Cong Ly - Vietnamese for the iron stomached

When I was 23 and serving as a wide-eyed, unemployed juror in Manhattan's downtown courthouses, we the jury found lunch every day at a Vietnamese restaurant called Nha Trang on Baxter St.  It was my first Vietnamese...and taught me to love the healthy combos of rice noodles, cilantro, lemongrass, chili, and grilled meats that seem to define the stuff.

Since then, I keep chasing the dream by trying to find better and better authentic Vietnamese places.

My Vietnamese laundromat manager - who looks like he might keep a mogwai under the counter  - told me to try Cong Ly on Hester St.  Said it was better than Nha Trang and Nam Son - my other Chinatown favorite.  With a big caveat, he was right!

Now Hester street is far out of the way Down East, if you live anywhere normal.  That, along with the grubby ambiance and B sanitation rating, gives Cong Ly its firm underbelly status.

The menu was graphically supportive, with color pictures to reassure you about what you were ordering.  Of course, I don't look at pictures.  I just read the articles.

I judge all Vietnamese places by how they do my favorite standards.  Starting with the iced coffee...which they don't brew at the table like some places, but which you build Martha Stewart style at the table.  Nice and strong, but with a bit of cardboard taste.

My king of Vietnamese delicacies is the goi cuon roll.  It's a fresh finger of steamed shrimp, scallion, cilantro, noodle, sprouts, and maybe other stuff, served cold and dipped in peanut sauce.  

Cong Ly's roll,  below, was like a great translucent grub waiting to be bitten into.  That might sound wrong, but in fact it's very right.  These were the best goi cuon I've had that didn't cost $10+ at some fancy Viet-fusion place.  Two rolls were $4.

Then on to a crowd favorite - grilled beef lumps with a side of pan-cooked rice noodles sprinkled with peanuts and scallion.  Some pickled carrots and cucumber on the side.  Perfectly good, charred taste.  Can't say I've had better...but not something that definitively stomps on competitors'.

So what's the catch?  Why not 9-10 bellies?

1) My friend Yanny said her goi cuon shrimp tasted "funky".  Not like the town...more like the feet.  Mine tasted OK, but what do I know?

2) Later as I was eating my rice noodle side-dish, I detected about 2% taste of the "funk" about them.  It didn't taste intentional or good.  I shrugged and kept eating.

3) After my meal, it was time to visit the bathroom.  Like cave diving...you squeeze through the kitchen, rubbing elbows with bowls of raw meat and bushels of scallions, before pushing aside some mops to reveal the bathroom door. 

So...if you ponder your chances of catching food poisoning every day, Cong Ly is not for you.  If you want to go native and taste some great Vietnamese recipes, I'd encourage you to come here.

I give Cong Ly seven bellies.  8 hours later, I'm still hale enough to write.