Founded by a native of Ho Chi Minh City, the month-old A-ching (阿菁) is a modest hole-in-the-wall on Taishun Street (泰順街), but the restaurant’s short menu is packed with low-priced Vietnamese classics, including a delicious banh mi, or baguette sandwich, for just NT$50, and sweet Vietnamese coffee for NT$35 a cup.
The restaurant’s banh mi (法國麵包, NT$50) is the highlight of A-ching’s streamlined menu. The fresh baguette is toasted until the crust is flaky while the inside remains soft and chewy, and stuffed with julienned pickled carrots and daikon radish, large strips of sweet pickled cucumber, fresh cilantro and pieces of cha lua, a light sausage made from pounded pork, fish sauce and potato starch. The cha lua makes the sandwich taste rich and substantial, but its springy texture, the crunchy veggies and the baguette’s paper-thin crust make the banh mi a wonderfully light meal.
A-ching’s spring rolls (生菜春捲, NT$50) are also very good. Rice vermicelli, shrimp, pork and scallions are bundled into rice paper and served with a sweet-and-sour dipping sauce made from chopped chili, garlic and vinegar. For take-out diners, the spring rolls are wrapped in saran wrap, packed in plastic containers and stored in a refrigerator out front. The rolls are frequently made so the rice paper remains tender instead of drying out and becoming tough and chewy. A fried version (炸春捲) is also available for NT$50. The green papaya salad (涼拌木瓜, NT$50), which is also kept ready-to-serve next to the spring rolls, is another option for health-conscious diners. The crunchy stripes of unripened papaya are topped with toasted peanuts, carrots, chopped pork, cilantro and shrimp and soaked in a tangy sauce. If you order the salad for takeout, make sure to ask for some slices of lime; the salad tastes best with lime juice drizzled over it.
Ironically, A-ching’s two pho selections, which headline its menu, pale in comparison to its side dishes. The pork pho (豬肉河粉, NT$70) and beef pho (牛肉河粉, NT$70) are both served with big portions of handmade rice noodles, but only a few lonely bits of overcooked meat that are lost underneath mounds of cilantro and bean sprouts.
The only beverage available at A-ching is Vietnamese coffee (越南咖啡, NT$35), which is flavored with a liberal dousing of sweetened condensed milk and served on ice. A-ching’s version is satisfying for sweet tooths, but surprisingly mild, which might come as a disappointment to people who like their coffee to leave them bouncing off the walls.
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