Vietnamese dining in Chicago continues to expand. So far, most of the proliferation of new Vietnamese eateries has occurred in the ”new Chinatown” neighborhood centering at Broadway and Argyle Street.
The latest venue for good Vietnamese cooking is Tana, a large storefront facing Broadway. Tana prepares a variety of regional specialties from around Vietnam, and it serves them with good grace and humor.
Vietnamese cooking expresses both native originality and a sophistication inherited from French colonial overlords. It combines the delicate finesse of freshly stir-fried vegetables and the raw power of fiery hot peppers sprinkled throughout rich sauces.
The main ingredients of Vietnamese cooking recall some classic Cantonese dishes, but the addition of Southeast Asia`s distinctive fish sauce, garlic and citrus flavors give the cuisine its basic character.
Like the first wave of Thai restaurants that started inundating Chicago a decade ago, the city`s first Vietnamese restaurants have been simple affairs
–long on good food, short on ambience. Refreshing as this newly arrived cuisine might be, Vietnamese cooking in Chicago has yet to reach the gastronomic heights achieved by the Vietnamese restaurants that pepper Paris. There, continued French influence has accelerated the cuisine`s evolution, producing brilliant hybrids such as roasted baby chicken stuffed with a light pate and enhanced with a typical Vietnamese red pepper sauce.
Tana doesn`t pretend to Parisian artifice. Its plainness fits right in with standard Chicago Vietnamese restaurants. The large, boxlike room has only a few artifacts recalling Southeast Asia. Bare, plastic-topped tables and straight chairs increase the room`s pronouncedly institutional look. The family-run restaurant operates more smoothly than when it first opened, and the waitress now seems less confused by customers` questions.
Diners` biggest difficulty at Tana is to avoid overordering. Each item on the menu sounds better than the previous one, so it`s no mean feat to stop when you know you`ve ordered enough. Tana`s menu makes the problem worse. Its layout sorts most of the offerings by straightforward categories like pork, beef, chicken, seafood, and the like. Then there`s a whole back page of items listed with full Vietnamese names. It`s hard to resist sampling some of those appetizing mysteries as well.
Tana`s custom of providing a bowl of soup with dinner adds to the overordering problem. This complimentary soup changes daily. One night`s chicken soup came steaming to the table, sending out light aromas of coriander leaves. The delicate broth didn`t overpower the simple herb, and the chopped chicken meat gave the soup plenty of body. Another night`s hot-and-sour soup didn`t satisfy as well. Topped with a few drops of sesame oil, it smelled like a typical Chinese hot-and-sour soup, but the flavor lacked any vinegar tang. Although the broth looked rich, its thinness made it seem as if it were made from tea rather than meat stock.
Tana has hidden away most appetizers on the menu`s last page. There it lists cha gio, a lot of people`s favorite Vietnamese dish. Also called imperial rolls, these appetizers stuff a rice-paper skin egg-roll fashion with finely shredded meats and vegetables. Lighter, smaller and crispier than standard egg rolls, these taste best dipped in a thin, spicy sauce of fish sauce, garlic, lime and hot pepper. To control the sauce`s fire and add contrasting texture, these rolls are typically eaten wrapped in lettuce leaves with some sprigs of fresh coriander or mint. Tana uses a heavier wrapping than other places for their cha gio and eliminates the lettuce. (If you insist on authenticity, ask for salad with the rolls.)
Lettuce leaves, herbs and sliced cucumber appear with one of Tana`s best appetizers, banh xeo, described oddly on the menu as ”Vietnamese pizza.”
Maybe they mean ”taco” since what arrives at the table is a crepe-like affair folded over into a half-moon. Bean sprouts, some bits of meat and shrimp stuff the interior of this sandwich. The thin egg pancake surrounding the filling just barely holds in all the stuffing. More fish sauce and the greens make one order of this dish easily serve four as an appetizer.
Banh xeo (you don`t have to know how to pronounce these names; you can just point to them) has a rival for top billing in thit bo cuon trang. This appetizer comes in two dishes, one holding thinly sliced grilled beef sprinkled with chopped peanuts, the other translucent sheets of steamed rice paper. Diners have to move quickly to spread out a sheet of thin rice paper, lay on a few slices of beef, add some sauce, and roll it up carefully into a cylinder. Like the fried rolls, these appetizers taste best wrapped inside some lettuce leaves and dipped in fish sauce. Because they`re steamed, not fried, this appetizer is lighter and less filling.
Although Tana`s entrees taste fresh and please even neophytes` palates, they have an unsettling similarity. Virtually every entree has the same combination of bean sprouts, sweet peppers and straw mushrooms. Some recall Cantonese favorites.
The bed of crisply fried noodles supporting mixed meats and vegetables in cho lon noodle reminds one too much of chow mein. The seemingly acronymically named AET & TSQ sounds like the Chinese favorite–shrimp in tomato-ginger sauce–from the menu`s description, but it`s much milder, almost bland. Tana serves a variety of orange-flavored dishes, each distinguished by its main ingredient. Orange-flavored chicken pleases with its pronounced citrus tang, but the beef version needs a detective to discern any remnant of the expected tangerine taste.
The menu lists a deep-fried whole fish, but the smart diner takes the owner`s advice and asks for the fish steamed. Despite the pike`s webbing of many fine bones, customers savor every morsel of the juicy fish swimming in a deep brown sauce redolent of ginger. This is about the only really expensive dish on Tana`s menu, priced according to market and therefore nearly double the cost of other items on Tana`s economical menu.
TANA
(STAR) 5100 N. BROADWAY/878-3642
Vietnamese
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Mon., Wed., Thurs.; 11 a.m.-11.p.m. Fri.; 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Sat.; 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sun. Closed Tues.
Price range: Appetizers: $1.95-$5.25, entrees: $3.95-$8.95, desserts: $1.95-$4.95. Dinner of appetizer, entree, dessert, tax and tip: $10-$23 per person. Credit cards: MasterCard, Visa. Other: No liquor; bring your own wine or beer.
New rating system
The ratings reflect the reviewer`s opinion of the food in relation to price compared with other similar restaurants in the Chicago area. Reviews are based on no fewer than two visits. More visits are made when necessary. The reviewer makes every effort to remain anonymous. All meals are paid for by The Tribune. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR) Outstanding
(STAR)(STAR)(STAR) Excellent
(STAR)(STAR) Very Good
(STAR) Good
Fair
Poor
