Flavor Boulevard

Raise your hand if you’ve ordered dessert at a Vietnamese restaurant. What? Vietnamese restaurants have desserts? Yep, they do. But they’re always on the last page of the menu, which you never get to because you stop at number 1 – Pho dac biet (special noodle soup) or summ’n. Besides, nobody ever bothers to ask if you’d like to have dessert before they bring out your check. And besides, pho usually fills up the once empty cavity, so no more room for sugar loads. But next time it’s okay to leave some broth and some noodle behind, cuz they do have some delicious sweet deals outback. Not bubble teas.

Black eyed pea che is one. Mushy, plump peas dissolve on your tongue with gooey sticky rice and coconut milk. I adore che dau trang at Kim Son and at Lee’s Sandwiches in Houston, but this beauty in a glass served at Le Regal does not disappoint either. Of course, do NOT eat the mint, as much as I’m for flavor mixings, this mint is purely a matter of decor.

Also che, but without sticky rice is chè đậu đỏ bánh lọt: sweety sweet and mushy red bean at the bottom, bland chewy green tapioca worms floating in coconut milk and shaved ice on top. Personally I think the shaved ice can get lost because it only dilutes the coconut milk, but this chilled cup of che is more revitalizing than eating ice cream in wintry days (no sarcasm, if you haven’t tried ice cream in the cold, you’re missing out big time). Kudos to Banh Cuon Tay Ho #8 in San Jose for this beany treat.

Yet another che. You got it, there’s coconut milk :-P. I can’t quite figure out why Phở Hòa Lão II (Oakland) probably calls this thing chè ba màu, or tricolored che, where it actually has four colors: yellow of mung bean paste, red of red beans, green of tapioca, and white of buttery coconut milk, unadulterated by ice as the che is refrigerated. The only complaint would be its capability to fill me up for hours for only $2.10.

Desserts at Binh Minh Quan cost slightly more, ranging from $3-5 each, but they also have more than just che. This beautifully crafted block of kem chuoi (frozen banana) is a three-buck wow-er: sliced banana with coconut milk hardened together, drizzled with chocolate syrup and crusted with ample peanut bits. The icy salty sweetness sends shivers down my spine.

Bánh Cuốn Tây Hồ #8 (San Jose) 2895 Senter Rd San Jose, CA 95111 (408) 629-5229	Le Regal (Downtown Berkeley) 2126 Center Street Berkeley, CA 94704 (510) 845-4020
Bình Minh Quán (Oakland Chinatown) 338 12th St Oakland, CA 94607 (510) 893-8136	Phở Hòa Lão II (Oakland Chinatown) 333 10th St Oakland, CA 94607 (510) 763-8296

No.

The red snapper at Anh Hong Berkeley is thoroughly coated with caramelized sugar and fish sauce, but its flaky flesh stays dry like terracotta tiles. The seawater has rooted too deeply in each fiber to blend with the sweetness. Salmon would be even worse.

Experience says bitter lá lốt can be tamed, but only fresh water fish, like catfish, can make a clay pot sing.

There is only one on the East Bay, and three in San Francisco. (I don’t count the Asian Fusion stuff and places with, like, one Indonesian noodle salad.) That is just way too few Indonesian restaurants in an area where Asian cookeries sprout like mushrooms after the rain. Historically, the Indonesians have settled here at least 10 years before the Vietnamese, and at about the same time as the Thai. After a few wholesome meals at Jayakarta, it is beyond me why Indonesian food has not gained much popularity in the States.

Take the palm-sugar-smothered rotisserie chicken ayam kalasan. It loses to no other chicken but my mom’s. I’m hooked from the first bite. The sweetness is in eve.ry. single. strand. of meat, it’s tender, it’s firm, it can make me rob a school kid for $7.95 when the craving gone mad.

Or the chewy bihun (rice noodle) that fares wonderfully both stir fried (mie goreng) or boiled and tossed (bihun ayam) with chicken, shrimp, beef ball, egg, and some crunchy stalks similar to but denser than celery. Also, bihun is better than than bakmi (egg noodle).

