Our favorite Austin mopey mood food

Every once in a while, we're looking for what we call "mopey mood food."

• You know the feeling: You're a little down, maybe, and don't want to bother cooking yourself a meal or eating at home — but you're also not really up for anything expensive or particularly fancy.

That's when we head to Hai Ky, an unassuming Vietnamese strip-mall spot squeezed between an Oat Willie's head shop and a Kwik Wash laundromat on East Oltorf.

The service is friendly and the food is pretty cheap for these inflation-mad times — and no white tablecloth is in sight.

• Our go-to order is the #96; Hu Tieu Ap Chao.
• The golden, soft, flat rice noodles in this stir-fry, which is stacked with shrimp, chicken, quite-chewy beef, broccoli and carrots, are quintessential comfort food.

If you take it to go: Be warned that the noodles may lose a little of their crisp — plus you're sure to get that sauce-leaking-out-of-the-styrofoam-and-into-the-plastic-bag action, so remove the contents carefully.