Pork and eggs à la Dai Loi

So it finally happened.

Leaving the airport today after dropping someone off, I took a wrong turn and ended up plying the southern-edge service roads until I found my way onto 285. As my mind is wont to do, it went to food and I realized I was but 10 minutes away from Jonesboro Road in Forest Park.

A few years ago this area was starting to shape up as a Buford Highway South — an exciting mix of varied Asian and Hispanic restaurants and food markets. The poor economy has taken its toll on the area, and some of the more promising operations have gone out of business.

Still, I love the Mexican ice pops at La Estrella de Michoacan and am always heartened whenever I stop for lunch at Pho Dai Loi. While the Buford Highway offshoot — Pho Dai Loi #2 — gets a predominantly Vietnamese clientele there for the beef noodle soup, this original location has grown into a grander restaurant with fantastic service and an amazingly diverse clientele. You hear as much Spanish and English as you do Vietnamese here.

My broken rice plate lunch ($7.50, above) holds a deliciously tender pork chop, a pile of shredded roasted pork meat and skin, a wedge of omelet studded with noodles and mushrooms and a fried egg that is crispy on the bottom and runny in the center. Add in some nice vegetables and an umami-rich pork soup, and it’s quite the lunch.

Afterwards I drove around and noticed these two places:

Food Junkie! Love the name.

The Hickory Stick. Specializing in enormous corn dogs that launch into space.

Anyone been to either?