Or the subtle, smooth, and compact fingers of pounded fish grilled in banana leaf. The otak-otak panggang reminds me of chả cá and chạo tôm in Vietnam.

Or the rice (nasi). Fried rice (nasi goreng), no complaint. Rice served in banana leaf with coconut beef, fried curry chicken, and marinated tofu (nasi bungkus), absolutely no complaint. The egg kills.

And coconut rice (nasi lemak) with ample cubes of chicken, mealy perkedel, and my all-time-favorfish anchovies fried to a crisp.

Or, away from the meaty fried and marinated galore, a gentle bowl of chicken wonton soup (pangsit kuah). So elevating. (I once had this horrid wonton soup when I was six. The wonton was thick and doughy like a blob of mush, the soup was like chicken and dumpling bubbling in lard. I avoided wonton soup ever since. Until now.)

And a glass of fruit jelly, rice, banana and cassava in coconut milk, with shaved ice, for $3.95.

I don’t understand why Thai restaurants outnumber Indonesian ones. Is it the lack of pork? (No.)

Address: Jayakarta Restaurant
2026 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704

If you ask me a few weeks ago, which place has the best pho in the Bay Area outside of San Jose, I would not give a straight answer. I would instead say that the speediest pho is at Le petit Cheval on Bancroft, at most 5 minutes after ordering and a bowl is steaming up your nose; the most spacious pho restaurant is Phở Vỉ Hoa in Los Altos; the lowest price of a sliced beef number is about $6; and upon slurping you usually can’t escape a tightened, salty lingering at the back of the throat, reminiscence of the seasoning package that comes with your instant $1 pho.

If you ask me now, I’d say without hesitance: Le Regal has the best pho in the Bay, and possibly one of the best I’ve ever had I still don’t have the answer yet: UPDATE on October 15, 2011: Le Regal’s pho broth has become fatty and bland, it is now one of the worst pho I’ve ever had…

The following is but a beautiful memory: 🙂

The main reason for this definite conclusion is the lack of that post-slurping tightened, salty aftertaste. It does hurt my pocket a little paying $8-9 for a wad of thin, chewy noodle, a hefty plate of bean sprouts, and meat. But the broth is the deciding factor, and this broth is at least twice as good as any other broth outside San Jose.

Inside San Jose, I haven’t ordered any pho. Cuz if you’re already in Vietnamese town, shame on you for sticking to only that one dish.

Address: Le Regal
2126 Center Street
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 845-4020

Diagonally across the intersection from Crepevine on Shattuck are one Thai restaurant and one Thai-Lao restaurant, right next to each other. We know that it’s pretty much impossible for us to get a pure Lao dish in America, given that we can’t really tell the difference between Lao and Thai names. Still, the three-lettered word addition on the sign has an alluring effect on us mini-globavores. So we choose Dara over Cha Am.

Secluded high above street level with a red brick gradation ascending up to the door, Dara offers its patrons two seating choices: out in the garden curtained by a multitude of mini palm trees, bamboos, and kalanchoes, or indoor, surrounded by faux gilded statues, metal vases, and wall ornaments. There’s no music; except for the talking in the kitchen far back, the only sound you hear here is your own voice.

The dinner menu at Dara has a list of house specialties, Lao finger foods (with familiar items like sai gauk, satay gai, noke todd, nam lao), various noodles and curries, and of course, pad thai for those who never order anything else when they go to Thai restaurants. The lunch menu is more compact and has no separation between Thai and Lao dishes. The foods range from really good, good, alright to eh-inducing, but the quick and gracious service is always the same. I ask our host if we pronounce the names correctly, he smiles and nods “of course”. I’m sure the “not” is hidden behind his big grin. 🙂

Get: sticky rice roll with peeled shrimp, wrapped in moist rice paper. Although accompanied by a thick tamarind dip, the rolls are already robust with their supple grains coated in some sweet and salty sauce. Its solid and chewy texture makes you full for hours. This is xôi disguised in gỏi cuốn form, ~$9 for two fat long ones.

