If You’re Game, It’s on the Menu

Snake salad probably won’t ever rival Caesar or Cobb on the American salad hit parade, but it’s a hot seller at Phong Dinh in Rosemead.

If you order it, don’t expect to find something slithery and ominous-looking. The snake meat looks as much like a snake as hamburger looks like a steer. This Vietnamese-style snake salad is a beautiful arrangement of ground meat with fresh, fragrant herbs and crunchy tree-ear mushrooms, all tossed in a sweetish, lightly spiced vinegar dressing. And it’s fun (and delicious) to eat: You scoop up mouthfuls with dainty pieces of the puffy sesame-studded crackers (banh da) that garnish the platter.

Phong Dinh actually bills itself as the home of “World Famous Baked Fish” (a large baked catfish served with rice papers and dipping sauce is its best-selling entree), but the menu devotes whole sections to such once-rare meats as venison, ostrich and boar. They may seem downright pedestrian, though, next to the kangaroo in XO sauce (a fashionable Hong Kong bottled sauce), the alligator in rich curry or the several dishes made from fox.

To the Vietnamese, exotic game meats may bring to mind traditional up-country meals, but in some circles they’re the “it” food of the moment--you half expect Anthony Bourdain to brave his way through Phong Dinh’s door with a Food Network camera crew in tow to exploit the novelty of tender goat hot pot with kai choy for “A Cook’s Tour.” Ostrich, once too weird to think about eating, now gets a thumbs-up from nutritionists who favor it as an ultra-lean alternative to other meat.

And Ted Turner is turning bison into populist fare with his new chain of bison-burger restaurants, Ted’s Montana Grills.

All this is good news for Phong Dinh, which has cultivated an image as a Vietnamese-style Saddle Peak Lodge, albeit far more casual. A photo mural of tumbling waterfalls spilling into lakes and streams covers an entire wall. The scene evokes Vietnam’s central highlands around Dalat. Famed for its cool forest groves, it was where French colonists and well-heeled Vietnamese escaped Saigon’s unmerciful heat to relax in French villas bathed in the waterfalls’ mist. They also went there, as people still do today, to dine on the local fish and game.

Most of the tables in Phong Dinh’s wide-open dining room are big round ones seating eight, 10 or 12. A few smaller tables are pushed into the corners, but the restaurant caters primarily to large groups. I found this out the first time I went there. I ordered chicken foot salad--mostly chewy tendons and spicy shredded cabbage--and another dish of ground ostrich wrapped in la lot leaves and rolled into pinkie-size cylinders, and the orders could have easily fed six.

The next time I brought a group of friends eager to experiment. The service was solicitous but nobody ever gave us that line, “You won’t like that.” Our young waitress, clearly American-raised, didn’t try to dissuade us when we inquired into the various preparations of alligator. She told us the alligator came from Louisiana--and that she thought maybe it was eaten in Vietnam too.

We were sure kangaroo is not typically eaten in Vietnam, but everyone wanted to try it. This version (No. 91) came in thin slices marinated in garlic and lemon grass. They bring you cubes of butter to lubricate the table-top grill, which adds needed richness to the lean, mild meat, wonderful right off the grill.

Despite the alligator’s ferocious reputation, its meat too is mild. Alligator luc lac style (No. 107) is cut into cubes and drenched in brown glazy sauce under a sprinkle of chopped peanuts. The meat is arranged on shredded lettuce and surrounded with tomato slices, giving the platter the look of a festive banquet dish.

Still, the snake salad (No. 111) was the hit of the entire meal. A close second was fox with glutinous rice (No. 79): a rich, meaty brown stew of fox accompanied by crisp polenta-like squares of compressed rice.

One guest took home the remaining kangaroo and the leftover alligator, which he thought would interest his children. When they come back, he’s going to see if they’ll give the fresh frog a try.

Phong Dinh, 2643 N. San Gabriel Blvd., Rosemead. (626) 307-8868, (626) 280-7799. 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Beer, wine. Parking lot. All major cards. Main dishes (most serve six to 10 people) $10.95 to $42.95; baked fish $25 to $45. What to get: baked fish, snake salad, kangaroo grilled at table, fox with glutinous rice, alligator luc lac.