faulker056

At least once a month, J & I will take her mom down to Little Saigon to go play. Our routine is usually to either eat: Pork Lemongrass Soup Noodles at Bun Bo Hue So 1 ( bun bo hue ) Rice flour crepes stuffed with ground pork at Tay Ho ( banh cuon ) Grilled cured-pork spring rolls at Brodard ( nem nuong ) Grilled dill & turmeric fish at Hanoi Restaurant ( cha ca ) Rice vermicelli soup with tomato & crab at Vien Dong ( bun rieu ) Decisions, decisions, decisions. Even when we're full to the brim from the food of Little Saigon, there's always one last stop: vietnamese sandwiches at Banh Mi Che Cali (Garden Grove location by the 22 freeway). The sandwich is decent, as I prefer it much over the ubiquitous Lee Sandwiches, but they do offer the 3 for $5 deal which even makes old frugal, asian people do a double-take and say, "Damn, that's cheap. how do you live?!" For those new to the Vietnamese sandwich "banh mi", it's a mix of French and V...

My first encounter with a raw oyster was about eight years ago and I remembered feeling curious and anxious as I stared at this soft, slimy-gray creature that resembled a bodily organ. It was peacefully floating in a bed of salmon roe and fresh uni, and drowned by a nameless sake . It wasn't on the half-shell but it was definitely a real oyster. My friends passed the glass to me and we all held it up in a strange, gratuitous toast to friendship and whatever oceanic concoction brewing in my glass. First, the taste of the cheap sake. Gross. Second, an avalanche of salty salmon roe and mushiness that is uni. Mmmmm. And finally, the soft foreign object that feels like an oblong egg yolk. *Gag* This is the point in time where your brain has the finger on the gag reflex switch in your body. It will either project the foreign object as your eyes well up in tears, or it will let it go down smoothly like a fat kid on a water park slide. But instead of swallowing it all, I sank my te...