Filed under: Chao Bo, Chao long, Pork, Sausage, asian foods, dinner, food, lunch, pho, resturants, soups, traditional foods, unusual foods, vietnamese foods
I felt a little under the weather this morning and was thinking I need a great “comfort food” Vietnamese style. So I went with my father to another “old school OG” Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Nguyen Hue. This restaurant has been around for years, I think it was maybe one of the first Pho places in Little Saigon. My father calls this place the “gossip center” since it is full of older clientele who knows good Pho and there is always a group of old guys out front sipping their coffee/ Tea and smoking and just “kickn it” talking about politics, social stuff, and in general the happenings in Little Saigon. I think it is very European in culture and I hope to be one of those guys when I retire.
So what is the best thing at Pho Nguyen Hue? Obviously the Pho, but I came for my version of “Chicken Soup for the Soul” Chao. Chao or sometimes called rice Con-gee or Rice Porridge has been around for centuries. It is very simple to make, Basically it is a pot of rice and water that has been slow boiled to a porridge consistancy and mixed with chicken or beef broth with hints of ginger, green onions and depending on what meat you want to add, fish, beef, chicken, shrimp or pork. I had Chao Bo which is ground up seasoned beef. My father had the Chao Long, which was the soup with all of the insides of the pork like intestines, heart, kidneys, blood jello in other words the crazy stuff you see Andrew Zimmerman or Anthony Bordain eats when they go to Vietnam.
I myself I like a simple cooked Chao Bo (ground beef) but one of the thing s that Pho Nguyen Hue has that I grew up with is Vietnamese Blood Sausage. Sounds Yummy Right? Before you gag, this was something I ate before I knew what it was so I was already accustomed to it. Pho Nguyen Hue makes this dish very well. with pieces of blood jello, rice, and basils all rolled up in a steamed sausage and sliced to be dipped in a very salty sour brine shrimp sauce. So I hope I didn’t gross you all out but if you have an adventure to try something unique and COOKED and especially authentic you must order the sausage. Finally to accompany our Chao was a fried long donut fresch with is salty and cooked golden brown. It’s like a crispy donut/crouton on top of the soup for some crunch.
Live a little dangerously and I promise you won’t be sick. Pleaes comment me back if you venture to try out the Chao Long or the blood Sausage. The Hungry Buddha Belly gives Pho Nguyen Hue 4 RUBS OF THE BELLY. 5 alone for the Basil Blood Sausage. FEAR FACTOR HERE WE COME!
Filed under: Clay hot pot, Fried fish, asian foods, dinner, fine dining, lunch, resturants, seafood, soups, traditional foods, vietnamese foods
Home Cooked Goodness found at Huynh Restaurant in Little Saigon. This corner restaurant is a “Diamond in the Rough” Huynh is a small restaurant very well decorated with modern décor. What I would recommend there is their spectacular “Home Cooked” food that only costs $5.95 each. I would suggest ordering at least 3 entrees and share among friends Family style. On this day for lunch the Hungry Buddha Belly ordered 3 of 15 many delicious items on their menu. They do have the norm such as pho, but this place is not known for pho.
I think they have the best Soy Sauce BBQ short ribs, which are covered with a sugar broiled coating with thyme and parsley to finish. SHHHHHCH! That was my mouth watering Sorry. The other item I ordered was the CA KHO TO, which is a salted filet of catfish, cooked in a fish sauce, garlic, ginger and reduced down in a clay hot pot. This was my second favorite item, especially with white rice. The salty but delicate fish is a great sweet and salty taste to the fragrant rice.
To keep in the fish theme, I also ordered a whole deep fried Tilapia with a ginger fish sauce on the side for dipping. Fresh fish FRIED? What could be more heavenly? Tilapia can be a little tricky to eat since you cant eat the bones but almost everything else is a crispy treat and dipped in the garlic, ginger fish sauce it was an explosions of flavors only like my Moms can make.
Finally, with all of these entrees I had a very traditional Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Catfish soup. The Soup is cooked with celery, bamboo shoots, tomatoes, soy bean sprouts, pineapple chunks, lemongrass, and fish stock. This soup eaten with a little rice brings me back HOME to the days when my mom made dinner for me.