Definitely get: mor din – stir fried glass noodle with mussel, salmon, fish cake, shrimp, squid, straw mushroom, cilantro, bell pepper. All sorts of goodies for about $13. I cannot understand why pad thai is more popular than mor din. (FYI, Dara also dishes out a better mor din than Little Plearn Thai Kitchen on south Shattuck.)

Get with caution: kao gee ($8.95) – simply a block of baked sticky rice seasoned with anchovy fish sauce, fried shallot, green onion, a little bit of egg, and peanut sauce to spread. The rice has a light crisp on the surface, but the taste, however interesting, gets monotonic after a while.

Get with caution: soub naw mai even if it’s on the House Specialties list (with kao gee). This is bamboo shoot (mai) salad with minced pork, spiced up by a generous dose of ground chili pepper, black pepper and mint. I have mixed feelings about this. It’s good at first, but then it’s too spicy for me, the bamboo shoot is refreshing at first, but then too soggy and not chewy enough. It’s good as a small side salad, but not as an $8.95 entree.

Get: catfish curry noodle soup (lunch menu, $9.95). Don’t expect to see any fish under the rice noodles, it has all dissolved in the broth. This soup is as vibrant in colors as it is in taste: sour and hot play the two high keys. I like how the main ingredient, the fish, stands behind the scene.

Definitely get: som tum gai yang (lunch menu, $9.95). What can go wrong with BBQ chicken (gai yang in Thai, or ping gai in Lao), simple white rice, and green papaya salad (som tum in Thai, tam mak hoong in Lao)? The portion is too small. Although I’m a meat lover, I think the mild som tum totally steals the lime light on this plate (pun intended :-P). Its crunchy strings, soaked in sugar and tangy lime juice, are fruit crack.

Of the limited times we’ve been to Dara, the only disappointing thing we encounter is how the diners, however young, like to order nothing more than pad thai. The playing-safe mentality is stickier than sticky rice. Seeing how big the menu is at Dara, there is one thing you should NOT GET here: pad thai.

Address: Dara Lao Thai Cuisine
1549 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 841-2002

Other Thai-Lao restaurant in the vicinity:
Champa Garden

There are two types of fish that you are guaranteed to find in American diners: catfish and salmon. Catfish is almost always filleted, battered and fried. Salmon is either grilled or smoked. Because the choices are so unlimited, I never order them. And this is the prime example of what you would miss out if you stick to your prejudice: had it not been because of Vân, I wouldn’t have had a tasty salmon burger and a tasty salmon-on-baguette today.

Nation’s Giant Hamburger (NGH) is a small local chain spanning the Greater Bay Area, serving burgers, breakfast, hot dogs, and also pies. Of the 24 locations, Berkeley’s NGH on University is a little oasis of the ’80s rural: small dusty parking lot with old cars, highly-walled-up booths in dark colors, the smell of fries and oil and the grill twirled with the smell of old people and homeless people and unkempt teenage boys, the pies fluffed with whipped cream in glass cabinets, the chili, the wallpaper, the red and white theme. It doesn’t speak clean. It isn’t cheap either, a third-pounder costs anywhere between $3.70 to $5.70, depending on the type of meat and if you add cheese or bacon. When in mood for burgers, I would definitely choose Burger King over NGH. But King doesn’t have salmon, Giant does.

I want my grilled wild Alaskan patty with 2 slices of American cheese (60 cents), mayo, no mustard, no onion, and no pickle. It comes out to $5.55 with a distinctive smell of the legless animal, dripping tomato juice, and big folds of iceberg lettuce. I don’t know if it is my little expectation for fish burger or the amazing talent of the chef, but the fish taste and texture couldn’t have been better enhanced.

For dinner, the salmon again surprises me through the hand of Monsieur Alain at La Bedaine, North Berkeley. Layered between halves of a rough, concrete baguette, on top of thinly sliced red radish, cucumber, tomato, a few spinach leaves, and smeared with feta cheese, the smoked salmon shines like amber and tastes like silk. In terms of food, I always prefer legged animals to legless ones, but this salmon sandwich boasts mouthfuls of superiority over the boar terrine sandwich (ground boar meat and fat in sausage form, also on baguette).

