Vietnamese Food and Cooking

High-Brow Banh Mi Sandwiches Are Getting a Footing in Dallas

When properly executed, the banh mi may be the greatest sandwich of all time. The balance of fatty flavors from mayonnaise, pâté and other meats, with acidic pickles, is the perfect backdrop for Asian flavors like soy sauce and cilantro. It's surprising that these sandwiches aren't more popular he ... More >>

Mot Hai Ba Offers Take Out BYOB (Build Your Own Banh Mi)

It was a gloomy day, so when a friend offered to deliver me lunch I jumped on the opportunity. "Bring me two banh mi sandwiches from Mot Hai Ba, and make sure one of them has pork pâté," I asked. I was curious how the restaurant would package the sandwiches, but I never thought it would be like th ... More >>

Mot Hai Ba to Open Tuesday, Bringing a Blend of North Vietnamese and Street Food

Jeana Johnson and Colleen O'Hare have announced the opening date of their much anticipated Vietnamese concept. Mot Hai Ba will open next Tuesday, serving a blend of North Vietnamese cooking including a selection of street foods that may just be perfect for snacking. See also: An Open Letter to Mot ... More >>

Fair Warning: Lay's Sriracha and Chicken and Waffles Will Hurt Your Soul

I'm doing you a flavor favor. You're welcome. I work on commission though, so accordingly, I'll need you all to send me a dollar. This is a steal because I've saved you at least $6, which is almost two gallons of gas that could get you out to Joe Pool Lake to stare at the murky shore line, weep ... More >>

City of Ate Wins! Sriracha Chips Among Finalist for Lay's New Flavor.

Plano-based Frito-Lay has announced the winners of their Lay's Do Us A Flavors contest. Several months ago chip-eaters around the world were asked to submit their idea for a new flavor of chip. The three winning flavors and their people were on Good Morning America this morning; A lady from Land O ... More >>

Eight Food Delivery Options for the Flu-Stricken

Listen, I worry when you all get so sick. Let's try to contain this flu thing and all stay tucked in our beds this weekend (or longer if not feeling well). We all still have to eat, though. And if going to the grocery store then whipping up a batch of from-scratch chicken soup isn't possible, let so ... More >>

Checking in on a Much Better Dalat

When I reviewed Dalat this summer, I loved the concept of a late-night pho restaurant close to downtown but had problems with the consistency of the food I was served. My pho was salty one day and bland the next, and noodles that were consistently over-cooked would break apart when grabbed them with ... More >>

Mama Fu's To Open 14 Local Restaurants

Heard of Mama Fu's? You will soon. They're set to open 14 new restaurants across Dallas and Collin counties over the next several years. This fast-casual Asian-inspired chain is based out of Austin (Murphy Adams Restaurant Group). The local units are being brought to the area by MFDC Partners, whi ... 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 >>

Nammi's Delicious Banh Mi And Eclectic Snacks Make For Some Of Dallas' Best Curb-Side Dining

Food trucks get tons of attention, but is the food they're peddling any good? While evaluating creativity, curb appeal, value and taste to award Firestone tires, we're ranking Dallas' food trucks to sort out which trucks are worth chasing around town and which may be headed for a blow out. Tina Ngu ... More >>

Saigon Block's River Monster

I've eaten a lot of Vietnamese food in my life, and I thought I had tasted, or at least seen, everything; I was way off. I would have continued living blissfully ignorant, but I was tipped off to a Vietnamese restaurant in Richardson that was known for serving a particular dish unknown to me. Remo ... More >>

With Sissy's Fried Chicken, Like all Fried Chicken, It's All About That Skin-to-Flesh Ratio

While interviewing Jeffery Hobbs about the fried chicken at Sissy's, the subject of this week's review, I asked a number of questions about his process. I've only fried chicken at home a few times (the smell!) so I'm not well versed it its mechanics. I did, however, page though all my cookbooks to l ... More >>

Things Sriracha Does Not Go On

I started thinking about this project last Sunday whilst at brunch. I'd just hit Vickery Park's brisket sandwich with a healthy dose of cock sauce and noted how well the flavors worked together. Spurred by the famous Frank's Red Hot tagline, "I put that shit on everything" I asked my drunken table m ... 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 >>

Townhouse Kitchen Bar Now Open at the Galleria (Photos)

​ Imagine walking into a restaurant to the sounds of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me." Now imagine walking into a restaurant to the sounds of Lady Gaga's latest hit. Were they the same places? Of course not. Which is why it may behoove Townhouse Kitchen Bar at the Galleria to recons ... More >>

At My Lan and Hiep Thai Market, Suburban Strip-Mall Magic

Go for the jackfruit, stay for the pho. Oh, and bring your own beer.

