BEP Vietnamese Kitchen pops up at Picnik in Pasadena this weekend

Chef Connie Tran brings her BEP Vietnamese Kitchen pop-up this weekend to Picnik, the newly opened restaurant from chef Eduardo Ruiz in Pasadena.

Tran, who grew up and started cooking in the kitchen of her uncle’s Little Saigon restaurant Cafe d’Orient, will offer a nine-course dinner at Picnik on Friday and Saturday starting at 7:30 each night. Dinner costs $55 per person.

On the menu are dishes that reflect Tran’s modern versions of homestyle Vietnamese cooking: boiled spiced peanuts; deviled egg with longan relish, red radish and shredded pork jerky; bò tái chanh: lime cooked beef, tomato, Asian basil, mint, pineapple shrimp paste and sambal; xoài xanh: green mango, bird chili, sorrel and palm sugar fish sauce; roasted cauliflower with prawns, fenugreek, star anise, coconut milk and rice noodles; coconut molasses pork and glutinous rice cake with mung bean, rice paddy herb and pickled cabbage; grilled skirt steak, fried yucca, sawtooth coriander lebneh and crisp shallots.

For dessert there will be pineapple upside down cake with tamarind glaze and Vietnamese yogurt cream, and coconut lime gelato sandwich with sesame chile cookie. Drinks include honey chrysanthemum mint tea and rambutan limeade.

Beer and wine also will be available.

Seating is limited, and reservations are required. For more info and reservations, visit www.bepkitchen.com.