Dining Adventures Await in Little Saigon

When you can’t think where to have dinner, just drive though Little Saigon and stop wherever your fancy strikes. Last week, I turned up two gems on Westminster Avenue, one I’d almost forgotten, the other an exotic newcomer.

Vien Dong was one of the first Vietnamese restaurants in Garden Grove back in the mid-’80s. What distinguishes this little charmer, run by a family named Lam, is its specialty: the less-familiar cuisine of northern Vietnam.

The atmosphere is strictly bare-bones. At the front counter, there are a few odd and ends available for purchase, such as canned gansleber (goose liver pate) from Germany and strange meat-filled rice cakes that you might call Vietnamese tamales.

If you’ve come for the first time, the waiters will probably suggest a couple of the better-known Vietnamese dishes, such as cha gio (densely stuffed egg rolls) or bun cha (crisp broiled pork, here served with cold rice noodles, assorted herbs and a plate of lettuces).

But if you eat only these “safe” dishes, you’ll be missing the point of coming here. Vien Dong makes two of my favorite dishes in all of Orange County, both typical of Vietnam’s north. One is mien lung xao: tiny bits of freshwater eel fried with onions, transparent noodles and spices. The other is cha ca thang long, an incredible sizzling platter of red snapper topped with dill, grilled onions, rice noodles, crushed peanuts, sesame crackers and fresh herbs.

In fact, much of Vien Dong’s menu is even more exotic than this. There are baby pork ribs (bun bung) stewed until they’re falling off the bone. The meat is familiar, but the other ingredients--tofu, papaya and big soft chunks of plantain--give this dish a lush, tropical cast that makes it dizzyingly unfamiliar. The menu describes bun rieu as a tomato soup laced with ground shrimp and crab; what it doesn’t tell you is that the soup is considered medicinal, and that the seafood is so finely minced it’s like little clouds in the broth. And here are two more excellent dishes you’ve probably never had before: bun cha gay, a rich stew of pig’s feet, and banh tom, laughably huge tempura-like fritters of whole shrimp and long strips of sweet potato.

If you feel like a more conventional meal, you can get that here too. The best choice, by me, would be com ga dac biet, broiled chicken on rice with pickled vegetables, and I’d wash it down with a Vietnamese filter coffee (cafe phin) topped with condensed milk.

Vien Dong is inexpensive. Dishes are $3.95 to $7.95.

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Home Garden, by contrast, is a bright, spacious restaurant where high-backed chairs sport tapestry cushions and the service borders on the formal. The best tables are the ones in a plant-filled area framed by glass windows. It’s almost like dining in a greenhouse.

This is your basic Chinese seafood restaurant, with extras. Because the management and staff have Vietnamese origins, many dishes are quite Vietnamese and others are hybrids of the two cuisines.

The menu is gigantic, fully 250 items. On top of that, there’s a specials menu board in Vietnamese propped up next to the front podium. My strategy when eating here is to get all the specials translated for me and then order as many as I can.

One of the best dishes here, for instance, is suon de nuong chan, which is goat with fermented bean paste. You get a platter of sizzling goat ribs, tender and delicious, a little leaner and more gamy than lamb. “Cua dut lo” mundanely translates as baked crab, but that doesn’t even hint at how spectacular cua dut lo is. The crab is sauteed with rice wine, chiles, fish sauce and leeks, then the whole shebang is crusted with crushed peanuts.

The only special I didn’t take to turned out to be a pile of deep-fried whitebait, rather like the friture you get at a lakefront town in France. In principle, the dish was fine, but the frying oil didn’t taste entirely fresh; there was a slightly acrid flavor that marred the very fresh tiny fish.

Navigating this menu is a task, but there are a few dependable places to anchor. One is the roasted quail dish (No. 168 on the menu) at an incredible $9.95. You get five whole birds coated with lemon grass and toasted sesame seeds--an amazing flavor combination. Anything from the menu’s jumbo shrimp section will be made with fresh Santa Barbara prawns, and it will be delicious. I especially like No. 52, where the prawns are sauteed with garlic, chiles and Burgundy wine.

Classic Cantonese favorites are also available here. One of the best vegetable dishes is watercress lightly sauteed with garlic and oil (No. 230). You’ll also find the legendary salted fish and chicken fried rice--ordinarily available only on Chinese-language menus--right there at No. 238. This dish of rice chock-full of crunchy bits of fish and meat is irresistible. It’s also penetratingly salty, making it just about perfect with a frosty Chinese beer. After your meal, the waiters will ply you with complimentary bowls of red bean and tapioca pudding, served warm, and sticky-sweet orange slices.

This restaurant is best appreciated if you have a spirit of adventure. But if goat and salted fish sound too daring, don’t worry--you’ll pass dozens of places to have a satisfying bowl of pho soup instead.

Home Garden is moderately priced. Dishes range from $2.75 to $25.

BE THERE

Vien Dong, 9684 Westminster Ave., Garden Grove. (714) 539-4614. Open from 9 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Closed Tuesday. Cash only.

Home Garden, 10911 Westminster Ave., Garden Grove. (714) 534-1689. Open 10 a.m.-10 p.m. daily. MasterCard and Visa.