Vietnam

Spillover 2013: Sand, Sound and Finding Peace in Metal Shows

You did St. Patrick's day. Now you feel rough. If only, you think to yourself, there was some sort of beach where I could relax with a cheap cocktail on the sand and maybe listen to some music. But you're in Dallas, and you're at least five hours drive from the nearest beach. Ain't nobody got time ... More >>

Searching for the Secrets of Pho in Hanoi, Plus Pictures of the Food and People of Vietnam

In early August, Braden and Yasmin Wages took their first vacation since opening their restaurant, Malai, to spend five days in Hanoi, Vietnam, immersing themselves in the local food and culture. "We really just wanted to refresh and expand our menu," said Braden. "We also wanted to re-center ourse ... More >>

Bistro B Gets an "A" for Awesome

Camera count: 1 million Someone yelling "egg roll" in the kitchen count: 53 Bistro B (Authentic Asian Cuisine) is all kinds of awesome. It's delicious awesome. It's cheap awesome. It's what-the-fuck awesome. It's scary awesome. It's "Aww, dammit, this Thai iced tea has those chewy brown gelatin bub ... More >>

The City of Ate Interview: DaLat Owner Khanh Nguyen on the Power and Problems of Pho

Khanh Nguyen had a successful career as a local attorney when he decided to take a little time off, a sabbatical of sorts, between projects. During that time, he immersed himself in traditional Vietnamese cooking, spending months trying to perfect various recipes, mainly concentrating on pho, which ... More >>

Like Mitt Romney, I Also Longed to See Sunny Vietnam but Was Denied

Hey, it was great having Mitt Romney in town this week, was it not? He looks so different in Texas. Those national mediatoids were making him out to be a rich plutocrat who made his money killing companies and shipping jobs to Vietnam, but when we got to see him here under our own warm sun, he look ... More >>

A Conversation with Malai Thai's Chef-Owners Will Make You Want to Eat Pho, Like, Now

Chef Braden Wages of Malai Thai in the West Village is originally from upstate New York. He and his wife, Yasmin, who is from Weatherfod, met while in school at Cornell. Running a restaurant was a long-term dream for both of them. But the concept for that place was based on a what sounds like an epi ... More >>

At Vietnam in East Dallas, a Brief Lesson in How to Make Pho That Doesn't Suck

Vietnam in East Dallas is the quintessential hole-in-the-wall spot that serves up amazing, traditional pho. And when Chef Matt McCallister mentioned this 16-year-old eatery as one of his favorites in a recent interview, it was time to revisit. The particular pho in the photo above is No. 79 from V ... More >>

Our Favorite Chicken Soups in Dallas, for That Hangover or Those Flu Symptoms

Get that lady some soup.​A search on Amazon.com for "Chicken Soup for the Hungover Soul" quickly reveals that there is no such title in existence (I smell an e-book opportunity!), most likely because no one wakes up with a pounding headache and the taste of bad choices lingering in their mouth ... More >>

Born to Fill … Bingo Cards

Despite Vietnamese Food's Soaring Popularity, Native Fish Sauce Hard to Find

​On one of my trips to Vietnam years ago, my mother and I traveled to the seaside town of Danang. During morning jogs on the beach, I'd run through hot spots of a familiar scent lingering in the air. It was the very distinct odor of fish sauce. Until now, I'm still unsure as to the source of t ... More >>

Pho 95: Does U.S. Pho Beat Vietnam's?
Not Always.