Thank you, Vân, for suggesting Salmon today. 🙂 Happy birthday! 🙂

Addresses:
Nation’s Giant Hamburger
1800 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94703 – (510) 843-7326
La Bedaine
1585 Solano Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707 – (510) 559-8201

Speaking of unpopular authentic dishes taken off the serving tray, I’m reminded of the Hawaiian place on Shattuck. I overheard the owner say that he would have to remove some stuff from the now-three-page menu. There’s business, most are lone diners and take-outs, but naturally business is not the same for every item. Once a middle-aged man ordered 20 spam musubis to-go, and I imagine this is nothing unusual for a $2 nori-wrapped solid brick of rice with one slice of browned processed succulence. It’s just a good deal, it tops the chart in terms of convenience times filling factor divided by cost. If you’re a Berkeley student, I guarantee you can’t dig up a better combination of those quantities in this area. So the spam musubis are safe, but who are (not) on the chopping block?

The barbecued meat and fried seafood? I don’t think. BBQ is in the name. You can snob up your chin about meat quality, but don’t tell me that the smell of caramelized grilled short ribs doesn’t wet your tongue. Crunchy fried mahi mahi and fan-shaped split shrimp offer more texture than taste, so I might worry a tad for them. For $8.25, the seafood combo (pictured) doesn’t deliver as much as the $7.75 BBQ mixed plate (teriyaki steak, short ribs, and chicken).

Not all meat is popular, though. Take fresh pork lau lau for instance. You are presented with a leaf bundle next to the usual three scoops, one of cheesy cold macaroni salad and two of white rice. You unwrap the leaves like one unwinding a silkworm’s cocoon, only to find more greens inside that baffles you “is this edible? should I keep unwrapping?” You sample a bit of that green mash, and feel smoothness sliding down your throat. It’s like overcooked spinach coated with beef fat. The meat is similar, like a plainer sister of the Vietnamese meat kho minus the sugar and the sauce. Then something fishy creeps up to the base of your teeth. Fish that you can’t see but it is there, so well woven into the pork and the greens that the taste is but a wisp of its slippery skin. You may notice that the whole experience sounds like a butter pool, and indeed it is. Plain and fattily smooth. Perhaps it slides down too smoothly to grab hold of my interest. $7.25 is quite reasonable for a fistful load of “taro leaves, pork, butterfish, and salt, all wrapped in Ti leaves“, but if you didn’t grow up with the taste, you wouldn’t miss it. I suspect pork lau lau will say bye bye. :-/

Saimin is likely another go-er, though for a different reason. If pork lau lau is at the very least respectable for its interesting ingredients, the barebone saimin’s simplicity doesn’t justify its price. At $3.25 you get a wad of egg noodle in salted broth, four rosy fingers of spam and a sprinkle of green onion rings. But, to be fair, I’d like to try Wikiwiki saimin with egg and BBQ chicken before I finalize the sentence.

The one thing that Wiki Wiki should keep even till word’s end is in this last picture. When you hear that sizzling sound the patty makes on the grill, suddenly something’s awake in you. But the meat isn’t the best part. It’s the rice smothered in a thick peppery gravy, further thickened by two running yolks. Every spoon glosses your upper lip. It’s just yellow and brown and unpretentious like an old friend’s laugh.

The loco moco made me like Wiki wiki, just like the oksusu cha sprouted my love for Berkel Berkel. Something about it (most likely its $6.50 price :-P) connects generations of Cal bears. I was reading Zach Mann’s post at The Eaten Path and I saw “that Shattuck Blvd discount diner,” and suddenly I felt that Zach Mann wasn’t a stranger anymore. Well, I’m sure I’m still a stranger to him, but hey, we ate at the same place, perhaps sat at the same shiny metallic table, and independently felt the same way about a meal sold in transparent plastic box. You can trust us on our assessment of Wiki Wiki’s loco moco. It won’t go off the menu. It can’t.

