Dat Thanh

We celebrated Christmas in Orange County with our families. Before heading back up, we needed one more Vietnamese food fix to tide us over.

Their cuon, bun and com tam were solid — fresh-tasting, not too greasy and only slightly mystery-meatish.

As we pulled out, we saw this thing...

...but judging from the LA Times, OC Register and others, Dat Thanh is already on the map.

Phogettable

Sometimes that craving for Vietnamese food hits like a ton of bricks and we need to eat it like NOW. Unfortunately, we have yet to find a good Vietnamese restaurant west of Chinatown. But with each new place that pops up, our hope is renewed.

We were totally excited when Unphogettable opened and even more excited we finally had the opportunity to check it out.

After we ordered, cucumber water and accessories promptly followed.

Then came our first entree. This "vegetarian vermicelli" be shady. There were two kinds of egg rolls in it, and we think one kind totally had pork inside. Either that, or it was made with really funky, meaty veggies. Anyway, aside from making us feel kind of guilty, the bun was ok and just lacked the punch of tons of fresh Vietnamese herbs (love you, tia to).

Of course, we also had to try the pho. Now, we're of the belief that no pho is quite as good as mom's pho, and, in a pinch, the next best thing is a greasy bowl from Pho 79. So our expectations for any other pho are pretty low.

And thank goodness, because this pho was so mediocre and so...phogettable. Despite the cute signage that tried to convince us otherwise.

Reinventing a Classic

We love bun rieu, but had zero time or motivation to slave over a huge, steaming pot of broth.


So...we decided to experiment with making a DRY version of one of our fave Vietnamese dishes!

We lightly browned shallots, onions and garlic...threw in tomatoes to deglaze and create a sauce...added seasonings, shrimp and crab for some seafoody bun rieu goodness...dumped in some leftover rice noodles to soak it all up...and then topped it off with some scallions and Vietnamese herbs. A squeeze of lime and some chili-garlic sauce brought it all together.

And there you have our dry bun rieu! Simple, delicious and totally easy to eat while catching up on Entourage in front of the TV.

Warm-weather Food

It was really warm last night in our stuffy shoebox of an apartment, so we decided to McGuyver together some bun. You don't have to slave over a hot stove for too long to make it, and it's cool and refreshing. Because we're sooooo spontaneous and crazy, we added some rice paper wrappers, making our bun into cuon.

Ignore the sad-looking fish (pulled from the depths of the freezer) and wilting herbs (bought earlier in the week and languishing in the heat). Luckily, the nice thing about cuon is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and despite cutting a few corners, it still tasted good.

And because we're so klassy and tasteful, we accessorized with some scallion oil and peanuts. And real china! (But not cuz we wanted to -- the wrappers didn't fit on our usual paper plates...hehe.)