Most in the D.C. area offer variations on these basic ingredients: a pork preparation (shredded, roasted, barbecued), pâté, cold cuts (including those divine slices of head cheese for crunch), pickled veggies, slices of jalapeño, a mayo-based dressing, and some cilantro garnish, all on a crusty mini-baguette. But I have never seen anything as elaborate as this banh mi, which Anthony Bourdain wolfed down during a No Reservations trip to Vietnam.

I'm not even sure what some of those ingredients are. What's that reddish looking sauce clinging to the sides of the baguette? A fish sauce-loaded hot sauce perhaps? And a fried-egg finish? Good God, I've never had such a thing around here — but I'm dying to find one soon.

Compare the banh mi that Bourdain pounds down to a combination banh mi  that I bought this weekend at Song Que:

It was tasty, yes, but I gotta think we're missing out on some decadent banh mi in our parts.

The Food: Vietnamese curried beef jerky.

Where Spotted: Song Que, the Vietnamese deli in the Eden Center, 6769 Wilson Blvd, (703) 536-7900.

The Background: Thuan Lai, manager of the tricked-out new Song Que, tells me that beef jerky, in all its many forms, is a staple at Vietnamese street markets. Like Americans, Vietnamese eat their jerky as a snack. (It can also be served, in thin strips, in papaya salads or simply over rice.) The real-deal Vietnamese jerky apparently can't be imported into the United States (I have not verified this with the FDA; this is blog after all, people!), so there's a company in California, prosaically named New Jerky MFG Inc., that sells the dried beef wholesale. Song Que buys some of its jerky from California, but employees make the curried version in-house. Lai says that's because curried jerky is less complicated to make than other versions.

How's It Taste?: Not like you think it would. The dried beef doesn't have that tough, used-saddle leather consistency of some American jerkies. It's moister and more pliable than those razor straps you can buy at 7-Eleven. It's also sweeter. Sugar is an obvious component to the curing process. (Here's a video on how to make Vietnamese beef jerky, though it's not the same as this one.)

But if the curried jerky starts out sweet, it finishes with heat, a medium-grade burn that lingers long on the tongue. It's quite pleasant, particularly because all these other flavors dance around the fire. If I had to guess, I'd say the flavorings include paprika, cloves, nutmeg, and fennel seeds. There's a distinct liquorice quality to the snack. I passed the jerky around this office today, and to a staffer, everyone loved it.

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When the Lai family decided to close its signature restaurant, Huong Que/Four Sisters, in the Eden Center this year and move to the more mainstream environs of Merrifield, it left a rather gaping hole at the Vietnamese shopping center in Falls Church. The store fronts that face the parking lot at the Eden Center are coveted positions, the kind of places that businesses located inside the grungy center would kill for (or at least maim for). Fortunately for the Lai clan, they still controlled the lease on the Huong Que space, and they knew exactly what they wanted to do with it: shift their cramped deli, Song Que, into the significantly larger spot.

The new and improved Song Que opened earlier this month in the old Four Sisters space, and it is, in a word, magnificent. It's larger (naturally), which makes it easier to move around in without bumping into your fellow customers, but it's also easier on the eye. There are some gorgeous, illuminated pictures of Vietnam placed discreetly over the dry-goods shelves. The place is also more user-friendly; there's a sit-down eating area, where you can take your banh mi or bubble tea or Vietnamese dessert and quietly enjoy them while watching flatscreen TVs flicker more gorgeous imagery from the Vietnamese countryside.

Thuan Lai, the youngest son of Kim Lai and Thanh Tran, is now the manager of Song Que, and he and him mom, Thanh Tran (pictured above), have a few ideas on how to expand the menu that has served the deli so well. They're planning to put in a grill to start serving dishes like lemongrass beef over jasmine rice; they're also planning to expand their line of Vietnamese ice creams, among other sweet treats.

Huong Que used to a destination place at Eden Center; now, I'd say, it's Song Que.