Long An

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I'm a big fan of nem nuong, especially the ones that I can wrap myself, but its a rare sight in the Bay Area.  I have yet to discover one in SF.  I finally found one in San Jose.  It's not even close to that of Rosemead's Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa (see post HERE), or even the famous Brodard Restaurant (see post HERE), but its the best the Bay Area has to offer.  While the menu is quite large and serves up everything from rice plates to various soups, I'd recommend sticking to just the roll your own nem nuong cuon.

Banh beo is another one of those Vietnamese dishes I wish the Bay Area offered more of.  I'm not talking about the ones premade for take out.  I want the ones that are steamed up fresh in little dishes waiting to be slurped away!  While Long An gets points for serving up these freshly made, they are missing the crouton on top.  Also, the banh beo is fairly sweet due to the copious amounts of coconut milk.

The rice paper is essentially for good nem nuong rolling.  Here the sheets tend to be rather thin and doesn't hold all the ingredients well, but with quick fingers and holding your breath, it gets the job done.

The nem nuong comes with the usual veggies (mint, cucumber, pickled vegetables, lettuce, and herbs).  My favorite part of nem nuong, the "crispies", are also included.  The nem nuong (bbq pork) are grilled to order and pretty fantastic with just a hint of sweetness.  The biggest gripe here is the meager servings of vegetables.  You need to ration properly to get all your vegetables in each roll.  I'd suggest asking for extra vegetables when ordering for a better nem nuong experience.

The banh hoi doesn't come with the nem nuong, but I suggest ordering them with nem nuong.  Banh hoi are intricately woven vermicelli rice noodles that are steamed and mixed with fish sauce and topped with green onions.  These light rice "cakes" give the nem nuong a light, spongy texture.

The orange sauce is obviously not at the level of Brodard's, but its still pretty tasty.

Besides nem nuong rolls, Long An has a variety of spring rolls on the menu. The summer rolls are made of carrots, jicama, egg, Chinese sausage, dried shrimps with a peanut sauce for dipping.  Not bad, but nothing special, especially having the nem nuong cuon on the table.

  A rice plate option just to see if there was anything else that was worth ordering besides the nem nuong.  The broken rice (com tam) was dry and the toppings were somewhat sparse in comparison to other com tam places in San Jose.  I think broken rice is better eaten at places like Com Tam Dat Thanh (see post HERE).

Address:                  Long An
                                 3005 Silver Creek Ste 112
                                 San Jose, CA                                  

Type:                        Vietnamese

Popular chomps:      nem nuong
                                  banh beo   

Chomp worthy:         nem nuong
                                  banh beo