Address: Wiki Wiki Hawaiian BBQ
2417 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704-2022
(510) 548-3936

I was first deceived by its genteel green color to taste a spoonful all at once. Ever since, the wasabi has been a turnoff. Ever since, I also scoff at sushi, “pieces of overpriced cold rice, cold veggie and tasteless seafood” I labeled them. Well, they’re still overpriced, still cold, but definitely not tasteless. Be it the oksusu cha, the small salad with Korean mayo dressing, the creative rolls, or my infatuation with anything Korean (even when it’s just Korean-made Japanese food), the sushi at Anzu taste wonderful to me.

I’ve blogged about Anzu twice already, but it would be incomplete to talk about Anzu without talking about their sushi menu. The selection is countless: nigiri/maki, vegan/non-vegan, normal/fried/baked/crunchy, etc. Yah yah yah, this is uramaki (Westernized sushi) with the nori inside, avocado, cream cheese, names like Avatar and Golden Gate. But the point is they’re good. They also give you free soup, salad, and either edamame, fried tofu, or gyoza for appetizer. This would be one of the first places I’d take my little sister out to eat, had the US Embassy granted her a travel visa to enter the States (they wouldn’t do it unless she were married and had her husband stay in Vietnam). But since it’s so difficult to come here legally, guess we’ll have to celebrate Sou‘s birthday with pictures of sushi. 🙂

Calamari tempura roll ($4.99)- calamari, cucumber, avocado, kamaboko, roll over with spicy mayo and mango sauce.

California tempura Jr. roll ($5.25) – unagi (eel), cream cheese

Crunchy ebi roll ($4.25) – ebi (shrimp), unagi, cucumber roll over and looks like a catepillar. It’s fun to eat, but it also hurt the roof of my mouth a little bit.

Kanpyo roll ($2) – dried squash – I especially love this one for its simplicity yet addicting flavor.

N’jin roll ($4.95) – fried salmon skin, avocado, cucumber, kamaboko – The fried salmon skin is very crunchy, a little overpowering, but I like skin. 🙂

Spider king roll ($5.99) – soft shell crab, cream cheese, avocado, topped with tobiko (flying fish roe). This one is a bit salty and naturally it gets saltier as it sits longer in the soy sauce. The tobiko adds texture and little flavor.

Sweet potato roll ($5.50) – deep fried sweet potato, topped with sesame, spicy mayo and soy sauce.

Tropical roll ($2.95) – batter-fried asparagus and fresh mango in mango sauce.

Good old Futomaki ($5.25) – mixed vegetables (carrot, cucumber, kanpyo, takuan, and something like pineapple (?))

I like them all.

Address: Anzu Japanese Cuisine
2433 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 843-9236

It took me six years eating steaks and potatoes and one evening of eating beef sausages rolled with greens and rice paper to realize that perhaps the best way to eat meat is to eat it with vegetables. No hard feelings, dear steak, you are like pure chocolate, and bulgogi in lettuce wrap is like orange flavored chocolate. Then you add pickled carrots and daikon, minty herbs, rice paper, sweet and sour nước mắm, and the beef is bound to take off just like the Apollo 11.

Such revelation dawned on me when I took the first bite of a bò lá lốt roll at Ánh Hồng in Berkeley. Ánh Hồng was famous in the old Saigon for their creation of the seven courses of beef, a menu that other Vietnamese restaurants quickly imitated to serve big parties. Despite knowing the menu’s popularity, I rarely thought of its main items as desirable, simply because, for instance, I wasn’t a fan of the wild betel leaf (lá lốt in Vietnamese and cha phloo in Thai) that wraps outside the ground beef. It’s usually a little bitter, and it overshadows the meat flavor. But Ánh Hồng really proves that their popularity (4 locations in North California and another 2 in the southern part) is backed up by some solid tasty goods. Somehow, unlike any I’ve tried before, their bò lá lốt is not at all bitter.

