Soup From Blue Lagoon -- You'll Find Chinese Egg Noodles Served Vietnamese Style

EXPLORING.

The most vibrant collection of new cultural diversity in the city has got to be the blossoming of ethnic eateries between the east edge of the International District and the upper end of the Rainier Valley.

Most of it is Vietnamese. Block after block is becoming remodeled, renewed, reconstructed. Neighborhoods that a half century ago were predominantly Italian American and later African American are now vigorously Southeast Asian.

Located in the middle of this, at the junction of Rainier Avenue South and South Dearborn Street, is the Blue Lagoon - where I have spent considerable time sipping soup and trying to solve a Southeast Asian mystery.

Has anyone figured out what to do with the coffee grounds drip container that is served with the French-Vietnamese specialty Cafe Sua? Without making a preposterous mess of the table top?

I have mastered the ambidextrous nature of Vietnamese noodle soup slurpery: Chopsticks in the right hand; soup spoon in the left. Probe, lift, slurp; dip, sip. I may not come off as an old Asia hand, but I don't embarrass myself.

Not so with the little steel coffee maker.

If I had not discovered the delights of strong, French-roasted Vietnamese coffee, floated over a dense base of condensed milk, I probably would have been better off. The table tops certainly would have been.

I love the stuff (much better than lattes!). But I invariably make a sodden disaster of at least three napkins.

Here's the problem.

The coffee grounds (ground fine) go into a small metal canister. A stemmed sieve goes over the top. Hot water is poured in, trickles into the grounds and VERY slowly filters through into a cup below, which has the pool of milk already in it. A small metal lid covers the whole process.

After it is all done, you stir up the results from the cup below and dump it all into a tall glass filled with ice, which you blend with a tall spoon.

It takes so long to filter through, however, that I usually make the drink in stages. And when you lift the drip canister off to pour out the coffee, it continues to drip, of course.

Sometimes on the rim of the cup. Sometimes on your shirt sleeve. Always on the table.

After one particularly disgusting lunch, during which four napkins were soaked with misguided coffee drippings, I confided my concerns to Ha Ong, who owns and runs the Blue Lagoon, which is also known as the Mi La Cay.

"Don't worry about it," he said with a laugh. "Just set it aside and enjoy the coffee. It isn't too strong for you?"

Strong, no. Sloppy, yes.

Ha Ong took over the Blue Lagoon three months ago. He is not new to the restaurant business, having managed the Cafe Kim in Renton - owned by his parents - for more than a decade.

Ong is Vietnamese Chinese. That is, he is ethnically Chinese but his family is from an area 15 miles from what was then called Saigon. Which explains the menu, and the restaurant's alternative name on the sign outside, Mi La Cay.

The Blue Lagoon specializes in soup - but not pho, the beef soup of Hanoi becoming very popular locally. "We don't serve any pho," Ong said. "Pho has rice noodles. La Cay is a district of Saigon famous for its Chinese egg noodles. Mi means noodles.

"We serve other things, too. But mostly people come here to eat the Vietnamese Chinese noodle soups."

It is quite different from pho - more delicate, more subtle and perhaps a bit more complex. The base is a light, clear chicken-pork-duck stock in which a wide variety of things are cooked, including the ultra-thin egg noodles (reminiscent of the kind used in Singapore-style curries).

You choose the combination of ingredients you want, (everything is under $5) and an array of Southeast Asian herbs, greens, sprouts, etc., come along with it, as well as spray of bright green lettuce leaves served over the top of the soup.

It looks, indeed, as if given a choice of soup or salad, the cook couldn't decide and served both in the same bowl. In any case, it's both visually attractive and sensually delightful.

The noodles are not local.

"We have them shipped up here from another Mi La Cay in Santa Ana, Calif.," Ong said. "It is owned by relatives. These are Chinese noodles cooked the Vietnamese way, not at all like what you get in Hong Kong. Instead of just throwing the noodles in some pot of water, which doesn't have enough power, we heat the broth in a deep-fryer, so that it boils very fast. It makes the noodles jump up."

The cooking time is brief, if brisk, and the finished product still is firm to the bite, but tender.

The Blue Lagoon, in tones of deep-green jade walls and carpet with modernistic black and white chairs, offers an intentionally limited menu.

"I didn't want to be like every other Vietnamese restaurant," Ong said. "And I didn't want to be another pho restaurant either."

A dozen soups are on the menu, with a representative sampling of oyster sauce lomein (mi kho dau hao) dishes, another eight bowls of more typical Vietnamese rice noodle soups, and some steamed-rice combinations and chow-mein dishes for the culturally confused.

The lomein choices are similar to the soups, except that the noodles and meats are served separately from the broth.

The most popular choices are mi dac biet ($4.25) with shrimp, pork and chicken, mi vit tiem (also $4.25) "duckling" noodle soup with three or four substantial cross sections of duck breast, and the mi ga quay ($3.75), barbecued chicken noodle soup.

On the table are containers of pickled, sweetened jalapeno peppers (soaked for a day in sugared vinegar and water to mellow), a dark, dark red hot sauce that looks as if it would melt most metals but is surprisingly gentle (hot but not ferocious) and a squeeze bottle of hoisin sauce (which is used only for the bo vien (beef ball specialties).

The fresh flavors, the bursts of greenery over the top and the thin, bright yellow noodles with contrasting meats and seafood combine to make meals that seem to be brimming with health and nutrition - while at the same time easy on the budget.

There is no alcohol. A nonsmoking area is provided, but the place is small (77 seats) and many of the younger patrons smoke.

Oh, the solution to the coffee splatter situation. Ha Ong demonstrated.

You wait till all the coffee water drips through (lifting up the top filter to let more water through, if it seems too slow), then remove the top lid and place it upside down on the table.

Put the drained drip container on the lid. Stir the rich, dark, French-roasted coffee into the condensed milk. Pour it quickly over the ice in the accompanying tall glass. Pick up the coffee maker and put it back over the empty cup, and replace the lid.

As they used to say in Vietnam (before the surrender at Dien Bien Phu): Voila.

Cute place, good find, great value and a cool, exotic feel.

# # $ Blue Lagoon - Mi La Cay, 718 Rainier Ave. S. Lunch and dinner (under $5) 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; until 2 a.m. Friday, Saturday. No alcohol. No credit cards. Nonsmoking area. Reservations: 322-6840.

(Copyright 1993, John Hinterberger. All rights reserved.)

John Hinterberger's food columns and restaurant reviews appear Sundays in Pacific and Fridays in Tempo. Tom Reese is a Seattle Times photographer.