Gold Dig #5

Sapp Coffee Shop isn’t really a coffee shop. It’s a Thai restaurant. Perhaps they prefer to call it a coffee shop because “restaurant” might seem a bit high-brow, which this place is not. It’s more of a local hole-in-the-wall. With the deceiving name I might never have even checked this place out, but Jonathan Gold identified it as a spot for a great Thai lunch. And it’s one of the most affordable spots on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants List. Which is good, because it’s cash only. Luckily a ten-spot should cover you for lunch.

The Dish

Sapp Coffee Shop is known for its boat noodles and its jade noodles. Naturally, we got both.

Boat Noodle Soup

The boat noodle broth is rich and dark, thickened with blood. You can get beef, or pork, or the beef special which includes meatballs, tendon, tripe, and liver. We went for the beef special. In addition to all the tasty parts listed on the menu, it had something that appeared to be fried rind that was actually my favorite. Don’t be intimidated by the description. My lunch buddy is not so into eating things like blood and parts, but she agreed that if you ate this without knowing the details you’d just think of it as a deeply satisfying and warming soup.

Jade Noodles

The Jade Noodles don’t have broth. I believe the bright green color comes from spinach. The noodles come with BBQ pork, crab, and roast duck. As you can see, it’s also garnished with a variety of greens, nuts, sugar, spices, and a lime. At first, we tasted it by scooping up some of the various bits with the noodles. But it turns out that it is substantially better once you thoroughly mix it all up together and squeeze the lime on top!

We would have powered through all of the delicious food we got, but we had the brilliant idea to do a little Gold Digging restaurant hop. So we exercised some restraint, boxed up some leftovers, and headed to another spot on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants List – check out my Sqirl post here!