A FOOD DREAM

I didn't dream about food last night, but rather the start of a relationship with in inappropriate man. However while painting over the weekend, I did spend a lot of time thinking about restaurants I have eaten at around the world. One of my top dinners was at this place in New York called Doyers. It is a Vietnamese restaurant on the edge of Chinatown. In fact, down a side street, round a smaller street off that and then down an alleyway. It isn't the most pleasant looking area and the streets, after a busy day of market trading were really stinky. Standing at the top of the stair case, I did have second thoughts about going into this basement restaurant cause I really had no clue what it would be like and with jet lag I wasn't feeling super brave.

BUT WOW I WAS SO GLAD I MADE IT! There are 100's of items on the menu - so what to choose?! There was mountainous plate after plate of food going past us to the tables of other diners and I was trying to match up what I saw with the menu in front of me. I was there with Paul - he tried to order the Vietnamese vegetarian crepes but we were there late and they wouldn't turn the griddle on. Instead we tried the fried Spring Rolls that came with a salad and massive garnish of mint. I had a green papaya and shrimp salad - shredded papaya and halved shrimps topped with mint, coriander and peanuts - enough for three as a starter. We drank beer and Vietnamese coffee and moved onto tasting a Vietnamese sour soup. It is a thin vegetable soup with tamarind, pineapple, bean sprouts, tomato and oriental mushrooms. I ordered tender diced beef, stir fried with onion and served tons of watercress. The beef came with a special dipping sauce made of lemon and pepper. Even though I was already stuffed full it was one of those dishes where I couldn't stop picking at the plate. We had way too much food but all of it was so fresh and clean tasting. Our whole bill came to $30 and was worth every cent.

If you like Vietnamese food go here. If you like adventures go here. If you want an I LOVE NY tshirt get at fake one from the depths of Chinatown for $3 - don't get sucked in and buy one from Little Italy, just one block away- they are $14.99 there and then you can spend the money you save on an extra course at Doyers.

Oh and here's a map cause you are gonna need it.


DOYERS VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT 11 Doyers Street (Chinatown), Manhattan, NY 10013 +1 (212) 693-0725

xx Lektrogirl