 When the Viet-Spot has the green sauce, it's legit. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to another episode of our Vietnamese food series called Beyond Fun. Of course, with us, we got Richie Lee and Gucci Gabe Tramps. What's going on, guys? Super excited to try this food, man. Yeah, first time in New York, I've heard good things about the Viet food. All right, you guys, we're in front of D&D, which is what the food media refers to as the coolest Vietnamese restaurant in America. Now, I heard that is there maybe an internal debate within the Vietnamese-American community? Does our food need to be elevated? Does it need to bring in all this and bring it in and all that? Because it was pretty good at eight bucks. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I feel like we're not having for both. You know, you want to go there when you're chill, and then you also want to go to a spot when you want to dress up and wear everything. So, I feel like there's room for both. For me, I'm just excited to taste what a $15 bun meat tastes like. Okay. D&D, let's go. All right, what up? We're here with the owner, Tuan D&D. Tell us what you were trying to accomplish with this spot, because I think, you know, some of the people in the food media said it was like the coolest Vietnamese spot that, you know, they've ever seen before. I mean, did you set out to do that, or what was the goal? Whether it's cool or not, that's like Louis Gazood, and what's really trying to step it up in terms of the Vietnamese-American dining experience, which means food, design, service, all that. So, we're just trying to level it up. That's what we're trying to do. This time, it's not about our grandparents. It's not about our immigrant families doing the food. It's not about us doing the food. So, you know, we're bringing some young talent. You can see that on the menu. I think we're trying to elevate based on, like, what our experience is. We're talking about Vietnamese food. We always make a point of saying that we're Vietnamese-American, and that's really the perspective of what it is. So, you know, we all grew up eating our mothers' recipes. We understand, like, where they're coming from. But at the end of the day, it's our time, it's our voice, and it's really our palette and our taste that we have to trust. So, we're just taking it over. We're taking it to the next step. So, we're carrying over from that generation to our generation. So, this is what we're doing. And it's still true to who we are. It's still authentic to being a Vietnamese-American. All right, you guys. I got to ask you guys. Richie gave you guys a both-spent-some-time in Vietnam. Have you had this dish? No. Never. I mean, I'm excited to try it with the Inoki mushrooms. You don't see bit dishes incorporate Inoki mushrooms very often. So, I mean, I'm excited to try it. But it doesn't surprise you there's a dish you haven't had? No. Dude, there is, like, so many dishes coming out. I'm still learning about new dishes. It's still his day. And, uh, you know, it's really interesting. I don't know if it's the same yip, but yip in Cantonese means leaf. So, it couldn't be... That's good. That's hot. Oh, that was green sauce. This bomb-ass sauce. He just called it the green sauce, bro. Fud in northern pho with an egg yolk. It's really interesting. The beef almost reminds me of some, like, yakiniku or Korean barbecue beef because they grilled it. It was really interesting for me to have that egg yolk diffused into the beef broth. I've never had beef and egg yolk before. It's not really a common pairing, but it kind of makes the broth a little bit milky. And overall, man, I like this dish a lot. I would say it does taste pretty different than your standard southern pho though. It's like... Not as, like, beefy. Right. With ginger scallion sauce and the egg yolk. So, Tuan was saying that, obviously, initially, I'm like, yo, is this kind of their fusion of Hainan chicken? He says he is. It is authentic. They do eat this style in Vietnam, but it's probably regional. You know what I love about that? Yo, the ginger scallion sauce is fire, by the way. It didn't make sense. There's nothing that makes sense. You know, usually with fusion, there's like a reasoning. There's like, you know what I mean? He's just like, hey, we like ginger scallion with chicken. Throw it on there on the dish, you know what I mean? Honestly, when I think of pho, pho guy doesn't even cross my mind. It's totally not as popular as beef pho. But after tasting this, I'm a believer. The broth is so much lighter than pho ball. And honestly, you know how people gravitate to pho after a long night out? You know, pho guy is a better choice than pho ball. So you're saying the chicken pho is a better hangover cure than beef pho? Yes. All right, going on to the bun cha ka. This is one of my favorite dishes in the entire world. I love this with the dill and everything like that. It's, uh, I never have Asian food with dill. Bun cha ka, fish sausage ball. I don't know when the last time David ate his plate that clean. Every last noodle. Bro, he did say, in the world, his favorite. I think for me, it's really impressive the way that, uh, D&D maintains that authenticity while completely flipping it visually too. I think people try to do that and not accomplish it, but they accomplish it. They just did it enough to still respect like the essence of the traditional dish. They flipped it. I wouldn't even call it flip, just elevated it. It's really cool that we're talking about like elevated Vietnamese food. I remember when we used to do these videos, the main discussion was always like the war or like, you know, north or south or whatever. But like we're talking about different subjects few years later in this narrative. The narrative, the conversation has already evolved. Yeah. I was just thinking of thinking like larger picture and I was like, man, this is really cool that Vietnamese food has now gone to these different, you know, areas of the United States. And honestly, I'm proud like from the drinks to like the cocktails to the food to being here in Brooklyn in a great neighborhood. It's really cool to see. All right, you guys, moving