THIS IS PART reality and part dream. There was me and there was my littlest sister, Orange Pop. There was my brother Phenomenon and his girlfriend, my friend Deevee. There was a baby, cutest little kid in the world, and the first one I think I ever ate with in a professional capacity: Oscar de la Hair-a. Kid didn't belong to any of us but was being baby-sat by Phenomenon and Deevee, his semiregular baby-sitters. And there was a homeless guy Rudy. He's the part I dreamed, but I wanted to put him in this review, too, just to see if he'd say anything.

"Hi," he said. "I'm Rudy."

The place was Evergreen Garden at 18th and Harrison. Used to be Hung Yen, the Vietnamese restaurant. Now it's Evergreen Garden, this other Vietnamese restaurant. Still got the greenhouse, only now it's long since been not as much of a greenhouse as it used to be. It's more of a house house with long tables set up for big groups or banquets or special occasions.

There are also some outside tables, in case of a beautiful day. And there's the inside-the-restaurant room, of course, which seems slightly nicer than it used to be. There's one big painting of – I want to say a pitcher, but the truth is I forget what it was. I remember recessed yellow, purple, and green lights, and weirdo Muzaked versions of "Tennessee Waltz" and "Save the Last Dance for Me."

Rudy wanted to know where the words went. He was joking. His face looked sunburnt and tanned and peeling and pale, all at the same time, depending where you looked. He had a bit of a beard, eyes like a Peg-Board in an abandoned shack.

"When was the last time you were in an elevator, Rudy?" Phenomenon asked him, apropos of very little.

"Long time, long time," Rudy said. "Pass the soy sauce."

We were eating, in no particular order, spring rolls, vegetarian spring rolls, chicken salad, some kind of chicken noodle soup, vermicelli with barbecued pork, egg noodles with vegetables, and a sort of a curry omelette. Oscar was eating his feet. He has teeth but he doesn't quite eat food food yet, because, according to his baby-sitters, he doesn't understand yet about chewing. At any rate, he can't be counted on to chew things before swallowing them. Kids! Babies! Know what I mean?

Spring rolls. Two of them with neatly aligned shrimps and folds of pork, lettuce, sprouts, cold-style – you know the deal – for $5.25, which seems like a lot until you realize that by two they mean four, really. Vegetarian ones are the same price, but who wants those? (Orange Pop, damn the traitor.)

Chicken salad ($6). I was wanting the lemon beef salad, myself, for comparison's sake; I remembered especially liking that dish at Hung Yen. But Deevee pushed for chicken. Deevee was a devotee of Hung Yen – more so than me, I think, although I did love the place. So maybe lemon beef would have been too emotionally charged for her. Anyway, the waiterguyperson backed her up: chicken salad was better, he said. It was spicy as heck, but I didn't like it. Deevee did.

Bamboo shoot chicken noodle soup ($5.75). Phenomenon's call, and a good one, although, again (and with all due respect to chickens, who are still my favorite animals), when I eat Vietnamese soups and salads I think beef beef beef. They do have a couple different kinds of pho, which, if the chicken soup was as good as it was, which it was, I can only imagine how good the pho would have been. Next time.

Vermicelli with barbecued pork ($6). Another standard favorite, and it was excellent. The pork was perfectly done, slightly charred outside and still juicy inside. I don't think this dish has ever let me down, anywhere, including Hung Yen. Evergreen's is at least as good as its predecessor's.

Stir-fried egg noodles with vegetables ($5.75). Surprisingly (because there wasn't no chickens or porks or beefs in it), this was my favorite dish of all. Very simple and straight-tasting, for Vietnamese food, but the noodles were deliciously buttery and perfectly cooked, and the vegetables – most memorably the celery, but also the broccoli and carrots and whatever the hell else was in there ... everything seemed just exactly right, as if this were the dish that the cook made for himself or herself every night after work. Or better yet, before it, still fresh.

Vegetables with egg in curry sauce ($6). I don't eat eggs in restaurants. You know that. But I tried this dish and it was very good too. Just a pile of stir-fried vegetables capped by a thick layer of eggs and smothered in a relatively subtle yellow curry. Rudy?

"Hmm?"

Evergreen Garden. 3100 18th St. (at Harrison), S.F. (415) 621-8531. Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Takeout available. Beer and wine. MasterCard, Visa. Wheelchair accessible.