Back when we first got together, Chris and I established some travel goals (at least in North America): we wanted to visit every U.S. state and every Canadian province and territory. Unfortunately, the last time we visited Canada was all the way back in August 2019 when we visited the beautiful and delicious Newfoundland and Labrador. Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island are some of the provinces far less traveled to by those outside of Canada, but they were likely some of my favorite places we ever visited up north.

Chris booked a long weekend / Labor Day trip for us to visit Ottawa, the capital of Canada, and Montreal (we had to fly in and out of Montreal since no flights worked that well between New York City and Ottawa). After two days here, I feel about Ottawa the way I did about Canberra, the capital of Australia: while it doesn’t seem particularly exciting or glamorous the way its larger and more traveled to cities are like Toronto or Montreal, Ottawa seems extremely livable and comfortable, with lots of green and outdoor spaces, eclectic and delicious eateries, and diverse people given that it is a government city.

While researching food for this trip, I was a little surprised to read that in Canada, Ottawa and Montreal have a bit of a rivalry when it comes to who has better Vietnamese food (who would have thought that?). Ten years ago when we visited Montreal, although we did have Vietnamese food (based on my photos and saved business cards in my scrapbook; I have very little recollection of that meal), I don’t remember reading about any Ottawa vs. Montreal rivalry. I do love reading about city rivalries though. I had a spot bookmarked on my list in Ottawa Chinatown, but when Chris saw that it had a 4.1 overall Google rating vs. a 4.5++ rating like a spot he quickly Googled called Pho Tuan, I decided I didn’t have any loyalty to my bookmarked Eater recommendation and just went with his.

And, as Chris would also gloat about since he “found it,” Pho Tuan was quite spectacular, likely one of the best Vietnamese restaurants we’ve ever eaten at outside of Vietnam, hands down. It looks quite simple and casual from the outside and the interior decor, but the food was anything but. I ordered two of the specials of the day, the bun bo hue (spicy and lemongrass-y Hue style beef noodle soup) and the bun cha Hanoi (large fat grilled pork meat balls served with sliced pork chop, rice vermicelli, endless herbs, and a semi-sweet dipping sauce), plus an appetizer of the bo la lot (grilled beef patties or rolls, wrapped in betel nut leaves). It seemed like a bit too much meat, but I rarely see any of these things on Viet restaurant menus (and if you do, the execution is usually subpar), so I had to jump on it while I could. When the bo la lot came to the table, it looked quite lackluster… until I dipped it in nuoc cham and put it in my mouth. I was completely floored: the flavor was perfect – grilled, smoky, with good texture. The bun cha Hanoi meatballs were the very best ones we’d ever had outside of Hanoi: I couldn’t get over the little crunchy and chewy bits of the meatball. Someone clearly hand kneaded and rolled these meatballs to perfection. And the bun bo hue broth was incredible, likely one of the very best bun bo hue bowls we have ever had, period. It had the perfect balance of beefy broth and lemongrass grassy-citrusy flavor. I could have just slurped that broth all day long and been really happy. It reminded me of that scrumptious (and super cheap!) bun bo hue we enjoyed back in a Vietnamese neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri, about ten years ago. And while we were busy slurping away at our noodles and munching on our meatballs, our server was hard at work making our two Vietnamese iced coffees to order. Delicious things take time, and cafe sua da is no exception to this. We were probably over halfway through our meal when our server brought them over and apologized for the wait. But the coffees were worth it: they had a good balance of sweetness from the sweetened condensed milk and richness/bitterness from the coffee.

Delicious food is everywhere. We just have to keep our minds and stomachs open to it everywhere we go.