A Vietnamese hankering

My sister lives in LA and works in Chino and used to stop by to visit in Westminster after work twice a week. But with her pregnancy and other personal family matters, hadn't been by in awhile, but decided that she should. Maybe she was just craving some good Vietnamese food and some Yogurt Passion, her favorite frozen yogurt place (sorry I won't be linking when I'm blogging via cell phone - too many steps on one little screen). And it wasn't just Vietnamese food in general, it was Cha Ca (basically cat fish in a type of curry that gets grilled up with dill and you eat with vermicelli noodles and veggies) and specifically, Cha Ca from Song Long, a small French/Vietnamese restaurant tucked into a narrow lot plaza off of Bolsa between Brookhurst and Magnolia.

My sister, my hubster and I met up after work there one night (obviously awhile ago as I was still eating meat and my sister was still pregnant at that time), and she promptly ordered a plate of egg rolls for appetizer. We like these egg rolls because instead of the regular egg roll wrappers (is thin, flakey and crispy), they use rice paper (for spring rolls, which make it crispy and chewy). Of course, an array of veggies to wrap the egg roll pieces in, and fish sauce to dip -yum!






I decided to go with the beef stew with bread rolls. It's very hearty and meaty, and slightly tangy (due to the tomatoes), and that's exactly what I'm looking for sometimes. Toss in some of our favorite Song Long rolls (seriously, I always thought a roll was a roll, until these... Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and the smell and taste of "home made" all around) to dip and you've got one happy camper!






Kyle went classic with the Com Tam Bi Cha Ga Roti... translation: Broken rice (yes, this is different from regular steamed Jasmine rice) with shredded pork and skin, a pork and egg meatloaf cake, and a piece of rotisserie chicken. With fresh and pickled veggies, and fish sauce to drizzle naturally.






And then my sister, who was craving the Cha Ca all week, opted not too. One order would have been way too much for her. So she went with one of their specialties, Bun Cha (typically I add the word "Ha Noi" after that, but not sure if it is meant for specifically Ha Noi Restaurant). I also like this dish. They bring out a platter with the veggies, some vermicelli noodles and a bowl of grilled pork meat (and two pork meat patties) that is in a sweet fish sauce with some picked carrots and daikon. You get a separate bowl to combine the foods as you like.






All in all, yummy meal. I don't know how long I've been going here for (gotta be at least 10-15 years) but I know if I find out one day that they are no longer there, I will be sad.

* forgot to add that all dishes ran around $5-10

- Posted mobile-y

Table-top grilling

One of the easiest dinners to prepare is the grill. Well, it's really one of those electric griddles, but same thing. This is a form of the popular "cook and roll as you eat" dining concept in Vietnamese cuisine, and probably most other Asian countries as well (Korean comes to mind). What are we serving up tonight? Well, we aren't using rice paper (which is odd because my sister absolutely loves rice paper; she will roll a spring roll and give it a good satisfying sniff before eating it) tonight. On the grill will be the meats of pre-sliced beef, pre-sliced lamb, shrimp and squid (at the hubster's request of course). Alongside these meats we'll also be grilling regular onion, green onion and some dill. 

(my sister thoughtfully separated the beef from the others with the onions for me)

How to eat: grab a lettuce leaf. Add some herbs (tonight we were using only basil in addition to the lettuce... at least that's the only other thing I was using). Add some of the banh hoi (super thin rice noodles) if  you'd like. Add the meat (or shrimp or squid... not me!) and some of the grilled onions. Add a sliced cucumber. Roll it all up as best as you can (the lettuce leaf serves as the "paper"), and dip into prepared fish sauce. It may get messy, but it is tasty.