Baby (food) steps for the bro

I am so excited. Recently took the kid bro (the pickiest eater ever, I don't know how we're related sometimes) for Korean food (soondubu) and ... he actually liked it. Then I took him for Lebanese food (chicken tawook) and again, he really enjoyed it.

Hallelujah, praise Buddha.

Not that I blame the kid. Honestly, I accidentally trained him to have zero faith in my cooking/taste ability. Growing up, the best thing I could make was tossing slices of deli ham onto the pan and frying it up with a dash of soy sauce. I have no idea why, but I could eat that all day. I still do that sometimes with Canadian bacon just for nostalgia's sake. Other than that, there was fried eggs, scrambled eggs, french fries, french bread pizza -- easy peasy stuff.

The first time I attempted to cook a real meal for my brother was when I was 18 -- I think. I tried making a mundane baked chicken breast. Except I totally overbaked it and it was dry and pretty gross. To this day, more than a decade later -- he still won't let me forget about that. Then came rock-hard muffins. Runny cheesecake. And then just a few months ago, I thought I could finally redeem myself after all these years by making him one of my specialities: Spinach lasagna. I barely got to boiling the noodles and preparing the filling when I wound up giving myself second degree burns and I had to go to the ER, leaving my brother to finish making the rest of the lasagna.

He felt so bad about what happened that he lied and told me the lasagna was delicious. Sigh. I swear I'm not a lousy cook. I bake awesome oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I make a mean chicken noodle soup. My arrabbiata sauce kicks arse. Sigh.

I guess I'll have to resign myself to taking my brother out for good food instead of making it for him ...

Tan Cang Seafood, hold the lobster

I've always said that Tan Cang is to many Asian families what Red Lobster is to many American families, an easy go-to for seafood. This is where my dad wants to go almost every time we go out to eat seafood as a family. Father's Day? You'll find us here. My dad's birthday? Here again. Of course he'll also order the same things every single time, too: The house lobster, stir-fried with scallions and oyster sauce; cua rang muoi (salt-and-pepper crab); sup mang cua (crab asparagus soup) kung pao chicken and fried rice. It used to be a big deal when we were kids, but I think I've outgrown it and all those seafood houses -- Tan Cang, Seafood Cove, Royal Capital, Capital Seafood -- all becomes a giant, monotonous blur.

While I enjoy dipping the lobster and crab chunks in the simple but tasty muoi tieu chanh (lemon, salt and pepper sauce- an absolute must-have for the crab, lobster and calamari), the whole meal just doesn't hold that much appeal to me. Thank goodness on our most recent visit that we decided to change things up just a wee bit, in part because the lobster shot up from $10 a pound to $16 a pound.

Ca chien rang muoi tieu or crispy fried fish fillet (pictured above): My favorite of the meal, prepared in almost the same manner as calamari except with sauteed scallions and fresh jalapeno that really lent some nice heat (and color) to the dish. Ask for some fresh ot or jalapeno and chili for you to pour some soy sauce over for another tasty dipping sauce. I alternated dipping the fried foods into the lime/salt-pepper concoction and the spicy soy sauce, sometimes both!

Muc chien don (calamari): These were fried to a perfect crispy crunch, delicious when dunked into the little sauce dish of lime squeezed over ground white pepper and salt. Although, in hindsight, the fried calamari and fried fish were too similar in offerings.

Bo luc lac (shaken beef): The fam loved this, but I thought it was OK. Nice flavor, good sauce, the meat was very tender but I need that kiss of char on the meat, dangit. Fresh slices of tomato would have been nice too.

House shrimp with cashews: Bleh. The sauce was too oily and slick and where were the cashews?


I'm not the biggest fan of kung pao chicken -- but my brother loves it. Sadly, he gets it sans chili and sans peanuts, boo.

Tan Cang Newport Seafood
18441 E. Colima Blvd.
Rowland Heights, CA
626.839.1239

Mom's Mi

Mi or egg noodle breakfasts have become a monthly routine for my family. At least once a month, we'll meet at Kim Tar in Cerritos for their yellow egg noodle soup with soy sauce chicken. This time, my mom decided she wanted to make it at home instead. Well, she forgot to factor in how hot it gets in her 'hood. Temperatures hit 91 degrees before noon.

Apparently she had been toiling away in the kitchen the day before to make the broth, bless her heart. She had to remove about a pound of fat from five pounds of pork bones that she simmered for hours. (She also threw in a chicken too, to add more sweetness to the broth.)

