Who is Killing the Great Banh Mi Shops of Chinatown?

One of the great un- or under-told restaurant stories of New York of recent years is the renaissance of Chinatown in the wake of 9/11, after the terrorist attacks just about killed the place. But these days, whenever I take a walk there, I see new restaurants everywhere. And it

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[WARG]

MIGHTY WARG LIKE BROOKLYN V.S. TOO! AN DONG 52 & 8 AND BA XUYEN 44 & 8 IN SUNSET PARK! MIGHTY WARG SMASH SAIGON BANH MI IF THEY DO NOT REOPEN!!! YAR!

[tigerwoman]

We always stop at An Dong in Brooklyn to get some Ban Mai as appetizers on our way to DiFara's pizza, so we are not starving as we lovingly wait for our turn and Don's magical pizza moments.
Cheap eats at its finest.

It's a definite must on a food safari of NYC.

And you are dead right - never order ban mai in a restaurant setting, even if they offer it (highly unlikely) their turnover isn't high enough to ensure the proper freshness and quality of all the components.

By the way, An Dong rented out the front of the store to a cell phone distributor. I was relived to know that they were still producing the sandwiches in the back. Where else can you get 4 delicious decent sized sandwiches for $10. They use canned sardines for the fish one, but I like it anyhow. The wierdest drink I ever had there was something that translated as birds saliva, it came in a soda like can and tasted like non carbonated cream soda. Supposedly according to the owners daughter *who was sort of embarrassed* her father said it was a rare delicacy. At only $1 per can, this must have been made with

PS ... their ice coffee rocks.

[miss saigon]

>>bizarre Vietnamese fruity drinks

These are actually not considered drinks, but rather desserts known as che (pronounced like "chap" minus the "p"). Wouldn't describe them as bizarre so much as delicious.