Spring rolls may or may not be bought in but they are better than passable. We order pretty much everything from a concise menu and the dishes arrive as they are cooked. She’s a one-man-band in the open kitchen, playing all of the hits from her Saigon repertoire and we are eating it up. Jolin herself is a real pistol, animated, engaging and endlessly helpful. I recall being rendered turgid by the flavours at a place called Viet Hoa on the Kingsland Rd in East London some twelve years ago and feeling aggrieved that we had nothing like it back home. Dublin has never been spoiled with Vietnamese food options and this continues to be the case. As a native San Franciscan, a city with a noted South-East asian community, she’s something of a connoisseur of the cuisine. My feed-partner and I are joined by the lovely Clara and her charming husband on this particular week night. You would be inclined to rouse yourself from the television torpor rather than order in of a Wednesday.
This is the kind of place you’d be very pleased to have within walking distance of your place. Formerly Harold’s Café, it is situated on an unlovely stretch of upper Clanbrassil St just opposite MVP. It’s here to make you feel happy and replete and also to provide you with coffee, Vietnamese style.
The purpose of Jolin’s Vietnamese Coffee House however is easier to divine. I choose not to share them with my dinner guests. These and other questions occupy me as I sit down in this amiable and light-filled room. Nevertheless other such ‘shops’ persist in the city, which leads me to question, why in this internet age of porno ubiquity, do we need them? What need do they service that is beyond the remit of the Jizzhuts or Spankbanks of this digital world? Could it be that they cater for deviances so unsavoury as to require the human touch? Could it be squid-porn? Perhaps they are merely sanctuaries in which like-minded onanists hang out to swap friction-related horror stories? So they’re in the same racket but coming at it from a different angle I guess.
I see that the ‘adult’ shop down the street from Jolin’s has pivoted and has now rebranded as a Thai ‘massage’ joint.
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