\Huynh Restaurant deserves 5 RUBS OF THE BELLY, the highest marks for great Vietnamese food. Truly traditional and authentic family food. Also you know the place is good when their Hungry Buddha Belly Statue is proudly displayed. Oh Yeah, I rubbed it for luck as well.
Huynh Restaurant is located at 9500 Bolsa Avenue #B, Westminster CA 92683, (714) 531-7379, Casual and CASH ONLY.
Filed under: Philippino Foods, Pork, asian foods, dinner, food, lunch, resturants, tasty travels, unusual foods
Shout out to my Flip (Philippine) friend Marvin who I think had a conspiracy to kill me with over indulgence and “redline” my cholesterol levels at this “hole in the wall eatery”, At first this place is truly nothing interesting in décor or appearance with a couple of your standard booths and tables in a strip mall which with the name MAGIC WOK, I thought “not another Chinese fast food place. Definitely NOT! Locals only, all Phillipinos enjoying one dish that is commonly ordered here.
Marvin or “Marbeen” as his mom calls him, mentioned that a co-worker mentioned this local Flip food joint specializes in PLATA. What is PLATA? Well, if you knew you were heading for Hell and you want to add Gluttony as one of your sins, you would need to order this dish. PLATA is a deep fried crispy pork shank or leg with skin on it. It looks like fried chicken but the meat is not moist and white but all crispy from the outer skin to the insides. In other words it is like eating all of the crispy goodness of the pork. To accompany this “devilish” dish is to dip it in a sweet “au jus” sauce made from the inners of the pork.
We also ordered the traditional EGGROLL, which was similar to a taquito with ground pork and a BEEFSTEAK plate, which was a marinated beef stir-fry with onions. Overall the value of the meal was great since it was very affordable and the most expensive dish of $8.95 was the PLATA. One bite brought me back memories of when Marvin and I were college roommates and he one day cooked a whole packed of bacon just to eat with rice. TOTAL GLUTONY.
This Hungry Cholesterol Free J Buddha Belly give this meal 4 RUBS OF THE BELLY. for indulging in one of the Deadly Sins!!!
Magic Wok is located at 11869 East Artesia Boulevard, Artesia, CA 90701, (562) 865-7340. Please click on the title of the image to see picture.
My travels as a warehouse management system implementer frequently take me into big industrial areas. After all, that’s where warehouses are! My frequent challenge is to find decent places to eat in these industrial areas. One “chain” restaurant that keeps showing up in these industrial areas is Farmer Boys. They are a cross between a fast food restaurant and a sit down burger establishment. You order at the front counter, take a number, find a seat and wait patiently (or impatiently in my case) for the food to arrive. The décor is a down home country style with pictures of roosters in barns, Norman Rockwell style paintings and country music in the background. I will say that the service here is superb! The cashiers are super friendly and attentive. There must be a company motto somewhere that prizes hospitality, because every worker there was friendly and ready to help. I did notice that the drive through had an awning covering that said, “Thank you for coming!”. So, let’s get to the food already! The menu consists of classic American fare. Hamburgers, patty melts, fried goodies, etc. are the staple. I ordered the BLT combo (sandwich, fries and a coke). After all, what goes best with bacon than more bacon! I am all too happy to sacrifice my waistline for the good of the blog! Anyway, immediately what set this sandwich apart from the normal BLT’s is that Farmer Boys uses applewood smoked bacon. Ok, first of all, yum to bacon… long live bacon… up with pork and porky goodness!! But, applewood smoked bacon… oh yeahhh buddy! One thing Farmer Boy are not, and that is stingy. There was ample amount of bacon (say it with me baaaccccoooon – yum), tomatoes and lettuce. The sandwich was served with a side of fries. Now one thing I hate is getting a side of greasy, soft, cold fries. This was most definitely not the case here. The fries were crisp and well salted. They were also the medium thickness fries that crisp up nicely (I can’t stand the thick steak fries – in case you were wondering). So, all in all, the Farmer Boys experience was definitely a good one. I’d go back and given that I am in these industrial area’s a lot, chances are I’ll be trying more stuff. On the Buhhda fast food scale, I give Farmer Boys 3 ½ belly rubs. - Scott Buhhda
Filed under: Com tam, asian foods, banh beo, bun bo hue, central Vietnamese Food, dinner, lunch, pho, resturants, unusual foods, vietnamese foods
Hello hungry bellies out there! I am finally giving you one of many great restaurants in Little Saigon that I go to. This is a true secret and I don’t think anyone of my friends know about this little gem. Alas, the shroud of mystery is revealed in the heart of Little Saigon at an old strip mall that has been around ever since I have moved to CA and even before the area was officially named “Little Saigon”.