Then she handmade the hoanh thanh or won-ton dumplings. Then marinaded the thit xa xiu or BBQ pork. She picked up a soy sauce chicken from a Chinese BBQ shop and used bo vien or beef meatballs, too. I know, this egg noodle soup had a lot going on.

I can eat pho at a moment's notice but mi is a bit heavier, the broth a bit greasier. There's a lot going on for just one bowl: Two kinds of noodles -- the thin yellow egg noodle, rice vermicelli -- xa xiu, soy sauce chicken, meatballs, baby bok choy and stalks of green onion (which I love in soup), and a tiny smattering of deep-fried onions. But when mom spends all that time cooking, you better slurp down the entire bowl.

Dear Food Diary (part deux):

Ha, I just realized that I use food to chronicle my life ... I really wanted to blog about my ma's awesome attempt at recreating a signature Hanoian dish she sampled while in Vietnam: Cha Ca La Vong, or Sizzling Fish with Dill and Vermicelli Noodles. But I forgot my digicam that day and I'm waiting on my kid bro to send me pics from his cam. Which could take forever, depending on when he decides to take a break from WOWing or whatever. Nerd. Not that I'm one to talk (see corny pic above, my ode to Old Vine's magical meatball) ...

So while I wait on those pics from the sibling ... here are some snaps of favorite foods I've devoured recently:

Crispy fish noodle bowl at Xanh in Fountain Valley. The nuoc mam or nuoc cham dipping sauce there tastes just like mom makes: Garlicky and citrusy.

Sigh. I always get this at Old Vine Cafe -- handmade fettucine pomodoro ... nothing fancy, and that's what I love about it.

Negi-toro roll at Murasaki in Santa Ana: Ruby toro with green onions. Yum.

Another Old Vine mention: Beef Stroganoff. Satisfying but somehow still light.

Another Xanh favorite: Goi xoai or green mango and green papaya salad with the most perfectly grilled shrimp!
Uh, instant ramen: Nong Shim Spicy Shin Bowl. Don't judge!

Ohhhhh. I'm drooling just remembering this: Kona Kampachi with Delta Asparagus Panna Cotta and Radish Salad, drizzled with a bright splash of tangerine vinaigrette. This was from Disneyland's California Food & Wine Festival and the dish came courtesy of none other than Chef Andrew Sutton of Napa Rose. The Kona Kampachi was luscious and rich and the radish was a unique complement and that touch of acid was just perfect.

I also really enjoyed the kanpachi or Hawaiian yellowtail sushi at San Shi Go in Laguna Beach, of all places. The fish was firm and slightly sweet, but the clincher was the dab of yuzu and tiny specks of Hawaiian sea salt atop the sushi.

Aw yeah, hello you amazing thing. Cafe Hiro's interpretation of Panna Cotta. It's a lighter version, more of an airy and milky pudding than dense custard.

The girl in me finds the sliders at Bouchees Bistro in Long Beach irresistibly cute, especially the mini- crab cake sandwich.

This was another fusion offering at the delightful Cafe Hiro: The Peking Pork, a cute play off of the Chinese Peking Duck served with sweet buns. Here it's served with a tangy duo of sauces.

Another winner from Cafe Hiro: Seared tuna paired with buffalo mozzarella! Whodathunk? Refreshing.
While I wasn't blown away by the ramen at OC's Daikokuya, I did love the fresh and fluffy gyoza.

Ca phe phin: Vietnamese drip coffee at home

My coffee-aficionado friend has had plenty of ca phe sua da or Vietnamese iced coffee before, but he was particularly intrigued with this old-school method of using a phin or metal coffee filter for ca phe phin, Vietnamese drip coffee. You can find it at restaurants in Little Saigon but they're increasingly switching over to pre-made iced coffees. It's really easy to do it yourself at home, just takes a bit o' patience.

You can buy the phin or metal filter at most Little Saigon supermarkets for under $3.

It comes with three pieces, clockwise, from left to right: The filter, the lid and the press (the flat disc with a metal rod coming out of it).

First, pour some condensed milk into a glass. Pick a clear glass if you're a nerd like me and like watching the coffee action. I usually go with several tablespoons as it helps to cut the super potent and dark roast Vietnamese coffee, but you can always add more later.

