From a kid in Vietnam to Fresno restaurateur. Owner shares street food from childhood

One of Leila Jace’s core memories as a kid growing up in Vietnam was walking home from school, savoring the scent of smoky grilled corn coming from a street vendor.

Her family was poor, but she’d save up her lunch money to buy herself the treat — lightly blackened corn on the cob topped with scallions for an extra kick of flavor.

“It was my favorite street food of all time,” she said.

The smoky charred corn is now on the menu at Jace’s restaurant, Sizzle n’ Steam in Fresno.

It opened nine months ago at the corner of Maroa and Shields avenues.

It’s a Vietnamese street food restaurant with a 4.5 star rating on Yelp.com. It also took third place in The Bee’s reader poll about the most underrated restaurant in town.

The restaurant is the latest stop on a path that had Jace, now 29, moving to California at age 14 without speaking any English. She would get her master’s degree in business, have a successful career in retirement planning in the Bay Area, and go on work for one of the top tech companies in the nation.

Last year, she decided to upend her life, and moved to Fresno to be closer to her parents.

Jace never intended to open a restaurant when she moved here. She just wanted a change — both professionally and personally.

“I knew something was lacking, back when I was in retirement planning and I was able to see a lot of people actually happy,” she said.

Her parents run Com Pho Bamboo, an authentic Vietnamese restaurant near First Street and Nees Avenue.

When the former Pho Fresno closed and Jace saw the spot was available, she suggested it to her parents, thinking they could open an additional location there.

Her mom turned around and said, “Why don’t you do it?”

So she did, putting her own spin on the food, a blend of Vietnamese street food and all the places she’s been.

“It turned out the best way possible,” she said.

The food

There is pho, the Vietnamese soup, on the menu, of course, along with the spring rolls and vermicelli noodle bowls.

But, says Jace: “There is so much more to Vietnamese food than pho.”

Every item on Sizzle n’ Steam’s menu seems to have a story behind it.

Besides the charred corn from her childhood, there are also Gilroy garlicky fries — crispy french fries with lots of garlic and scallions. They’re a nod to the city she where she landed when her parents decided they wanted a better life and came to the United States. And, yes, she went to the Garlic Festival every summer as a teen.

The broken rice dish is a particular favorite of Jace’s. Her mom used to make it, selling it to workers for breakfast from a food stall in front of their house in Vietnam. Jace remembers “helping” at age 2, tasked with putting away the bowls.

Broken rice originated in the Mekong River region. It’s the leftover rice that was damaged during the milling process. Farmers fed it to their families.

“Somehow it made its way to become one of the delicacies of Saigon,” she said.

The rice is served in a big bowl with pork or short ribs and several other items. It’s a bit drier than typical rice, so it easily soaks up fish sauce that’s sprinkled atop it.

Also in the bowl is a stick of sugar cane with a shrimp paste wrapped around it and grilled. The sweetness of the sugar cane seeps into the shrimp, and you can gnaw on the cane after you’ve eaten the shrimp part, she said.

It also comes with an egg cake she describes as a fluffy, bouncy meatloaf. And the crispy shrimp cake is wrapped in a tofu skin, formed at the top of a pan of soy milk when it’s boiled.

Jace has traveled to 62 countries, seen five of the seven wonders of the world. But it’s that childhood in Vietnam that sticks with her.

Her dad, Khai Cao, is an incredible cook, she said, and she learned from him. Her mom, Kim Tran, rolls all the egg rolls at Sizzle n’ Steam, as fast and efficient as a machine, but all by hand.

Plenty of vegan and vegetarian dishes are on the menu. In fact, the majority of Sizzle n’ Steam’s regulars eat that way, perhaps not surprising as the restaurant is close to the Tower District.

Tofu makes a frequent appearance on the menu, often fried and seasoned in spicy red strips, such as in the banh mi sandwich or atop a vermicelli bowl with egg rolls.

“It’s a result of poverty. You learn to be creative with your food,” Jace said. “Tofu is one of the cheapest proteins you can buy in Vietnam.”

Most of Jace’s customers are not Asian, making it even more fun to introduce her favorite foods to them. And Vietnamese food is not by nature spicy, she said, though some dishes are.

Most entrees range from $9 to $20.

Customers become friends

When she moved to Fresno last year, she didn’t know a single person besides her parents.

Since then, customers have become her friends. She makes a point of talking to most of them them, and you can often find her chatting tableside in a laid-back pair of flowy pants and a short top.

Many customers have her personal cell phone number and exchange texts occasionally.

“To be welcomed with such openness in such a way, I never imagined this,” she said, dabbing her eyes with a napkin.

Jace is one of those people who makes friends everywhere she goes. She bought a baking rack off of Facebook Marketplace recently and ended up getting invited to lunch. She’s going back to the house soon for a sourdough baking lesson.

Married couple Dan Nickerson and Ada Jimenez of Fresno, who are also vegans, are in the restaurant at least once a week, if not more. Jace likes to ask them what foods they like, and feed them new things she’s trying. Sometimes they are Vietnamese foods, but sometimes she just wants to make churros.

“She’s just the kindest person,” Nickerson said. “The reality is you go in there and it’s not Sizzle n’ Steam, it’s like you’re in Leila’s kitchen.”

Jace is still coping with the massive changes in her life. She said she struggles with imposter syndrome sometimes.

But the restaurant is a respite.

Her brother, who she describes as her “best friend,” works there, and there’s a romantic interest who’s sometimes in the kitchen chopping cucumbers and tomatoes.

“This is where I go to when my life is a little crazy. I just come to work and cut up some veggies,” Jace said. “Dancing in the kitchen is my favorite thing.”

She’s friendly with the gals who work a few doors down at Venus Salon. One of them, Marisol Soto, was looking for something healthy and Jace developed a salad with grilled chili lemongrass chicken. It’s now on the menu as “Marisol’s chicken salad.”

Soto orders it about every three days.

“She likes the customers; she really cares,” Soto said of Jace. “Everybody’s really professional and makes you feel comfortable. I hope she stays there for a long time.”

Details: Sizzle n’ Steam is at 3111 N. Maroa Ave. Hours: 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and from noon to 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. 559-681-5050.