A Toast to Asian Fusion at Urban Cup

Here's a fascinating thing about the word "fusion", it sometimes get people riled up when you hear that word. Pretty much it meant mixing two or more entities together into one.

For the culinary world, it often meant combining two types of cuisines into one. If you ever heard of kimchi taco, oxtail pho, or even Orange Chicken (super popular), then you automatically assumes Asian Fusion. This gets all umbrage started. Why? Perhaps, people like it simple on how they remembered.

Short Ribs with Garlic Rice and Fried Egg

One of the cool aspects of visiting behind the Orange curtain, south of Los Angeles, was the fact Asian Fusion dining options have multiplied in recent years. It got to a point where a quota was basically needed for every corner. Kidding...

Loaded Fries with Filet Mignon Cubes and Fried Egg

The newest of this Asian Fusion establishment is Urban Cup, which situated to the ever growing presence of the newer aspect in Cypress College area, where students have better dining option. This establishment will attracted a few things that college students and residents will love about: options.

Cauliflower

Think of the poke craze where you choose your protein (from filet mignon cubes, salmon, and ribs) with the choice of sides (garlic rice, noodles, and fries), you get your own customizeable meal. For some of us, this reminds us of combining what we love of our American fare and maybe with the sides of what we love in our Vietnamese cuisine.

Imagine you can get anything you wanted and customized to your liking, this would be a fantastic fast casual place anyone ever wanted and can enjoy this any time.

Now, if only we can do something about the stigma with the word "fusion"...

Urban Cup Cafe
9515 Valley View Ave
Cypress, CA 90630

Coming All Together at PanAsia Sweet and Savory

Asian fusion is well alive in this town.

I reminisced to those days of Wolfgang Puck slinging in his version of what Far East Asian cuisine would be like with all those pretty decorative flowers on his plates. Of course you can tell, majority of the clientele are in his area on the westside of LA and not really catered for people seeking the genuine Asian food.

The team that is behind the venerable chains of cafe and desserts of Phoenix franchises (Boutique, Cafe, Desserts, & Restaurants) are coming out with a brand new "fast casual" restaurant on Alhambra, the heart of meltpot Asian communities.

Chili Pan Mee, Laksa, Tumuric Chili Wings, Pork Rolls

Fast casual can be somewhat describes of misnomer of fast food like your local BK or Micky D's, but more towards comfort food serves in chic vibrant dining. A lot of restaurant are now into this type dining setting while conveying a more regular hang out spot.

The aptly named PanAsia, consist of many different regions of Southeast Asian cuisine (Thai, Singaporean, Vietnamese, Malaysia, Chinese, and Cantonese style food) for the masses to try. The menu have many types of popular comfort food, but with elaborate fine tuning touches that may suit the taste buds, but also entice the senses of look and smell.

Hainan Chicken Rice

Beautifully plate, but yet enormously appetizing such as for some of the more simple dishes like the Hainan Chicken,  Laksa curry noodle, and their popular Malaysian hand pull noodles of Chili Pan Mee. Obviously with fusion involved, BBQ pork rolls, curry chicken somoas (delicious triangle shaped roll) and wings are also elevated to a more eye pleaser as well.

Turmeric Chili Chicken Wings

With a pet friendly outdoor patio seating, a stylish vibe on the front end of lounge area to hang out for your tea drinks, or you can dine indoor at their chic communal tables. It has a happening atmosphere either to dine or to just simply relax with your drinks while catching up with your associates. Maybe that's what fast casual should be like.

Mango Sticky Purple Rice

From an old days of Phoenix Inn to many dessert franchises (which I come to associate them when I was a kid), now back to cool dining, this has earmark of dining for all ages.

Oh, as in for what they are popular to the masses.... yes, they are keeping many of the hand made drinks and desserts available as well on the menu. Get this, you'll also can pick up many of the prepackaged desserts as well.

Simply put, nothing really will be miss as the place had added something new to include everyone else.

PanAsia Sweet and Savory
45 S. Garfield Ave
Alhambra, CA 91801

Meeting for the First Time at Little Sister

Have you ever met a little sister of any of your friend?

Chances are that you have and will always find something unique about meeting her for first time. That's how I felt about coming to Little Sister in their downtown Los Angeles location.

