Barack-oli Tree House

Credit: Brock Davis/Flickr via Slate

Having always liked broccoli's resemblance to trees (I guess that makes cauliflower winter trees) and probably because I went to architecture school, I couldn't resist posting this photo. I came across it in a slideshow that accompanies yesterday's Slate article, "Why Broccoli?" by friend L.V. Anderson, who you may know as the woman behind the blog A Temporary Omnivore in Paris.

The slideshow, which includes a photo of Barbara Bush holding a broccoli stalk around the time her husband declared, "I'm president of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli," was compiled to restore our faith in broccoli, should recent broccoli slander have lowered our opinions of the vegetable.

The caption: "Ironically, even when broccoli is being slandered as a socialist, no one cites its housing potential for the needy and very tiny."

Anyway, read L.V. Anderson's article.

Signing off, A.M. Chou.

Bánh Mì of the Month

East Borough Spring Roll

COSTA MESA - A foodie or gourmet I am not. A gourmand—perhaps. Mostly because I enjoy eating and tend to overeat.

Take this afternoon, for example: I wasn't particularly hungry but because it was on the way home, I stopped at East Borough at The Camp and ordered not one, but two items from the menu. Having already tried the Vietnamese Ham Bánh Mì (with pâté, which you have to request) and Bò Kho Beef Stew Baguette—consecutively and in that order—I opted for the Vietnamese Pork Loaf Bánh Mì and, because I can never order just one thing, the Tofu Spring Roll. And lucky me (and you and everyone else), if you check in on Yelp!, you get two dollars off one of their bevs. According to the cashier, as long as I keep checking in, I can keep getting the discount. If you're a social media zombie, you'd probably appreciate their entire webpage dedicated to social media, including Instagram. Smart, since their food is photogenic.

Right, the food. It's all been good thus far. The Bò Kho Beef Stew Baguette, one of their three Signature Baguettes, was the perfect marriage between a Bánh Mì and my mom's winter beef stew, complete with the bite-size chunks of potato and carrot. While I have yet to compare East Borough's sandwiches to those in Westminster and Garden Grove, the mother of all Little Saigons, and Houston, of course, I have no complaints about this place, except for the FRAÎCHE VIETNAMESE slogan (?). Would have been better SANS.

East Borough assumes you want jalapeño, so if you don't (I don't), remember to ask them to leave it out. I've forgotten both times and have had to dissect my sandwich, which only prolongs the wait for that first bite.

PHOTO VIA EAST BOROUGH.