Green Papaya

[mamster]

Mr. heyjude and I went to Green Papaya last night. It's the new Vietnamese restaurant at Pike and Belmont, in the Press apartment building.

We had a light meal of three dishes. First, green papaya salad, with thinly sliced pork and five butterflied shrimp. Vietnamese-style papaya salad tends to be more frankly sweet than Thai-style, and I prefer the Thai, but this was good. Nice and crunchy, with good shrimp. The pork didn't really add anything. There were also mint leaves, and I don't always like mint, but this worked.

The calamari is excellent. There's nothing unusual about it, just lightly breaded and fried and not too chewy. It was served with chile-garlic sauce that appeared to be right out of a jar. I'd like to see something a little more interesting than that.

We split the large seafood soup, which includes sliced scallops, more shrimp, squid, and halibut (I think it was halibut). The fish was especially silky. This was all in a tamarind broth with that spongy green Vietnamese vegetable, and celery, pineapple, and other veggies. Very nice.

Total was about $33. You could spend a lot more here, though--some entrees hit $24. I assume they think of Monsoon as their closest competitor. It's much cheaper at lunch, when the most expensive thing is king salmon for $14.

People mentioned the austerity of the decor on another thread. I liked it a lot. Nice views of the street, very clean lines, identifiably Asian without being stereotypical.

[Jason Perlow]

You went to a new Vietnamese restaurant without ordering Pho?

[mamster]

They have pho on the menu, but only one variety, and there's a cheaper good pho place across the street from my house. So no.

[girl chow]

You went to a new Vietnamese restaurant without ordering Pho?

Or ordering banh mi?

What the hell? Are you slipping?

Just kidding.

Hey, is it me or are the Vietnamese places (upscale or otherwise) starting to outnumber the Thai places? In South King County, we've got as many pho places as Thai places, which I find surprising.

[tighe]

Hey, is it me or are the Vietnamese places (upscale or otherwise) starting to outnumber the Thai places? In South King County, we've got as many pho places as Thai places, which I find surprising.

I was just discussing this phenomenon with some people here at work. The proliferation of Vietnamese places is amazing. Seems like I can throw a rock out my office window and hit 2 or 3 (with a another opening soon). Kind of like the wave of Thai restaurants ten years ago (or so). Can't believe they're all going to make it, even in the relatively short-term. I'm not complaining, Vietnamese food is making serious run at becoming my favorite Asian cuisine at this point....

[girl chow]

I was just discussing this phenomenon with some people here at work.  The proliferation of Vietnamese places is amazing.  Seems like I can throw a rock out my office window and hit 2 or 3 (with a another opening soon). Kind of like the wave of Thai restaurants ten years ago (or so).  Can't believe they're all going to make it, even in the relatively short-term.  I'm not complaining, Vietnamese food is making serious run at becoming my favorite Asian cuisine at this point....

Yeah, I'm digging it too. I just can't wait until a Vietnamese place opens up in my tiny little community in Pierce County. We got our FIRST Thai restaurant last year!! So I hope it won't be 10 years until we get our first Vietnamese resturant... but maybe my community really is10 years behind the culinary wave. That wouldn't surprise me. We have six teriyaki places. Egad!

I will be so glad when Vietnamese and Thai outnumber teriyaki. As it is right now in Kent where I work (most of the time), we have five Thai joints, five (or six now?) Vietnamese joints and about 30 teriyaki joints. It's only a matter of time though.....

VIVA LA BAHN MI!!!

[col klink]

VIVA LA BAHN MI!!!

Amen!!