🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1124171712.485931.66680@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
<wwerewolff@yahoo.com> wrote:

> --- I've been in Todais (and Onamis) all over the west and that one was
> the oddest.

What made it odd?

> --- I didn't know that.  I looked on the todai.com website and it shows
> one listed in Westminster Mall - but where is that?  I don't know if
> the one I'm talking about was in Westminster or Huntington Beach or
> something else.  I never know where one starts and the other stops
> around there.  Go a few blocks and you're allegedly in whole new town
> or something.
> 
>     Anyway, I thought they used to list one in Hunt. B., but they don't
> now, just West. Mall, whichever mall that is.  They don't provide a
> map.

It's 7777 Edinger, at the 405 and Beach. Check this:

<http://tinyurl.com/av9u2>

> > The best one in the LA area is the one on Ventura Blvd in the valley.
> > More variety and usually better quality than the others
> 
> ---Haven't tried that one yet.  Usually I'm south more - Orange Cty.
> and S.D. When I'm out that way, and there's so much great Korean and
> Vietnamese food to eat, so that's what i usually do.

Have you noticed the explosion of banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich) joints? 
Over by the Asian Garden Mall there's like 7 of them in a two block
strip.  It's really quite surprising. I was doing some research on them
related vaguely to work and was surprised by the semi-universal
enthusiasm with which they are greeted in the major Non-Californian
towns in which they've appeared.  ChowHounds and blogs and stuff make
like they are like some rare jazz record everybody is dragnetting the
back-streets trying to find.  They are an exceptional variation on what
Unitedstatesians have evolved into an object of absolute irrelevance.

Got 15 banh mi from Chu Co of various kinds for a salon/discussion
group and the uninitiated spent half their time talking about the
sandwiches. At the evening's conclusion three people asked if they
could take a few home when they left!  That's a first.

> ---I hope they re-open in Arizona.  The previous place was in a bad
> location.  If they could take over the site of the sushi buffet place
> in the big China Mall in Phoenix they'd do great business.

I've been to Todai's twice and though it was more than acceptable it
wasn't anything I'd hunt down a second again. Anyplace with 100 tables
and a quarter-acre of floor space makes me nervous.

Since I know you chowhound it a bit out here, did you see Gustavo
Arrellano's "74 Best OC Hole-in-the-Wall" article?

<http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/04/45/cover-arellano.php>

We printed it tiny, put it in the kick-panel of the guitar and have
been eating our way down the list for a year.  We only have about 8
left, since 20 or so were ones we thought we were the only ones aware
of.  He doesn't skew towards Japanese, certainly, but there is some
good grub there.  The best exploratory hints are directed towards
Anaheim, and most specifically to Arab food.

-- 
"A Dictionary of Japanese Food, Ingredients & Culture" by Richard Hosking
(Tuttle, '97).  All the hints one might need for exploring Japanese food.

"The Sake Handbook" by John Gaunter (Tuttle, '02). An excellent intro and
reference to sake.