Going back, I actually went to the original location of the same name at Manhattan Beach. Love the cool beach vibes that serves modernized Vietnamese cuisine to their upscale million dollar neighborhood.

Tom Rang Thit Ba Chi - Caramelized Prawn, Pork Spare Ribs, Lardons in Clay Pot

This new surroundings presents a different challenge. It's now catered the busy buzzy crowd of downtown metropolis.

Going inside of the newer little sister of the Little Sister location, they kept the elements the same. Smaller tight space with open tables by the left side of the wall with open high counter seats on the right side. There is even a matching L shape bar with a few tellie playing sports game.

Identical. Like a Siamese twins. You almost couldn't tell it apart by the looks between Manhattan Beach or downtown.

Funny thing was... I actually like the downtown location better.

The same soft touch on the ingredients on the food was still met. You still get the same intricate touches on the take of modernized Vietnamese food that was made popular when it first came out at the Manhattan Beach location. Some of my favorite involves their Salt & Pepper Lobster, which comes out as a split lobster, which then the remaining meat will then be use as a fried rice prepared for you as the final course.

Beef Tartare

Their other top mentioned dishes besides the noodles dishes were their interpretation of shaky beef (Bo Luc Lac) and their seafood clay dish (Tom Rang Thit Ba Chi), which the latter I enjoyed the most. The made to order spring rolls are also a must order on the location as well.

Nothing in terms of food wise I would noticed different. The big takeaway may have been the ambiance for me. I guess the location here in downtown was geared towards night out on the town crowd, which contrast the locale of the uber suburbia clientele that they get. Make no mistake, it's still gear towards couple night, date night, and the friends get to-gather atmosphere.

A Drink Called Charlize Theron (Yes it's red and should have been called Emma Stone)

Oh here's a funnier part, all night at Manhattan Beach location, I am always stuck in between couples who are out on their first Tinder dates. I guess that's how these couples are now getting hooked up. With the downtown crowd and its location, it's more of the casual friends zone.

Maybe it's why I'm a bit more comfortable with the younger sis of the Little Sister. It's the kinda feeling you would have at meeting your friend's little sister... the trusting feeling that makes you more relaxed.

Little Sister
523 W. 7th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Lesson Learned: Don't Wait Too Long

Seriously, I think I had been out of the game way too long.

The feeling I can't really be put into words until I was told there was a new place opened up called "Red O" or did I tried "Toranko". Huh and huh? Followed by a sound of "hmmm" with a quick reflex to google up in my smart phone. I can't even fathom on how I can keep with these new places.

It was also brought to my attention that a few of my favorite places have closed down since last my post in the summer of '10. Felt a bitter cold wrenched in my heart and a little bewilderment clouding my thoughts because I always thought places that served good food will last forever.

Won Ton Noodle Soup (Won Ton Forest - City of Industry)

The closure hit me the most was a won ton noodle shop called Won Ton Forest in City of Industry. This hurts me badly because it was only a minor walking distance from my work. A won ton noodle shop that would have made a great lunch choice for me instead of Jack in the Box nearby most of the week have now come and gone. Somehow I didn't even know about it until a comrade Go Ramen (who is pursuing his dream of being a top Ramen maestro in Japan) introduced this place to me and had championed it for as long as I had remembered.

The big heart break?... I didn't visit this place until a month before it decided to shut down.

The won ton as anyone can tell you is not a small dumpling in a soup, but a well crafted combination of meat wrapped beautifully in either a flour skin or deep fried variety. Personally, I loved the soup version of the dumpling served here in a generous portion with an inviting bok choy that accompanies it. If I had to turn back time, it would be skipping the lunches at Subway (right next door) and all those crappy lunches at Jack in the Box, and come here instead.

Boy, did I ever regretted this.

Pho Bac (Pho Minh - South El Monte)

If I need another gut punch, this blow would floored me for sure. I was really bummed when I discovered that Pho Minh closed down in November of '10. I treated this place like my secret hideaway. Never really wanted to give an acknowledgement on how good their broth with its unique subtle and very light taste. Most of the time, the oily backtaste that is on the broth soup leaves me clamoring for water. Not at Pho Minh, which I'm sad to learn they never really caught on.

