🚀 go-pugleaf

[ Sorry for the dearth of OT chatter here. Which there were a ng that
addressed such issues.  Please recommend anythat would be more
appropriate. ]

In article <1124523443.498992.85590@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
<wwerewolff@yahoo.com> wrote:

> > "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."
> 
> ----  No, I didn't notice the profusion - but that's my newest food
> passion, Viet sandwiches, and I just discovered them this trip!  My
> favorite place was a little hole in the wall joint that I read about
> on something that you sent me last year, I think.  But they are
> somewhat inconsistent, better than Lee's though.

> 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.
> 
> ---- Or anyplace on south Dobson - where the Asian people are - but
> they should have been able to figure that out for themselves without
> me telling them!

Nope. That's why Lee's will undoubtedly head into the tank.  They've
opened about 2 shops a month for the past two years and they really
don't know what they hell they're doing.  It's not like expanding too
rapidly isn't a classic blunder with opportunities for loss of quality,
overspending, loss of marketing focus and all the rest.  I'm surprised
more of them haven't gone under yet, but by this time next year I'm
assuming they'll have scaled back to 10 or 12 and be trying to dig out
of the hole they dug.  We'll see if they survive it.

If there were a consistent operation around to pick up the leavin's it
would be all that was necessary.

Current favorite for banh mi (i.e. the one we tried yesterday), Saigon
on Brookhurst, a half block north of Hazard on the west side.
 
> I've been to Todai's twice and though it was more than acceptable it
> wasn't anything I'd hunt down again. Anyplace with 100 tables and a
> quarter-acre of floor space makes me nervous.
> 
> --- Heh heh, but it's all you can eat, and the quality is generally
> OK to quite good.

A difference of approach.  At my age, I find myself eating less every
year.  So when I go to an all-you-can-eat joint I *invariably* feel
like I got screwed on the price.  By the way it's almost worth it at
Amazon Churrascaria in Fullerton (Arellano #23 if you're following in
the manual). The sliced meets were very good, but next time I'd just do
the buffet.  Serious feijoada and farofa, if you've the taste, and
other Brazilian treats.

> 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>
> 
> --- Ah, it says that page doesn't exist - but I think that's the
> article you sent me last year.

Try:

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

It's the same link but it works without the carets it seems. How
curious. If that url doesn't work (for any eavesdroppers), use the
search box at ocweekly and look for "Greatest Holes" and look for the
July 16th cover issue.

> ---Yeah, you live in my favorite culinary corner of the world.  Maybe
> you can show me the good sandwich joints next year.  I was kinda busy
> this trip.

Our current intent, because of the explosion of joints on Brookhurst in
recent years is to go back to the plan we had some 7 years ago and eat
at every joint on Brookhurst from Westminster to the sea.  We only made
it from 17th to Brookhurst in the last pass. There ought to be at least
50 or more.
 
> --- Oh, I got a  favorite Korean place in Garden Grove.  I discovered
> it last year.  I've been working my way through their entire menu.
> It's a great little place, all women.  Let me know if you want the
> name - and tell them i sent you!

But of course! I think I may know this place if it has that deep a
menu.  Is it on the north side of GGrove Blvd., and inside has all the
trappings you'd expect in a classic izakaya restaurant, rough-hewn
tables and such?

> And my favorite pho place is still the Pho 79 on Hazard.  It's great
> too, but too crowded on weekends.  Get #33, super pho.

The Vietnamese love food.  Standing on line at the banh mi joints they
all want to chip in with their favorite places for one food.  At Saigon
a woman was raving about a Pho place at 1st and Harbor in the NW
quadrant.  The name was Tao Bi or Tao something.

Talked to a Syrian guy at a farmer's market and when pressed for a
place to get to good Syrian food he said there wasn't any really but
was proud that the chefs at Al-Waha (where they have the occasional
Syrian dish as a special) and Sahara were both Syrian. And
we found both exceptional, as we've tried them in the past months.

-- 
"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.