Ba Le

The delicacies of Southeast Boston

by Rob McKeown

on the cheap

Colleen's October 5 Bestsellers Café September 28 JJ Sushi September 21 Café Rustica, September 14 Fusion Express, September 7

Ba Le is more or less a really, really good deli, but with a Southeast Asian twist: it substitutes shredded salads for slaw, steamed buns for doughnuts, lychee juice for Veryfine, and smiling women for teenage-boy counter workers. At this Dorchester establishment, owned by Vietnamese proprietors, the choices are so many and so cheap that it's hard not to get into an eyes-bigger-than-your-stomach situation. The summer rolls ($2 for three) are the best in the city: stunningly translucent rice wrappers stuffed with vermicelli, lettuce, carrots, shrimp, cilantro, and scallions. Fried spring rolls ($1 each) are plump with mushrooms, pork, and tofu. A combo plate ($4.95), piled to Prudential-like heights with starchy rice noodles, well-caramelized pork chops, and a flaky pork pie ($1 on its own), is all sweet meatiness. It's even crowned with a fried egg.

Better still is the banh mi (Vietnamese for "sandwich"). Choose from Vietnamese pâté, ham, grilled chicken, meatballs, or beef. Then sit back and watch as the sandwich lady slathers the meat with acid-sweet Vietnamese mayo and layers it with cucumber, cilantro, chili sauce, nuoc mam, and shreds of carrot and daikon. The best parts of all may be the crusty French roll -- courtesy of Vietnam's Indochina years -- and the price, a mere $2.

Ba Le, located at 1025 Dorchester Avenue, in Dorchester, is open daily from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Call (617) 265-7171.

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