They’re creative, they’re unique, and, despite how they sound, they’re all delicious.
From
the cronut to the ramen burger, the world is in love with the mashup. Here are
five home-grown Vietnamese offerings you can go out and sample today.
1. Pho Beer, FURBREW
(Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City)
“When
I moved to Vietnam to make craft beer,” says Thomas Bilgram, master brewer at
FURBREW, a Hanoi-based brewery, “one of the goals was to use the many tastes
and aromas of Vietnam. In our pho beer, I use the spices from the local market,
and treat them like any local mother would, by roasting them over an open fire
to release the oils.”
While
it’s certainly not the kind of beer you’d want to drink all night (“It’s a good
beer to drink when drinking good beer,” as Bilgram puts it), Bia Pho is much
more than a marketing gimmick; don’t expect it to come with a side dish of
beansprouts. Instead, each element has been carefully considered. It’s a
standout beer in its own right, with deep, evolving and beautifully aromatic
pho-inspired flavors.
“It
took me three months to make the right recipe,” adds Bilgram. “We play with
Vietnamese flavors often. We have a lime leaf wheat ale on tap right now, and
we just made a beer with lemongrass, ginger, black garlic, and tamarind.”
Pho Beer. Photo by Tim Scott
Pho Bia is currently
available at FURBREW Beer Bar, 8b/52 To Ngoc Van, Tay Ho District, Hanoi, and
The 100 Beer Garden, 68/238 Au Co, Tay Ho District, Hanoi.
For those in Ho Chi
Minh City, FURBREW regularly ships barrels to BiaCraft Artisan Ales in
Districts 2 and 3.
2. Fish sauce gelato,
Ralf’s Artisan Gelato (HCMC)
In
his backroom “laboratory”, as he calls it, using only a handful of
high-quality, all-natural ingredients in the traditional artisanal way,
German-born Saigon resident Ralf Ehresmann has been busy since opening his
District 1 shop in August 2016. In addition to an ever-rotating lineup of
“normal” flavors such as coffee, raspberry, chocolate, mango, and vanilla, it’s
his more unusual creations that have caused the biggest stir so far. Beer
gelato? Yes, that was his. Beef pho flavor? Yep, he did that too, blending
three entire bowls of pho bo tai (including the meat) and adding them into the
mix. “It was a bit too powerful!” he says laughing.
But
it’s Ralf’s nuoc mam gelato that everyone’s talking about, and for all the
right reasons: It’s amazing.
“Can
we try your famous fish sauce flavor?” asks one young American-Vietnamese
couple who have come to Ralf’s shop especially. “I have a nuoc mam fetish,”
says the girl, her nose pressed to the glass of the freezer cabinet as our host
scoops them up a small spoonful each.
Your regular frozen
dessert is getting boring? Try this fish sauce gelato in Saigon.
“It’s really good!” comes their verdict. “It’s
kind of salty but sweet. Almost like salted caramel. Delicious! Two scoops
please!”
“People
often say, ‘Oh, it really tastes like fish sauce’,” says Ehresmann. “But no, it
doesn’t taste like fish sauce, it is fish sauce! I use only the very best
ingredients so I can serve only the very best gelato.”
Ralf’s Artisan Gelato
is at 39 Dang Thi Nhu, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City
3. Chicken skin
nachos, BiaCraft Artisan Ales (HCMC)
They
say that necessity is the mother of invention. That’s exactly how one craft
beer bar came up with this finger-licking combo.
“We
wanted to put nachos on the menu,” says BiaCraft’s co-founder Mark Gustafson,
“but everyone in town uses expensive imported tortilla chips. We tried to make
our own but they just didn’t work. My business partner, Tim [Scott], was
pushing me to come up with something. ‘I know you can do it,’ he said.”
Taking
inspiration from a Thai snack, and using readily-available chicken skins—an
ingredient more commonly used in Vietnamese stocks and soups—Gustafson and his
head chef set about creating what is now perhaps the best drinking snack the
city has ever seen.
