Song Que Revisited

Meant to make this post late last week, then got slammed with work and sandwiches flew out of my brain. Capped off a long week by making a 3-D cake for my son’s 7th birthday. You have not lived until you have made a Pikachu cake. Wait until after midnight the night before to optimize the pleasure. The request was for Pikachu running and, tell you what, I tried. That boy could get me to do anything by pretending to believe I can do anything. Wrapped around his little finger? You betcha.

So, the cake is firming up in the fridge – needs a lot of firming seeing as it is nine-tenths icing (with toothpicks making up the lion’s share of the remainder) – and I’m thinking about sandwiches again. Worked with a Cuban man today who waxed poetic on Cuban wiches and he got me back on track. Priorities!

Here goes, my belated post:

The $3 trip to Vietnam. Okay, Little Vietnam, the Eden Center in Falls Church, VA. Specifically Song Que.

This time I had the Grilled Pork – Banh Mi Heo Nuong. Same crunchy garnishes: slivered cucumber, white onion and pickled daikon, sliced jalapeno and cilantro branch, the bread smeared with something that must have had Dijon mustard in it going by taste and color. The meat. Oh the meat. Little gnarled chunks of sweet caramelized pork, burnished and satisfyingly chewy.

This shop is a festive, indoor carnival, with color-my-world displays from floor to ceiling. Most of the packaged food is a mystery to me, a mystery to unravel visit by visit. Cellophane pulled tightly over what I know is food, but cannot identify. Stay tuned. Or tune me in if you are in the know.

Mangos. Got that much.