Asian Food and Cooking

Announcing OC Weekly's First-Ever Final Pho!

Dave Lieberman​If you are a sports fan, you are looking forward to the coming NCAA Division I basketball tournament, famously known as March Madness and the Final Four. If you are a fan of Vietnamese food, you love pho, the legendary beef (sometimes chicken, sometimes turkey, sometimes fish, somet ... More >>

Dueling Dishes: Fish Pho

ProfessorSalt.comTake the hint​When an ethnic restaurant specializes in a particular thing--say, a Cantonese barbecue restaurant--you'll know the specialty of the house because it's proudly displayed the moment you set food inside. In the example of that Cantonese-roasted-meats specialist, they'll ... More >>

Dueling Dishes: Battle North Indian Versus South Indian Lunch Buffets!

Traditions in Tustin​Soup Plantation, Hometown Buffet and Vegas are what dominate the mainstream conversations about restaurant buffets. But in Orange County, of course, the best ones are Indian, especially around lunch time: India Cook House, Clay Oven, Haveli, and many more. North Indian-style b ... More >>

New York Times Names the Best Bánh Mìs in America--and Not One is From Little Saigon

Flickr user svensk​The New York Times' coverage of Vietnamese food has always been laughable--who can ever forget its decade-late feature on Sriracha or it declaring 2009 the "year of the bánh mì" (while neglecting to mention Little Saigon among the nation's Vietnamese enclaves) about seven year ... More >>

Naked Sashimi Shunned in South Africa

Flickr user Ko_An​ South Africa's ruling party has proclaimed that eating sashimi off a semi-nude model's body is officially offensive. Known in Japan as nyotaimori, the practice involves a nude female model lying supine, her lady-parts covered discreetly with leaves or other garnish on which raw ... More >>

Cafe Lotus Lives La Vie Vietnamese in Newport

With great French and Vietnamese offerings, this place is better-suited for Little Saigon than the Hoag Hospital crowd

Bistro Anju Has an Iron Chef

Hideki Saito weathers drunkards and the clueless alike at his Laguna Niguel eatery to deliver greatness

Washington Post Thinks Higher-End Pho Is a Revelation--HAHAHAHA!

Photo by Das Ubergeek​What is it about the national media that gets Vietnamese-food trends laughably late and wrong? If it's not The New York Times "discovering" Sriracha and bánh mì, it's the Washington Post devoting way too many words to some D.C.-area chefs who, as the headline puts it, "put ... More >>

¡Ask a Comida Critic! Which Thai Restaurants are Authentic Thai, and Which are Americanized?

​From my cousin Plas:We love that Thai place (Win Thai). Do you consider that "American Thai" or "good Thai."Ah, Win Thai Cuisine in Anaheim: across the street from Norms, behind a car wash, in the Thai Corner section of Anacrime--and the first restaurant I ever reviewed. The place sells its pinea ... More >>

Eat Here, Not There: Bánh Mì for the Los Angeles Crowd, Or: More Reasons to Hate on Red Medicine

In some ways, I wish they kept this idiocy...​Last night, I traveled to Los Angeles to dine at Rivera, the fabulous restaurant that spans Latin America and is the latest stunner by John Sedlar, the last of the Southwestern-cuisine Mohicans. I was there to interview Sedlar for my coming book, and I ... More >>

How to Tell You're Being "Whited" at a Restaurant and What to Do About It

Dave Lieberman​I was eating lunch at Pho Quang Trung in Garden Grove last week--a very, very good pho shop, on par with some of the best pho in our pho-crazed county--and it was jammed full of Vietnamese families out for lunch on New Year's Eve. Little Saigon was hopping in general, and it seemed ... More >>

Nina's Indian British Grocery Stocks the Commonwealth Cupboard

[Hole In the Wall] Indian, South African, Pakistani, even Sri Lankan specialties abound at this Lake Forest shop

Guess Where I Ate; Win A Prize!

​Ah, pad Thai for the American palate: super-sweet, super-oily, the hard-shell taco of Asian cuisine. The restaurant where I ate this is the epitome of that type of Thai restaurant, one so tuned to the American palate they don't even sell green papaya salad, like a proper Thai restaurant should. G ... More >>

Heather Graham, Hollywood Honey, Stars In Korean Food Travel Show

​Rollergirl a.k.a. Felicity Shagwell a.k.a. Hollywood bombshell Heather Graham is going to Korea to film a food show tentatively called Kimchi Chronicles. Don't quite get the connection between this glamorous star and kimchi or Korean food? Well, remember that 2008 series that had Gwyneth Paltro ... More >>

