Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet
COSTA MESA, Calif. ― For the past 35 years, the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations of Southern California have come together to put forth a Tet Festival rooted in community and tradition. While the cultural village, lion dances and pageant are the cornerstone of what people expect from the festival, it’s the food that can surprise, enlighten or thrill. The food vendors of each event have varied from year to year, allowing festival visitors the chance to try something new or revisit a meal they haven’t enjoyed since the year before.
Cafe 949 sold grilled live fresh lobsters to festival goers. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
The festival, held at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa from Feb. 12-14, offered three days of food, fun and family time. This year, one of the most buzzed-about vendors was The Pho Burger, which had consistent lines throughout the entire weekend. The Pho Burger, which is the brainchild of chef Jeff Tafoya, premiered last year to rave reviews.
Tafoya said the idea came about one day as he was chatting with his wife, who is Vietnamese American, about making a burger that could taste like pho.
“I tested it out with some friends at home, and they liked it,” he said. “Then I did the old ‘Vietnamese parents test,’ and I gave it to my wife’s parents, aunts and uncles and they all enjoyed it, so at that point I knew we had something that was pretty good.”
The Pho Burger sold out all three days during the festival. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
The burger, which features everything you’d see in a bowl of pho but re-imagined, sold out all three days of the festival last year. Tafoya came back this year with twice as many burgers and sold out again. All before 7 p.m.
“People seem surprised that it tastes like pho,” Tafoya said. “The sauce is really what does it. Everything that is in pho is in that sauce. You get a lot of people who have a pho product, and it’s just hoisin and sriracha mixed with something and they say, ‘Oh, its pho.’ For us, I tried to do my best to put in every ingredient you’d put in your broth when you’re making it at home into the spread. I just have it in a form that’s usable as a burger sauce.”
Ayoung festival goer enjoys the display at the cultural village. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
Arthur Ho, 13, saw the line and sign for The Pho Burger and decided to give it a try.
“It’s really cool. I can eat it in a burger with one hand,” Ho said. “It’s better than having to eat an entire bowl. It’s a mixture of pho and a burger so it’s really good.”
His sister, Vivian, 26, agreed.
“I’m a burger lover, and this is a really fun burger,” she said. “At first it tastes like a really crunchy burger with the fried pho noodles, but it tastes like pho. I would definitely eat this again.”
Skewers of meat were a popular dish at the UVSA Tet Festival. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
Around the corner, fried squid balls called takoyaki were another popular option from vender Ta Nota. A common Japanese-style street food, the balls are made with a wheat flour and egg batter, and they are filled with octopus and other seasonings. They then are topped with various toppings and sold in a set of six.
Takoyaki is a popular Japanese street food.(Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
“This is takoyaki, a Japanese street food and dough ball,” said Christopher Marinakis, 23, as he expertly flipped the balls. “We just keep flipping it until it’s cooked all throughout. A lot of factors play into it, like temperature, but at the end of the day you just have to make sure you keep flipping it so it doesn’t get sticky.”
Marinakis said the cooks could make 96 balls within 10 minutes, meaning in one day, they could make over 13,824 balls if they worked nonstop.
In addition to pho burgers and takoyaki balls, vendors sold grilled lobsters, churros and ice cream, fruit drinks, spring rolls and spiral potatoes.
Rolling spring rolls are served with Nam Gourmet’s ready-to-eat peanut dipping sauce.(Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
Vendor Nam Gourmet, whose owner Dianne Trinh developed a line of ready-to-eat-sauces for sale in stores, set up a booth selling grilled pork, spring rolls and chicken pho. The booth was also very busy throughout the festival for people looking for more traditional Vietnamese dishes leaning toward the healthy side.
Stuart Taufa, 45, brought his Hawaiian-themed menu of huli huli chicken to the festival. Although a regular at other festivals, this was the first Tet appearance for Taufa, who modified his trailer to double as a BBQ. He called the rotating chicken and meat “Dancing Chicken.”
Stuart Taufa poses in front of the booth and grill where he sold Hawaiian-style chicken at the Tet Festival in Costa Mesa, Calif. (Photo: Thuy Phan/Nguoi Viet)
“They have this in Hawaii, and it’s usually called huli huli chicken,” Taufa said. “We brought the recipe all the way from Hawaii. I had to make up my own name so I went with dancing grill, as you can see, because the chicken moves all the time.”
“The good thing about this is you can cook it right in front of your customers. That’s the best thing about this BBQ. People see what they get.”
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