You can also pick up a bag of dark roast coffee grounds at most Vietnamese markets, typically at the cash register. My folks go to Vien Dong Supermarket in Garden Grove for their ca phe. About $5 a bag.

Put a kettle of water on to boil. Then, before you put the coffee grounds into the filter, be sure to take out the press. Add a few spoonfuls of coffee grounds into the filter until it's almost halfway full for a strong serving. (Or roughly three teaspoons.) Place the press back into the filter and screw the rod back into place if need be. (Erik did a great job his first time -- betcha thought those large hands were mine, huh?)

Then pour the boiling water into the filter to the top. Cover with the lid and wait about 15 minutes or so.

The coffee will start drip, drip, dripping ... be patient ... after the water goes down, you'll likely want to add one more round of hot water.

Then you just stir up the condensed milk and coffee together and either drink it hot or add ice. And some more condensed milk if need be. Enjoy!

Beware: Discount pho

My parents insisted we try a new pho joint today: "It's 50% off for pho ga!" my mom exclaimed.

Why? Why mess with pho ga perfection at Quang Trung, which was just two seconds away? But you dangle 50% off in front of any old-school Vietnamese and they will bite, oh yes. "There's no way a place would have the nerve to open so close to Pho 54 or Quang Trung unless they were good."

Indeed, it was packed at Pho Vie II in Garden Grove Sunday morning. It took a tad long (ha, beyond the usual 5 minutes at other joints) for our bowls to arrive -- pho ga all around, except for one bowl of pho tai.

First thing we noticed was how greasy the broth was, giant globules of oil floated in the bowl.

But the noodles were nice and thick, banh tuoi, or fresh pho noodles. They were very silky. I much prefer the thin and velvety pho strands, but that's just me. Upon first sip, we all found the broth to be sweet, bummer. Sometimes, that can be good if it's a result of sweet marrow from simmering the beef bones. But it tasted more like sugar added to the broth. Was also disappointed to quickly discover that there was less than a cup's worth of noodles -- I was done in three to four slurps. Boo. So we really didn't save 50% on a full bowl of pho. We got exactly what we paid for: $2.75 worth.

After a few bites, my mom admitted she was wrong, something I might have witnessed maybe twice in my entire life, ha: "The pho at Quang Trung way better. Shoot."

DIY spring rolls

This hectic jumble above is my all-time favorite cook-it-yourself family meal: Thit bo cuon banh trang, which simply translates to beef rolled in rice paper or spring rolls.

Growing up, I'd help my mom do little things like make the nuoc mam or nuoc cham dipping sauce and cut cucumber into neat stacks of rectangular slices, but it was my mom who spent hours doing tedious prep work like slicing and marinading the beef -- with minced lemongrass, sesame oil, garlic, onions, soy sauce and fish sauce -- and arranging all the rau thom or herbs like diep ca (tastes just like fish I swear), tia to (red leaf shiso), mint, green or red leaf lettuce, and my favorite, rau chua or French sorrel, which taste like lemon-flavored leaves. Over the years, my mother has turned the meal into a full scale production by adding other meats like shrimp, cuttlefish, catfish and even chicken. Other recent additions include King Oyster mushrooms (huge mushrooms as thick as my wrist - delicious), zucchini, pea shoots and broccoli.

Other necessary accoutrements: Rice paper wrapper, which gets dipped into a bowl of warm water to make the wrapper pliable, and bun or rice vermicelli noodles, to use as a bed for all the spring roll ingredients.
After the wet rice paper wrapper is placed across the plate, I start off with a palm-sized piece of green leaf lettuce placed toward the bottom half of the wrapper and then top it with about a tablespoon of the bun or vermicelli noodles. Then I'll add whatever meats I want (usually what's cooked first though I tend to stick to beef or catfish) and then add the herbs and finish with a slice of cucumber.

Then I roll it up like a burrito, really -- bottom up first, then fold the two sides in and roll all the way up.

All it needs is to be dunked in some fresh nuoc cham and then into my mouth. I think the most I've ever devoured is 9, maybe 10 rolls. After that I gotta tap out. This version of table-style BBQ is a bit lighter and more refreshing than the uber-gluttonous Korean BBQ, though just barely. The rice paper wrapper is certainly not as oily as the duk or rice flour wrapper used in duk bo sam, which I have to indulge in about once a month. I'm getting full just thinking about all this.

