While at Bon Epi Patisserie, I was furiously thinking of where we were going to go next for the Epic Birthday Food Crawl. As I punched in the address of my desired location in my GPS, I saw that it was only ten minutes away. Since we were in the area, I thought, "Why the fk not!"
So off we went to Little Saigon...to have the mini feast that you see above...
D was driving with KD in front while TORC and I chatted in the back as we occasionally tried to guess what song was playing on D's ipod. Let's just say we heard a lot of Rex Smith ("You Take My Breath Away"), Kenny Loggins, Leif Garrett (OMG, I didn't realize he sang A LOT of wimpy pussy songs, like total saccharine ballad overload!), and Pit Bull! What a mix, eh?
Our next stop was at this little strip mall:
I've read good things about Vien Dong...
None of us had been here before. Since my friends aren't as anal as I am, they were quite open to the idea of going here. I wasn't sure if they had a planned itinerary but since they didn't, my evil inner control freak/dictator was happy that we got to go here to satisfy my burning curiosity.
Look at the front cover of the menu - they even had #22, one of their most popular dishes on the front cover!
It's always fun going to new places...for the good company, the excitement of trying new dishes, and of course, for "research" purposes, heh heh.
The Ban Tom Co Ngu (sweet potato and shrimp fritters). If you like sweet potato fries or Philippine okoy (but without the bean sprouts), you will love this! The sticks were clumped together and within the tangled skein of fried goodness were battered shell-on shrimps. Fresh lettuce leaves, mint and tia to (purple perilla) were on the side to either wrap your fritter pieces or to eat separately. I liked wrapping mine with the lettuce and herbs. The dipping sauce was also delicious; it's distinctive tang cutting through the fried veggie and shrimps.
Our Bun Rieu - a tomato based soup with ground shrimp, crab and rice noodles and fried tofu chunks. I've seen some recipes where the seafood is in patty form. This was crumbled up. It kind of reminded me of scrambled eggs. I couldn't really taste the shrimp and I didn't really like the loose crumbly texture in the soup. The broth was light but not as flavorful as I thought it would be.
When the server brought out the Cha Ca Thang Long (Vietnamese Hanoi style turmeric fish with onions, scallions, and dill), Vien Dong's signature dish, it arrived like a total rock star of the food world, sizzling like a sexy MF on a hot metal plate! You could smell the aromatic herbs and hear the seductive sizzle of that juicy fish. One of the most notable ingredients was dill which is only used in Northern Vietnam.
Just look at that steam...The fish was so fragrant and tender. I wish we had ordered two of these!
Here is the rice vermicelli, fermented shrimp paste, sesame crackers, lettuce leaves and herbs to eat with the fish. There were peanuts hidden under there as well. After re-reading WC's post on Vien Dong, I realized that we didn't eat it the way we were supposed to. No wonder, because we were puzzled over the four small bowls they gave us. We were supposed to put some noodles in the bowl, add the fish and sauce, tear up some herbs, add some peanuts, and bits of the sesame cracker, along with the fermented fish sauce. Ooops. Next time we will do it right but you know what? We still enjoyed this fish! Out of the three items we tried, the fish was our favorite hands down.
Our first real taste of savory food was a big hit. We were only getting started...
There is no website for Vien Dong, but here are the yelp reviews...
The LA Weekly also did a story on their Cha Ca Thang Long:
Eat This Now (January 2011)
Vien Dong Restaurant
14271 Brookhurst St
Garden Grove, CA 92843
(714) 531-8253
The most informative post I came across was by the very knowledgeable Wandering Chopsticks who conducted a food tour of Little Saigon for FoodBuzz's 24x24 one year ago. One of her friends, Gourmet Pigs (who went on the tour) also posted on Vien Dong. Read that post here. Here is an older post by WC done back in 2007. You can learn more about the restaurant's storied past and see the variety of dishes she had..
I remember reading WC's FoodBuzz post last year (I even commented on it), but of course, it slipped to the back of my mind until Kirbie's recent post...
Other bloggers who went to Vien Dong:
The Food Gastronomer
Kirk of Mmm-yoso
Was it time for a nap yet?
Not even!
Onward to the San Gabriel Valley!
4 comments:
Hehe, it looks exactly like the food I ordered, minus one item. The fish was definitely my favorite of all the dishes.
I know!!!!! He he!!!!! :)
I wanted to sample what you had but we had to start off kind of small since we were going to several other places that day!
Looks great CC...haven't been to VienDong in a couple of years.
hi kirk - i want to go again to try some other dishes on their menu...
glad i read your post along with wc's and kirbie's.
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