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Saturday, July 22, 2006
Viet High
By J.A. Bacalso
VIETNAMESE. Ahhhh, me and Ysabel drowning in bowls of steaming pho, the heady beef soup, chewy rice noodles, and spearmint leaves a welcome distraction from the particularly unremarkable Franck Provost haircut we both subjected our wallets to. Then there’s that equally heady half-Vietnamese beefcake Jay Manalo…I can have that dish all the time.
But a full Vietnamese meal at Hai Phong spells another thing…a lot of laughter in between gulps of Sing Ha, that famous Thai beer brand. I don’t know if dining with friends always adds the right spice to the meal, or if the food in this outlet is just consistently good (this is, after all, from the Ballreichs of the trusty Krua Thai chain).
“Mameeeeee,” everyone screams as I come in late to the table. I took in the smiles and settled into the Cha Gio Tom (crispy fried spring rolls with prawns) and my personal favorite, the quientessentially (well, at least for me) Vietnamese Bahn Coun Thit (Vietnamese dumpling stuffed with minced pork, mushroom and sausages).
The dips do the trick in most Vietnamese food. I learned very early that bland pho can be made more flavorful with hoisin sauce, but many purists discourage putting it into the delicate-tasting soup itself. Instead, I have a saucer of it on the side for dunking the pieces of beef or the meatballs into. The same line goes for the rest of the Vietnamese dishes placed before us: plum, lemongrass, sweet chili, chili tomato, tamarind, and seafood sauces are lined for the dipping.
Rycky Pilapil hovers, refilling my plate with the warning: watch for the salmon. Ah, my Achilles’ heel…the Norwegian kind. It came in fresh slabs, with lemons and an interesting sauce of a sweetish-salt variety. I ate without a plan, since I came in the middle of the fray, so whatever was in front of me, I set my teeth on. That was the way the whole squid stuffed with prawns, ground pork and glass noodles went, without a thought for the allergies that suddenly wracked my body.
At least, as a nod to the conventional, I chose to end on a sweet note…Vietnamese fruit salad in a crispy basket that could be devoured as well. A burp and a bottle of Sing Ha later, we were still laughing at how times have changed, appetites have remained the same, welcoming food from afar has made the world smaller in a culinary sense, and there is still…always…the great hope of a terribly filling next meal.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 22, 2006 issue)
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