Thanh Tam Is a Corner Bakery

[Hole In the Wall] Visit this Garden Grove Vietnamese star for big bánh mìs

Get Your Bukkake On In Fountain Valley

Dave LiebermanPrior to toppings...​I have a confession to make. I only ate at O-Udon because I happened past their menu online and saw bukkake udon. I know what they meant, and it's a perfectly normal, non-perverted usage of the term, but the inner thirteen-year-old Mike Judge character in me ("ah ... More >>

Six Dollars Too Much And Bad Besides: The Whole Foods Bánh Mì

Dave Lieberman​Orange County's third Whole Foods opened in mid-October in the Bella Terra complex at Beach and Edinger in Huntington Beach. This didn't stir up much sentiment around these parts, since most of us at Fork live closer to the organic juggernaut of a Whole Foods in Tustin, until we dis ... More >>

O Fine Japanese Cuisine Pleases

Visit this Laguna Beach sushi place for rolls and traditional Japanese food

It's DIY Time At Bari Bari Japanese BBQ

OC's latest yakiniku lets you take the teppan into your own hands

New York Chefs Discover Thai Food: Foofaraw, or Fact?

Awesome beef panang from OC's Thai palace, Thai Nakorn​Few things are funnier than clueless reporters "discovering" a "trend" that flies in the face of reality, and that was my first reaction upon reading a story in Nation's Restaurant News yesterday declaring this is the year of Thai food in New ... More >>

Jagdish Saini of Punjabi Tandoor, Part One

Todd Barnes / OC Weekly​What do you do when you run an immensely successful, hugely popular Indian restaurant in northern San Diego? You expand, of course, and thus Punjabi Tandoor has landed in downtown Anaheim. Our own little bit of Artesia features the best navratan korma in OC, addictive samos ... More >>

Using Dim Sum As Weaponry--Five Other Alternatives

Flickr user avlxyzSince they are not normally classed as a weapon, xiao long bao can give you the element of surprise.​As our sister blog, Squid Ink, reported on Monday, Albert Y. M. Huang, the mayor of San Gabriel, was arrested after an altercation at a dumpling house. Mr. Huang got into an argum ... More >>

No Sushi, No Problem at Izakaya Meijiya

Another (delectable) attempt to make a small-plates Japanese eating-and-drinking concept work in OC

Culinary Badass, Cosmo Drinker

[Best of OC 2010] Haley Nguyen's 10 OC Survival Tips

Make Your Own Dosas and Idlis With the Help of Dosa Place!

​The picture says it all, ¿qué no? But there's more to the sign after the jump.

Gustavo's Five Commandments of Dining in Orange County

See Commandment #4...​Recently, some Weeklings have been patronizing East/Borough at the CAMP, and raving about it despite my protestations. See, the pop-up restaurant charges $4.35 (before tax) for an eight-inch bánh mì, and an outlandish $6.40 for a foot-long--this, in a county that's America' ... More >>

#20. Hakata Ramen at Shin Sen Gumi

ProfessorSalt.comNot the ramen from your college days​Just as New York, Chicago, Naples, and Rome have evolved their distinct styles of pizza, different parts of Japan have regional styles of ramen, distinguished primarily by their soups. Did you know Orange County has adopted its own ramen style?

Dueling Dishes: Sushilicious vs. Kaisen

Edwin Goei SushiliciousOn this episode of Dueling Dishes we pit two revolving sushi houses. Sushilicious is the newcomer; Kaisen is the long-established contender. But this week, we're not comparing just a single dish between the two of them. Since one dish can literally constitute just one b ... More >>

Drunk After Work: Sagami

Edwin Goei​The Place: Sagami, 3850 Barranca Pkwy. Ste B., Irvine, CA 92606, (949) 857-8030 . The Hours: Monday to Thursday, 5 p.m.-6:30 p.m. The Deal: Sapporo on tap for 50% off ($1.88 for a frosty mug). Hot sake, also 50% off. $4.95 sushi rolls (Rainbow, Spicy Yellowtail, Salmon Skin, or S ... More >>

Street, Heat and Meat: The Long Beach Street Food Fest

Dave Lieberman​Click here for the Long Beach Street Food Fest slideshow!What do you get when you put a couple of thousand people, 21 new-style food trucks, a pretty good cover band, and a beer and margarita tent in a park near the ocean?If you're me, you get a belly full, an earful and a nasty sun ... More >>

Punjabi Tandoor Opens In Anaheim

Dave LiebermanIt was pouring rain (no, really) when we left, so I couldn't get a good shot of the front.​For a time, you could get refugiados (guava-cheese rolls) and outstanding café con leche in Anaheim at Café Contigo, the only Cuban coffeeshop in the county. Times were hard and signage was d ... More >>

