🚀 go-pugleaf

Hold those MSP-SJC reservations....I found a Bahn Xeo source, abet not one
to write home about. Maybe.

It is at the Vina Vietnamese Restaurant, 756 Cleveland Av S, St Paul, MN
55116 (651) 698-8408 M-Th 11a-9p, F-Sat 11a-10p, Sun 12p-9p. It is 4 doors
north of the historic Highland movie theatre at Ford Pkwy, near the Ford
truck assy plant in the Highland Park neighborhood.

The neighborhood is quite round-eye with mainly Scandahovians, Europeans,
and Russian Jew immigrants, so the menu is mainly mongrel Chinese with a
smattering of Vietnamese with the menu in English only. No Vietnamese pho
soup, only one Spring roll, and 30 Vegetarian [mock duck, tofu, etc] dishes
on the menu.

The Bahn Xeo is #57 Rice Pancake, $8, which includes an authentically made
crisp pan-fried folded-over rice flour crepe with saut�ed pork, tiny frozen
shrimp, onion, and bean sprouts stuffing. Accompanying it was a hunk of
iceberg head lettuce and bowl of nuoc mam. The dish was cooked without
excessive oil. Considering the ingredient quality, it was true-to-form. I
rate it a C+.

The rating could have been better with fresh, large shrimp, less onion, and
added condiments cilantro, green onion, and mint, along with loose-leaf
lettuce and seasoned cucumber. Having a variety of dips is a plus.

It is eaten by using lettuce leaf wrapper and putting a narrow slice of the
crepe inside with desired condiments and rolling it up like an Mexican
enchilada. Dip one open-end in your bowl of nuoc mam and carefully slide it
close to your mouth. Depending on your assembly skills, it can be a messy
but delightful tasting treat with contrast of textures and flavors. Use the
bathroom wash basin downstairs before and after.

----------------

If you have moistened rice paper (most authentic) with the dish, you use it
along with lettuce as a wrapper. I always run out of rice paper. It will
make a tighter and more secure bahn xeo enchilada. Lots of laughs to feed
each other.

BTW, rice paper is very different to Chinese wheat flour wrappers for moo
shu pork. Chinese wrapper doilies are very lightly toast cooked on a griddle
and kept moist-warm in a preheated covered dish or foil packet like corn
tortillas [large egg roll wrappers can work in a pinch].

You can buy circular stacks of dry rice paper in a Vietnamese grocery. Use
your moistened fingers to prewet them for 3-5 min before wrapping and
eating. I use a clean garden water mister bottle. No cooking necessary and
don't make too many of these in advance, or you will have a mess trying to
keep them separate.

The required preparation, skill, split-second timing is why you go to a good
Vietnamese restaurant for Bahn Xeo!! You will have a three-headed circus
otherwise.

----------------

I may talk to the woman chef to see if she will up the culinary ante for
Lunar New Year, Tet 4699, Wed, Jan 24, 2001. What do you think??

Found this restaurant by scouring the 60 something Vietnamese restaurant
listings in CitySearch.com at
http://twincities.citysearch.com/search?type=grid&flavor_id=2&cw1=104&histoi
ndex_left=cw1 . A usual door-to-door menu search of over 6 Vietnamese
restaurants on University Av W in St Paul between Western Av and Snelling Av
uncovered nothing other than the usual pho soup joints.


Regards, Phil, Minneapolis, MN, Silicon Tundra, USA

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"ll" <ljllittle@home.com> wrote in message
news:3A5894B0.1007DE28@home.com...
> > Where in SJC?
>
> On E. Santa Clara, directly north of SJSU.
> This area is full of Vietnamese stores and restaurants.
>
> > Are they open during the SuperBowl?
>
> I would expect so.  This is authentic Vietnamese.  Limited English spoken
here.
>
> I would not expect them to be glued to the TV waiting to see the next
> million dollar commercial for FedEx (or whomever) during the SuperBowl.
>
> And BTW.  Just how are you supposed to eat a Bahn Xeo?
> (This was our first Bahn Xeo.)  It came on *four* plates,
> so this is not a trivial question.
>
> On one plate was the crepe.   It was folded in half, like an omelette.
> The crepe was thin (of course) and had the pork and shrimp in the
> sides of the crepe (not as a filling).  The only filling in the crepe
> was some bean sprouts.
>
> On a separate plate was lettuce, cilantro, mint, bean sprouts,
> and some thinly sliced vegetables (cucmber, zucchini?).
>
> On another plate were four rice flour pancakes.
> (Similar to the flour pancakes you get with Chinese moo shu.)
>
> In a bowl was the peanut and sesame sauce.