Brodard Restaurant: Rolling in the Deep (Fried Goodness)

Finally tried the much-talked about rolls atBrodard Restaurant in Garden Grove and glad to say I wasn't disappointed. Evidently, there are times reality does live up to the hype. The beauty of these rolls is that they were nothing like any Vietnamese fresh rolls I had had before. I'm not sure how traditional they are, but I like them.

I think the biggest element that sets these rolls apart is the crunch factor from the inside, delivered by a wonton skin that's been neatly rolled up and deep fried to perfection, which they then surreptitiously inserted amid all the freshly cut vegetables like cucumber, lettuce (use anything but iceberg), a type of flatter green onion strand, carrots and radishes.

The fresh veggies definitely help to reduce the guilt factor. Then the protein can be either a slice of grilled pork sausage, grilled shrimp paste or tofu. Bonus points if you can guess which was my fave. Yes! Pork, of course. The shrimp one was on bland side and I wouldn't order it again.

My buddy PK and I tried to recreate these rolls and they turned out pretty well, if I may say so myself (I know, I often do...).

We deconstructed the rolls to figure out the ingredients and then snooped on the master rollers to see how they were rolling them. They made it look so easy. We didn't churn out the rolls as quickly and deftly as they did but we weren't too shabby.

They were a hit. I predict I will be making these rolls for many a dinner party or Hollywood Bowl outing in the future.

We weren't able to replicate the thick, slightly spicy sauce but that's ok. I wasn't too crazy about the sauce anyway. So we created our own, one with almond butter, garlic and soy sauce with a bit of kick from sriracha.

We also got the "Luna rice cakes," which were little omelet cups filled with shrimp, mung bean and scallions, served with a bunch of greens, pickled radish strips and a side of chili lime sauce.

The cups could have used a bit more flavor but I just had to reach out for the hot sauce on the side of the table so it wasn't a problem.

We also liked a noodle soup that had everything under the sun, including shrimp, pork slices, ground pork, quail egg, "assorted pork organs" and greens in a super flavorful pork-based broth. It was so flavorful that it made me wonder whether it had used any MSG but I'm going to say it was likely from boiling the bones for hours on end. The noodles were clear noodles that were like thicker versions of vermicelli and the soup was topped with fried onion bits.

Now for the least satisfying part. The Bo Luc Lac rice was weak. I haven't had a good version of this classic dish in a while. It is to Vietnamese cuisine what lomo saltado is to Peruvian. The quality of the meat has to be excellent since it's filet mignon. But this meat was not tender. The tomato fried rice it came with was fluffy albeit on the bland side. It reminded me of arroz con tomate you get in Mexican restaurants when you order a carne asada plate.
The taro plus coconut milk dessert was interesting. The wait is usually insane so make sure you come at an odd hour, like 5:30pm-ish on a Sunday, like we did.

Boulangerie Pierre et Patisserie and 85 Degree Bakeries: Heavenly Bread Made with Stuff Beyond Your Imagination

Isn't this a beauty? Not sure I'll be flamed for this but I, for one, am sad and angry that California decided to ban foie gras.

So I chose a pate and ham banh mi at Boulangerie Pierre et Patisserie in Little Saigon/Garden Grove area. I entered this place on pure whim as the one I had in mind had closed down. Crowded strip mall. Check. Tons of people waiting in line to order. Check. Enticing aromas of butter that enables all that flaky goodness in the croissants. Check. The pate and ham banh mi was good but the baguette could have been better. I liked the one at Banh Mi Cho Cu better.

Still, it was a solid sandwich with all the fixings such as fresh jalapenos, onions, strips of carrots and radishes and fresh cilantro.

I also tried the plain croissant, chocolate croissant and apple turnover, as well as a coffee eclair. I'm super picky with my eclairs and unfortunately, this one was too sweet for me.

Still, the croissants were good and I'd definitely return for them.

Another place I'd be returning to more frequently were it not so far away from me is 85 Degree Bakery in Irvine. It's tucked into a massive mall that has all types of Asian restaurants and a Korean market.

