Health Officials Crack Down on Vietnamese Yoghurt, Pull Them From OC Shelves

By Dave Lieberman Wed., Jul. 6 2011 at 11:00 AM

Dave Lieberman

Where'd it go? All of a sudden, da ua, the Vietnamese yoghurt made by culturing condensed milk, has disappeared from OC shelves. Our network of spies in Little Saigon said there was a letter sent out from the Orange County Health Care Agency informing bakeries, cafés and markets that house-cultured dairy products may not be sold to the public.

There was such a letter, admits the Orange County Health Care Agency, but it was sent out quite a while ago. OC HCA is not responsible for the rules; those are set by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which states that only products made in a duly licensed dairy processing facility are permitted to be sold.

While it's unlikely that a store would be shut down for selling illegal yoghurt (how stupid does that phrase even sound?)--both OC HCA and CDFA prefer remediation to fines--the fact remains that there are currently no commercial dairies making da ua. As a result, one of the finest desserts of the summer, melon and da ua, is unavailable to most people. (Stay tuned later this week for a recipe. You can make your own, you just can't sell it to anyone.)

Just another reminder that California needs a cottage foods law.

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SMc in Little Siagon, CA

@JohnSmith, the way the HD controls the cleanliness of a preparation area is by requiring all food sold be prepared in a commerical kitchen. You don't have to own one, you can rent one. Home kitchen, no matter how spotless, are in a constant flux of conditions, and can't be controlled or compared to the cleanliness on a commerical site. @Dave, I haven't found a reference to a du ua recipe. I do not think the reference you made in the 2010 article on da ua is the best one out there. Using milk makes traditional western yogurt and using condensed milk tastes like yogurt from condensed milk. It is missing the lemon highnote, the pure white color, and the creamy texture of da ua (Than Son Tofu produced most of what was available in the VN markets). I've also made yogurt with a combination of condensed milk and fresh milk but have not found the results I want. I have another experimental batch of da ua incubating right now! If you taste vanilla in your da ua, it is probably because the condensed milk used contained vanilla!

Bill T.

So you see no problem with someone using untreated human waste as fertilizer and not telling you.

noghurt

The only problem I really have with this article is that no one really spells "yogurt" with an "h." Not in the US, anyway. Are you some kinda Commie?

Bill T.

100% acceptable alternate spelling. I take it you had no trouble understanding what the meaning is ...

Johnsmith

These people are just making the world a more isolated place to live. Can't do this, can't do that. All these years and no one got sick and now they implement some stupid law to ban them? I know they're trying to protect the public, but dude if people going to get sick, they're going to get sick. You choose to eat something it's your fault for eating it. People get sick and they get over it. You can let one rotten apple spoil the whole tree! What next all the mom and pops restaurants just because their food is home made? Kids can't hug their teachers anymore. People can't say this, can't do that. This country is turning into freaken China! Why don't they just censor everything! Sorry man... I just love to eat. Ain't no one shoving something that I don't like down throat. What the health department should do is check to see if the conditions of where the food was made is sanitary... Clean and keep out all the cross contamination BS... Come on Yelpers we gotta protest this Bullsh....