MY FIRST TRIP TO DORCHESTER

Our friend, Sam, is in Boston right now. He's one of those people who comes in and out of Boston, but since he's unemployed right now, he's here for the forseeable future. I know there's a large Vietnamese population in Boston, but I'm not quite sure where to go. So taking advantage of the fact that Sam was in town (he speaks Vietnamese fluently and lived there for quite some time), we asked him to take us to great Vietnamese food in Boston.

So Sam picked a restaurant in Dorchester called Pho 2000. Looking up the address in Google maps, Tom and I decided to drive locally, so I got to drive through Dorchester for the first time, which probably wasn't the greatest idea, but it was still light out. (We ended up taking the 93 on the way back). Since we got there early, we got to look through the menu. Lots of stuff you'd typically see on any Vietnamese menu (pho, bun, etc.) . The surroundings were very hole in the wall. It's great cause there's parking across the street, but when we entered, Tom and I both detected the smell of garbage and the smell of incense- it wasn't the greatest way to start off. But when Sam arrived, we let him and his friend order for us. There were 7 of us at dinner, so it was a lot easier to eat family style.

We started off with this fantastic Vietnamese type coleslaw.There was coleslaw, shrimp, mint, basil, peanuts, peppers- it was salty, sweet, spicy, sour, and cool- really the perfect thing for a warm winter night and my favorite dish for the entire night.
Soon, more food started to arrive- more than could fit on our small round table. The first was a tofu dish, that you can see to the right of the picture. And in the back you can see a chicken dish. Both were quite good, but nothing truly amazing.

The special dish of the night was this fried catfish. Sam said it was really traditional and hard to find in Boston restaurants. (It's listed on one of the special menus that aren't translated into English). So you get to cut chunks of the catfish. Then you're given packets of rice paper and a bowl of really hot water. You dip the rice paper in the water to soften it, and then make your own wrap. You put in catfish, a selection of veggies, rice noodles, wrap it all up, and dip it into the sweet sauce (that contained apples among other things).

My first wrap wasn't so great. The big plate of veggies they gave us contained this strange vegetable that I'd never seen before. It's a Vietnamese vegetable that smells and tastes exactly like fish. Like stinky fish. It was surprising and I put it in my wrap without trying it first. Needless to say, it wasn't a great idea. It kinda ruined my first wrap.

My second wrap was a lot better, but this still wasn't my favorite dish of the night. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it, though. And it did feed all 7 of us. The good thing about driving to Dorchester? Our entire meal cost us $13 per person. Overall, we had an enjoyable meal, though probably more for the company than the food. I'm glad I got a chance to eat more authentic foods, but I don't think I'll be driving down to Dorchester again to find it.