"I really enjoy bring Western and Southeast Asian cultures together,” Chuong says. He grew up in southern Vietnam, but was forced to flee at the age of 15 to escape the war. Chef Chuong says that food has allowed him to hold onto his culture. In Vietnam, people enjoy bún chả for breakfast, lunch or dinner. He says it's been selling like crazy ever since the photos of Obama and Bourdain hit social media. 1391 Sunset Blvd.Chuong’s been busy preparing bún chả at Elements this week. But Thi Tran’s bun cha ha noi is surprisingly good, herb basket a few leaves lighter than what you’d find in Little Saigon perhaps, but with a particularly juicy grilled herbed pork patties and a nicely balanced nuoc cham, sweetened fish sauce dip. Valley Blvd., San Gabriel, (626) 872-2729.īutton Mash, a video game parlor a few blocks from Dodger Stadium, is nobody’s idea of an authentic Vietnamese restaurant - it’s where you go to pound a glass of Three Weavers IPA, smash a plate of Spam fried rice and spend an hour and a half playing Galaga. It may also be the best place in the west San Gabriel Valley to go for bun cha ha noi at the moment: The grilled pork patties may be slightly dry, but the herbs are fresh, the noodles supple, and the taste of well-marinated charred meat shines through. The restaurant’s namesake dish is well-loved for the suave hint of cinnamon in its broth, the generous portions of meat, and the softness of the noodles. Pho Ngoon is a newish noodle shop in a mostly Vietnamese mini-mall notable for spicy lobster and nightmarish parking. But the bun cha ha noi is pretty spectacular here: The herb platter is vast, and both the spiced ground-pork patties and the grilled pork are a bit smoky, unusually tender and drenched in a syrup-thick fish sauce that tastes almost caramelized. Northern dishes are not a specialty here. ![]() The hundreds of people waiting in line on a weekend afternoon are there for the nem nuong cuon, crunchy grilled-pork spring rolls banh khot, tiny rice-flour saucers filled with shrimp and the funky rice noodles called bun bo hue. It is difficult to imagine any of the presidential candidates sitting down on plastic stools to enjoy this sticky, odiferous treat.īrodard is probably the most popular central Vietnamese place in Little Saigon. And we can experience what they ate: bun cha ha noi, a characteristic Hanoi street food dish of squiggly rice noodles, baskets of herbs, and both grilled pork patties and strips of grilled pork shoulder steeped in a small bowl of sweetened fish sauce. But it did look as if they were enjoying the food. We won’t know what Bourdain and the president talked about until the show is aired this fall. ![]() And President Obama’s speech on the intertwined histories of Vietnam and the United States was thrilling - who knew that Thomas Jefferson was a fan of Vietnamese rice? But what caused a small portion of the food universe to explode Monday was a photograph of the president eating bun cha with Anthony Bourdain in the Hanoi restaurant Bun Cha Huong Lien: flimsy plastic stools, chopstick wrapper tossed onto the floor, table crowded with bowls. ![]() The new trade agreement with Vietnam? Historic, no doubt.
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