Cham Sut Gol [Garden Grove]

My friend made reservations for a table of approximately 10 and we all got the dinner special of all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ at $16.99 per person. It came with short and thin skinless pork belly, thin sliced beef brisket, pork BBQ, beef BBQ, chicken BBQ, egg pot, bean paste stew and thin rice cake wrap. There are more choices on the menu but we didn't heed the other pages.

Our table was immediately covered with an assortment of tapas from potato salad, to radishes, to chap chae, to broccoli. Then the waitress brought out a mountain of meat and just dumped it all on the steaming grill. She left us to cook it but would return occasionally to add more stuff. The egg pot was very much like that of chawanmushi except it wasn't as light and there were less "surprises" (I've always thought of chawanmushi as a treasure hunt where you find a shrimp here, and a vegetable there). The other dishes weren't unique.

All the meat just started to meld together and eventually they just all started tasting the same after I subjected them to this sweet soy sauce mixture. I had wanted more chap chae but it was reported that there was no more and the message was delivered with another helping of meat.

At the end of the the meal, you can help yourself to the self-serve ice cream cart, where you'll find big tubs of bubble gum, butter pecan and chocolate ice cream. It station itself doesn't look so sanitary, especially the bowl of water where the scoops are left. And the cone is the absolute worst ice cream cone I've ever had in my life; it tasted like cardboard.

Cham Sut Gol
9252 Garden Grove Blvd.
Garden Grove, CA 92842
(714) 590-9292

Binh Minh [Garden Grove]

My earliest memories of Vietnamese dining hails back to Bình Minh, which was a regular haunt of my family's after we moved to California in 1996. Within the last few years, the interior has gotten a face lift, so it no longer has the same dirty Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall charm that it used to.

Binh Minh specializes in bún (rice vermicelli) dishes in both its brothy and dry preparations. Most dry bun dishes come with BBQ meats, which you mix with lettuce, herbs, and fish sauce to enjoy. Among the dry variations, you'll find: Chả cá Thăng Long (fish cake), chả gìo (egg roll), bó nướng (grilled beef), thịt nướng (grilled pork), tom nướng (grilled shrimp), and bì (shredded pork) . Most of these bun dishes originate in the South.

On the right, you have the dish as brought to your table. Left, an image of how to construct your bowl.

For this particular lunch, we opted for the Bun Cha Ha Noi, which is different from Bun Thit Nuong in two ways: 1) The grilled pork sits in a pool of fish sauce (otherwise served on the side) and is served with pickled carrots and papaya and 2) In addition to the grilled pork, you also have ground pork patties. When it comes to the various herbs, I suggest you figure out what you like and dont like using the simple process of trial and error. The dish was solid as usual.

We were going for authentic, so I thought I'd introduce my friend to Bun Rieu Oc, which is a soupy bun dish with a crab meat and tomato base. Oc refers to the addition of snails, though we could have done without the tough, chewy little things. Though the dish looks exotic, the flavors are more familiar than you'd expect. While the broth tastes predominantly of tomatoes, there is a pungent aroma that you'll smell before you taste. Usually Binh Minh is a reliable place for bun rieu, though it was bland this time around.

If tomatoes and crab are not odorous enough for you, add some of the gray mam tom paste in . Use the fermented shrimp paste sparingly, as it does have a strong fishiness to it. The acidity in bun rieu makes the piping hot noodle dish good even in summer and a helping of fresh cabbage and herbs won't hurt either.

It seems overly simplistic and cliche, but the Bun Cha Gio Thit Nuong here is one of my favorites.


Binh Minh
9908 Westminster Ave
Garden Grove, CA 92844
(714) 636-7103

Joe's Italian Ice [Garden Grove]

A lone-standing building along the side of a busy street displays a dizzying menu of various frozen treats. Their specialty is the Italian ice which is made with real fruit, but they also sell ice cream, floats, shakes, smoothies, and sundaes.

You actually do not enter the stand but make your purchases outside at a window. There are stools outside with a small awning that offers solace from the sun. Occasionally, an employee will come out to offer you a sample.

After spending a good 5 to 10 minutes looking at the menu, we settled on a small Mango Tango and Lemon Italian ice. Both flavors were delicious but the lemon was sweeter than I thought. I'm used to lemon treats that make me pucker. The texture was like that of refined shaved ice and I was delighted to find that the ice didn't melt as fast as I thought it would.

Joe's Italian Ice and Ice Cream
12302 Harbor Blvd
Garden Grove, CA 92840
(714) 772-0414