This Vietnamese restaurant is at 9th Avenue and 20th Street, so it's relatively close to the Charles Cowles gallery, where we went last night to shake hands with a photographer Todd really likes, Edward Burtinsky (I really like him, too, but Todd's the photo junkie). I'd never had Vietnamese before so it seemed like a good time to try it.

The place isn't well-marked (in fact, I never found the name of the place anywhere on the storefront), but I had read somewhere that it was the shop with palm trees or ferns or something out front, which is how we identified it. It's kind of too cool for us, with an entirely glass front, waitstaff all in black and a little square pot of live grass and candles on every table, but the staff didn't come across as haughty or anything. We arrived around 7 and it was about 1/3 full, but by the time we left they were busy.

The wine I had, a riesling-type white, was sharp and flavorful, perfect for the spicy food. I had barbecued pork, which came in a bowl of brothy sauce, with piles of lettuce and thin noodles on the side. I don't know how I was supposed to eat it, but I ate the pork, sometimes with the lettuce, then dipped the noodles in the sauce left in the bowl (the sauce was really good, salty and meaty). We also split an order of tuna summer rolls with cilantro and a salty, spicy dipping sauce.

Looked at the dessert menu, but nothing sounded quite enticing enough. I kind of wanted to try ginger flan, because it sounded kind of odd, but Todd wanted the chocolate mousse cake (boring) so we opted for nothing. (He said whatever I wanted was fine, but I really wasn't that interested. What a shock.)