Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa
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Until recently, the height of dining out in the north San Gabriel Valley was the pupu platter at Bahooka or a solid schnitzel dinner at Bruckmeier'sBavarian Inn. Theme dining still thrives at these neighborhood favorites, butmuch plainer restaurants, with reputations built on a culinary specialty, havebeen popping up like Starbucks.
One of the most popular, Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa, sitsbehind an In-N-Out Burger near the corner of Rosemead Boulevard and MissionDrive in Rosemead. The house specialty, nem nuong, is more or less thehamburger of Vietnam: grilled pork meatballs infused with garlic, lightlyflecked with black pepper and permeated with the scent of smoke. Though CentralVietnam -- especially the town of Ninh Hoa -- is synonymous with themeatballs, they're sold throughout the country, in kerosene-lit roadsidestands, hole-in-the-wall urban grilleries and outdoor markets, where the smokedraws crowds of diners like a magnet.
As befits a specialty house, Nem Nuong's menulists just nine items (excluding drinks and sweets), available in variouscombinations. You won't find pho soup, seafood or curries here, but therestaurant is always thronged with customers ordering nem nuong ornem bo nuong, the beef version of the meatballs. Another housespecialty, minced "shrimp cake" wrapped in a paper-thin tofu sheet anddeep-fried, is like a seafood pâté in filo pastry. Frying turns the tofu tobrittle shards, providing a stunning meld of crackly then yielding textures.This dish and beo chen -- silver-dollar-size rice pancakes toppedwith minced chives and shrimp -- show off Central Vietnam's often intricateand sophisticated cuisine.
The shrimp cake comes on its own or on variouscombination plates. The one that gives the most flavor variety is No. 20, whereit accompanies grilled strips of lemon-grass-marinated beef and severalcigarette-thin fried shrimp egg rolls.
A good way to try the house specialties is dacbiet. At $11.99 for two, this extravagant combination has to be one of thecity's best deals. It includes a large heap of the crispy shrimp rolls, anenormous serving of nem nuong and smaller servings of two other meats,nem cab and nem chua nuong.
Nem cab, the most delicately seasoned ofthe three, is pork wrapped in tiny banana leaf packets half the size of aplaying card. Smoke from the grill filters through the leaves depositing amusky herbaceous flavor on the meat. Nem chua nuong, which the menudescribes as "sour pork patties," is not truly sour but does have a complex,cured-meat flavor. It's said he-men prefer this sausage raw with alcoholicbeverages. It's a close relative of nem, the glowing pink northern Thaisausage you may have seen in Thai delis.
All this comes with a platter of herbs andvegetables, a dipping sauce and a stack of floppy rice papers. The fun of eating Vietnamese barbecue is digging in and wrapping meat chunks, fresh herbs and maybe a bit of cucumber into burrito-style packets to eat out of hand. Or you can rip off patches of banh hoi, a fluffy web-like pancake of ultra-fine angel hair noodles, and use them to pick up pieces of meat then pop the whole thing into your mouth -- a method slightly less messy than the burrito wrap. If you aren't in the mood to make any sort of wrap, you can get any meat on rice or rice vermicelli and mix everything together.However you order, you can add a blast of heat with a whole fresh chile or garlic clove from the bowls on the table. Or add another flavor layer with the bright orange "house special" dipping sauce. This sweet-salty concoction of ground shrimp with roasted rice seems like an Americanization of the smellier, fishier sauces you'd find in Little Saigon.
Though Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa has a genuine tradition, it's not inconceivable that if someone were to redecorate the room as a replica of a nem nuong stand in Hue -- or maybe bring in a few tiki idols -- it could take its place among the neighborhood's monuments to theme dining.
One of the most popular, Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa, sitsbehind an In-N-Out Burger near the corner of Rosemead Boulevard and MissionDrive in Rosemead. The house specialty, nem nuong, is more or less thehamburger of Vietnam: grilled pork meatballs infused with garlic, lightlyflecked with black pepper and permeated with the scent of smoke. Though CentralVietnam -- especially the town of Ninh Hoa -- is synonymous with themeatballs, they're sold throughout the country, in kerosene-lit roadsidestands, hole-in-the-wall urban grilleries and outdoor markets, where the smokedraws crowds of diners like a magnet.
As befits a specialty house, Nem Nuong's menulists just nine items (excluding drinks and sweets), available in variouscombinations. You won't find pho soup, seafood or curries here, but therestaurant is always thronged with customers ordering nem nuong ornem bo nuong, the beef version of the meatballs. Another housespecialty, minced "shrimp cake" wrapped in a paper-thin tofu sheet anddeep-fried, is like a seafood pâté in filo pastry. Frying turns the tofu tobrittle shards, providing a stunning meld of crackly then yielding textures.This dish and beo chen -- silver-dollar-size rice pancakes toppedwith minced chives and shrimp -- show off Central Vietnam's often intricateand sophisticated cuisine.
The shrimp cake comes on its own or on variouscombination plates. The one that gives the most flavor variety is No. 20, whereit accompanies grilled strips of lemon-grass-marinated beef and severalcigarette-thin fried shrimp egg rolls.
A good way to try the house specialties is dacbiet. At $11.99 for two, this extravagant combination has to be one of thecity's best deals. It includes a large heap of the crispy shrimp rolls, anenormous serving of nem nuong and smaller servings of two other meats,nem cab and nem chua nuong.
Nem cab, the most delicately seasoned ofthe three, is pork wrapped in tiny banana leaf packets half the size of aplaying card. Smoke from the grill filters through the leaves depositing amusky herbaceous flavor on the meat. Nem chua nuong, which the menudescribes as "sour pork patties," is not truly sour but does have a complex,cured-meat flavor. It's said he-men prefer this sausage raw with alcoholicbeverages. It's a close relative of nem, the glowing pink northern Thaisausage you may have seen in Thai delis.
All this comes with a platter of herbs andvegetables, a dipping sauce and a stack of floppy rice papers. The fun of eating Vietnamese barbecue is digging in and wrapping meat chunks, fresh herbs and maybe a bit of cucumber into burrito-style packets to eat out of hand. Or you can rip off patches of banh hoi, a fluffy web-like pancake of ultra-fine angel hair noodles, and use them to pick up pieces of meat then pop the whole thing into your mouth -- a method slightly less messy than the burrito wrap. If you aren't in the mood to make any sort of wrap, you can get any meat on rice or rice vermicelli and mix everything together.However you order, you can add a blast of heat with a whole fresh chile or garlic clove from the bowls on the table. Or add another flavor layer with the bright orange "house special" dipping sauce. This sweet-salty concoction of ground shrimp with roasted rice seems like an Americanization of the smellier, fishier sauces you'd find in Little Saigon.
Though Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa has a genuine tradition, it's not inconceivable that if someone were to redecorate the room as a replica of a nem nuong stand in Hue -- or maybe bring in a few tiki idols -- it could take its place among the neighborhood's monuments to theme dining.
-- Linda Burum
Special to The Times
Special to The Times
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What's Nearby
| 1 | Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa 0.00 miles |
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| 2 | Jack-In-the-Box Family Restaurants 0.07 miles |
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| 3 | Mr Bill's Sandwiches 0.08 miles |
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| 4 | Bahooka Ribs & Grog 0.22 miles |
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| 5 | Carl's Junior 0.22 miles |
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