Cupcake dilemma

Ack, I swear these cupcakes are chasing after me and totally not the other way around. Was at an event last night where they ordered a delectable assortment of adorable mini-cupcakes from Dolcissimo in Costa Mesa. I had already gotten sugary goods from this place last weekend when the cupcakery first opened. Like twice. And since then, they've been popping up here and there. At a friend's office. At a fashion trunk show. The frosting is lusciously divine, whipped and airy. I've never been a fan of vanilla on vanilla cupcakes before, but I changed my mind after a lick of the pale aqua frosting off this 'Cloud 9' confection, made with Madagascar bourbon vanilla. It's creamy perfection, with a lovely scent of rich vanilla.

Makes me feel guilty for cheating on my local bakery, Five Sweets in Costa Mesa -- because I still heart their chocolate-chip studded Red Velvets, the tasty Oreo cupcake and tangy fresh Strawberry -- all of which are more moist than the ones at Dolcissimo.

To assuade my guilt, I think I will have to go to both today for a few TGIF treats.

**Update:3/18: I am officially cupcake'd out and my expanding waistline can't take no mo'.

Bun ca - Sole Noodle Soup

I am a mature adult and that's why I am able to fully admit that this bun ca or fish noodle soup owned me. Surprisingly, it's at a restaurant in ritzy Corona del Mar that caters to a non-Vietnamese clientele, a place where I'm accustomed to finding more muted flavors for the more mainstream eater.

It's a relatively new offering at Bamboo Bistro (the sister restaurant to the two Brodards in Little Saigon, except pricier and with more immaculate presentations) and it's called the Sole Noodle Soup ($10). It arrived with a plate of greens that included thin ribbons of celery and shredded green lettuce and fresh bean sprouts, all of which provided a nice, soothing buffer for my tastebuds ...

The bowl of soup itself was quite beautiful to look at, with bright green chopped cilantro floating with red cherry tomatoes, tender steamed white fish fillets and a smattering of deep-fried onions. I should have heeded the globules of red-orange chili oil clinging to the sides of the bowl. Holy mutha. I had to carefully slurp the broth because each eager, spicy sip would hit the back of my throat and send me into a coughing fit. I will definitely have to request less chili oil next time. And I wish there was more bun or rice vermicelli noodles.

Otherwise, it was quite tasty, especially with the cherry tomatoes, deep-fried onions and generous pieces of steamed fish.

I've also always been a fan of the Roasted Duck Spring Rolls ($8) at Bamboo Bistro. It's so much better here than at Brodard Chateau in Garden Grove ...

Mmm, I'm normally not a big duck eater, but the crispy duck skin and fatty meat goes deliciously with the fresh crunchy greens and crisp asparagus.

A strawberry basil mojito with fresh berries and torn mint leaves in a fizzy soju cocktail.

Bamboo Bistro
2600 E. Pacific Coast Highway, #160 (right across from the Chevron gas station)
Corona del Mar, CA
949. 720.1289

Best meatball ever?

This right here, my friends, is a little ball of heaven. I never thought a meatball could make my eyes roll to the back of my head but this little guy did. Made of pork, veal and beef, it was the most tender, moist and perfectly seasoned meatball ever. The trick? Soaking the breadcrumbs in milk beforehand.

I would push aside a room full of old ladies and children to get to this meatball. (Kidding. Just watched an old re-run of Seinfeld.) You can just head to Old Vine Cafe in Costa Mesa to see for yourself. (I know, you'd think I was an investor in this place the way I sing its praises.)

Simple sansai udon

At first, the earthy but naked taste of the simple sansai udon has my tastebuds confused a bit. See, they're used to robust flavors so it takes a bit of adjusting to full enjoy the rustic soup ...

My kid brother and I were in search of a solid bowl of udon in Diamond Bar and we were lucky to find it at Jubei, an authentic gem of a Japanese family restaurant.

But first we ordered a small appetizer of broiled miso cod ($10). It was moist and cooked to perfection.


My brother ordered the tempura udon but I was feeling like something lighter, hence the sansai udon, which came with Japanese mountain vegetables like bracken, flowering fern and dropwort, with enoki mushrooms, spinach and one lonely slice of fish cake. Definitely one of the better versions of sansai udon I've had (I like the one at Fukada in Irvine, too.)

To finish, I had one of my favorite ice creams: A dark cappuccino with espresso chips.


