Health & Fitness
Patch Blog: Gluten-Free Vietnamese
Golden Deli in San Gabriel delivers on flavor, price and friendliness
I love eating all kinds of Asian food—Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese. Since going gluten-free, Asian restaurants have been a kind of mine field, the dishes riddled with soy sauce in sometimes less than obvious ways. Although I cook Asian-inspired dishes at home using wheat-free tamari, sometimes I just need a night out.
Craving Vietnamese, I called a friend who grew up in San Marino. I asked him to pick a place where the food was good and the staff would be knowledgeable and friendly enough to inform me which dishes were safe for me to eat.
"Golden Deli's been holding it down since the 80s," was his reply. "Let's go there."
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We got there at 6:00 on a Saturday night and the place was packed. Noisy and bustling, the tables pushed close together, it reminded me of the Jewish Delis I used to frequent with my parents growing up. I had this feeling like the waitstaff was impatient with me, but they would love me no matter what.
After a lengthy Q&A session, I ordered the fresh spring rolls, followed by the Bun Chao Tom, or rice noodle salad with shrimp. We had determined that I could eat the grilled shrimp and the pork in the spring rolls, since both were unmarinated.
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It's worth noting that the spring rolls are the only item on the menu that uses unmarinated pork. All the other pork dishes contain soy sauce.
The spring rolls, with plain fish sauce as an accompaniment, were toothy and tasty, although not the best I've ever had.
But the Bun Chao Tom completely hit the spot. It came in a big bowl along with shredded lettuce, chopped peanuts, cilantro, mint, basil and scallions. I tossed in a ramekin of fish sauce, a drizzle of Sriracha, and mixed it up. It was simple comfort food at its best.
Golden Deli isn't going to win any awards for innovation or originality, and it isn't a place to go when you want a quiet dinner that you can linger over. But, as my friend said, it's been delivering the old standbys of Vietnamese cuisine for more than 20 years. It's hard to argue with that.