Orange County Register

My friend Anh and I stopped dead in our tracks when we saw the restaurant sign: ORIENTAL FOOD. Um, are we in Kentucky?

We were actually in Tustin when we chanced upon this tiny eatery. Let’s backtrack a bit. Us gals had just slurped down some ramen at Kairakutei across the street and had exactly two bucks left after our meal, so we figured we should buy a lottery ticket at a nearby liquor store. That’s when we saw the restaurant next door. Apparently, Oriental Food has been around since 1988. Our guess was that 20 years ago, there weren’t very many Asian-owned shops so the owners opted for a name that made sense at the time. Eh, we had a good laugh over it. Despite the dubious name, I’m happy to report that the food is pretty legit …

Take that bowl of bun vit sao mang or rice vermicelli soup with duck and bamboo (above), a particularly enjoyable noodle soup because of its fragrant but earthy broth. At OF (please don’t make me write ‘Oriental’ 50 times), the soup comes with a separate plate of boiled duck meat atop a bed of shredded cabbage and herbs with fried shallots and crushed peanuts ($6). Just scoop some of that into your bowl and you’re good to go or eat separately and dip the duck into the little dish of nuoc mam dipping sauce. I did wish that the soup would have included fresh or canned bamboo shoots and not just the dehydrated stuff (it’s the tan sort of wrinkly sheets you see floating). The broth was a bit delicate, perhaps because the dried bamboo didn’t steep long enough in the broth?

There are plenty of other soup specialties here, like their bun rieu oc (rice noodle soup in a tomato broth with escargot), bun bo hue or spicy beef noodle soup (not to be confused with the other beef noodle soup, pho). The friendly owner informed me that the bun bo hue is their best dish so I’ll have to try it next time. As you can see can probably tell, OF probably hasn’t had any renovations in the last 20 years and that’s part of its old-school, no-frills charm. Translation: They don’t take anything but cash, like any good Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall.

OF is actually what we call a “Food-to-Go” or takeout spot — the dead giveaway being the deli-style counter right near the entrance of the restaurant. You’ll find bins of homestyle offerings like dau hu chien (fried tofu), canh cai (mustard greens soup), thit heo quay (roasted pork with crispy skin), com chien (fried rice), cha gio (egg rolls), tom chien (fried jumbo prawns), ca chien (whole fried fish), etc. I believe you can select four items for $5.50. It’s nice to see that the low prices are nearly circa 1990s. I fetched a cup of che thai ($1.50) from the fridge, one of many versions of the popular Vietnamese cold dessert soup. Some might not consider it real che, since it’s just a cup of milk and possibly coconut milk over slices of jack fruit, tapioca and lychee, but I love it since after you scoop and swirl the contents around, the liquid winds up tasting just like strawberry milk.

Here’s my favorite thing from their to-go counter: Banh chuoi chien or banana fritters. Perfectly crispy outside with a delicious and not too- sweet filling. (Reminds me of McDonald’s fried apple pies … mmm, remember those?) Oh shoot. I just realized I never checked that lottery ticket I bought. I could totally be a millionaire and not know it …

Oriental Food

17311 E. McFadden

Tustin, CA

714.838.6651

Hours: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday

Closed Sundays

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