Their bánh tráng (rice paper) is also perfect for making fresh spring rolls, thin enough so that you can taste every ingredient, yet elastic enough to stretch and wrap up the sharp corner of lettuce stems without rupturing. The traditionalcondiment to dip the rolls is mắm nêm (fermented fish paste), but to accommodate foreigners (and Vietnamese like me :-P) who aren’t familiar with the sauce’s pungency, Ánh Hồng serves things up with sweet and sour nước mắm (salty fish extract mixed with lime, chili pepper and sugar). It’s amazing how nước mắm works with everything. But, because the meat is already so well seasoned, you don’t have to dip the rolls into any sauce to make the flavors shine.

The pickled carrot and daikon can be a little too sour, but their texture blends better with the ground meat than fresh bean sprouts’ does.

As much as the bò lá lốt turns out far better than expected, I would still say that it’s not the best course in the set. Bò nướng sả (lemongrass grilled beef slices) rolled up with sauteed sweet onion in the core raises the bar by a slight amount, and the succulent sausages of bò mỡ chài (ground beef wrapped in a thin, lacey layer of pig’s omental fat) definitely takes first place. Of course, all taste best when wrapped in greens.

What’s even better is the joy of legitimate playing with your food: you pick , you wrap, you roll, you dip. It’s a feast whether you go alone or with company. It’s feasting South Vietnam style.

Address: Ánh Hồng Restaurant – 7 Courses of Beef
2067 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 981-1789

Sample plate – 3 courses of beef (bò lá lốt, bò nướng sả, bò mỡ chài): 9 rolls for $12

*Why would I walk half a mile to feast alone on a Friday evening? Because this post is to celebrate my “uncle” turning 23. He likes Vietnamese, meat, and Southerners’ dishes. Happy Birthday, Nguyên! 🙂

You know a radio station is worth listening to when it mentions the holidays of other cultures. It shows not only respect but a positive attitude: there should not be only bad news, and there should not be only news about Americans. Mudpie found out from KQED that today the MLK Civic Center Park in Berkeley was hosting the Enkutatash festival, the first day of Ethiopian New Year which usually marks the end of three months of heavy rain in Ethiopia. According to their calendar, the year 2003 will start next Saturday, September 11. But there’s no harm in having good food and fun a week earlier, especially when we have the long Labor Day weekend to stretch our legs. 🙂

We arrived perhaps a little early, although it was an hour after the announced starting time. Most of the food tents (i.e. three out of four) were still setting up, the only one ready was selling ice cream (or was it sorbet?). In fact, an hour later as we were leaving, two of the four food tents were still in the preparing stage. Perhaps the Ethiopians eat lunch late.

I’ve never had Ethiopian food, but I was looking forward to using bread to scoop meat and rice from a bread bowl – the efficient utensil-less meal described by the experienced Mudpie. Unfortunately, the most bread I could get was a glimpse of the injera (Ethiopian flat bread) stacked up on the side and balls of white dough waiting to be cooked.

Luckily the chicken skewers were a few minutes away from being done and the fried plantain was ready to be scooped into plastic bowls.

When I saw that a side order of ginger fried plantain cost 7 bucks, I thought that’s quite some pricy greased bananas. Then I saw the guy keep on scooping and for the first time in my life eating festival foods, I uttered “That’s a LOT!”.

It was no joking side order. The bowl must contain at least three plantains (unless they are plantain giants), and the two of us just could NOT finish it. The pieces were irregular, the edges were crisply burnt and the innard was gooey sweet, perhaps a little too oily and too ripe. This fried plantain didn’t strike me as amazing as the salty fried plantain from Soleil’s African Kitchen, but if you like a light gingery note, it’s pretty good.

And the grilled chicken was better.

$8 a skewer, lots of juicy meat flavored Mediterranean-like. Would get seconds and thirds if not short on cash.

Next year, if you wanna come and plan on eating kitfo, come at least 2 hours after the starting time and look around at the clothing and jewelry tents, they have some very nice looking dresses in green, yellow, and red. Or look at the wooden statues. Or get some henna tattoos. After you’re done shopping, the food might just be ready on time.

Melkam Addis Amet! Happy Enkutatash!