gutfud – the food, es ist gut

Goodland Kitchen and Market – Old Town Goleta

On Wednesdays the special of the day is banh mi. They use curry-marinated chicken, shredded daikon (radish), sweet peppers, carrots, cabbage with a Vietnamese-style dressing on a granary baguette. It included side portions of sweet tangerines and apple slices. The apple has a light turmeric dressing, which makes them derishous. The meal is $9. This [...]

O Street Truck

Yay! More food trucks in Santa Barbara! I know our food and food truck scene is totally podunk compared to Portland and Los Angeles, but that’s okay, it’s not a big town plus I know we have a zillion restrictions and guidelines that make these kind of small start-ups difficult. O Street appears to have [...]

Momofuku’s banh mi

My mother is having way too much fun with my Momofuku cookbook, I fear I will never get it back. The upside is that I get invited over to eat what she makes, compared to the cookbook sitting at my place, unused because I’ve been too lazy to cook. Today’s Momofuku experiment was the banh [...]

Arts and Letters Cafe

Arts and Letters is a place I’ve been wanting to go to for years, literally. Sometimes I’d get distracted by other places, sometimes I’d try to go but they wouldn’t be open. They’ve even had a great Buy One Get One Free coupon in the Indy, and I *still* couldn’t make a visit happen. But [...]

Saigon Noodle House – Goleta

Saigon Noodle House can’t seem to cut a break in the online reviews. I’ve never had a problem with it, although I’m consistent in what I get – usually the dry vermicelli noodles with grilled pork and eggrolls. And it’s a shorter drive to reach than going into Old Town for Vietnamese food there. Tom [...]

Miss Saigon – closed

This was the third or fourth of the Saigon In and Out empire that started on Milpas. I’m all for more exotic cuisines in Santa Barbara, because they struggle hard and they are a breath of fresh air to the old standards of Italian, sushi (note: not Japanese, just sushi), Mexican places that we have [...]

Andy Nguyen’s Vegetarian – Sacramento

This is the second Andy Nguyen restaurant. It’s actually more of a Mrs. Andy Nguyen since this is run by his wife. The dealio is that she lived in Thailand, eating vegetarian food and came back with a calling for making meat-not-meat dishes, and this Andy Nguyen branch is her playground. It turns out, this [...]

Pho 999 – North Hollywood

I applaud the folks working there for putting up with some guy eating there who would not shut up about the care and maintenance of their fish tank. Apparently he’s a professional fish tank caregiver, or something. He went on and on and on. The only time he went quiet was when he went to [...]

Noodle City

It started out as a lunch idea, then an early dinner idea, and it started with the suggestion of Mexican food. But somehow we ended up at Noodle City for Vietnamese food. We started off with spring rolls. Two for about $3.50, and a big pot of spicy peanut dipping sauce. The sauce is so [...]

Saigon In and Out Vietnamese Restaurant

What do you do when you have about 25 minutes to spare before catching a movie at the Arlington, your dining companion is so hangry, and fast food is not an option? Appetizers at Saigon In and Out. An order each of spring rolls and egg rolls, with their own dipping sauces. I swear, Vietnamese [...]