Jubei Japanese Cuisine
20627 Golden Springs Drive
Diamond Bar/Walnut, CA
909.869.7881

More funnily-named pho joints

Pho fever is spreading to the masses. Pho restaurants have been popping up everywhere outside of Little Saigon and they all seem to have kitschy, catchy names. The latest is Pho Super Bowl in Diamond Bar, where my family lives. I believe it's a franchise, and an ever-expanding one at that.

The pho there was passable (lackluster broth and rubbery beef), but Pho Ha in Pomona dances circles around this shiny new joint.

What the Pho had to be the best pho restaurant name while it existed in downtown Huntington Beach, but they've since closed down. Not a surprise, the pho was terrible, despite the cool location near the beach.

Let's run through a list of fun pho restaurant names (courtesy of the pho directory on PhoFever.com, ha), shall we?

Pholicious in Fountain Valley
Pho N Joy in Cypress
Pho America in Garden Grove
Mr. Pho in Oceanside
Pho Corporation in San Diego

I'm waiting on: Pho Yeah! Pho Real and Pho Get It.

Tet in Vietnam

Alas, it was my parents who got to spend Tet in Vietnam. They just flew back home this past weekend after a leisurely month in the motherland. But while there, I had specifically assigned my mother the task of taking photos of as much food as possible. She actually obliged!

I wish I could have eaten all the tempting and colorful fruits above: Bright pink dragonfruit (thanh long), plump grapes, basketball-sized pomelos, ripe mangoes, soursop (mang cau), crisp persimmons ... uh, except I would have to pass on the putrid durian or sau rieng.

The Tet feast, a spread of traditional family dishes set aside for the ancestors: Roasted pork with crispy skin (thit heo quay), braised pork in coconut juice with boiled eggs (thit kho trung), boiled chicken (ga luoc), pork ribs and squash soup (canh bi) and xoi (sticky rice with mung beans).

No dinner tables here. My relatives eat off the floor. Mind you, they're scrubbed really clean -- I should know, I helped with that lovely task the last time I visited my aunt in Saigon. In hot weather, the smooth tiles feel nice and cool.

Giant prawns roasted on a portable grill.

Stir-fried cuttlefish or muc xao can, on a bed of Vietnamese celery (rau can) and copiously dusted with black pepper.

Ga xao xa ot or chicken stir-fried with lemongrass and garlic
Mi do bien or seafood egg noodle soup

Roasted duck or vit quay with steamed buns that are flash fried (banh bao chien) to give it a bit of color and crisp.

A bit pot of thit kho trung or pork simmering in a caramelized sauce with coconut juice and boiled eggs.

Street food in Sapa: Beef skewers (thit nuong), eggs and roasted chestnuts.

Bleh: Luc Dinh Ky in Westminster

So, two days after I took my friend to try the claypot rice at Luc Dinh Ky in Westminster, I learned that Luc Dinh Ky received the most number of major restaurant violations in all of Orange County for the year. Awesome.

At first I feared the worst (uh, rats and other not so fun stuff), but after checking the violations, I found that the majority of the recent ones stemmed from food storage/food temperature issues, which I bet nearly all Vietnamese restaurants get dinged for in Little Saigon. Even though we consume cooked meats in say, goi cuon (spring rolls) or banh cuon (Vietnamese rice flour crepes stuffed with cooked minced pork), health inspectors wind up tossing much of that out. I'm hoping it's more of a cultural misunderstanding. As it is, 6 or 7 out of the top 10 restaurants with the highest number of major violations in OC are Vietnamese. I would hate that the impression given is that all Vietnamese restaurants are dirty. (Well, I'm sure we can't argue about uh, a lot of those places, sigh.)

By the way, the com bo luc lac at Luc Dinh Ky was nothing to crow about. The beef was gummy and rubbery. The com chay or crispy burnt rice tasted more like hardened, stale rice -- the stuff my dad scrapes from the bottom of the rice cooker was more edible.

(Shaved) ice, ice baby

I've sort of hopped off the Pinkberry-esque frozen yogurt wagon and have switched my fickle allegiance to old-school shaved ice with those classic syrup flavors (just cherry baby!) and then I top it with fresh fruit. Apparently I am the only customer at the relatively new Wildberry in Fountain Valley to pair the two together, as the owner pointed out to me after my third visit in less than two weeks. Runs me about $3. I tell myself it's low-cal because it's basically just ice, right?

Wildberry
17431 Brookhurst St.
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
(714) 408-5319