3/2/2023 0 Comments Pho ha noi![]() ![]() “Every day, I am here,” said longtime customer Tommy Cu. Helen estimates about two-thirds of her clientele are of Asian descent with loyalty to their homeland on the other side of the world. Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest days, bringing in an average of 1,500 customers from all over the San Francisco Bay Area. Everything has to cook for so long.” Huyen “Helen” Nguyen inside Phở Hà Nội. “Our beef cooks for three or four hours to make it tender. “Cooking Vietnamese food is not like cooking American food,” Helen said. But even the simplest dishes can take a lot of preparation behind the scenes. Many of the menu items also list preparation times, which workers on a timed lunch break will most likely appreciate. Phở Hà Nội also offers a wide range of Vietnamese beverages, including fruit juices, teas and smoothies. The short ribs, for example, weigh about a pound and a quarter before cooking, almost guaranteeing leftovers for later. ![]() ![]() The portion size of all the dishes is generous, and just about any could be split between two people as a light lunch. Tender cubes of steak tenderloin are paired with bell peppers and onions served with tomato sauce-infused rice. Photo by Robert Eliason.Ĭơm Bò Lúc Lắc is another good choice. Not in the mood for pho? Helen says rotisserie chicken, Mì Gà Rôti, is one of the most popular dishes they serve: a tender and juicy marinated half-chicken with perfectly seasoned, crisp skin served with lightly sauced egg noodles and a soft boiled egg. On its own, the meat tastes a little dry, but dipping it into the broth enlivens it and gives it a new dimension. Scissors are provided to cut the meat, which is cooked well done. The Phở Sườn Bò makes for an impressive presentation at the table, with huge two-bone short ribs floating on top of the dish. The different types of cooked meat make the dish nicely varied in tastes and textures. It’s served with rice noodles in very hot broth, which cooks the raw beef. Pho, a hot soup dish that combines beef broth, rice noodles, meat and herbs, is the national dish of Vietnam and of course dominates the menu with beef, pork and chicken options.Īccording to Helen, the most popular dish is Phở Bò Đặc Biệt, a combination of different meats, including raw and well-done flank steak, brisket, tendon, tripe and a meatball. But we did not have any experience at all.” Everything was in my name, so I jumped into the business. The relatives knew how to cook, but they did not know how to wait tables and they did not speak English well. “We thought it would be that we would cook, we sell and we collect money. “When we first started, I thought, ‘This is not as simple as we thought it would be,’’ she said. The couple recently opened a fusion restaurant, La Barrique, also in San Jose. In 2016, Helen gave in and Phở Hà Nội was born, followed by a second location in Cupertino. So my husband said, ‘Why don’t we open our own restaurant and hire them?’ I asked him if he was crazy and he tried to convince me for two years.’’ “They were getting underpaid and getting late payments all the time. “Then some of my husband’s family came over here, and seven of them started working in restaurants,” she said. Frustrated with her low wages, they began their own successful shipping business. Harry’s job ended when his company moved to Boston and Helen, who was pregnant with their first child, found a job with an export company. The Biz Beat: Bacalhau Grill offers Brazilian, Portuguese cuisineīeing restaurateurs wasn’t the original plan when the couple came to America in 1998. Harry found work as an engineer and Helen was studying computer science. ![]()
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