Best lunch ever. I mean it.
Oy vey, meshugenah. It's the richtiker chaifetz! Sorry, sometimes I lapse into goyisha Yiddish when I get excited. I went to Saigon Deli today for lunch, to research banh mi sandwiches for a story I'm working on. And I had the stinkin' best lunch I've had in ages. Eaten in car, making gobs of crumbs. It was as follows:
Baguette, very crispy, slathered with pate (tasted chicken livery, but could have been other kinds of liver), head cheese and ham, pile up with crisp and sweet and just slightly spicy daikon and carrot matchsticks and soft pickley cucumbers, lots of cilantro (and somehow the cilantro stems add to the beauty) and a tang of fish sauce and jalapeno. Warm. And wrapped in waxed paper.
Also, a to-go cup of Vietnamese coffee, very bitter, very sweet, lots of ice. And then a tiny tub of pudding that a fellow customer urged me to get. Yeesh, give that girl a fist bump. The pudding is called che bap, I think, and it has corn and tapioca and coconut milk and vanilla and little strands of chewy seaweed and some kind of little reddish beans. It's served kind of warm and kind of thin. A high degree of difficulty when eaten while driving ("I'm sorry, Officer, I spilled my che bap.").
Anyway, my faith in humanity is restored, the earth is spinning merrily on its axis and I'm dreaming about my next banh mi foray. I think tomorrow I'm free.
Saigon Deli, 3962 W Waters Ave (near Dale Mabry), Tampa; (813) 932-0300
"He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise." 
Is that the one off Dale Mabry and like waters, if it is what an awesome sando. Tampa's best kept secret!
Posted by: Hambone | July 08, 2009 at 03:42 PM
Ooph, Hambone, right on the money.
Posted by: The Mouth | July 08, 2009 at 03:45 PM
Wait...head cheese!? seriously!? I get the grilled pork one myself- so good.
Posted by: rikkikm | July 08, 2009 at 06:15 PM
Thats the real gimmick right there.realy realy good eats.
Posted by: Old Chef Dude | July 09, 2009 at 08:52 AM
Laura, Thanks for the info. I'll have to head over to Tampa and get a few – I LOVE Vietnamese Banh Mi Sandwiches…My grandmother had several restaurants in Saigon before moving home to Clearwater with us – and she spoiled us with fabulous phos, French/Viet style crepes, banh couns. And those liver sandwiches were a fav of mine. She’d pack those for my lunches in high school.
If you haven’t already, try Café Thuy near Mekong and Hai Long Bay…3 bucks gets you a long way.
Posted by: Jane | July 12, 2009 at 06:53 PM