Banh Mi BA LE Vietnamese Restaurant/1052 Dorchester Ave Dorchester, MA 02125

The Four Dollar Lunch.  Not too common, but that's why I'm here, to find these things for you.  Now let me be clear: Cheap≠Good.  Take Taco Bell, for example.  Point made.  Moving on, this four dollar lunch is actually quite good.  It can be found at at Banh Mi BA LE Vietnamese Food Place.  No, that's not exactly what it's called, but it is more than just a restaurant, but also not quite a restaurant restaurant considering there is not one seat in the place.

So I suppose it is a take-out spot, but with more than one kind of self-serve beef jerky by the pound in big plastic bins, tapioca pudding with yucca and banana, coconut dessert, flan, and green dessert things with bubble tea balls in them in the fridge (oh believe me, that is only the beginning as far as sweets in the fridge goes), sticky rice with pork and things wrapped in banana leaves, Vietnamese Sandwiches, noodle dishes of varying types, hot foods that include fried chicken and ginger chicken, fish dishes, pork and beef dishes, sausages, spring rolls, bubble tea, Vietnamese coffee, I could go on and on because it certainly doesn't stop there, but it really needs to be experienced to understand.  Let's just say they have a lot of bases covered without spreading themselves too thin because, quite frankly, they have run out of room to spread themselves any thinner.  I mainly go here when I realize that it has been two or three weeks since I have eaten a fruit or a vegetable and get the rice noodles with fried tofu, broccoli, green beans, celery, and whatever else they have decided to throw in for the day.  Noodles are served with either soy sauce sauce or fish sauce sauce.  

The shrimp spring rolls are nice and healthy (they offer sausage spring rolls too) and are served with peanut sauce or fish sauce sauce.  The spring rolls are $3 or $4.  They have been in the process of raising prices lately from "how the hell do they make any money at this place" low to just ridiculously low.  I would suggest the chicken wings over the breast.  This breast was pretty greasy, the wings not so much.  The ginger chicken picture does it very little justice.  This stuff is great.  $3 for a small order (the same for an order of wings) or $5 with rice.  The sticky rice is best, but they don't make it all that often.  So that is a lot to take in, I realize, but this little Food Place is a lot to take in in person too.  The good thing about Bahn Mi BA LE is that almost everything I have tried here is good to very good.  The bad, and there is little bad to say, is that even with the huge amount of stuff they serve, they won't necessarily have today what they had yesterday if you happened to like it.  Or the next day, or the next, or the same day next week.  But the good here outweighs the bad by a lot, and chances are that whatever you end up trying will be good.  On top of that, it is quite a sensory experience. 

Caribe Restaurant/Uphams Corner/14 Hancock Street/Dorchester, MA 02125

More often than not, even somewhere that you may not be that fond of has some sort of saving grace.  Other than Gary, Indiana, that is.  But even Gary probably has a decent barbecue joint or two.  Caribe Restaurant on Hancock Street in Upham's Corner had no such saving grace today.  Today was not the first time I thought about stopping here.  Parking is tough, and Yanet is not far away, but today I took the plunge.

Mondongo (the best of the bunch, believe it or not)

 What a waste of time.  This is a day that I have somehow dreaded.  I knew that it was inevitable, but my first really bad review of a restaurant was not something I was looking forward to.  Not only because I realize that running a restaurant is hard and some little shitbag talking badly about your restaurant is the last thing you want to deal with at the end of the day, but also because I have enough bad meals within the course of a week.  A purely horrible meal, although par for the course at some point considering this is a food review blog, is never a welcome prospect.  If I go to a Latin restaurant that I have never patronized, I know that at least trying the chicharron will make for a worthy trip.

Boring Chicharron

Even the chicarron at Caribe is boring and basically flavorless.


I didn't even have the urge to eat the pieces of fat and skin that I usually leave so that I can fool myself into thinking that the meaty part of the deep-fried fat back is some how perfectly fine, healthy cuisine.  I never leave all of them mind you, just 40-70%.  You can take what you would like from this review, since my main meal was bacalao and mondongo with rice and beans.  The majority of those that live in this country would touch neither bacalao nor tripe, but I happen to very much enjoy both of these delicacies.  After a very disappointing appetizer in the chicharron, I tried the bacalao, which tasted like it was cooked in either ketchup or Hunt's tomato sauce and nothing else. Except maybe some extra salt because it was rediculously salty.  Even after drowning it in hot sauce it was close to inedible.  And the rice was horrendously dry and flavourless.

Questionable Bacalao w/ crappy Yellow Rice

Keep in mind, that I walked in here at a little after 5 p.m. on a Friday.  You may want to show your A-game at dinner time on a Friday.  Just a suggestion.  I question myself as to why I didn't just walk right out without ordering, because nothing looked particularly good or fresh.  What looked the tastiest, and I hope that I don't regret this for the next 3 or 4 days, was the mondongo, so against any kind of intuition, I decided on that.  That may be akin to getting sushi late at night on a Sunday after an early evening blackout that National Grid is still working the kinks out of in an establishment that was suspect to begin with, but I hadn't eaten since 11, so I was hungry and not thinking straight.  The only good thing about the mondongo was the sauce it was in, but the tripe itself was stinkier than it should have been and had kind of a fishy taste.  Like I said, I hope I don't regret this for the next 5 or 6 days.  Gross.  That's my final verdict.  The food here is gross.  No way will I go back.  Don't bother.  I'd go back to Gary, Indiana before I'd ever bother going back here.

Besides, Yanet is right around the corner.  So don't waste your time here.

Yanet Restaurant/ 734 Dudley St./ Upham's Corner/ Dorchester, MA 02125

Sweet, sweet Yanet Restaurant.  It's in Upham's Corner.  The parking is more than tricky, and the traffic sucks at rush hour, but it is oh-so worth the trouble.  Crunchy, salty, meaty, fatty, chicharron is just the beginning.  The yucca here is perfect in every way, though minus the red onions.  Depending on the day, you can find 4 different kinds of rice.  I prefer the yellow rice with green peas, but yellow rice with sausage is a special weekend treat.  The bacalao at Yanet is tied for the best I have ever had.  Not only is it soaked perfectly, but the onions and peppers are fresh, crunchy, and a perfect addition to the feigned-fresh fish.  The baked chicken is tender,

Yellow Rice w/Green Peas, Bacalao, and Baked Chicken

moist, and substantial whether you order the $7 small or the $9 medium (this pic is of the $9 medium).  There is a lot more to choose from at Yanet, but I am addicted to the chicken and bacalao.  Stewed beef, chicken, pork, oxtails, take your pick.  If you are hungry, Yanet will not disappoint.  On top of the wonderful food, Yanet, the owner, is the sweetest abuelita you have ever met.  Go now.  Eat it.  It will make you happy.