Battle Seolleongtang: Anna's vs. Jang Mo Gip

Flickr user thedelicious​You could be excused for never having heard of seolleongtang. It isn't on the radar for most people who are just starting to delve into Korean cuisine, because it's never sold in barbecue restaurants or soon tofu places. You could be excused for not knowing how to pronounc ... More >>

Buy Me Some Sushi and Cracker Jack

[Summer Guide] A rundown of the best non-chain eats at the Big A

Sriracha vs. Sriracha

Willy BlackmoreThe Sriracha Aisle ​Long featured in the constellation of condiments served alongside a classic bowl of phở, the iconic rooster-labeled chili Sriracha chili sauce has developed a growing cult following among chefs, foodies and bloggers alike over the past few years. Prominently fe ... More >>

Mizuki's Openly Flamed Ramen

Is the Irvine noodle restaurant as overpriced and underwhelming as the Yelpers and Chowhounds make it out to be?

Okazu Ramen House to Open in Orange

Signs went up recently in the Target Plaza on Tustin St. and Meats Av. in Orange for Okazu Ramen House, at 2143 N. Tustin St. #A1, at the far southeastern end of the plaza.avlxyz @ flickr.com CC BY-SA 2.0​

Battle Supermarket Sushi

It'd be nice to be able to eat Bluefin or Shibucho every time the sushi urge strikes, but sometimes lunch is grabbed on the way between two meetings; sometimes dinner needs to be a quick pick-up before drinking the bulk of one's daily calories (other people do this, right?) and that precludes a real ... More >>

Chinese, Part 1

Entire years, entire careers, entire lifetimes have been spent writing about Chinese cuisine, and yet it's arguably the cuisine least well-represented in the vast bulk of America. As hard as it to hear, the Chinese food that comes delivered in those little white Tetra-Paks™ with the red pagodas an ... More >>

Double Dosa

At the second Dosa Place location in Tustin, bigger is bigger and, in some ways, better

Sam Gupta of Traditions, Part 1

Photo by Kimberly Valenzuela​Sam Gupta is the proprietor of Traditions in Tustin, the newest but already one of the best Indian restaurants in a town full of Indian restaurants. On the newsy side, his place was recently granted a beer and wine license after a long drawn out struggle with la ... More >>

Hebaragi's Cheeky Barbecue

From pig jowls to beef stomach to plain old steak, it all tastes amazing at this Korean eatery

New Tustin Korean Restaurant In Tustin Where There Once Was Another, and Another

Edwin Goei​I don't have a prize to give out, but I will offer a hearty attaboy to anyone who can tell me how many Korean restaurants have occupied the hut in front of Sushi Wasabi at the corner of Newport and Walnut in Tustin. My recollection has it at three. There was a joint called Happy ... More >>

Get In With the In Crowd at Ohshima Japanese Cuisine

Ethnic Eating 101: Korean, Part 1

phy @ flickr.com CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Korean restaurants have Seoul... get it?​Welcome to the new year of Ethnic Eating 101! Sorry for the unannounced hiatus; I was hung over--tequila is a delicious but cruel potion.While the wonders of Vietnamese cooking could fill up half a year's posts, the Vietnames ... More >>

Belacan Grill Now Open In Tustin

avlxyz @ flickr.com CC BY-SA 2.0​For years, the question of where to get Malaysian food in the LA area was answered on the Chowhound boards with "Belacan Grill in Redondo Beach or Tropika in Tustin."Then Tropika closed and we Orange Countians were forced to endure the awful, awful trek to LA's Sou ... More >>

Life on the Veg: Dolsot Bibimbap at Kaju Tofu in Garden Grove

Grace LeIt's HOT.​ What better way to deal with this freakishly cold SoCal weather than by counter-attacking with some tongue-singeing Korean food? Dolsot (aka or stone pot) bibimbap is a wonderful way to keep your belly warm during T-shit unfriendly weather and Kaju Tofu in Garden Grove does it r ... More >>

On the Line: Wanida Sreewarom of Thai Nakorn

​When Thai Nakorn burned down in January 2007, lovers of Thai food the county over were cast adrift. The family opened a branch in Stanton to feed the demand for their amazing food, and finally, after months of delays and haggling with the city, Thai Nakorn returned to Garden Grove this August. If ... More >>

[Hole In the Wall] The Cheap Japanese Fare at Miyabi-Tei Is Your Chopstick-Ready Stimulus Plan

Life on the Veg: Noorani Halal Tandoori in Garden Grove

Dal Urad​Noorani's Halal Tandoori Restaurant is a hole-in-the-wall type establishment that is pretty easy to overlook, particularly amid the clusterfuck that is Little Saigon's urban design. If you do notice, chances are you'll experience a moment of severe disorientation when you realize you're l ... More >>

Myung Dong Kal Guksu in Anaheim Is a Temple of Korean Hand-Cut Noodles