benley: a vietnamese kitchen

benley: a vietnamese kitchen
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

benley does not really serve traditional vietnamese food. it's also a little pricier than what you expect from the traditional vietnamese restaurants, but like i said--this place does not really serve traditional vietnamese food. it serves the essence of vietnamese food, whose flavors are filtered through a contemporary sensibility.

i love that there's a good, contemporary take on vietnamese food in long beach. vietnamese food has had influences from chinese and french and other cultures that have tried to force their ways on vietnamese people, and although warring cultural domination sucks, the positive, is that there is a richness and diversity in subsequent culture and food in an evolving identity, but back to the food...

benley brings it all together. on my recent visit, we tried a variety of dishes, all quite good. for appetizers, we had the pork and shrimp eggrolls, taste of pho with rare beef, and taste of vermicelli with bbq pork. the filling for the eggrolls was right on. the egg roll wrapper, which is the kind used on chinese egg rolls is not what i consider traditional vietnamese wrapper ( i prefer the translucent wrapper ), but it seems popular. even my mom began using it. the pho broth was not the best i have had, but it was tasty and a great introduction for people who have never had pho before. fish sauce was good and great with the vermicelli and bbq pork. the dominant flavor there was the lemongrass.

these appetizers were most like what you would find at your average viet resto, but i thought the food that shined were the entrees, which included the lemongrass chicken (ga xao xa ot), shaken (beef) filet (bo luc lac), short rib stew (bo kho), catfish tomato confit, seared salmon, ong choy - actually more like water spinach - sauteed in garlic (rao muong xao toi).

lemongrass chicken : strong lemongrass flavor with a spicy chili kick, served with bok choy

shaken filet : sweet and salty marinated beef cubes sauteed with bell peppers. this was my favorite in terms of flavor

short rib stew: there were some complex, cinnamon-clove sweet, salty flavors in this stew which could have been more intense as i am accustomed to.

catfish tomato confit : catfish was tasty, but i actually liked the stewed tomatos best in this dish.

seared salmon : nicely prepared.

ong choy : a simple dish, but i love the combination of fresh greens and garlic.

for dessert we had the panna cotta (light, yogurty, buttermilk and very unusual), valrhona chocolate cake (good, standard chocolate dessert), and cassava cake ( nutty, spongy, creamy, excellent!). if you like beany asian desserts or are adventurous, you should definitely try the cassava cake.

my only complaint is that to the detriment of the resto, it appears dark and closed from a corner of the strip mall. the interiors are nice, but could use more lighting. of course this hasn't stopped people coming for the great food.

click here for food photography