“I
put together a plate of the nachos and sent it up to Tim in the office,” he
adds. “‘We need to put this on the menu!’ came his response.”
Chicken Skin nachos. Photo by Simon Stanley.
Served
in racks of nine, the skins are crisp and incredibly flavorsome, yet somehow
stay light and moreish. Topped with pork, sour cream, gooey cheese, a slice of
warming jalapeño pepper, and a beer vinegar barbecue sauce, they might be even
better than the traditional nachos they were trying to emulate.
“We
call them our ‘carb-free nachos’,” says Gustafson with a grin. “I wouldn't
recommend that you eat them every day, but everyone loves them.”
BiaCraft Artisan Ales
flagship location is at 1 Le Ngo Cat, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City.
4. The goi cuon
sandwich, Journeys Sandwich Cafe (HCMC)
As
part of an eclectic menu of regional and global dishes, Journey’s signature
sandwiches are the perfect examples of mashup cuisine. Taking inspiration from
Southeast Asian delicacies such as Thailand’s tom yum shrimp soup, and a Malay
beef satay, the evolution of the humble sandwich is nudged forward once again.
And in every case, the authenticity of each dish is paramount. “If I haven’t
been there and tried it for myself,” says owner and sandwich wizard Kevin
Nagle, “you won’t find it on my menu.”
Summer
rolls (goi cuon) are one of Vietnam’s tastiest (and healthiest) exports. Taking
the traditional fillings of pork, prawn, fresh leaves, aromatic herbs, and a
sticky peanut hoisin sauce, native New Yorker Nagle has swapped the rice paper
pancake wrapping for a crispy Vietnamese bread roll to create the banh mi goi
cuon. And it is divine.
Goi Cuon Sandwich. Photo by Simon Stanley.
Ignoring
the mashup theme for a moment, loaded with pork and shrimp cooked fresh for
each order, this is one seriously good sandwich, almost like Vietnam’s answer
to a Louisiana po’ boy.
Likewise,
Journey’s banh mi bun bo Hue, made with layers of tender braised beef and
drizzled in a traditional bun bo Hue broth, is worth an honorary mention here.
Wow.
Journeys Sandwich
Cafe is at 21 Nguyen Van Trang, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
5. The Pho burger,
East West Brewing Co. (HCMC)
After
the stir caused by the Brooklyn-born ramen burger back in 2013, it was only a
matter of time before someone made a pho version. Once again we’re in the world
of craft beer, and while East West Brewing Co.’s pho burger isn't the first of
its kind to appear in Ho Chi Minh City, it could be one of the best we’ve seen
so far.
Opened
in January 2016, this downtown spot is, as the name suggests, a mashup in
itself. With all beers made onsite, their spacious industrial-chic bar and
dining area is overlooked by the stainless steel stills and steaming pipework
of a fully-functional microbrewery. And they’re not just about liquid invention
here. Taking influence from all over the world, the food menu is full of
inventive combinations, but there’s one item you really need to try, like,
right now.
The
pho burger. Oh. My. God. The beef patty alone is standout, cooked thick and
juicy and with a subtle blushing of pink at its core. Then come the
pho-inspired toppings: Hoisin sauce, spicy sriracha, white onions, fresh basil,
cilantro, and crispy beansprouts. Proving that all successful mashups work well
in their own right, this burger kicks ass. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the flavor
combo is heavenly. The spice is just right: not too weak, not too strong, but
enough to warrant more than a few sips of East West’s signature “Far East” IPA
(a recommended pairing).
Pho burger. Photo by Simon Stanley
East West Brewing Co.
is at 181-185 Ly Tu Truong, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
So
what’s next? Bun cha burgers? Goi xoai pizza? Hot vit lon tacos? In the world
of mashups, there are no limits… as long as it works.
“I
just made a pandan leaf gelato,” said Ralf Ehresmann when asked about what
crazy flavors he has lined up for the future. “But it was not good. I threw it
away.”
Story by Simon
Stanley/ VnExpress