I wasn't suprised because I'm usually the only person on most week nights and no other customers to speak of. It has to be very discouraging because it never got a fair shake as it had a rough start and never recover.

The sad part is that both establishment were run by young and enthusiastic owners who are hoping they can make a go at the unforgiving world of restaurant business where the rate closure is less than 3 months. It is going to be brutual and both started at a not so great foot traffic area for their business. I really hope both young owners give it another go at this restaurant jungle, but I would understand if they felt discouraged.

It's tough to see these places go in a quick flash. It only serves me as a reminder that these new places that are popping up are replacing the old establishment that didn't made it. Of course after looking up where Red O and Toranko are located, I can only surmise that both have a fighting chance with much more buzz going for them.

Lesson Learned for me. I let this things passed by and only had a faint memories of these two places.

Shoot....*sigh*. Let's take a look at the menu for the new place that had just opened up. What's it called again?... Playa Rivera?

Former Location:

Won Ton Forest18230 Gale Ave
City of Industry, CA 91748

Pho Minh9646 Garvey Ave
South El Monte, CA 91733

The Secret Sauce Savored @ Brodard (Garden Grove)

Quite often I was told of a secret place that has served some of the best spring rolls can be found in this nondescript place. My first reaction would have been to retort with "every pho place in town serves the same spring roll". That probably would be true in some extent, but for this place to have such a high acclaim for serving outstanding spring rolls that is going to be out of this world?

I just have to see it and taste it for myself.

Exactly a month ago, Wandering Chopsticks was hosting a dinner for her 24, 24, 24 for Foodbuzz, where she had kindly invited a few of us to join her on experiencing a 7-course meal for Vietnamese goat. Afterward, our group which also consists of Aaron of Food Destination, Kevin of kevinEats, and Kung Food Panda decided we can continue on with the evening with more foodie adventures.

Somehow Brodard was mentioned as the possible destination which instantly lighted a few of our eyes. Maybe it was the thought of spring rolls dancing in my mind, but I couldn't wait to get there to discover this mystical spring rolls that was much talked about.

On a Saturday evening, I was quite surprised on how busy and crowded it was in this restaurant. I did surveyed the place to see which dishes would be popular with the diners here that night. It was safe to say that the nem nuong cuon (Vietnamese Grilled Pork Patty Salad Rolls) by far was the hot item to get that night.

An interesting note that was share to us by Wandering Chopsticks was that the special homemade dipping sauce was the big reason for the enhancement of the spring rolls. Apparently, the dipping sauce's recipe is a closely guarded secret that can never be replicated and was often imitated, thus others have never came close matching to the original. The sauce in its glory had a compounded flavor of sweet with an effect of subtle and gentle creamy sauce that compliment well for the rolls.

In a joke, I guess we can inhale the dipping sauce as a soup, but I wouldn't recommend that. Dipping the rolls into this murky, but delicate garlic infused sauce will enhance the flavor profile of each roll you will taste. The sauce is neither spicy or sweet, but providing a contrast to the crunchy savory taste of the rolls.

Nem Nuong Cuon ($7.50 for 5)

The aforementioned Vietnamese Grilled Pork Patty roll was the highlight of the evening for me. This pork paste can often be confused with the look of a spam, but does not quite have taste of it and without the high concentration of salt.

Bundled neatly with lettuce, cucumber, carrots, and other small forms of vegetables before being wrapped in a thin transparent rice paper like a pig in a blanket. Dip this roll into the homemade dipping sauce, you will understand on why the description can never be fully described. The only thing that will go off in your head was the bells of Saint Mary and you will want to slowly eat the roll to savor every last bite of it.

Chao Tom Cuon ($10.00 for 5)

Our next order of spring rolls was the Chao Tom Cuon (Shrimp Rolls) that is a repeat from the above Grilled Pork Patty rolls. All of the basic ingredients are the same with the exception of the main component substitute the pork patty for the shrimp paste.

It will still get you the same results as the Nem Nuong Cuon (grilled pork patty rolls) and the sauce again will play a vital role in assisting of enriching the flavor taste.

Black Jelly with pearls - $3

Binh Tom Co Ngu ($6.95)

The Binh Tom Co Ngu is like a deep fried shrimp and sweet potato tempura in a shape of tic-tac-toe boxes that had a sidekick of an Asian greens and lime sauce to go along with it. The lettuce provided on the side are used to wrap the Binh Tom Co Ngu, which you will proceed to dip into that accompanied sauce.

