BUT I DIGEST ... NORTH JERSEY VIETNAMESE SHOWDOWN

In this corner: Bing Duong (Bloomfield)
By Kimberly Kaye

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By February I’m usually exhausted with typically heavy winter fare. Roasts, cream-based soups and sauces, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, stews – you can’t help but feel like a glorified paperweight after two solid months of cold-weather cookery. So to counteract the sluggish effects of the present snow-food movement, I’d like to warm things up by announcing City Belt's first culinary showdown, a no-holds-barred battle in which several restaurants will compete for the title of best restaurant in a specific cuisine. With the cold weather (well ... as cold as it’s going to get until the current administration discovers there’s no place left to go skiing and starts panicking), the seasonal prevalence of root vegetables on every menu, and the aesthetic monotony of leafless trees and dead shrubs, we’re feeling that the winter needs a little kick – think warm, colorful, exotic, fresh ... think Vietnamese.

I like Vietnamese food. It’s generally light and crisp, utilizing great herbs like lemon grass, cilantro, mint, lime leaves. There’s shrimp and prawns all over the place. You’re aloud to slurp your noodles. What’s not to like? 

Famed and phenomenally foul-mouthed chef turned food writer Anthony Bourdain frequently waxes poetic about the food, citing its clean flavors while threatening to defect to the Vietnamese coast permanently. The native cuisine (read: stuff you can’t find in the States) is also significantly ballsy, encompassing regional dishes like boiled squeasle (porcupine), fried tree grub, and the infamous tim ran, a meal of (from what I understand) very angry live cobra, starring its freshly excised heart served still beating in a pool of blood.

Fortunately for Ramon and I our first contender, Binh Duong in Bloomfield, doesn’t offer this option on their menu (you’ll have to buy a ticket to Vietnam if you’re really looking to order it next time you’re out). Located in a small Asian plaza off Belleville Ave., Binh Duong bills itself as authentic, traditional Vietnamese cuisine, and seemed like a logical place to start our ringside scoring. Upon entering, you’re prepared for a pretty solid meal – the smell of oil, seasonings, and meat hit you as soon as you sit down, and the sparse décor and minimal ambience is encouraging – elaborately decorated ethnic-food establishments in this area tend to be compensating for failures elsewhere.

With over 150 menu options available at Bing Duong alone, we turned to our criteria in judging this battle:

Quality of pho, Vietnamese cuisine’s signature soup.
Quality of spring/summer rolls, a staple of Vietnamese menus.
Quality and quantity of house entrees and/or specials.
Price.
Service.
Overall feeling of contentment upon leaving.

While it’s hard to fully analyze Binh Duong without the scores of its competitors, we will share with you our initial reactions.

The food’s good. I’m not saying great. But good.

A chilled green papaya salad with shrimp, fresh mint, and chopped peanuts was refreshing and crisp, the perfect start to an exotic meal. The Goi Cuon summer rolls stuffed with tender shrimp, savory pork, chilled vegetables, mint, and rice noodles were larger than expected and inarguably fresh; you could make a meal of the rolls and salad alone. The house-recommended pho was decent, with a flavorful broth and plenty of cilantro, until I hit an unexpected mouthful of unchewable tripe and/or tendon mixed in with the beef and noodles – but as I told our server to give us whatever he recommended in the pho arena without asking which soup he had chosen, it’s my own fault (the menu clearly lists tripe amongst this variety’s ingredients). Unless you’re prepared for organ meat and scraps, stay away from the pho tai nam gau gan sach and stick with more basic varieties.

The entrees fared better: a generous portion of spicy sautéed shrimp with lemongrass and vegetables (tom xao sa ot) was lovely, and the delightful thit bo beef dish with sautéed vegetables and crispy fried rice noodles was more than enough for two people.

Dessert was also good, but took a little getting used to – Vietnamese cuisine tends to pair sweet coconut and shaved ice with legumes like mung or kidney beans ... a combination not particularly familiar to Western palates. Our waiter had recommended the che mau, or rainbow ice, a milkshake sized glass (or in this case, Styrofoam cup) filled with coconut milk, red bean, mung bean, green gelatin and shaved ice.

If you think the combination sounds weird ... well, I’ll forfeit my desire to be viewed as a worldly and indiscriminant eater: it kind of is. Cold, sweet coconut milk over shaved ice? Delicious. A mouthful of ice cold green jell-o and red kidney beans? Not so much. Go ahead, call me pedestrian.

Overall, it was a decent meal with several highlights and wallet-friendly prices. If we had one major complaint, it would be our waiter’s thinly veiled amusement at our confusion over what condiment to apply to which dish (Vietnamese food is flanked by a small score of condiments and seasonings to pair with various dishes). We had hoped he would guide us through the process, recommending the chilles, pastes, and sauces that would enhance our meal; instead, he amusedly watched our trial and error process from across the room, leaving Binh Duong wide open for a knock-out punch from future opponents.

Ding. Round One is over. Stay tuned for Round Two.

Binh Duong
61 ½ Belleville Avenue; Bloomfield, NJ
973.680.8440

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Comments

[Jerry]

I'm sending them a copy of this review. The waiter does need to hone his people skills. Otherwise, the food is good, not great, but good. Not a bad place for a quick bite.

[rondy]

I also like Vietnamese cuisine and try to cook something from time to time - http://file.sh/huge+collection+of+recipies+torrent.html - here are some good recipes of Vietnamese dishes.