Description
For every French entrée here, there's a Vietnamese doppelganger. The bouillabaisse has a Southeast Asian cousin in lau hai san Song Long, a grandiose seafood soup in its own right. The boeuf bourguignon is countered by bo kho, Vietnamese beef stew. Get the escargot for sure. Greased in parsley-flecked garlic butter, Song Long's snails come equipped with the expected hardware: a dimpled dish, a skinny fork and a gripping tool to grasp the slippery shells. It is imperative you ask for more bread to sop up what puddles in those dimples, no matter how much hand waving it takes. Song Long's halved hoagie-style baguettes crackle with a thin crust that shatters and a fluffy cloud of a crumb that wants to float into the ether. It's another testament that the most enduring and endearing legacy from Vietnam's former colonial masters is the bread.