​One of my best friends recently emigrated from Vietnam to the United States. He was born in Ho Chi Minh City, spent all 30 years of his life there and is a proud Vietnamese, but when I last spoke to him, he said something that surprised me. What he said wasn't so surprising as much as from wh ... More >>

Ba Le in Garland Lays It on Thick

It always surpsrises me when I return home from Vietnam a few pounds lighter. Keep in mind that the nation still is a third world country, and the general mindset of the Vietnamese isn't as diet-fanatical as it is here. Although I've traveled back to Vietnam quite frequently over the past decade, th ... More >>

West Meets East and Comes Back
With a Full Stomach

All photos by Kristy YangAt the Food Court in Thailand​I've been away for the past few weeks tending to some family stuff in Asia and have been a tad too busy to do any blogging. I'm sure the editor's ulcer will be relieved to know that I'm back now with my one measly post a week. While away, ... More >>

Your Thursday Morning Eye Candy: In Fort Worth, Restoring the Last "Truck Killer"

These are detail shots of the A26A before restoration from Franklin Poole on Vimeo.Thanks to an early-morning e-mail from Friend of Unfair Park PeterK, I spent the better part of the last hour getting a history lesson on the the Douglas A-26 Invader, which first took flight to fight in World War II ... More >>

Pho From Home: Vietnam Restaurant

​The holidays wreaked havoc on my dining schedule these last few weeks, so today's post is going to be a tad shorter. Gathering backup participants for fulfilling my cravings in faraway lands like Garland or Carrollton proved rather difficult. Reactions from my family and friends ranged from an ... More >>

Pho From Home: Hanoi Style

Pho Hung, Ho Chi Minh City.​In Pho From Home we seek out the variety of pho--authentic, Texified, good and bad--available in restaurants, starting in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and winding all the way around the Dallas area. This time, we wrap up our excursion through Vietnam. Next week, we ... More >>

If Memory Serves: My Introduction To Curry

​If Memory Serves chronicles moments from my dining past, perhaps explaining why I'm so damn strange.I was a kid when I started to pick up on the the existence of regional differences in what and how people cook. My dad grew up on a poor Southern farm and thus favored fried catfish, pork crackling ... More >>

Looking Toward 'Nam

Revolutionary Reel

Looking Toward 'Nam

Military Deserters Once Again Flock to Canada

Looks like this time they picked the wrong country.

Has John McCain Abandoned His Fellow Veterans?

Few Good Men

Well-acted dramas explore scandals and racism in the military. Can you handle the truth?

Iraq War Movie Stop-Loss Does Its Best Not to Mention the War

Heard in Deep Ellum, Vol. I

Bum Bo No

Wash your mouth out with soap

Walk Through the Valley

Don't let Paul Haggis' heavy hand stop you from seeing his latest

Lazer

Saturday, September 8, at Forum Roller World, Grand Prairie

War Weather

See the story of the protest Underground

SMU and A&M are Damned Liberal Anti-Bush Bastions. Sure, Prof, Whatever You Sez.

Vietnam in Dallas, Something to Crow About

Don't Tell Glenna Whitley You're a Vet if You Ain't. Because She Knows. We're Lookin' at You, Brian Dennehy.

Identifiable Beauty

An Open Letter to Rod Dreher

¡Ask a Mexican!

Asia or Bust

The Asian Film Festival of Dallas celebrates five years

All Gave Some

Sir! No Sir! recounts the GIs who refused to ride the killing machine

Fog of War

A group of veterans says John Kerry stretches the truth about his Vietnam service. Who can you believe? Who knows?

Noodles Unleashed

Liberty grows up

Get on the Bus

For one fellow traveler, the road to an anti-war protest in Washington is paved with good intentions and bad politics

The Spirits Move Them

Followers of Cao Dai, a Vietnamese sect with frail tendrils in Dallas, say their time has come to spread the word. Just ask Victor Hugo.

Best Watch Repair

A Jewelry Place

Best Beef Carpaccio

Vietnamese beef carpaccio at Steel Restaurant & Lounge

Lost Son

The Vietnamese son of a black American soldier faces a long trip "home"

Best pho

Pho Saigon

Crash and yearn

Vietnam War fighter pilots recount their agonizing tales in Return with Honor

Vietnam in transition

Tony Bui shows a country looking to regain its identity

The garden of life

In East Dallas' Little Asia, a community blooms in fields of litter

Menace II reason

The Hughes brothers' Dead Presidents wallows in manufactured despair

Rushes