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Viet Noodle Bar – Los Angeles (Atwater Village)

Published

on July 7, 2010

in Bo Bia, Cha Ca Thanh Long, Goi, Los Angeles, Restaurant Review and Vietnamese

. 14 Comments

While I was living in Vietnam, one of the most popular restaurant trends was repackaging traditional street food with Western aesthetics in mind. Dubbed “air-con street food” by the expatriate crowd, these joints served Vietnamese fare in comfortable settings, complete with competent waiters and English language menus. While I didn’t care too much for these sterile eateries, places like Pho 24 and Bun Bo Xu were extremely popular with middle-class locals, tourists, and expats.

I thought that I had left air-con street food behind me when I moved to Los Angeles, but the moment I stepped into Viet Noodle Bar in Atwater Village, I was instantly transported back in time. Something about the exposed brick walls, sleek furnishings, and the romantically dated Vespa on display was reminiscent of District 1, Saigon.

Viet Noodle Bar serves a hodgepodge of Vietnamese dishes to a hip and trendy crowd. According to the Los Angeles Times article “Inspired by a World of Ingredients”, the restaurant’s owner, Viet Tran, traveled across North Vietnam for five years and studied noodle-making and soy milk-making in little villages. Viet Soy Cafe in Silverlake and Viet Noodle Bar were inspired by his experiences abroad.

My posse of noodle-goers [Laurie, Diana, and Anjali] and I started with an order of jicama spring rolls, also known as bo bia ($5). Rolled to order, each one was filled with tofu, a jicama and carrot slaw, fried shallots, and a basil leaf. A sweet hoisin dipping sauce was served on the side. Although I generally prefer the non-vegetarian version of this dish, the freshness of the ingredients, especially the powerful punch of the basil, made me forget about the missing Chinese sausages and scrambled eggs.

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Xie Xie – New York City

Published

Gastronomer

on October 27, 2009

in Asian Fusion, Banh Mi, Cha Ca Thanh Long, New York City, Restaurant Review and Vietnamese

. 18 Comments

New York City is currently experiencing an exciting banh mi renaissance. Chefs of Vietnamese decent, as well as those who are inspired by Vietnam’s culinary traditions, are taking the humble banh mi and giving it a shiny makeover. In place of the usual mix of cold cuts and head cheeses are thoroughly novel ingredients, like juicy Polish kielbasa and spicy curried beef. In the process of redefining Vietnam’s beloved street food, banh mi has become a household name throughout all five boroughs. Julia Moskin covered this trend last April for the New York Times in her piece “Building on Layers of Tradition.”

While visiting New York, I made it a point to sample a nontraditional Vietnamese sandwich. California is bursting with delis serving banh mi, but I have yet to encounter a shop marching to a uniquely fusion tune. For the time being, New York City is the epicenter of banh mi version 2.0.

An excellent post on Serious Eats brought The Astronomer and me to Xie Xie, Chef Angelo Sosa’s prettily appointed Midtown shop. The offering that caught my eye was the Cha Ca La Vong ($8.75), which is named after a famous Hanoi restaurant that specializes in cha ca Thanh Long. A northern Vietnamese dish, cha ca Thanh Long is comprised of tumeric-marinated fish sauteed over high heat with green onions and fresh dill. I didn’t grow up eating cha ca Thanh Long, but became mildly obsessed with it while living in Vietnam.

Chef Sosa’s cha ca-inspired sandwich was seriously spectacular. Mingling with the generous fillet of turmeric-laced tilapia was Sriracha-infused mayonnaise, a sweet onion jam, and loads of fresh dill. When the sandwich arrived at our table, the smell of fresh herbs smacked us both in the face, just like it did while dining in Hanoi. The toasty baguette kept the fish in place and held onto every last sprig of dill. Of all the amazing foods I ate during my latest journey to New York City, it’s this sandwich that I cannot get out of my mind.

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Xie Xie
645 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10036
Phone: 212-265-2975

Viễn Đông Restaurant – Garden Grove

Published

Gastronomer

on July 5, 2009

in Bun Rieu, Cha Ca Thanh Long, Orange County, Restaurant Review and Vietnamese

. 12 Comments

Little Saigon, a sprawling suburban neighborhood in Orange County, is home to the largest population of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. While I am familiar with Saigon’s culinary scene, when it comes to its American counterpart, I still have much to learn.

The city’s major arteries of Westminster, Brookhurst, and Bolsa are bustling with businesses hawking everything under the Vietnamese sun: from music to clothing to house wares and of course, food. What’s most notable about the Vietnamese food found in Little Saigon is the regional diversity. The distinct culinary styles of Northern, Central, and Southern Vietnam are well-represented and executed as authentically as America allows.

Growing up an hour and a half south in San Diego, I used to travel to Little Saigon with my grandparents every couple of years to visit their friends who resided in the area. The highlight of these trips for me was the meals we shared at Viễn Đông restaurant. My grandparents always dined here for the Northern Vietnamese fare (mon bac)—specific regional specialties that aren’t in my family’s culinary repertoire.

A recent road trip to San Diego with The Astronomer provided the perfect excuse to revisit Viễn Đông.

Viễn Đông is housed in a clean, spacious, and impressively understated (by Vietnamese standards) space. The restaurant was fairly empty the late Friday afternoon we dined, which meant prompt and pleasant service from start to finish.

I ordered a bowl of bun rieu oc tom moc ($6.75), one of my family’s standbys at Viễn Đông. Even though I’ve been back in America for nearly a year, I still can’t get over how large the portions are at Vietnamese restaurants here. The enormous bowl of bun rieu was filled with hunks of fried tofu, ground crab, vermicelli noodles, meatballs, tomatoes, and periwinkle snails. The orange-tinged broth was hot and sour, just the way I like it.

The bun rieu was served with a plate of garnishes that included bean sprouts, shredded romaine lettuce, a wedge of lime, and mam ruoc (fermented shrimp paste).

The Astronomer’s Cha Ca Thanh Long ($12.95) arrived on a sizzling platter that filled the air with the awesome scent of seared fresh dill. The generous fillet of turmeric-laced catfish was adorned with heaps of onions and scallions.

Everything about this dish was excellent, except that it wasn’t served Hanoi-style—in a pan atop a butane burner. The sizzling platter cooled down too fast, leaving the green and white onions mostly raw.

Accompanying the fish were warm vermicelli noodles, a mountain of fresh herbs, rice crackers, and toasted peanuts.

The perfect bowl of Cha Ca Thanh Long marries all of the ingredients together—a layer of noodles topped with chunks of fish, a smattering of peanuts, shattered rice crackers, an abundance of aromatics, and a drizzle of mam ruoc or nuoc cham.

Our Northern Vietnamese lunch at Viễn Đông left us stuffed to the gills and full of giddy memories from our travels.

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Viễn Đông Restaurant
14271 Brookhurst Street
Garden Grove, CA 92843
Phone: 714-531-8253