le pacifique

I love it how you can get Chinese food almost everywhere, simply because there are Chinese people everywhere. They really are everywhere. There are advantages I suppose – Chinese people means Chinese food - one never has to go too far in search of some version of Chinese restaurant. The trick however seems to be separating the dodgy joints from those that are worth their woks – and with Chinese restaurants, outward appearances almost always mean nothing – the dingiest looking hole-in-walls could be turning out the tastiest stuff.

And so after three and a half weeks in Brussels in Brussels, and having chinese food withdrawal symptoms, D brought G and I to le pacifique, a Vietnamese Chinese setup. With her almost encyclopedic knowledge of restaurants in Brussels, she was definitely a good person to know. And of course she’s terribly nice as well. Her recommendation of le pacifique came with the missive to eat number 34 on the menu – hoi sin sang mien – crispy egg noodles with an assortment of seafood. Who were we to argue with the expert, and so we supped on sang mein, grilled prawns over rice noodles and fried calamari rings with salt and chilli.

grilled prawns,plump and in their shells, atop a bed of blanched rice noodles, a generous sprinkling of fried shallots, scallions, ground peanuts and shredded carrots.

fried calamari rings with salt and chilli

number 34 - hoi sin sang mein - deep fried egg noodles with assorted seafood and bokchoi in oyster sauce.