Banh Khot ($6.95)

In this variation of a popular Vietnamese appetizer, the banh khot served here consist of a while shrimp supplied with mung bean and a dash of turmeric powder served with Asian greens and lime chili fish sauce. The crispy rice cake's batter that holds the shrimp and it's ingredients was made of coconut milk and rice flour. Kevin remarked in his blog that the banh khot had an intense coconut flavor that the sauce emphasized on it, which you definitely can taste it.

For me, the shrimp and the turmeric powder overpower the the crispy rice cake as I did enjoyed the subtle contrast in the taste and the flavor.

Overall, I did finally get a chance to try out the much hyped spring rolls from Brodard and absolutely enjoyed it. The price was also very reasonable and the service for most part of the night ran very smoothly. I will definitely come back here to try out other noodle dishes that are on the menu, but more importantly come back for the spring rolls with the special homemade dipping sauce!

Brodard
9892 Westminster Ave
Garden Grove, CA 92844
(714) 530-1744

Grade:

I Ate the Whole Entire Zoo @ Phong Dinh (Rosemead)

When a dining event was set up as eating animals from the zoo, this was not a joke at all. In fact, I was counting on eating every exotic animal that are legally possible to be offered up in a menu.

Doesn't this fried catfish looked like Abe Vigoda? (just joking!)

I have never seen an extensive menu of exotic animals before until I stepped in inside of Phong Dinh, an unassuming Vietnamese restaurant on San Gabriel Blvd. I have always tried various different meat at Brazilian BBQ, but this one takes a step further and knock it out of the park with their unusual way of having these popular animals cooked to an Asian style cuisine without making some cheap Asian fusion crap.

The tough things about coming here was that the place can be very chaotic at times. It was really hard for some of us to find any staff members who can adhere to our needs. In few occasions, the hot tea were forgotten, napkins has to be requested by walking up to the counter, and it took them almost 20 minutes to take our order (although it took us 30 minutes to be situated, our fault on that).

Without a further ado, here are some of the animals we have chow down before our eyes. If you love Kangaroo Jack, you might need to stop reading this...

The Fried Catfish served here was the most mentioned and popular item on the menu. This particular dish is what makes this place very famous because there is no other place that can rival Phong Dinh for fried catfish. To some, it might be overrated, but for that night it seemed to be a favorite among my dining companions and did lived up to our expectations. I thought it went great in a spring roll condiments we were given ahead of time.

Before and 10 minutes after the Catfish was presented


Fried Catfish in a spring roll

The Alligator tasted like chicken. A very good one if I say so myself. Tried the alligator without the curry sauce as it can be overwhelming. Luckily our table ordered the right one as we enjoyed a few boneless alligator meat like a Popeye chicken.

Alligator

Curry Alligator

The Kangaroo tasted and looked like a traditional Vietnamese marinated beef Bo Luc Lac. With the right ingredient and sauce, it can also tasted like Korean BBQ marinated beef kalbi. I like the meat again without the curry sauce. It seemed that our two options of with or without curry have made our realization in that we don't need the curry sauce on the meat.

Kangaroo

Curry Kangaroo

Next came the Ostrich, which was a dish that got served with fries. This is another meat that tasted like bo luc lac, but with a more gamer texture. I thought birds taste like chickens, but apparently not with the Ostriches. It's a little rougher with the texture and bit more harder to chew. Even though it was rough, I still enjoyed the wonderful flavor to the Ostrich.

Ostrich

The Squab legs was also very delicious. It tasted so much like a shumai that you would get at most dim sum places. Absolutely a fabulous little nuggets if there was ever one made. The only thing you have to worry about are the bones when you chewed these nibblets.

Squab Legs

Even with all those hiccups with the service, we did have a great time and a fantastic feast of a meal. I don't know if was just me, but my breath smelled very weird when I got home. I think it was all those weird concoctions of meat mixing together. Ewwww...

If you do get a chance to come here, before anything else, ordered the Papaya salad. This could be a meal by itself. Very fresh, but with the shrimp on top of it made it a wonderful dish to start off before the main courses (we got this salad after all the main courses. Ha!).

