Throw a stick anywhere in Westminster and it'll hit a pho joint. Not so in Irvine, where Vietnamese restaurants are as rare as the slices of steak in the soup they serve. At my last count, there are exactly five eateries that serve this foul-weather food. The stalwarts are the two Pho Bac Ky's ... More >>
Say you've been invited to potluck but you can't cook. Or your family's hungry, and you don't have much time or money to burn. There are a myriad of options, of course, most of them involving take-out. But for my hard-earned cash, there's Little Saigon's food-to-go shops -- establishments that ex ... More >>
First things first: if you are Vietnamese or otherwise familiar with the culinary terrain and back alleyways of Little Saigon, stop reading right now. If you do not heed this warning, I will not be responsible for the damage your spit-take will do to your computer screens. The restaurant I'm about ... More >>
I have a friend named Mike (who among us doesn't have a friend named Mike). Although his life doesn't revolve around food as much as mine does (read: he's not a food blogger), our tastes are often parallel. It was more than a decade ago (in college) that he tipped me off to Alerto's fish burrito; ... More >>
HACK! SPLUT! COUGH! Sorry for the non-blogging 'round these parts, folks, but HACK! HACK! ACHOO! I got a nasty cold-turned-into-fever from visiting Minnesota earlier this week PHLEGM MUCUS BARBARA COE. Turns out my Weekly keeper, Nick Schou, was also sick, so we hit up our favorite remedy yesterday: ... More >>
HACK! SPLUT! COUGH! Sorry for the non-blogging 'round these parts, folks, but HACK! HACK! ACHOO! I got a nasty cold-turned-into-fever from visiting Minnesota earlier this week PHLEGM MUCUS BARBARA COE. Turns out my Weekly keeper, Nick Schou, was also sick, so we hit up our favorite remedy yesterday: ... More >>
HACK! SPLUT! COUGH! Sorry for the non-blogging 'round these parts, folks, but HACK! HACK! ACHOO! I got a nasty cold-turned-into-fever from visiting Minnesota earlier this week PHLEGM MUCUS BARBARA COE. Turns out my Weekly keeper, Nick Schou, was also sick, so we hit up our favorite remedy yesterday: ... More >>
HACK! SPLUT! COUGH! Sorry for the non-blogging 'round these parts, folks, but HACK! HACK! ACHOO! I got a nasty cold-turned-into-fever from visiting Minnesota earlier this week PHLEGM MUCUS BARBARA COE. Turns out my Weekly keeper, Nick Schou, was also sick, so we hit up our favorite remedy yesterday: ... More >>
HACK! SPLUT! COUGH! Sorry for the non-blogging 'round these parts, folks, but HACK! HACK! ACHOO! I got a nasty cold-turned-into-fever from visiting Minnesota earlier this week PHLEGM MUCUS BARBARA COE. Turns out my Weekly keeper, Nick Schou, was also sick, so we hit up our favorite remedy yesterday: ... More >>
HACK! SPLUT! COUGH! Sorry for the non-blogging 'round these parts, folks, but HACK! HACK! ACHOO! I got a nasty cold-turned-into-fever from visiting Minnesota earlier this week PHLEGM MUCUS BARBARA COE. Turns out my Weekly keeper, Nick Schou, was also sick, so we hit up our favorite remedy yesterday: ... More >>
HACK! SPLUT! COUGH! Sorry for the non-blogging 'round these parts, folks, but HACK! HACK! ACHOO! I got a nasty cold-turned-into-fever from visiting Minnesota earlier this week PHLEGM MUCUS BARBARA COE. Turns out my Weekly keeper, Nick Schou, was also sick, so we hit up our favorite remedy yesterday: ... More >>
HACK! SPLUT! COUGH! Sorry for the non-blogging 'round these parts, folks, but HACK! HACK! ACHOO! I got a nasty cold-turned-into-fever from visiting Minnesota earlier this week PHLEGM MUCUS BARBARA COE. Turns out my Weekly keeper, Nick Schou, was also sick, so we hit up our favorite remedy yesterday: ... More >>
HACK! SPLUT! COUGH! Sorry for the non-blogging 'round these parts, folks, but HACK! HACK! ACHOO! I got a nasty cold-turned-into-fever from visiting Minnesota earlier this week PHLEGM MUCUS BARBARA COE. Turns out my Weekly keeper, Nick Schou, was also sick, so we hit up our favorite remedy yesterday: ... More >>
HACK! SPLUT! COUGH! Sorry for the non-blogging 'round these parts, folks, but HACK! HACK! ACHOO! I got a nasty cold-turned-into-fever from visiting Minnesota earlier this week PHLEGM MUCUS BARBARA COE. Turns out my Weekly keeper, Nick Schou, was also sick, so we hit up our favorite remedy yesterday: ... More >>
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
'Normally, writers of your muckracking calibur would drop the context out of a quote, but you actually left it in. Thanks for doing half the job for me'
Trawling for the countys best Vietnamese sandwiches
Trawling for the countys best Vietnamese sandwiches
Trawling for the countys best Vietnamese sandwiches
Trawling for the countys best Vietnamese sandwiches
Trawling for the countys best Vietnamese sandwiches
Trawling for the countys best Vietnamese sandwiches
