Author Archives: anqi

By B.W. COOK MAY 13, 202011:38 AM The trickle-down effects reaching all of society impacted by COVID-19 is a shocker to most. On the subject of the most basic form of life sustainment, feeding the hungry rises to the top of that impact. We have seen the food lines, listened to the news reports and […]

By ANNE VALDESPINO | [email protected] | Orange County Register PUBLISHED: January 17, 2020 at 1:09 p.m. | UPDATED: January 17, 2020 at 1:09 p.m. Celebrating Lunar New Year with a feast at a Vietnamese restaurant? These days we take for granted how many such noodle houses, coffee bars and fine dining rooms there are in Southern California. But we don’t often stop to think […]

By JENNIFER TANAKA | [email protected] | Orange County Register PUBLISHED: August 4, 2019 at 10:20 p.m. | UPDATED: August 4, 2019 at 10:29 p.m. Helene An’s signature dish, crab with garlic noodles, is ubiquitous in Asian-American cuisine. It’s imitated on countless menus across the country. You see it so often that you forget it’s not even a classic Vietnamese dish. Rather than […]

The Face of Fine Asian Cuisine Nestled next to Bloomingdale’s at South Coast Plaza, AnQi by House of An has been blazing culinary trails for nearly a decade. Owner Elizabeth An envisioned the gourmet bistro as a dining destination that would marry her unique Vietnamese culture with the heartbeat of urban Orange County. The concept […]

By ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER January 20, 2017 at 3:55 p.m. “I grew up listening to the stories of my mother’s childhood in Vietnam: the adventures, the dangers and the elegance of a lost world.” So begins “An: To Eat,” and as you sit back in Proustian languor to thumb through this big, heavy, handsomely illustrated book, […]

AnQi The San Francisco Chronicle crowned her “the mother of fusion cuisine.” But Helene An never set out to create a whole new category of food. It was an evolution, and initially a matter of survival. When Saigon fell in 1975, Helene and Danny An fled Vietnam with three young daughters, leaving behind their fortunes. […]

By CAITLIN YOSHIKO KANDIL JUNE 24, 2016 1:51 PM Jacqueline An grew up with a family motto: “If you’re going to eat, you might as well eat well.” “Food has always been such a huge part of my family,” said An, whose mother, Helene, is the chef behind AnQi, a gourmet bistro and noodle bar at […]

By LISA LIDDANE | Orange County Register April 15, 2014 at 8:00 a.m. At AnQi Gourmet Bistro at South Coast Plaza, among the most coveted spots are two rows of plush cushions ensconced on an elevated glass platform, providing a prime view of the dining room scene. But at least four to six times a year, the […]

By  B.W. COOK  |  JUNE 19, 2015 Costa Mesa’s glamorous restaurateur Elizabeth An, of South Coast Plaza’s AnQi, was invited to present its signature Asian fusion cuisine at the James Beard House in New York. Known as the “Carnegie Hall of cuisine,” the James Beard House and its society are considered the most influential culinary arbiters in […]