Papaya Salad

Yes, order the catfish. Do get the Alligator and the Ostrich without the curry sauce and put it in a spring roll....or you can make a Cuban cigar out of it and smoke it!

Phong Dinh
2643 San Gabriel Blvd
Rosemead CA 91770
(626) 307-8868

Grade:

Epic Bánh Mì crawl along Valley Blvd @ San Gabriel Valley

Before anyone start jumping up and down about the carbo overload, let's sit back and access on why I want to go through the madness of Bánh mì (in my fantasy world, this would be the name of my 2nd wife).

HUGE WARNING: It's a long review with visits of 7 places along Valley Blvd in San Gabriel Valley, east side of LA county. If you want a cheatsheet, go down towards the bottom of this entire section of review where I will give the recaps and final analysis of the 7 places I have visited.

Why in the world would I be obsessed with Bánh mì sandwiches? In my college days, I was a poor lad that didn't have much money to spend on finer things, especially on food. I cherish the value of the American dollar and would maximized it to its full potential. You can imagine that my buddy Kevin hated shopping with me at Costco when I demanded he bring his Cadillac because his car got a bigger trunk and we would be on a Saturday afternoon run for that Donkey Kong-sized box of Hot Pockets.

My world changed in an instant and the quality of my life improves when an ex-coworker of mine bought some supermarket made Bánh mì sandwiches for lunch. When I asked him how much, he told me to keep my money in my wallet as he played it off like a major baller. When I nagged enough, he told me that these 8 inch sandwiches were bought at a Vietnamese market in Westminster for 65 cents each.

My jaws dropped. I have never looked back since then.

For a quality Bánh mì sandwich, most places used a baguette sandwich bun and have all sort of veggie ingredients mixed with the choice of meat. The usual suspect for these veggies would include cucumbers, carrot, cilantro, onion, Chinese radish, and jalapeno pepper. To fill up the sandwich, the meat would includes from various pork pate, spam meatballs, grilled or roasted pork, shredded chicken, or just leave it alone with plain vegetable sandwich.

For my little Bánh mì crawl, I picked 7 of the more frequent sandwich shoppes along Valley Blvd in San Gabriel Valley area. I skipped Lee's Sandwiches because I detested them and would never acknowledged them until they improved on the quality of the meat for their sandwiches.

Let's break it down on the positives and negatives of each shop with a little recap at the end.

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Stop #1: Ba Le French Sandwich & Bakery

Scene: I supposed this place should have been a standalone bakery, but we are finding out it's a front for these sandwich shop these days. There is no dining area to speak of, where it's practically a take-out joint. The service was not bad, but having two cute girls working is always a plus for the gents.

Positive: Their #2 special of guess the meat sandwich is awesome! They don't have a name for that #2 special which I'm guessing it's two forms of pork pate and ham on the sandwich. Ba Le French is very generous on their veggie toppings, especially with the radish, carrot, and cilantro. Very tasty for a guess the meat special.

#2 Special

Check out their regular pork pate sandwich also. That was quite good with most of the sandwiches for less than $3.

Negative: No ambiance, no decor. Price of those sandwiches justify the low maintenance of the place. They pretty much want you to take the sandwich home and eat.

Ba Le French Sandwich & Bakery
1426 S Atlantic Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91803
(626) 308-3003

Grade:



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Stop #2: Banh Mi & Che Cali

Scene: Yay! It's a restaurant. You also can ordered just the sandwiches if you like as they have a register for take outs and small bagged items. One of the three stops in this epic crawl that have a dining room area.

Positive: When I first came here, they had a buy-one get-one free special on their ice coffee. To top it all off, they also had a special where if you buy two of their sandwiches of $2.50 or higher, you get the third sandwich for free. Some of the "economy priced" sandwiches are in smaller portion. However, if you are willing to spend a little bit more for the bigger sandwich, you can get a free sandwich out of it for the meal tomorrow.

Thit Nuong (Grilled Pork Sandwich)

My favorite sandwich is the Thit Nuong (Grilled Pork Sandwich) which was very tender and succulent. I also love the flavor of how they grill the pork for the sandwich. The toppings was very heavy loaded.

