At last cooked rice

As I have explored the diverse albeit limited eateries in the Emory village I have come across many pleasantly surprising meals. However upon venturing out of the Village to Publix with my roommate we decided to go ahead and dine in the area. After closely reading the names of the restaurants and weighing our options we decided to go and eat at a Vietnamese and Thai restaurant. I was excited to go to the Saigon Café for I had never consumed food from those particular regions of the world. 

As I entered the relatively empty restaurant, which probably due to the fact that we were their during the awkward couple of hours in between lunch and dinner, I was meet with an array of odors which was a nice change from the same fried smells of the DUC. This was the first indication that the food was going to be flavorful, which made me even more excited to try the meal to come.  At the table in which we were seated there was a large variety of sauces, some I had never seen.  There were also some chopsticks, which I have often tried but failed to use properly. The general ambiance of the restaurant was very casual which was fueled by its eclectic mix of music, the large colorful photos of some of the numerous food items offered, and a tree from which hung colorful wax like tubes.

The menus that were given to us by the friendly server contained multiple items that were previously foreign to me. This variety only made it more difficult for me to choose what to order. Since it was a new experience I wanted to try many different items so I decided to order an appetizer, which is something that I usually do not do.  I decided to order a spring roll that had shrimp and pork. Because it has been strangely warm outside considering how late into the year it is when I saw the various soups on the menu I had to deter from choosing them even though they looked intriguing and instead opted for a rice based dish.  I cannot remember the name of the dish because when I ordered my food I only pointed to it on the menu because I could not pronounce the name of it.  But it was a rice dish with two different forms of pork and a baked egg.

The first to arrive at our table was the spring rolls that were accompanied by a dipping sauce that was sprinkled with crushed peanuts.  Though I usually do not enjoy peanuts in savory food I just scraped them off of the top of the dipping sauce and began to eat the spring rolls. They chewy exterior of the roll was nicely contrasted by the tender shrimp and beef and crunchy bean sprouts. The bean sprouts initially were the ingredient that was the most pronounced and slightly overpowering however when I dipped the spring roll into the complex sauce the sweetness from the sauce helped balance the flavor of the bean sprouts. The rest of my food arrived fairly quickly, probably because of the small amount of customers.

As I began to eat my meal I was overjoyed by the fact that the rice was actually cooked unlike the rice that is served at the DUC. The grilled pork was sweet and had a charred flavor to it, which was complimented by sweet and tart coleslaw. The shredded pork is another story however, it was cold and the texture was not something that I was used to but that is not to say that it was all bad for it was flavorful at least.  The baked egg was not what I expected but it contained many different savory ingredients that took it beyond the flavor of that of an ordinary egg.  Overall the meal was delicious and the large portion allowed for leftovers. The best part of the meal however was that I was able to practice eating with the chopsticks.