Review: At Pham's Kitchen, enjoying fresh bread, bún chả, and counting my blessings

Cheektowaga's Vietnamese star is instant hit, thanks to owners' standards and know-how

Bread, mayonnaise, pate, cold cuts - it’s all housemade in the $7.75 special bánh mì at Pham’s Kitchen

If you want to know the most genius dishes humans have invented, this is truly the best of times, and the worst of times.

Digital realities mean a billion eaters can grab an image of their heart’s delight and share it with the rest of us. Fiscal realities mean you’ll collect hankerings you will never extinguish.

Bún chả was inscribed in my life craving list, the dishes I want to meet before I die, in the mid-aughts. A British expat in Saigon posted street food to a blog every week or so: bánh mì, the crusty filled-to-order subs; phở, beef noodle soup served with herb bouquets, often for breakfast.

Having earlier experienced a minor bánh mì dependency in Manhattan, where Vietnamese grandmothers dealt toasted-to-order sandwiches wrapped in rubber-banded newspaper out of a restaurant approximately four feet wide, I was looking for another taste when I stumbled across bún chả.