Get On My Lan: How to Turn a Vietnamese BYOB Into a Killer Beer-Pairing Dinner

​Hey beer nerds: this post's for you. By now, after attending many beer-themed dinners, wherein a chef sets up a menu with beer pairings selected by a cicerone, you've realized the power of matching beer with food. The residual sugars present in all beer play nicely with sugar-containing com ... More >>

October's Openings and Closings from the Dallas Restaurant Scene

As summer comes to an end, a number of restaurants have opened and closed their doors. In-N-Out Burger continued its Texas growth with an Arlington location late last month. Lover's Lane Olive Oil Company expanded from its flagship store, Grapevine Olive Oil Company, and set up shop on West Lovers L ... More >>

Mango's Noodle House: A Bit Pricey, but If You're Already in Farmers Branch...

Kristy Yang​Mango's Noodle House is not my, nor your, parent's kind of pho place. The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs reverberating from the speakers tipped me off. The restaurant's contemporary décor matches the music, but the food isn't quite as progressive. That's not to say that the presentation isn't p ... More >>

Five Asian Lunch Options to Add to Your Rotation

Kristy YangChosun's beef shortrib lunch box.​The boyfriend recently was moved to a different position at work, one with a shorter lunch break. So we decided to check out some of the quicker and better Asian-restaurant lunch deals around the Dallas area. Along with our own personal lunch spots ... More >>

Nammi: Trickle at the Truck

You wanted food trucks? Here's one. Where are you?

West Village's Malai Kitchen: Asian Fusion Hobbled by Growing Pains

The good news is that Malai Kitchen is a vast improvement over Tom Tom Noodle House, the Asian-styled restaurant that once occupied West Village. The less than good news is Malai restaurant still faces some growing pains. ​Asian fusion can be catastrophic, but compared with Tom Tom, there is ... More >>

Oishii Renames Beloved Off-Menu Sushi Roll

The first thing one receives at Oishii Sushi & Pan-Asian Cuisine is a large laminated menu and paper menu overflowing with sushi options. But if you sit at the sushi bar, there's a small, wall-mounted chalkboard above the chopping and dicing sushi chefs. The very top of that chalkboard reads #42, an ... More >>

b.b.bop Rice Bowls: There's Asian Fusion and There's All Over the Asian Map

Photos by Kristy YangOutside b.b.bop's new location at Lovers and Greenville.​b.b.bop Rice Bowls confuses me. The Carrollton-based restaurant opened a Lovers Lane/Greenville location recently, and several friends on separate occasions suggested I try it. Admittedly, when I heard about the concept, ... More >>

Lemongrass' Khoa Nguyen Demonstates an Easy, Greaseless Vietnamese Seafood Crepe

Photos by Kristy YangLemongrass' banh xeo with seafood​As I teased in last week's Pho from Home post, this week we're visiting Lemongrass' kitchen with owner Khoa Nguyen where he'll teach us how to make their popular banh xeo. Banh xeo, or Vietnamese crepe, is known to be delicious but notor ... More >>

Quoc Bao: Possibly the Best Vietnamese Sandwich in Big D

​Quoc Bao. That's long been the chatter when the topic of "where the best banh mi can be found around Dallas." Upon the urging of friends and the insistence of readers' comments, I finally decided to test out everyone's favorite banh mi shop. What better time than a City of Ate meeting with a ... More >>

Lumi's Susie Bui Takes a Leap -- and Soars

Aaron Young/td>Lumi Empanada & Dumpling Kitchen's Susie Bui​She was working a corporate gig at Brinks as a marketing coordinator and had no restaurant background. Her brother was looking for a way out of the corporate death spiral. Even though her brother and his ex-wife once had a now-defunct ... More >>

It's a Southern Thing: Who Gets Credit
For Introducing Vietnamese to Crawfish?

​Andrea Nguyen's presentation at the Southern Foodways Alliance symposium this weekend was bound to be a bit contentious, as the award-winning cookbook author was slated to explain to a roomful of proud Southern eaters and cooks that the Vietnamese crawfish tradition rightly belongs to Califor ... More >>

Ethical Meat and Ethnic Eats: Why Don't We Worry About the Chicken in our Pad Thai?