Negative: I didn't like their Ga sandwich (chicken) which was way too dry. One thing that didn't sit well with me was also their bread. It was too hard and crunchy. The way on how the bread was breaking, you would have thought you were eating a salad because you can break the bread like a crouton. I also hope that they can slice the pepper and cucumber into much more smaller pieces because the big portion was way too much to swallow in those big pieces.

Banh Mi & Che Cali
647 W Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91803
(626) 293-8396

Grade:



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Stop #3: Banh Mi My-Tho

Scene: The place looked more like a mini mart or a liquor store. There is no way you can grab one of the two table situated outside of the place because some regulars would just socialized in front of the store all day long. It's best to go home with the sandwich or eat it in your car.

Positive: Long lines means something is about to get good. It definitely did not disappoint after what it seemed eternity when the sandwich was finally ready to be picked up. The BBQ Meatball sandwich is delicious! The meatballs are cut into smaller one quarter of a size with the vegetable toppings adequately sliced thin that made it even more enjoyable to eat. The bread wasn't as impressive as some of the baguette bakery stores, but the meat more than make it up.

BBQ Meatball Sandwich

The service was a major plus here as the young man manning the counter was polite to everyone and was on his toes taking orders and sending the sandwiches to the appropriate customers.

Negative: Not really anything major to report. The place was just tiny and because people are standing around waiting for their food next to the refrigerator section, which made it impossible to grab any drinks or get any other small items to go along with the sandwich. In fact I was thirsty afterward. I blamed it more on the loitering customers who are waiting for their orders than Banh Mi My-Tho. However, the small space was the contributing reason for that problem because they had missed out on potential extra sales.

Banh Mi My-Tho
304 W Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91803
(626) 289-4160

Grade:


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Stop #4: Saigon's Bakery & Sandwiches

Scene: This place has all the reminiscences of a bakery. They have a full operation of baking ovens and a station counter where you can see the line cooks constructing those delicious sandwiches. Surprisingly, only two of these sandwiches have make their operation out in the open. As in for the dining area, only three small tables for a sit down. Like most of the others, it's strictly a take out joint.

Positive: This shop is my favorite Bánh mì sandwich shoppe at this installment of the crawl. Hands down they got best baguette where they bake it fresh, one of the more affordable prices at $2.00 (it used to be $2 even with sales tax included, but they increased the price by 17 cents), and one of the better deal in town. If you buy three of the sandwiches, you get a free loaf of long 24" baguette to take a home. Also, one of the friendliest and fastest service in customer service which was another badge of honor for them.

Free loaf of Baguette when you purchase three or more sandwiches

One of my favorite sandwich was their Vietnamese Ham sandwich which was loaded with the right portions of the assorted condiments and ham in the soft, chewy baguette. The ice coffee is a also cheap and delightful companion to whichever sandwich you get. Majority of the time, you will see customers walking out with at least three sandwiches, a free loaf of baguette, and an ice coffee.

Ham Sandwich

Negative: They need to have more room or space for dining. Maybe set up an outdoor patio? Otherwise, no major complaints from me.

Saigon's Bakery and Sandwiches
718 E Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 288-6475

Grade:

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Stop #5: Bale Banh M Coffee and Sandwich Shop

Scene: This place looked like a tiny donut shop with nothing more to speak of. Seriously, I'm not even fronting on this one. There is nothing here that will suggest a sandwich shop. Other than the sign, it would be a pass for me in most days. No dining area and really bare on the selections in the menu. Depressing to come here and makes you want to get out as soon as possible.

Positive: I'll give them this much, the meat loaf sandwich is a hit with me. Often times, this place get high raves from others for the excellent quality in the meat in the sandwiches and some good Vietnamese treats in the store.

Vietnamese Meat Loaf Sandwich

Negative: Oh, where do I start?

I have bad vibes about this place even before I made my payment for my order of sandwiches. It seemed like I had interrupted one of them from watching some sort of V-soap on a mini TV they have in the back. It took a while for them to make any of these sandwiches as I was just lounging around the small shop resembling a donut shop.

The sandwiches themselves have very skimpy amount of both the condiments and the meat. The baguette overshadows and swallow up the entire sandwich where you wouldn't noticed the meat or condiments sticking out from the baguette (not a problem with other places, except for Mr. Baguette). Usually, I complained about too much condiment from other shop, but this place really dialed it down on everything to make sure it is cutting every corners to keep the overhead cost down.

