Restaurant: Nong La
Location: 2055 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 268-1881
Date: November 13, 2015
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Rating: Tasty
Nong La is a Vietnamese cafe located right next to Tsujita Artisan Ramen, home of the porkiest ramen around.
It’s always busy, so I figured I’d give it a try.
The inside is “cute” (aka small).
The lunch menu.
Goi Cuon Spring Rolls. Rice paper rolls with pork, shrimp, rice vermicelli, lettuce and fresh herbs. Served with peanut sauce.
Very herby from those greens. Moderately filling too.
Bun Bo Hue. Fragrant lemongrass spicy beef soup with vermicelli noodles, pork patty and beef shank, topped with white onions, green onions and cilantro.
What was not obvious about this soup was how much kick it had. The broth had a great flavor, and I love heat, but until I got the chili distributed evenly it burned right down my windpipe.
It came with the usual Vietnamese side of herbs.
And various sauces. In case it didn’t have enough kick to start, you could spice it up. Or go the other way as I did with the dark plum sauce. I love this stuff. Love it with Peking duck. Love it here. I particularly like getting globs of it in the spoon with broth and the meat.
One quick meal at Nong La isn’t enough to really get a good sense of it, and I’m certainly going to try a Banh Mi sometime soon. The soup was definitely tasty. I did get a big of an MSG/salt hangover for the rest of the day. Not sure if it was the soup itself or the third of a bottle of the plum sauce I consumed!