Another Day, Another Year

Last night a small group of us braved the wilds of the rush hour freeway to go out to dinner in Westminister at a tiny Vietnamese restaurant, truly a mom and pop joint, called Dat Thanh. The place has only about 10 tables, and we occupied three of these with our 6 people. This is the kind of place that serves only the few hard-core traditionally Vietnamese dishes that I often do not eat because I am trying to avoid pork. Despite not being Kosher (I wouldn't be eating out at all if I were), I still try not to eat pork because I feel uncomfortable with it and it isn't healthy anyway. I eat shrimp, though it is just as verboten, but somehow, pork feels more so. It is true that many times, I operate on a "don't ask don't tell" system in Asian restaurants, knowing pork is in the dishes, which I want to eat anyway, but hunks of pork? Never. So this was an unusual exception.
This restaurant specializes in spring rolls. They are not vegetable or tofu spring rolls, but made out of homemade Vietnamese pork sausage and shrimp sausage. I have to say that they were beautiful to behold, gorgeous tight cylinders of burnished gold and tan, greens, mint, crowned with a tuft of green onion, protruding from the taut skin. We ate and ate, wrapping each morsel in generously wide leaves of romaine, layered with dark red Asian basil, more mint, cilantro, and slathered with an amazing special sauce like no other Vietnamese dipping sauce I have ever had.
The young proprietor hovered over us, telling us the story of the food, and of his parents, who could be seen cooking in the tiny kitchen. He said that the family had tried hiring out, but no one they trained could make the food to their specifications, so the family does it all themselves.
When we finished with the rolls, we ordered meat dishes. I got the barbequed chicken and broken rice, dainty pieces of tender, perfectly spiced meat that seemed to be of an entirely different order than any I had ever had before, especially over that amazing rice, which was so soft, pillowy and tender, that one had to taste it to believe. I have had broken rice and bbq chicken before, but until that moment, I don't think I have ever truly tasted them, especially drizzled with a special fish sauce the color of rose wine. And the price? Cheap! Very cheap! Less than $80. for 6 people who ate like longshoremen.
So if you eat meat, and don't mind the ride and the lack of atmosphere, go on over, and tell them I sent you.