First of all let’s go over the ground rules of most places in this town.
- Don’t expect great service. The service is the same everywhere at all restaurants and don’t take it personal. They treat their most common customers as well as new ones the same. Not Rude but indifferent.
- If the waiter or waitress seats you and then stands near by to take your order right away don’t be bothered with it. They assume you know what you want since most restaurants specialize in a particular dish so they are waiting for an order of how much and how you want it.
- Also got to order drinks at the same time when ordering food.
- Always pay cash. Most restaurants in Little Saigon don’t take credit cards, and if they do I would consider them “fancy”.
- You can ask them what their specialty is but most likely they will try to explain in their limited English skills. Some places have picture books since I do notice that a lot more Mexican families eating at these places. I think they know good, fresh and cheap food. Best value in town.
- Fish Sauce “Nuoc Mam” is king in this town. If in doubt dip it in Nuoc Mam and it all tastes good.
With all of that being said check out DA NANG TRAN QUY CAP tucked in the corner of a strip mall in 9607 Bolsa Avenue, Westminster, CA 92683 near Bolsa and Bushard Street.
This place specializes in 3 types of food varieties. COM TAM -which is a broken rice dish with various versions with BBQ pork, Grilled Shrimp, Quiche, on the side. It is like a Vietnamese version of Hawaiian plate lunch. Except the rice is literally broken. The jasmine rice is cut in half to give a more fragrant flavor in every bite as well as having a texture similar to couscous in your mouth. I always imagined that they have kids with small hands cutting each rice kernel in a factory somewhere. I will review this dish on another day since this place ranks as top 3 places in my opinion for Com Tam.
The other dish is the “Darth Vader” of noodles to its well-known brother Pho. It is a popular dish in Vietnamese cultures named after where it is originated in the old imperial capital of Central Vietnam, HUE. The rice noodle used in this soup is different (much thicker) from the one used in Pho. The noodle is most similar to the Japanese soba noodle in size and texture. The broth is prepared by cooking bones for a long period of time, as well as a large variety of different spices including lemon grass and chili. In this belly warming soup usually includes thin slices of marinate beef shank, chunks of well-cooked oxtails, and pig’s knuckles. It can also include cubes of congealed pig blood (jello blood). Before I gross you out, it is a delicacy but honestly I usually order this soup without the HUYET (jello blood). If you are adventurous GO FOR IT. This soup is very similar to Menudo but with a more robust flavor in lemon grass. BUN BO HUE is similar to Pho in the sense that it is commonly served with bean sprouts, lime wedges, cilantro sprigs, and thinly sliced banana blossom. Bun Bo Hue is one of my favorites on a cold day or if I need to sweat out any chills that I have. You marry flavors of sweet, spicy, salty, sour, and blend in the accompaniment of the fresh vegetables, sprouts, and banana blossoms it makes this soup complete. I understand now why this dish is revered to be a staple of the old imperial capital of Vietnam.
The second dish, I had was served as an appetizer, BANH BEO, This light rice noodle/crepe style dish is steamed in a little sauce dish and then topped with finely minced shrimp, sauté green onions, fried shallots/garlic, and fried pork rinds for crispy accents. You have to scrape the noodle off of the dish and add a sprinkle of the “Vietnamese Holy water” (NUOC MAM-FISH SAUCE) and then slide it all in like an oyster shooter. I think this place makes one of the best Banh Beo dishes in Little Saigon.
