No soap on my cast iron please

One of the first Vietnamese foods to capture my heart was banh xeo.  A rice flour crepe with shrimp, pork and mung beans served with fresh herbs and Nước mắm.  Banh Xeo 46 has been written up many times and is not a new discovery.  Everyone I asked about this place said that it was one of the best in the city.  I will second that and third that.  I have tried making this dish many times but have failed to get mine to be as crispy or as thin. This restaurant is not on a main street but in alley that on the map is not so clear.  I had to get many different people to look at the address and help me find it.  As I was reading on the amazing blog about Vietnamese street food http://www.noodlepie.com/blog/banh_xeo/index.html many of these very successful restaurants do not change their digs when they become popular.  Instead it is kept the same.  

 Eating outside away from the air con and other flare is what makes these places.  This place has supposedly been around for 50 year or more and still uses the same pans.  I am starting to believe that the seasoning on your pan may be just as important as the food you cook in them.  It is still spoken about in my household when my father’s mother washed our cast iron pan with soap.  The time it takes to season a pan properly is a life long assignment.  Banh Xeo 46 certainly has not been using any soap.