A candidate for Stuff White People Like...Of all of America's wonderful ethnic cuisines, the New York Times understands Vietnamese creations the least. Last month or so, the Gray Lady published a piece on how Vietnamese-American chefs in New York were reinventing the bánh mì, an article that appea ... More >>
Edwin GoeiI've never been so relieved in being so wrong. As it turns out, Asian Mint at the District has no affiliation whatsoever with the Asian Mint's in Texas, as I previously guessed. It is, in fact, a straight-up Vietnamese restaurant, not a Thai-sushi hybrid like their Lone Star Stat ... More >>
This week in SAFII:There was plenty of good news, in terms of appointments (Craig Strong as Executive Chef of Studio, at the Montage Laguna Beach), openings (a froyo shop--natch--a gelato shop attached to a Thai restaurant (of course!!) and a sparkly Vietnamese) and resurrections (Carl's Jr's Portob ... More >>
This week in SAFII:There was plenty of good news, in terms of appointments (Craig Strong as Executive Chef of Studio, at the Montage Laguna Beach), openings (a froyo shop--natch--a gelato shop attached to a Thai restaurant (of course!!) and a sparkly Vietnamese) and resurrections (Carl's Jr's Portob ... More >>
This week in SAFII:There was plenty of good news, in terms of appointments (Craig Strong as Executive Chef of Studio, at the Montage Laguna Beach), openings (a froyo shop--natch--a gelato shop attached to a Thai restaurant (of course!!) and a sparkly Vietnamese) and resurrections (Carl's Jr's Portob ... More >>
Edwin Goei After my friends and I saw the ridiculously long line at the Kogi stop in Costa Mesa this past Saturday, we turned around and left to have some Taco Mesa. But I got to thinking, what other foods might do well in Orange County via lonchera (other than tacos, which are already a s ... More >>
Edwin Goei After my friends and I saw the ridiculously long line at the Kogi stop in Costa Mesa this past Saturday, we turned around and left to have some Taco Mesa. But I got to thinking, what other foods might do well in Orange County via lonchera (other than tacos, which are already a s ... More >>
The Crow Bar's cool-as-hell logo...Few culinary trends annoy me more than the spread of aiolis (pun intended)--just seeing the term on most any menu is a tell that the chef imagines himself to be some high-falutin', fusion-y maestro who's going to blow you away with something that's really glorif ... More >>
Mmm...underdeveloped duck embryo...Ate a simple scramble this morning at Monkey Business Cafe, which is getting ready to do something wonderful with persimmons. At $4.95 for four pieces of toast, a melon slice, and eggs mixed with cheddar cheese and green onions, quite the treat. Eating it, howev ... More >>
Good bánh mì choice for the Iowans; for everyone else, try Bánh Mì Cho Cu or Ba Le...I hadn't been to Lee's Sandwiches in years, but ended up there last week after giving a lecture at UC Irvine. I gasped at the $2.75 price for a bánh mì, but still enjoyed the xa xiu selection, even if the b ... More >>
Good bánh mì choice for the Iowans; for everyone else, try Bánh Mì Cho Cu or Ba Le...I hadn't been to Lee's Sandwiches in years, but ended up there last week after giving a lecture at UC Irvine. I gasped at the $2.75 price for a bánh mì, but still enjoyed the xa xiu selection, even if the b ... More >>
Good bánh mì choice for the Iowans; for everyone else, try Bánh Mì Cho Cu or Ba Le...I hadn't been to Lee's Sandwiches in years, but ended up there last week after giving a lecture at UC Irvine. I gasped at the $2.75 price for a bánh mì, but still enjoyed the xa xiu selection, even if the b ... More >>
Fascinating article in Business Week this week about Subway's stumbling into the goldmine that is their current $5 footlong sub deal -- a promotion that started as a lark at an "obscure Miami franchise" and has grown to give the chain $3.8 billion in sales. This is the kind of story professors u ... More >>
eliya @ flickr.com CC BY-NC 2.0This week contains one of the most ancient and cherished traditions in America, where families get up at shockingly early hours to fight traffic just to be together for a day. Thanksgiving, you say? No, Black Friday, the day by which all retail business for the enti ... More >>
Roast turkey, apple pie, mashed potatoes--today is a day for American classics, food so full of nostalgia and butter that a good long nap is required after eating. And for the next week or so, the flavors of today's feast will certainly linger, finding their way into a pot of turkey soup or a sandwi ... More >>
So about those fucking Brussels sprouts. David Chang's advice that you "can't fuck them up. Cook the shit out of them; just don't turn them to charcoal," is the most basic and probably best of recipes for the vegetable. Just add salt. But for self-avowed 'sprout haters, such a purist approach can be ... More >>
