If you want exquisite, light, beautifully-flavored food, don't take off for some chef-driven restaurant but for Binh Minh in Little Saigon.
Thanks to a recommendation from a Vietnamese woman who lives in the area, I had two exceptional dishes there, worth the trip no matter how far you have to drive.
The first was bun cha Ha Noi--Hanoi special charbroiled pork with rice noodles (at the top). It's a marvelous combination of smoky grilled pork slices and little cakes of ground pork in a bowl of sweet, slightly tangy, clear sauce with crisp vegetables on top.
An extra bowl of sauce is on the side, and you'll need this, because the flavor is addictive. You combine a mouthful of the meat with a few slim rice noodles, cooked so they're resistant to the bite, not soft or gummy, and then finish off with fresh raw greens from a heap on a platter (above). It's a brilliant way to eat, a perfect balance of flavors, and so light and fresh.
The other dish is banh tom co ngu--deep fried shrimps and yam (above). This is not a plate of fried shrimp, but sweet potato fries--the most brilliant orange fries you can imagine--with a few shrimp attached.
Still hungry? My Vietnamese informant also recommended bun oc--cooked snails and rice noodle soup, but I left that for another visit. This food is inexpensive. Share all three dishes with a friend, and you'll pay a little more than $10 each.
Binh Minh is anything but fancy. It's plain and functional, almost empty in the photo above, because it was mid-afternoon, and the lunch crowd had left. People kept coming in, though, and the dish I saw most often when the trays went past was--you guessed it--Hanoi special charbroiled pork.
Binh Minh Restaurant, 9908 Westminster Ave, Garden Grove, CA 92844. Tel: (714) 636-7103.
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