Overall, Da Nang Tran Quy Cap earns a 4 AND HALF RUBS OF THE BUDDHA BELLY. I would give it a 5 Rub but the service taints the rating. Check out my secret and introduction to Central Vietnamese food. COME TO THE DARKSIDE!!! J
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Christina!!! I recently had a nice lunch at a Villa Amalfi on 480 North Main Street, Corona, CA 92880 and took a friend/co-worker out for her special day. This place was a very nice Italian restaurant that was a little upscale in appearance but seemed to be a local favorite. Definitly a step from a Mac Grill or an Olive Garden (not blog worthy places). We were well greeted and seated a formal style table (real cloth table linens). It was a quick lunch so I ordered the MEAT LOVERS PASTA, which included sausage, meatballs, mushrooms and melted mozzarella chees on top sprinkled with italien parsly and basil all in a rich red tomato sauce. I added more basil because I like it that way. I was very pleased with the food tastes and it seemed very fresh and not commercial. Christina ordered the CLAMS WITH PASTA IN A WHITE GARLIC SAUCE. and it looked great as well. Losts of clams both in it’s shells as well as mixed in with the sauce. The portions were generouse and after I was done I still had some home for dinner later. Great 2 for 1 meal, eh?
I give Villa Amalfi 3 AND HALF RUBS OF THE BELLY, and look forward to going back again sometime soon to try other items.
Hola Hungry Buddha Bellies,
I recently had a very “deliciosos” lunch at my favorite Mexican hole in the wall near my work in Corona, CA. i discovered this place one day when I was hanging out with the local workers in the wharehouse and asked them where do they go for a great, cheap, and fast place to get lunch? I emphasized on CHEAP and GREAT. They reccomended me to EL TACO LUCAS off of Lincoln Street exit in Corona. It is a small family run business a “hole in the wall” establishment which always mean very authentic and tasty.
I have had lots of items here in the past with so many lunches here from tacos, burritos, tortas, and Shrimp Diavolos, All MUY BUENO (very good). Today I had their chorizo tortas and an Al Pastor soft taco. I know I had the cravings of Jamon (pork) today and I thought the smokey, salty, greasy meat would do its job. If you have not had a torta before it is a fluffy soft sandwich with lightly grilled buns and stacked with items made fresh with a mixture of lettuce, tomatos, onions and cilantro topped with a red smokey chipotle salsa. YUMMY!!!. To add to the spicy flavors I love their grilled seasoned jalapeno peppers. I can only eat the outside skin, avoiding the seeds, which at first bite is sweet but then you get a hint of salt from the charred outside skin, and then after 10 seconds you feel the HEAT, Caliente to say the least!!! My little Buddha Head was totally beadding up with sweat and I was feeling pretty good and pumped. All That for 7 bucks including a drink, not bad, si?
To quench my thirst I had their homemade Jaimaica (hibiscus flavored) drink. Tasted very refreshing and flowery frangrace that compliments the spice. Finally as an idulgence I went around the corner to the Mexican market CARDENAS and got myself a special treat to cool off my spice. I got myself one of the best things I discovered this summer which was mexican coconut popscicles. I first discovered this sinful treat at a friends birthday party where they had rented an icecream man truck to stop by and give all of the kids their choices of treats. My “Latin Flavor” friends suggested to try this “Healdos Mexico premium all anatural ice cream” popscile and with one bite I know if just found bliss. Look here senor and senoritas, the popsicle is like a creamy milky ice with slivers of real coconut that reminds you that it is all natural. Took me back as if I was on the beach in Los Cabos enjoying the warm tropics.
I would like to give El Tacos Lucas 4 RUBS of the belly for “deliciosos” fast mexican food. Try it out if you are in the Corona area. If it is good for the locals it’s good for me. Enjoy!
Filed under: asian foods, breakfast, dinner, drinks, food, japanese food, korean food, lunch, pho, resturants, snacks, tasty travels, thai food, unusual foods, vietnamese foods
Hello Belly Rubbers,
As you know I started this to get my friends and family enthusiastic about all the different foods out there. I hope you enjoy my blog since I am passionate and very excited about what I eat and where I eat. I hope my experience transends all appetites and at least give you an idea of my personal taste and as well as getting your Buddha Bellys great cravings to try out !! Enjoy and please let me know what you had to eat, feel, and overall experience.
Now you all have seen in most asian restaurants the Happy Buddha statue or figurine that stands by the cash register or near the door way. I believe that if you rub the Happy Buddha statue’s belly it makes him and you happier. When I see one of these funny statues I make it a point to rub it for luck! With that being said I would like to quanitfy my overall experience on a scale of 0 to 5 rubs of the belly with 5 belly rubs considered the “best” or “happiest”.
Hope you all enjoy what the Hungry Buddha Belly has to offer.
