The
Vietnam

A warm prawn salad….glass noodles soused in a light warm fish sauce dressing laced with raw red onion and coriander [a generous number of prawns] was a favourite with everyone. Salt and pepper tofu, with an equally light and perfectly crispy batter. Roast pork belly, simply a generous slice chopped, nice and fatty good cracking, served on a bed of crunchy Iceberg lettuce with a mild chilli fish sauce combination for dipping. This is the only dish I wouldn’t order again, not because it wasn’t good but our duck shop does pork belly to perfection and it is never re-warmed.

I have to say the highlight of the meal, given everything was great, but the standout for me was the rice hotpot. Laced with sausage, meat, topped with an egg that cooks on the way out to the table and a generous dusting of spring onion it is a surprising dish. Mashed at the table mixing the egg and other ingredients it is rather gluggy and looks a bit like a mainly unattractive light brown blob. But the flavour! In some ways it reminded me of the dirty rice of the Cajun kitchen where rice is cooked in the cloudy scummy stock at the bottom of the stock pot that is normally turfed. There is a lot of temptation on their menu but one of these rice hotpots is a must.

Vietnamese coleslaw; red cabbage, cabbage, onion, spring onion carrot with a light vinegar and fish sauce dressing, loads of roasted and, ‘praise be’, chopped roasted peanuts and a lot of crispy salt and pepper firm tofu tossed through. By this time the restaurant crowd is thinning and our table of six is purring with appreciation.

I remembered the quail from a visit years ago and was fully prepared to be tricked by memory as to how good they were or were not. These fellas are quite chilli and pepper spicy hot [you can ask for a milder version]. Lovely plump quail they were grilled to perfection a little crispy on the skin and moist and tender everywhere else. No mad garnishes just more Iceberg lettuce and a simple vinegary dipping sauce.

By this time our table was starting to get defeated by the amount of food so I happily took the remaining two home and had them for breakfast. Last of all their BBQ chicken, a bit spicy, succulent and tender we were all pretty much defeated at this point to show proper appreciation.

A couple of days ago I snuck back in after swimming and had the roll your own prawn cold rolls. Three delicious fried prawn farce dumplings skewered with a sugarcane skewer, a pile of vermicelli noodles, a pile of perfect mint and coriander and the crunchiest Iceberg lettuce and a few house pickled vegetables. Add to that a mildly spicy sticky peanut-based sauce that stuck nicely to everything. I need to say I hate making cold rolls and would much prefer someone made them for me, but it was utterly delicious, miles too much for one person it is a dish meant to be shared and I had the rest for dinner tonight…minus the cold roll wrappers…LOL! I must have looked very inept because the wonderful Maria volunteered to show me how to roll them!!! The truth is I am happily out of practice.