I enjoyed The Spice Table, the late great Southeast Asian restaurant from Bryant Ng and Kim Luu-Ng in Little Tokyo. I enjoy the couple’s new Santa Monica restaurant with Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan even more. Thankfully, key elements like a wood-burning grill with a copper hood survived the move to Cassia. At The Spice Table, Chef Ng marinated beef tripe in soy sauce, palm sugar, and garlic before wood-grilling skewers to great effect. His updated preparation at Cassia is even more impressive.

Grilled Beef Tripe ($15) features marinated skewers of pleasantly chewy, beautifully blistered cow intestine. Chef Ng partially submerges the beef tripe in pho broth with sweet onions and cilantro and served with fantastic clay oven bread that’s alternately crisp and supple. I piled beef tripe chunks onto the bread with onions and cilantro and folded it over. Dip and repeat.