A Taipei import, it was a veritable candy store for me. Start with a big tray and inspect your vast selection. Taro roll? Add. Black squid ink roll with cheddar cheese? Add. Green onion roll with cheese? Add. I continued to do this until my tray had moca coffee roll, red bean bread, cream cheese filled bread, custard pie like the ones sold in dim sum joints and many more.

This delicious and flaky custard pie, by the way, carries a lot of history. It's called pasteis de nata and is originally Portuguese. It made its way to China through Macau that was under Portuguese rule.

85 Degree's rendition of it was very good, far better than many dim sum joints.

I also had bread similar to Korea's gombopang that has little bumps of sugar crust on top of the bread with no filling.

The green onion roll was like a meal but on the greasy side.

The chocolate croissant was good but not as good as Pierre's version. I know this is being nit picky but it's also about abiding by traditions. So a chocolate croissant, aka pain au chocolat, should like this, not like the one you see to your right. That's what plain or almond croissants look like.

How was the squid ink cheddar cheese roll, you ask? Honestly, I couldn't taste the squid but it was cool eating a jet black roll with hints of cheddar.

My favorite was the custard pie. My favorite bread was the almond and walnut roll that's shimmering in the left photo.

The best thing about the experience was its entirely reasonable price tag.

All this cornucopia cost me less than $15 total.

I really wish it opened one up in West LA. How about one on Sawtelle? Or at the very least, Torrance?

Loved my OC adventure. Thanks for reading!

Nhu y Ca 8 Mon in Fountain Valley: 8 Courses of Fish is a Big Flop

I had tried seven courses of beef but not the fish version, which Nhu y Ca 8 Mon in Fountain Valley offers. I was sorely disappointed. The quality of the ingredients were clearly sub par. Execution was poor and flavors were bland. I don't necessarily recall loving the seven courses of beef but this was weak beyond repair.  

Similar to the beef version, the eight courses include fresh rolls with fish instead of pork and shrimp, fish salad, fried rolls with fish that you can wrap in a panoply of greens like lettuce, basil and mint as well as pan fried fish and fish porridge.
The least of all evils were the fried rolls that we could wrap in rice paper we soak in hot water, add a bunch of herbs, roll up and dip in a fish sauce. Tasting fish instead of pork as a filling was unusual in a good way. Otherwise, the course meal was truly unremarkable.

The pan fried fish that came on a hot place was sizzling but overcooked and stuck to the hot plate so we virtually had to yank the meat off of it.

The porridge didn't have any fish in it that we could see or taste like it, for that matter. I know porridge is by definition bland, but this was ridiculous.

We got some meat dishes like bo luc lac with garlic noodles and the bun with charbroiled pork and fried rolls.



The bo luc lac was average at best. The quality of the filet mignon wasn't great. The meat should have been incredibly tender. The noodles were a disaster. Overcooked and underseasoned. What were they thinking?

The fish salad isn't even worth mentioning.

The bun -- noodle salad with thin slices of charbroiled pork and chopped fried imperial rolls with raw carrots, bean sprouts, cucumber and lettuce all mixed with a fish sauce based dressing that I like to spike up with the chunky red hot chili sauce -- was ok but the noodles were overcooked and the rolls gave off a strong porky smell, which could only mean they used poor quality pork or worse, old pork.

The only redeeming factor about this place was the half-way decent dessert. We got the halo halo, which came with taro ice cream and three kinds of beans topped with chopped peanuts.

The beans weren't too sweet (a lot less sweeter than the Korean or Tawainese shaved ice versions) and the taro ice cream was ok.

Still, that isn't enough to make me want to return.

It makes me sad because I feel it has so much promise but I didn't get a sense that the owners cared about serving quality food.

