Come to think of it maybe 4 to 5+ years ago I had a beef chao at Trieu Chau in Santa Ana.
Granted Trieu Chau is Vietnamese Chinese (with Chiu Chow Chinese roots) and pretty much every goes for their noodle soup or dry noodles/broth on the side mostly. But they do have chao there and it was very tasty in memory. This is not Vietnamese Chao, but at the restaurant it is listed and categorized as Chao (with the Chinese character for jook listed as well).
From memory it was really good, as if they added some of the bone/meat stock or used it to cook at some point. Good thickness and almost done in a style of Hong Kong Cantonese Chiu Chow congee but different (for a fairly legit Chiu Chow congee HK Cantonese style, the version at Seafood Palace is pretty legit). So in a way, a hybrid between Hong Kong Cantonese jook, Chiu Chow jook, and Vietnamese Chao, more slanted towards Cantonese style a bit.
I would second JKB’s canton rec, but we usually get the cha ca Thanh long there (fish w turmeric/dill); having said that you high class FTC’ers will likely be disappointed by the fish quality.
Thanks @Ns1. I’ve been looking for a good cha ca thanh long for a while now. I went to one recommended on our old board, but it closed down a while back sadly.
As a final point here, I don’t think her pricing is out of line when you take into account technique and cost of ingredients.
But it’s still an expensive lunch. I just priced out a bowl of porridge ($17), naked puffs ($5), and an iced coffee ($5.5), and I’m all of a sudden out $30+ for lunch. That’s an expensive lunch no matter what cuisine we are talking about.
To my knowledge that’s been the law in California since Prohibition ended. Some restaurants that do not sell alcohol have liquor licenses so they can allow BYOB. If a restaurant that has no license is BYOB-friendly, it’s not cool to mention their scofflawry in a public forum.
I love how you love your offal and coagulated blood cubes.
