Mien Trung Menu Fit for a King, With Peasant Prices

Mien Trung specializes in the spicy, exotic food of central Vietnam, a hilly region that for centuries was home to Vietnamese kings. Indeed, the restaurant’s name means “central region.” It’s fitting that this dime-store-size place sells an array of royal dishes.

It’s definitely not a fancy place, though: small and boxy with hard-backed chairs, unadorned except for a few Vietnamese handcrafts. And the prices are comfortably in the peasant category. Nothing at Mien Trung is more than $4.95.

Central Vietnam’s most famous dish, as you may know, is bun bo Hue, a noodle soup with sliced beef. (The same basic soup with pork leg in place of beef is bun bo Hue dac biet, No. 2 on this menu.) Whatever form it takes, bun bo Hue is a far cry from the more familiar Vietnamese soup pho. It uses thick wheat noodles, rather than thin rice noodles, and the soup is not the clear broth of pho but usually deep red from chiles and blood. It may be topped with beef tendon or pork shank and congealed pork blood. A float of chopped mint and basil is traditionally added.

That’s the kind of bun bo Hue you’ll find at Orange County’s central Vietnamese restaurants, such as Da Nang down in Westminster. Mien Trung, however, does not specialize in its region’s most famous dish. Its simple, marginally acceptable version uses a broth without fire and intensity and lacks the usual herb topping.

Mien Trung is actually best at eccentric finger foods, such as banh nam. These remarkable Vietnamese tamales, made from glutinous pounded rice steamed inside banana leaves, are something like the Japanese mochi but far more flavorful. The filling is soft, almost pudding-like, strips full of crushed shrimp. You peel back the folded banana leaf to eat it, adding nuoc mam, the all-purpose Vietnamese fish sauce, to taste.

Banh bot loc are glossy tapioca flour cakes stuffed with whole (unpeeled) shrimp and slices of jellied pork. Banh uot thit nuong are slugs of steamed rice flour about the size of two “C” batteries placed end to end. The rice, served lukewarm, is filled with Chinese-style barbecued pork.

Cha gio, the Vietnamese egg rolls, are light, dense and crisp. This version is perfectly fried, with a filling based on minced pork and mung bean noodles.

Mien Trung isn’t big on the Saigon-style garnishes many Vietnamese serve with their finger foods. In some places, the customer is given a huge platter of assorted greens--mint leaves, basil and sugary pickles made from carrot and radish--with every dish ordered. Here, you settle for a couple of meager helpings of herbs and pickles along with a simple nuoc mam dipping sauce.

Goi mit tron xuc banh trang, No. 17 on the menu, is another central Vietnamese specialty. It’s a sort of salad based on green jackfruit; the fruit’s slightly unripe flesh (when ripe, jackfruit turns white) is of a pulpy texture and its flavor has a grassy, herbal finish. The dish works better as a savory than a salad, really, because of all the fried pork, dried shrimp, basil and crushed peanuts.

It also makes a winning companion for banh trang dap dap cham mam nem (No. 16 on the menu): crackly sesame seed crackers sandwiched between thin rice flour crepes. The crackers are fine by themselves, too, eaten in traditional Vietnamese fashion with the pungent fermented sauce called mam.

Look for a few other dishes unique to central Vietnam on this menu. Banh beo are rice crepes folded into a half-moon shape, yellow from turmeric and filled with bean sprouts and minced pork. Mi quang are mustard-yellow noodles, here doused with a soupy mixture of crab meat, pork and brown sauce.

Vietnamese desserts, often exotically flavored liquids and various tropical fruits served in parfait glasses, tend to be an acquired taste. The best one here is definitely suong sa hot luu, described on the menu as “white jelly and cooked flour ball in coconut milk.” It tastes like a comforting rice pudding. During hot weather, you can cool off with fresh-squeezed orange juice (sugar added), fresh lemonade (with even more sugar added) or espresso drinks made with condensed milk in a proportion of about one to one.

DETAILS

* WHAT: Mien Trung.

* WHERE: 20831 Roscoe Blvd., Canoga Park.

* WHEN: 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday and Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Closed Tuesday.

* HOW MUCH: Dinner for two, $12-$21. Suggested dishes: banh nam, $3.95; banh uot thit nuong, $3.95; banh trang dap dap cham mam nem, $2.95; cha gio, $4. No alcohol.

* FYI: Cash only. Parking lot.

* CALL: (818) 998-0100.