Rice Paper, The Eden Center, Falls Church, Virginia

I finally — finally — made it to the Eden Center, thanks to Doug Herbert, who lives only seven minutes away. Doug, of course, is our Senior Idaho, Mississippi, and South Texas Correspondent , and he gets to the Eden Center often. The Eden Center is a large shopping center and mall at 6775 Wilson Boulevard in Falls Church. It’s filled with Vietnamese and other Asian restaurants, grocers, and stores. You could spend a year eating your way through this place. I may try.

I don’t eat much Vietnamese food except soup-season pho these days, although I had extensive experience with Vietnamese food in Texas and California in connection with voting rights cases for Vietnamese citizens. All the ordering would be done by local Vietnamese in Vietnamese as I sat nodding amiably. I was rarely sure what dishes I was eating, but I always enjoyed it. I was looking forward to experimenting at Rice Paper, and particularly eager to do so with Doug.

I got there a bit early and advise you to do so — perhaps five minutes before noon. There is no line before noon, but the crowds start to pour in with the stroke of 12. As it happened, Doug was delayed a few minutes by a dead animal disposal call (not the sort of issue you can let sit), but the malevolent forces of the universe were balanced by the immediate opening of a table for us.

We sat back at the last table on the right. As you can see it’s a nice-sized space, well lit and clean in a way that stands out. The noise level was not an issue, just normal-level conversation in Vietnamese.

Doug and I each ordered an unsweet jasmine iced tea and studied the menu. We first settled on an appetizer, Hến xúc bánh tráng, also known as #19. The menu describes it as “Baby clams with pork sautéed w/special spices, herbs served with sesame rice crackers & peanuts.”

It tasted delicious. The idea is to put some on a piece of the sesame rice cracker, or else just eat the clam and pork mixture plain. The meats come with cilantro/coriander leaves and a lime wedge to accent the chile pepper, lemongrass and … turmeric(?) flavors. The pork and clams were pleasantly chewy, while the rice crackers, which at first glances looked like granite, add a lot of crunch, but little in the way of flavor. This is an excellent dish and a fine start to the meal.

We shared two main courses. First was Gà Xào Sả Ớt (#30), described as spicy stir-fried lemongrass chicken on jasmine rice stewed with fried chili pepper and turmeric ($16.00). The accompanying jasmine rice was fragrant and tasty.

What flavor! I can’t recall a chicken dish with more depth of flavor. The dish was spicy but not particularly hot, and I wonder what they included beside the listed ingredients to make that sauce. It was a huge hit, and the dish is a must order.

Our other main was #88, the Combo platter. The combination included a grilled seafood and a grilled pork skewer, two grape leaves wrapped around grilled ground beef, one shrimp paste-wrapped sugar cane, thin vermicelli patties, abundant lettuce, basil, and mint leaves, along with some carrot and peanuts.

The platter came with two small dishes of sweet-spicy sauce, and. one small dish of hot pepper sauce. For serving the dish came with a pack of large translucent rounds of dry thin rice paper attached to a water-filled contraption for wetting and softening the rounds.

You dip one rice paper round into the water at a time and turn the round to wet the entire paper. The rice paper begins to soften immediately, and you place the round on your dinner plate.

Then you place some of the skewer and other goodies onto the paper and roll it up, much as a spring roll or, as the server suggested, a burrito. Easy, no?

Well, it may require some practice. Have you ever purchased off-brand plastic wrap that ended up as a shapeless blob that you have to pull apart to use? The rice paper is similarly adhesive, and timing and dexterity can make a real difference. At the very worst, however, you’ll have an unshapely but delicious concoction. Or you can wrap the food in one of the lettuce leaves.

The meat skewer was nicely seasoned pork that went well with both sauces, and with the assortment of “sides” on the platter. The seafood skewer contained a large scallop and some tender squid. Both had a good flavor and, again, they benefited from the sauces and sides. The sugar cane shrimp, as it’s called, was ground shrimp fashioned into a dense paste that hugged the sugar cane. It was okay, but hardly the best use of shrimp. The beef wrapped in grape leaves, on the other hand, was well seasoned. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

It was a fine meal, and Doug and I had a good time swapping stories about the bad old days in the Deep South and good places to eat. Rice Paper certainly is one. The combination platter tasted good and was very accessible, but the clam and pork appetizer and the chicken were the stars. I’d happily order both again but for a temptation to try other items on the menu. I recommend Rice Paper and the Eden Center in general if you haven’t been. For those of you who are regulars, please let me know your favorites. What should I try next?

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