I had a nasty sinus infection this weekend, so I sought solace in a bowlful of bun bo hue, a spicy broth heaving with noodles, assorted pig parts and congealed pig's blood. I didn't pause to ask my server where the restaurant bought its meat, and I'd be willing to wager none of the other pho diletta ... More >>

Thai/Vietnamese Joint Coming to West Village

Look, sometimes we just draw a blank trying to find photos for these things.​Two veterans of the restaurant group that includes Houston's have announced plans to open a Thai-Vietnamese restaurant in West Village. Braden Wages -- who most recently served as general manager of R D Kitchen -- an ... More >>

Lemongrass' Take on Asian Defuses
The Dreaded F-Bomb

Photos by Kristy Yang​Last week, I had the pleasure of being proven wrong. For the majority of my food-seeking life, I've had an aversion to Asian restaurants of the fusion variety. Deep Ellum's Lemongrass restaurant rocked my prejudice to the core. Wanting to find a satisfying Asian meal wi ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes: Fried Tofu with String Beans in Lemongrass Sauce at Caravelle Chinese and Vietnamese Restaurant

​As a countdown to the Dallas Observer's "Best of Dallas" 2010, City of Ate is serving up 100 of the favorite dishes we crave, savor and hope to scarf down again soon. These dishes are in no particular order. Some are little known, others celebrated. Some are pricey, others can be eaten on the ... More >>

Rice 1 Roll: Don't Expect the World,
Just Good Indian Desserts

Rice 1 Roll's rava kesari​Rice 1 Roll's very slick takeout menu proudly announces the "Indian Chinese Café" serves Indian, Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese foods. It's a strange claim to make, because there's nothing but south Indian food on the menu. There's no half-hearted pho or lackluster pa ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes: Shrimp and Chicken Curry Clay Pot At Mai's Vietnamese Restaurant

As a countdown to the Dallas Observer's "Best of Dallas" 2010, City of Ate is serving up 100 of the favorite dishes we crave, savor and hope to scarf down again soon. These dishes are in no particular order. Some are little known, others celebrated. Some are pricey, others can be eaten on the cheap, ... More >>

It's Pronounced "Fuh." Get the Pho King Joke?

​With a name ready-made for commemorative merchandise, Pho King Way just needed a reason to give its T-shirts away. Ergo the Fort Worth's eatery new six-course challenge, in which diners who polish off the first three dishes earn their very own "No Pho King Way" shirt. But there are greater r ... More >>

In the Mood for Some Deep-Fried Pig's Leg and Knuckle? We've Got Just the Place

​When my friend, Rona, moved to Dallas, she asked me where she could find her native Filipino food. I had no idea. In my defense, when I asked my Manila-born boyfriend the same question, he didn't know of any restaurants in Dallas that served Filipino food either. Figuring as how I am surrounde ... More >>

Ditch the Burgers and Dogs for Something Unexpected at Your Tailgate Party

Photos by Sarah Johnson ​Flash Cured Yellowtail Albacore Demonstrated by Chef Marcos Rodriguez of Bolla You don't always have to think inside the box when it comes to grilling or cooking out for a barbecue or tailgate party. Why not ditch the burgers and hot dogs and experiment for a change? Ye ... More >>

For Asians in Dallas, There's No place Like Home--Other Than an Asian Market

Last week, my friend Rona hosted her parents who where visiting from Maui. They were staying for the whole week, and being of Filipino descent, they wanted to know where the nearest Asian supermarket was. And when my aunt from Taiwan arrives next month, she will be asking me to take her to the neare ... More >>

Pho From Home: Tien Giang Restaurant

​Bombarded with work and handicapped by a restrictive schedule for the past few weeks, the blog writer had been subsisting on a diet of pizza and Subway. Nights consisted of depressing jogs on treadmills in artificially lit fat labs, followed by nightly visits to her local chain deli. Cold, wet, ... More >>

Cheap Bastard

Short Orders: Green Papaya

Eddie Garza​Green Papaya 3211 Oak Lawn 214-521-4811This much is obvious: few people care whether or not Green Papaya trots out traditional Vietnamese dishes or Texafied facsimiles. It's not even an issue. The place has been so consistent over a long term that when they home in on authenticity or ... More >>

Lá Me

Bowling for Great Cheap Vietnamese

You Dim Sum, You Lose Some

Review: Pho New Bay

Puddy Good

Oishii is a culinary adventure

Best pho

Pho Saigon

It's not easy being green

Green Papaya needs some seasoning

Coming home

Saigon Savour brings a rich Western touch to Vietnamese

Mai oh Mai

Dallas' first popular Vietnamese restaurant still does it best