Banh Mi Cho Cu: Finally Found a Good One

I admit I'm no connoisseur of Little Saigon. It's far and I don't speak or read Vietnamese so my knowledge is limited by the rants and raves of message boards and personal referrals. But when I had a meeting down there recently, I duly put in my diligence to work so we could make a pit stop to treat ourselves. I am severely deprived of good banh mi up in LA and South Bay, so it was such a pleasant surprise when the one I chose from a list of like 10 turned out to be quite good.

Banh Mi Cho Cu is in a mini-mall in Westminster that I wouldn't have noticed if not for my scribbled address and directions from the previous evening's research. I purposely chose one that was less commercial, more mom-and-pop, hole in the wall, you get the idea.

And I wasn't disappointed. We got a total of 15 sandwiches with some BBQ pork, chicken and vegetarian ones. The display of pastries was so irresistible that I got myself a pate chaud, which was like baked puff pastry with some ground pork. It hardly tasted like pate that I'm familiar with and I also wasn't able to heat it up, (chaud is hot in French) so maybe flavor was lost there too. I wouldn't get it again. But that BBQ pork was delicious. It was perfectly seasoned and charred. The works were fresh, spicy, crunchy all at once.

I love it when I find a new place that's this good and such good value to boot. If you get the mid-sized bread, which is big enough for one, you can get one free for every two you get. So the final bill was ridiculous to say the least.

Just as we were leaving, a woman behind the counter brought out these fresh-out-of -the-fryer dessert rolls with bananas in them. She talked us into getting four, at a discount, of course. These were the highlight for me. I had these before I even bit into my sandwich because they were piping hot and I knew temperature could make or break this dessert, especially since it was deep fried.

Crunchy, then soft, then sweet and creamy -- in short, everything you want in a dessert. And I don't even have a sweet tooth! It was a great dessert-cum-appetizer to my main meal of banh mi. Must try the chicken one next time. My only beef with the baguettes, which were fresh and good (although not like Bouchon good), was that they smelled too much like butter. I wouldn't normally consider that a liability but I do when the bread smells not like quality butter but cheaper butter. Like I wouldn't go there to pick my weekly dose of baguettes, but I would go to get my banh mi and deep-fried banana rolls fix any day.

SF South Bay Report: Donuts and Afghan

I discovered a not-so-healthy but comforting breakfast at Hunan Home's Restaurant in Los Altos during my Bay Area trip. It was like a massive donut except it looks like a long pipe and you dip it in warm, sweetened soy milk. Definitely not the kind of breakfast to be had every day, but it was a treat.

The stir-fried rice cakes with seafood was ok but nothing special, and the spinach sauteed with garlic was a good counterbalance to the greasy but delicious donut.




I read that the San Jose area had decent banh mi sandwiches, one of my favorite things in the world. So it was only natural that I stopped by Huong Lan Sandwiches to sample these delectable Vietnamese snacks. It was very promising upon entering but alas, the pork barbecue and chicken banh mi were just ok. The baguette was too hard because it wasn't very fresh. And while I liked the pork one better -- especially the smokiness of the pork barbecue -- the pickled radish and carrots didn't seem sour enough to balance (yes, I'm all about balance of flavors and textures) out the porkiness of the pork. The pictured pink-hued chicken was bland.

After a disappointing snack, I headed to Left Bank, a faux French brasserie chain located in an eerie Disneyland-like mall called Santana Row in San Jose. Let's just say the hostess lost me at Bon Soir. It was pretentious but not even that fancy, which made it laughable. Anyway, I had the profiterole, which was interesting because it was filled with ice cream instead of the usual custard. And chocolate fudge sauce, which was good drizzled on top of the (ice) cream puff.

The service was bad but the food didn't look half bad. The question is, would I want to return to such a surreal place that reminds me of one of my least favorite places in LA -- The Grove?

Anyhow, I regretted having had that puff because I was to go to Salang Pass, a gem in Little Kabul, Fremont.


