Help with composing a complete Vietnamese dinner for 3 *updated w pics

Cooking for the girlfriend and another guest this Saturday. Want to try something different.

For the main dish I'm going with a family style 7 flavor beef with steamed rice

Looking for some ideas for starters whether it be salad, soup, or other appetizers

Preferably I'd like it to be something that can't be found at any run of the mill Vietnamese place.

Also, I don't mind steering away from Vietnamese if a Chinese/Thai/Malaysian/Singapore type dish would go well with the main.

I'm stumped

So I guess I'd be an arse if I didn't update with pics and some explanation of my nonsense so here we go.

Seven Flavor Beef: The 7 flavors are

Lemongrass
Ginger
Garlic
Sesame Oil
Chinese 5 Spice
Dried red chili flakes
Fish Sauce

Used a skirt steak cut against the grain and marinaded with the 7 flavors. Marinade recipe I had was a bit dry and pasty so I added a little more sesame oil and a bit of sochu to get the liquid in.


To plate the dish, take one thinly sliced red onion and some bean sprouts and cook on high heat for about a minute or so. Then sear the beef and cook until medium rare, fairly quick process given the thickness of the cuts. Toss with a couple tablespoons hoisin sauce, garnish with green onions, ground peanuts, and thai basil. I served with Jasmine rice.



Close up


Made some spicy fried shrimp as an app

The batter is a bit odd, I'd post the recipe but I'd rather give credit to the source. Got it from rasamalaysia website. I'd highly recommend her cookbook "Easy Chinese Recipes" Her website is also a treasure trove for great recipes throughout Asia.
https://rasamalaysia.com/dynamite-shrimp/2

I did change up the recipe a bit. I put more hot sauce and also added some of the mae ploy sweet chili sauce. Garnished with green onions which wasn't mentioned in recipe, thought it gave it a little more color.