Texas barbecue and Vietnamese cuisine a natural combination
In the past few years, Houston’s wildly diverse food scene has birthed any number of Texas-barbecue spin-offs, from Tex-Mex fusion at El Burro & the Bull to pan-Asianinfluenced dishes at Blood Bros BBQ.
Until recently, Texas barbecue had been slow to embrace one of the most ingrained international cuisines of the Bayou City — Vietnamese. Which is unusual because Texas barbecue and Vietnamese food have a lot in common.
Let’s start with pho, the fragrant broth-and-noodle soup that is a staple of Houston’s Vietnamese food scene.
Pho broth is made by simmering beef bones with various aromatics, such as green onions, ginger and fish sauce, for as long as 10 hours. The resulting broth is relatively clear and light, with a deep essence of beef flavor. Rice noodles and meat are then added to the broth. The meat is often beef brisket, which is thinly sliced and added raw to the steaming broth, which cooks it.
To complement the richness of the broth, herbal and acidic accouterments — bean sprouts, cilantro and Thai basil — can be added to the pho, not unlike the way pickles and onions are provided with barbecue dishes to add some acidic balance to the richness of the meat and fat.
Finally, there is the sauce. Much like Texas barbecue, the use of sauce with pho is controversial. The traditional sauces provided — Sriracha, hoisin and fish sauce — are quite pungent, and adding too much can overwhelm the flavor of the broth.
Sound familiar? Indeed, the refrain “The best versions don’t need sauce” applies equally to pho and Texas-style barbecue brisket.
Slowly, the techniques, flavors and ingredients of Vietnamese cuisine and Texas barbecue are coming into alignment in Houston.
Brothers Don and Theo Nguyen of the Khoi Barbecue pop-up restaurant are continuously experimenting with the combination of these two great culinary traditions.
To be sure, the Nguyens are, first and foremost, talented purveyors of classic Central Texas-style barbecue. Their salt-and-pepper (and maybe something else?) brisket is smoked on their offset barrel pit using post oak wood and is arguably one of the best versions in town.
But they are also slowly integrating influences from their family’s ancestry in central Vietnam. In addition to an excellent pho with broth made from smoked beef rib bones and thick slices of Central Texas-style moist brisket, the Nguyens are offering a brisket bun bo hue — another broth-and-noodle dish with a more pungent flavor that includes lemongrass and shrimp paste.
And what about arguably the most famous Vietnamese dish in Houston, the inimitable banh mi sandwich?
Texas-barbecue entrepreneurs are starting to experiment with that, too. Saigon Smoke, a new food trailer in Spring, has rolled out a menu featuring classic Texas barbecue and various banh mi sandwiches.
A banh mi sandwich derives its deliciousness from simplicity. Baguette-style bread, meat and fresh toppings such as cilantro, cucumber, jalapeños and pickled carrot. The beef or pork filling is often grilled, giving it a smoky flavor.
Both the Texas-barbecue dishes and the banh mi sandwiches at Saigon Smoke are very good. For now, the two cuisines are mostly independent of each other on the menu, though there is a banh mi featuring pulled pork, as well as pork spareribs with a noticeably Asian-influenced rub.
Like Blood Bros. BBQ before them, Khoi Barbecue and Saigon Smoke are methodically experimenting with the techniques of Texas barbecue and Vietnamese cuisine. Like the technique of Texas barbecue itself, the evolution of its combination with Vietnamese cuisine is happening low and slow.