WORLD FARE: A premature evacuation at Sovereign Kitchen
Michael “Bao” Huynh was Iron Chef Vietnam; he was a vaunted James Beard award winner. The San Diego food scene was atwitter with excitement when it was announced that Huynh had been tapped to run...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: More than a missed steak at Dao Fu
Tofu gets no respect. Its reputation as a “meat substitute” precedes it. Bad tofu— and that’s most of the stuff you can buy— isn’t just boring, it’s bad. Really bad. Good tofu, on the other hand, is...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: Variations on a theme at Baguette Brothers
There’s nothing new under the sun, only variations. El Bulli, NOMA, Javier Plascencia or Davin Waite, they are all, at most, new forms or old flavors offered in new ways. In other words, they are...
View ArticleSAN DIEGO CITYBEAT FOOD ISSUE: Best-kept-secret ethnic eateries
The types of places featured on Guy Fieri’s Food Network show, Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, are generally not the restaurants I want to frequent. As I’ve observed in the past, “What makes [the show]...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: Passion boils over at Boiling Passion
The idea of the boiling communal cauldron as cooking vessel is only as new as humans. It is also international. From Chinese “hotpot,” to Japanese nabemono dishes and Singapore “steamboat” all the way...
View ArticleTHRILLIST: Pho is everywhere in SD, but is most of it even good?
One day, pho in San Diego did not exist. The next day, seemingly, it was ubiquitous. San Diego experienced an influx of Vietnamese immigrants from the mid ’70s and onward, resulting in the...
View ArticleRECIPE: Vietnamese Jewish Penicillin – Phở Ga
It is not for nothing Chicken Noodle Soup is called “Jewish Penicillin.” It is, perhaps, the prototypical “Jewish” food. Whether there is actually something medicinal about the stuff, it’s purely...
View ArticleCITYBEAT RESTAURANT GUIDE 2017: Off the Strip (San Diego’s best Asian food...
When most people think about Asian food in San Diego they think about the Convoy District. They’re certainly not all wrong to do so. San Diego doesn’t have a “Chinatown” or a “Little Tokyo” (though it...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: Mien Trung shows the center’s a bit spicy
Barely more than a generation ago even some who called themselves “gourmets” (once-upon-a-time a politically correct synonym for “foodies”) were less than certain of how Tuscan cuisine differed from...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: A-Chau proves sometimes you get more than you pay for
“Good” and “cheap” are two words used together more frequently than they ought to be when it comes to food. There is, for example, no such thing as “good, cheap sushi.” People have probably died trying...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: A different bowl of noodles at Mi Quang Mien Trung
It’s easy to fall into the trap of ordering the same thing every time we’re at a particular kind of restaurant. A friend of mine calls it “ordering right.” I call it boring. For example, some might...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: K Sandwich rises from the ashes
It’s a clichéd sentiment that is found in countless songs: You don’t miss a good thing ‘til it’s gone. Surprisingly, the worst thing about that cliché is not how bad most of those songs are, but the...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: Hipster Vietnamese at Shank & Bone
There’ll never be a need to outlaw North Park. Long before then, the place will have sacrificed itself in a supernova of ironic circularity. Or, perhaps, it’ll be consumed in a black hole of its own...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: Go beyond the gateway drug at Phuong Nga 2
Let us consider the possibility that phở is just the “gateway drug” to Vietnamese cuisine. While that gateway theory (“go to bed with marijuana or beer and risk waking up with cocaine or heroin”) was...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: Banh Mi Hoi An makes my “Best Sandwich on the Planet” better
It’s a formula employed by ambitious chefs and street food vendors alike: Start with the best ingredients available and don’t screw them up. Four years ago, I bestowed on “the bánh mì [sandwich], my...
View ArticleSAN DIEGO CITYBEAT: Best Of – Off the Strip
San Diego CityBeat’s annual “BEST OF” issue, this year, is dedicated to the HOT and the COOL. Here’s the first of my two contributions to the issue. The original is at:...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: Spicy delights at Bane Phonkeo’s
It’s in one of the least tony, more crime-ridden neighborhoods in San Diego. And that neighborhood, while it has its charms, is not the place one would expect to find an excellent example of a slightly...
View ArticleWORLD FARE: Different ways to roll at Goi Cuon
Mention “spring rolls” and most locals will immediately think of the familiar shrimp and pork varieties served as appetizers at pho restaurants all over town. But gỏi cuốn—“spring rolls” in...
View ArticleSAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE: How Bánh Mì Stacks Up
According to legend the sandwich was invented in England in 1762 when John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich, demanded his valet bring him salt beef between two slices of bread. His idea was simple: he...
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