(Credit: John Graham)
Cheap seats: You drive past Oriental Super Market all the time. It's the one with the three faux stone statues out front. The trio represents "Luck, Long Life and Prosperity." That's also the shop's Vietnamese name -- Phuoc Loc Tho. It's an old Rooms To Go showroom, selling everything from fresh seafood and green tea to yam candy and a stinky fruit called durian. Just past the door is a little counter where they make your sandwich.
Cheap Treats: Oriental Super Market starts its bánh mi with a good crispy baguette (that dates back to the country's French Indochina days). Instead of mayo, a thin layer of pâté is spread on the baguette and topped with a few slices of meat. Typically, that's pork, and I'm pretty sure all three meats in my sandwich qualified. A tip: If you're afraid of headcheese, you might ask them to skip that slice. It tasted good to me.
Instead of lettuce and tomato, bánh mi are topped with marinated daikon radish, cilantro and slivered jalapeno. It's a flavor combination that's foreign to a lot of American taste buds, but it grows on you. Even the priciest versions rarely crack $4. I eat bánh mi at least once a month.
Walking the aisles, I spotted a bag of cheese rings for 99 cents, a Filipino version of Cheetos. I was pulled in by the supercool cartoon space soldier, apparently firing cheese rings out of his arm. The "Cheese Flavored Snack" inside? It doesn't have as much powered cheese goodness as the American version and it's weirdly sweet. I think these might be better in a bowl, covered with milk.
Coco Loto ($1.29) is from Thailand, a coconut-flavored "juice" with perfectly suspended bits of roasted coconut. They just hang there. Remember a drink called Orbitz with little goo balls floating in it? It's like that. Coco Loto tastes fine, but I've only recently learned to like those tapioca pearls in bubble tea. Enjoying soggy bits of coconut will take a little more time.
Cheap Gas: Oriental Super Market doesn't make the best bánh mi in town -- but at two bucks, their sandwich is pretty solid. I didn't care for the chips or drink, but I picked them, so I guess that's my fault. Next time, I'll get the shrimp chips and a Pepsi.
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