Photo by Photos by Craig Collier/Special to The Commercial Appeal, Photos by Craig Collier/Special to The Commercial Appeal
An order of Green Bamboo Egg Rolls includes 10 small rolls, a nice selection of fresh veggies to wrap them in and a variety of sauces for dipping.
The Green Bamboo, a Vietnamese restaurant in a shopping strip, is almost hidden behind Steak 'N Shake and Chow Time Buffet.
But it's worth ferreting out for the tantalizing foods on the menu including traditional noodle soups or phos, other noodle dishes and curries.
Photo by Photos by Craig Collier/Special to The Commercial Appeal
An order of Green Bamboo Egg Rolls includes 10 small rolls, a nice selection of fresh veggies to wrap them in and a variety of sauces for dipping.
Chua Chun soup with chicken is large enough to share with a whole group of diners.
Tilapia curry is a spicy entree -- a freshly battered and fried fillet lapped in a sauce redolent with curry coconut milk and lemongrass. The sauce is spicy hot, so ask for mild if you don't want a kick of heat.
The dining room at Green Bamboo, at 4205 Hacks Cross, can get quite crowded during weekdays.
We started a recent lunch with an order of 10 diminutive crisp egg rolls that are encased in rice paper before frying and then enclosed by the consumer in a lettuce leaf with fresh sprigs of mint and Vietnamese cilantro.
When the double-wrapped delight is dipped into the familiar sweet fish sauce, it is irresistibly good.
Next came a huge bowl of Canh Chua, a flavorful soup that combines sweet, sour and neutral ingredients such as chicken, bean sprouts, okra pods, tomatoes and chayote, a squash relative also known as mirlitons in Louisiana.
The sweet comes from chunks of pineapple and sour is supplied by a hint of tamarind in the broth. This was a new dish to me and while it was well prepared and interesting, I find pineapple chunks in an otherwise savory soup not suited to my Western tastebuds.
Our server said the restaurant's curries, available with chicken, shrimp and beef, were among its most popular dishes so we selected a tilapia version from the lunch menu.
A freshly battered and fried fillet is lapped in a sauce redolent with curry coconut milk and lemongrass. The sauce is spicy hot so ask for mild if you don't want a kick of heat.
My ginger-loving companion chose a beef dish featuring thinly sliced tender bits of beef sautéed with onions, red onions and fresh ginger. It was fragrant and tasty with a hint of sweetness.
Vietnamese cuisine is big on noodles. They are found in pho or soup and in entrees such as the pork vermicelli that I sampled after reading an Internet article where it was proclaimed one of the most popular dishes in the cuisine.
The Green Bamboo version has thin slices of pork cooked until crisp yet still tender. I don't know if the meat is actually grilled but it was so good it didn't matter. It's served with thin rice vermicelli and a small portion of freshly grated carrots and lettuce. Chopped peanuts are sprinkled over all and the ubiquitous dipping sauce.
I didn't know what to do with the veggies so I added them to the noodles and pork and poured a bit of the sauce on top. It's wonderful no matter how you eat it.
This vermicelli dish is also made with chicken, shrimp, beef or in a combination of pork and shrimp.
Not being a sage on Vietnamese cuisine, I was completely surprised by the pho-to-go I ordered.
Instead of the container of the noodle soup I was expecting, I got a foam container with a small compartment of bean sprouts, lots of cooked noodles and thinly sliced pieces of onion and raw beef on top. Condiments included a container with hoisin and hot, hot chili sauce in a ying-yang type pattern and a big sprig of some kind of fresh basil.
I heated up some beef broth and added the ingredients to it, but it totally lacked the flavors of the Orient.
After consulting with someone who has ordered pho-to-go many times, I learned the restaurant forgot to give me the hot broth that cooks the beef and warms the other ingredients as soon as it is poured over them in a bowl.
So be sure you get a container of broth when you order pho-to-go from the Green Bamboo or any other Vietnamese restaurant.
Or better still, eat it in the restaurant. That's what I'm going to do as I explore more on the menu, perhaps with a grilled quail or beef skewer appetizer, other soft or crisp noodle entrees, shrimp tamarind and perhaps a grilled pork chop scented with lemongrass and other spices.
Green Bamboo
Address: 4205 Hacks Cross, No. 10
Telephone: (901) 753-5488
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily
Price: $
Handicapped access: Yes
Alcoholic beverages: No
Don't miss: Green Bamboo Egg Rolls, Pork Vermicelli, Tilapia Curry
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