Comparing to other places, there is minimal foot traffic to speak of. I can tell they wanted me out there ASAP when they pretty much slammed the sandwiches in the bag and gave me the cue to go. It's like I have interrupted them at a bad crucial time. Man, I'll never go there again if I knew I am intruding on them from an important V-soap scene.

Bale Banh M Coffee & Sandwiches
725 E Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 571-5436

Grade:


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Stop #6: Banh Mi & Che Cali

Scene: Just like the same namesake west on this street, this place also have a big dining room with plenty of tables to enjoy your food. The only issue I have with this place was the sanitation of this place. Otherwise, it's a solid place to sit and eat at this pit stop.

Positive: I love their "Special" combination sandwich. I suspected just like others, it tend to stack with ham and pork pate to along generously with all the veggie condiments.

The Special Combination Sandwich

Negative: Just like their sister location, the buns was way too hard and was breaking like a salad crouton. It's not chewy like most of the others. I'm not expecting soft and chewy baguette, but at the same time it shouldn't be hard & crunchy like a toasted bread. The service could be a little bit more smoother. The construction of the bread is like a conveyor belt like in Lee's Sandwiches where people print up the order and constructed the sandwich right then & there.

The wait time was almost as long as Bale Banh M, but at least those ladies at BBM was a bit peeved when I walked in. These guys at Banh Mi & Che Cali had no excuses and they were really slow at churning out those sandwiches.

Overall, their prices were okay. If I wanted a better price and much more smoother service, I would hit up their identical namesake at Alhambra's location over this one.

Banh Mi & Che Cali
8450 Valley Blvd
Rosemead, CA 91770
(626) 288-5600

Grade:



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Stop #7: Mr. Baguette

Scene: Probably the cleanest local and most pleasing in terms of ambiance and decor for the sandwich shoppe on this tour. That's probably the big positive there on this venture.

Positive: Other positive on this final destination? I do love their iced coffee here, as also with their baguette and croissant as well. Considering they were also doubling as a bakery, it would be a good point to make sure they were immaculate at churning out these sandwiches. Their operation is much smoother run than their neighbor a few blocks away, Banh Mi & Che Cali.

Saigon Sandwich

Their Saigon Sandwich with a few variety of meat was also one of my favorite sandwich at this locale. Perfect place to dine in and relax for a quick meal.

Negative: Mr. Baguette charges an arm and a leg for their sandwiches. Their iced coffee was the one going over two bucks, so they set them up as the top echelon in the Bánh mì world. The other negative that I was very down on them was the fact they are too stingy on the veggie condiments in their sandwiches. Now, the meat are getting smaller and the prices are going higher. It does not bode well for them in the long term for me as a customer going in there.

Maybe they can justify it by charging extra for ambiance. For the people want to take it home and there will be plenty of take out orders, it really doesn't make sense for the small portions anyways. Definitely not the best value for the price they are charging for the sandwiches.

Mr. Baguette
8702 Valley Blvd
Rosemead, CA 91770
(626) 288-9166

Grade:

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The Breakdown:

Best Bread: Saigon's Bakery & Sandwich
Worst Bread: Banh Mi & Che Cali (both shops)

Best Veggie Condiments: Ba Le French Bakery & Sandwiches
Worst Veggie Condiments: Banh Mi & Che Cali (both shops)

Best Meat or Use of the meat in sandwich: Banh Mi My Tho
Worst use of meat: Mr. Baguette

Best Overall Service: Saigon's Bakery & Sandwich, Banh Mi My Tho
Worst Overall Service: Bale Banh M Coffee and Sandwich Shop

Best Overall Price Value : Saigon's Bakery & Sandwich, Banh Mi & Che Chai (Alhambra)
Worst Price Value: Mr. Baguette

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Best Overall: Saigon's Bakery & Sandwich, & Banh Mi My Tho

Rankings
1. Saigon's Bakery & Sandwich
2. Banh Mi My Tho
3. Ba Le French Sandwich & Bakery
4. Banh Mi & Che Cali (Alhambra)
5. Banh Mi & Che Cali (Rosemead)
6. Bale Banh M Coffee and Sandwich Shop
7. Mr. Baguette