Lamentably, I only had stomach space for an order of aushak, a ravioli filled with leeks and scallions, served on a sauce of yogurt mint and garlic, topped with ground beef and mint; and a pumpkin dish that was sweet and had a similar sauce. I really wish I could have had my favorite qabelee, a pilaf-type rice baked with chunks of lamb shanks, raisins and glazed carrots. I had been to this restaurant before and I remember it being as good as another excellent Afghan joint in Arizona.

Overall, a good food trip. Note to self: pace yourself so you can savor all that each of the places have to offer.

Hunan Home's Restaurant
4880 El Camino Real
Los Altos, CA 94022
(650) 965-0877

Huong Lan Sandwiches
1655 Tully Rd
San Jose, CA 95122
(408) 258-8868

Left Bank
377 Santana Row
Suite 1100
San Jose, CA 95128
(408) 984-3500

Salang Pass
37462 Fremont Blvd.
Fremont, CA 94536
(510) 795-9200

Bun Appetit

I was glad to hear that my first review made some mouths water all the way in England as well as in Canada. Well, this one isn't exactly a favorite, but for West L.A., it's all we've got. Pho and Bun, that is. Welcome to Le Saigon, where the Pho is a tad watered-down and Bun (pictured left) is merely acceptable. Although I have only tried the different varieties of beef Pho here, I usually don't venture ordering it unless I am sick and really desperate for some piping hot liquid to soothe me over. What I do go for is the Bun Thit-Tom Nuong, or "rice vermicelli with charbroiled sliced beef (or choice of pork, chicken, tofu, spring rolls or shrimp)," as the menu states. I am a huge fan of Bun because it's so refreshing and reasonably healthy -- a panoply of veggies, meat and spice, all of which I love. Le Saigon's version is good for the area but if I wanted the real deal, I would probably go where the largest concentration of Vietnamese Americans live in the U.S. -- Little Saigon in Orange County -- or a closer alternative where a smaller segment live in San Gabriel Valley toward the east.



Going back to Le Saigon (not Little Saigon) and its Bun, it makes for a decent quick meal at $7.50 a pop. Some critics have expressed outrage at how "overpriced" the Pho and Bun are compared to restaurants not located in West L.A.. They have to pay the rent. Besides, how much are people paying for the fancy grilled cheese sandwich at Campanile? I appreciate a gourmet sandwich just as much as the next gourmand, but $14 for a grilled cheese sandwich? (I will not hesitate, however, to pay $15+ for a mean burger grilled to medium-rare perfection. But as someone said, that's another post.)



What could be better about Le Saigon? The charbroiled sliced beef could be more tender and the marinade more flavorful, but I go back to my trusty old red chili sauce (I don't know what the sauce other than Shiracha is called) to make up for it. Otherwise, it is a good mix of sprouts, shredded lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, mint and thin rice noodles sprinkled with crushed peanuts -- all swimming in a pool of slightly sweet sauce spiced with the red sauce. The menu calls it a "dry noodle salad," but it is neither dry nor a salad (discuss). My friend had the Bun that comes with beef and two tiny imperial rolls, but I think the deep-fried spring rolls are odd because they get slightly soggy once we pour the sauce or "dressing."



I usually order Goi Cuon (pictured above), the fresh spring rolls, as an appetizer. Because the steamed pork is not that great at Le Saigon, I get it with steamed tofu and shrimp instead. Make sure you add plenty of Shiracha to the peanut sauce.

Although I haven't tried all of them, I would not recommend the other things on the menu, like rice dishes and salads, based on what I have tried. Stick to the basics.



Another thing is that the tap water they serve tastes bad, so unless you really don't want to pay for a drink, I would invest in bottled water or Vietnamese coffee (or the curious-sounding Grass Jelly Drink, as the menu states) I usually never buy bottled water at restaurants but I do when I go here. Service is friendly and fast. Decor is nothing to write home about. It's also cash only and has limited seating so avoid peak hours or large parties. It's closed Mondays.

I hope to explore more of San Gabriel Valley and Little Saigon to search for the perfect Bun as well as more complex regional dishes not found in Le Saigon. Stay tuned!