It’s been an odd past few months for me – it’s summer and everyone wants to come out to play, invitations are flying into my inbox like mad, and I find myself in a whirlwind of busy-busy-busy, but… I haven’t seen my closest friends except in drips and drabs here and there. Who the heck am I finding myself busy with if I am not seeing the very people I care most about? I don’t really know…
To that end, BB recently decided we should all get together and have dinner. She chose The New French, after having read some good things about it, and we all agreed after perusing the menu and finding some yummy sounding items.
A picture of a beet appetizer; I didn’t manage to try any so I can’t say how good it was. I know it was enjoyed though, and that The New French really likes beets!
Brisket sandwich on ciabatta. I almost got this but decided that it would be hard to eat the normally chewy, dense bread without getting everything all over me, so I opted out, though I LOVE ciabatta. StB and most of our dining companions got this – StB’s opinion here. Her last line sums up my feelings nicely, but we’ll get to that later.
This is my pulled pork sandwich on brioche. Here we take a moment – before I get to my feelings on the sandwich – to explain how very stupid I am.
The New French has a mixture of both Vietnamese and French dishes on its menu. This made total sense to me; Vietnam was a colony of France for a long time, and many influences were shared back and forth cuisine-wise. It’s not an unusual sight to behold; French & Vietnamese food mingling. When I browsed the menu, though, I saw pulled pork and brisket sandwiches and – though you may laugh, I’m not ashamed! – I questioned my friends, “I get the French and Vietnamese… but where the heck did the southern influence come from? Is that why it’s new French?”
Hey, in my defense, none of them said, “Oh I think it’s because…” No one actually responded. So! it probably wasn’t just me.
I began eatin my sandwich, smushing it down, but the buttery bread began to fall apart from the juices of the chopped pork (not handpulled, but chopped, which I don’t like; I like mine to have the consistency of the brisket in the others’ sandwich better). The first thing I noticed was, well, this was not BBQ. This was not southern influenced. This was just… not. Pickled veggies, onions, inside, gave it a nice tang, and there was a slick of something slightly spicy, giving it another dimension to the flavors, but…
And then it dawned on me. This was The New French’s version of a bahn mi! I told my friends this, and after a moment’s discussion, we agreed that it was their twist on the bahn mi. And for $12.75… it wasn’t that good. At the end of the day, the tastes didn’t meld and form something amazing in my mouth, it was just alright. I had a hard time eating it, so I wound up using a fork and eating most of the meat.
The salad, however, with golden and regular beets, was delicious. I really enjoyed my salad. Bright, fresh, tangy, just right to side with some fatty meat. Unfortunately the meat in this case was only so-so.
Two of the other girls ordered mussels and seemed to like them alright. The fries weren’t bad, either.
I want to like this place, especially as I later found out earlier that same day, two people whose online presences I appreciate greatly dined there and liked it… and people in general seem to like this place! My final decision is that the majority of the dishes we sampled were flops, we ordered improperly and need to go back for other items. Will I go back to try the good dishes? Unlikely. But I don’t want that to stop you from trying.
Yvo says: Well, the salads were fantastic, and they do something amazing with the beets they so love (raw as they may be in your salad, or roasted in the appetizer, making them taste “like candy” one of the girls said). The sandwiches are less than impressive, and as I’ll always stand by, there is no reason to pay so much for pho, when you can get delicious pho for $5 a bowl in Chinatown. With everyone and I mean everyone else who’s been here disagreeing so loudly with me, though, I’ll accept that we ordered the wrong dishes, and that there must be some standout items here. (Service was friendly, great even- the waiter noticed my camera and asked if we wanted a group picture, and we obliged, though I won’t post that here; the atmosphere and the overall place was very cute.)
no decision (yes, I snuck a baseball term in here, hehe)
***Don’t forget to enter my contest to win “Fish without a Doubt: The Cook’s Essential Companion”!!! Go go go!
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