on to the Bun Meals. They're doing some interesting things here. They're pouring out the bread to make sure the ratios are correct. Yeah. Salt and pepper chips. They carved out the little, hot pocket right there basically. I've seen this on YouTube when I searched a Vietnamese street food and they're making Bun Meals. Really? Sometimes they carve out the middle to stuff it so that, you know, the meat can fit in there more. Who wants an egg? Who wants a tofu? Guys, I want to try the tofu. We said he handmade that. I think you got to try the tofu because you're being to me, speaking friend over there. He made that with his hands. Oh, that is true. You made this tofu. I made this tofu. I took the soybeans, I blended it, I squeezed it by hand and I coagulated it. I never had tofu made by a white guy, so that was my first time. He speaks a Viet. So he wants to speak some Viet for us people? Hey Gabe can talk to you. Gabe, Gabe. Oh, big nothing, big. Bun Meal on a Portuguese bun. Yo, the pate is fire. With that slight hint of Maggie. Yo, this is it. Don't sleep on the Maggie. This is a vegetarian pate on the tofu one. I'm going to give this one as far as the vegetarian bun me goes. Five out of five. So Richie, I went to Bamboo Desserts back in Kent and they have this rice paper salad that kind of looks similar to this. Yeah, this is actually utilized for a lot of different dishes. I actually know this dish to eat it with coagulated blood. It's like almost like a secret item in a lot of restaurants. You got to kind of be in the know because you're actually not legally supposed to have it on the menu. So a lot of spots that you know, like my parents or my siblings would know, but they often use this type of cracker. Shrimp and mango salad. What I really enjoy about this dish is the kind of grilled roasted and fried dried shrimp and the fried shallots. And that's what I love about Vietnamese food. They really utilize the fried shallots in their cooking and it adds so much flavor and just sprinkling that all into the salad. This is not one of those salads where you're like, oh, I need a bite with meat every single bite. Like, this really kind of infuses the shrimp meat and juices in it. Last but not least, guys, this is kind of their flip on a classic dish by using the short rib, right? Boom, zoom, ah, boom. Grilled short rib and vermicelli. Beep short ribs adds that char that really changes the whole flavor of char. You guys taste that the short rib might have been grilled with almost like some fish sauce in it. In the marinade, they definitely add some sort of fish sauce or soy sauce. It really reminded me of a rice plate type of short rib. All right, guys, we just ate through the entire lunch menu here at D&D. Like we said, food media calls this the coolest Vietnamese restaurant in America. I can't cosign, I can't deny it. But let me just tell you this, the food is incredible here. This is one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants. Of course, you know, I have, I go to Flo Grand a lot too, which is about $7 a person. But as far as spending money here, it seems well worth it. I mean, that's just my takeaway. I don't know, Gabe. You know, for me, when I typically get Vietnamese food for lunch, you just go to like a Vietnamese deli, get like a real cheap banh mi or something like that. But it is definitely a nice switch up to get something just a little bit more elevated than that. Man, I'm just really happy that the discussion is going beyond what we always used to talk about in every single episode. Now it's like, we're talking about new things and that's how it should be. People should be pushing the mold. And I love that, you know, my people basically are really killing it. All right, guys, thank you so much for watching that video. I hope you guys liked it. Hit that like button, click subscribe, check out Richie's channel. You guys know him. Check out Gabe's Instagram down below too. In the comments down below, let us know if there are any other restaurants or cultural hubs around New York or the East Coast. You would love us to try and also what your favorite Vietnamese dish is that maybe it's kind of rare. And why do you think of the elevated versus traditional debate or is there no debate? Anyway, you guys, huge shout out to D&D. Follow them on social below, Richie, Gabe. Until next time, we out. All right, you guys, we just wrapped up at D&D, but we were kind of just walking through Brooklyn and they have like such weird obscure concepts here. We had to stop by Russian Hour Cookies. Woo, guys. Man, it looks crazy. I thought it was an arcade. I thought it was a paraphernalia shop. I don't know. Apparently it's open by rice gum and tea pain. Right. Right. And I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Yo, if you buy six cookies, you get two chances to get free cookies shooting free throws. So we're definitely doing that. And I think we may have a lane violation. That's right. Yanis took more than 10 seconds. Here's the haul. I have a blue cookie wrapped around a chocolate chip cookie. Mine is rainbow on the inside. Brush out cookies. It tastes just like a McDonald's apple pie. And that's a compliment. Yo, I like my my cake really wet. The cookies are wet. Like, this is like a, I don't know, man, it almost tastes like a half baked cookie. Yeah. Round two. Whoa. I didn't taste the cake, but you know, in Matilda, when the bad kid had to eat the cake on the whole stage, this is what I envisioned his cake was tasting like. That's like the fifth time you referenced the Matilda cake. Hey, top 10 movie in my opinion. I don't know what you guys think. Top 10. Top 10. What I like about rush hour cookies is that people are taking a risk. Clearly it's like a super wacky concept, super wacky branding. Everybody's doing this like postmodern, you know, hipster thing right now. They said, we're just gonna do what we are. Hey, no, it really feels like the identity of hanging out with some friends on the couch. Be like, hey, we should start a cookie company. Aim, aim about, you know, and shout out to them for showing the faces of the owners, the Asian and the black guy. I think, you know, that's just, that's just, it's cool.