It looks like it has been tried in Geneva. I have zero information on how well it works and if it has been implemented seriously anywhere else.

What do you think? Ever used one?

R A N T W I C K