In both places, hawkers sell the soup morning, noon and night, customizing each bowl with specialties like golden puffs of fried tofu, juicy bean sprouts, tiny eggplants stuffed with fish paste and crisp-fried sheets of tofu skin.
The hummus has pleasing body and a pronounced nuttiness, whether paired with chickpeas, fava beans, juicy eggplant or wild mushrooms ($6.95 each; $8.50 for a sampler).
However the standout dish is the bánh xèo tôm thịt (A$17/£10), a simply enormous rice flour and turmeric crepe, crammed with juicy pork, prawns, bean shoots and vegetables.
Though the finished product might not look like much to the casual observer, this is a complex, deeply flavored dish: the noodles (both egg and rice vermicelli) are stir-fried in lard and prawn stock, then tossed with juicy fresh prawns, bean sprouts, and bits of scrambled egg.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Juicy buns, dumplings, scallion pancakes, red-bean stuffed buns, steamed vegetable buns, marinated roast duck, squid with mushrooms, any fish dish, pork shoulder, eel and shrimp over pan-fried noodles, combination casserole.
Bake for an hour, until the beans are juicy but not swimming in liquid.
Juicy tomatoes and squeaky beans are still some weeks away from coming into season, along with just about all the other goodies that I am so impatient for.
They're not just for show — both the pork chop, a juicy medium atop cannellini beans and a lemony red-cabbage slaw, and the red-wine-braised beef shin, served with marrow and polenta, are enormous.
And while the potato slivers beside tea-smoked lamb in a black pepper sauce could be mistaken for soggy, underdone McDonald's fries, the lamb is juicy and the green beans that round out the plate are crisp.
I would much rather come back inspired to cook the local speciality, bigoli in salsa -- whole-wheat spaghetti in a syrupy sauce of slow-cooked onions and anchovies -- or a plate of juicy coral shrimp with beans the deep damask pink of a Venetian palazzo's walls, than return laden with Murano glass and feathered masks.
