CHASING THE DRAGONS
Regulars of Vietnamese restaurant welcome back Tran family, who missed their customers and bought back restaurant
Knight Street Vietnamese restaurant Cuu Long returns in the hands of original owners, the Tran family, winning back its former clientele and making new fans
Cuu Long Vietnamese Restaurant
3911 Knight St. | 604- 873- 6926. Open for lunch and dinner Wednesday to Monday. Closed Tuesdays.
To the Vietnamese community, Cuu Long Vietnamese Restaurant has a deeper meaning than its translation, “nine dragons,” referring to the tributaries of the Mekong River. To them, it’s the food of Mekong Delta homeland or, more pointedly, the place they left behind after the Vietnam War. To others, like me, it means really good, homestyle Vietnamese food.
Regulars — and there are many of them — grieved when the Tran family sold the restaurant three years ago. It wasn’t the same ( it went downhill) and they missed the Trans. But good news, folks: If you don’t know it already, they’re back. They bought the business back 10 months ago and have been winning back customers and doing what they love. Matriarch Thao cooks, daughter Tien looks after the front of house, and dad Long “worries about the finance,” Tien says. Her two children, six- year- old Tiffany and four- year- old Nathan, take care of public relations.
“They’re not shy with customers,” Tien says. “Their social skills are quite there. They make sure the customers know them.”
With regulars, the kids take their money, giggle and tell them they only take money and don’t give any back. And if parents come in with little kids, they’ll invite them to their playroom.
“It’s kind of like their little daycare centre. They play with the kids if they’re being bored and noisy while the parents eat,” Tien says.
“Bye, Kevin!” they harmonize as a regular customer leaves one evening.
“Hello, hello, hello!” Tiffany says, greeting another.
I’m just sayin’, if you like kids, you’ll be cuted out and if you don’t, well, too bad. Anyway, there’s plenty of action at your table. Thao was the youngest in a family of 12 back in Vietnam.
“She was pretty much the princess back then,” daughter Tien says. “She did no cooking or cleaning.” But once they came to Canada in 1987, Thao started cooking in restaurants and loved it. Eventually, the family opened a restaurant in 1993 in Vancouver.
In 2011, stressed from a death in the family and, quite frankly, from work, they sold Cuu Long. They hadn’t had a single day off since they opened.
After de- stressing on a cruise ship, a trip to Vietnam and Disneyland, they started to miss the restaurant and their customers. As luck would have it, they were able to buy back their restaurant.
“It was so hard to let go of so many memories and friendships from the restaurant,” says Tien who, like her own kids, grew up in the restaurant. “We had our fun after we sold the restaurant but staying at home is not what we’re used to. We don’t know what to do. No more vacations for a while.”
So what to order? Here’s a tip if you’re doing battle with a January cold: order the soda with preserved lime ( it says lemon on the menu but it’s made with preserved lime). You won’t see it anywhere else because it’s incredibly timeconsuming to make. But that doesn’t stop Thao; she buys cases of limes in the summer, peels them, dries them in the sun and preserves them in salted water for five years.
“It’s really healthy and good for everything — sickness and colds. I take it for sore throats,” Tien says.
“She hasn’t told me all the secrets of how to make it. Some people preserve it for a year but it gets better if you leave it for five years.”
Another healthy dish I’d recommend is the Vietnamese crepe. The batter is made with coconut milk and turmeric flour. Google turmeric and you’ll be impressed at its super healthy attributes. The crepe is filled with pork and shrimp and on the side, there are fresh green veggies. Take the veggies and add it to the filling. So good.
The banh hoi, or rice cakes, made with steamed vermicelli noodles, is a popular choice. They’re topped with grilled pork and a spring roll or grilled pork and charbroiled grilled shrimps on sugar cane.
Everyone likes the barbecued lemon grass chicken; there’s no mistaking the lemon grass marinade. Sweet and sour fish with vegetables in a soup ( can chua ca hoac tom) is a light, fragrant soup with pineapple as sweetener. Shrimp with lemon grass and hot peppers feature fresh, tasty seafood.
If you feel cold ( the room isn’t well heated and I left my coat during my visits) have the bracing bowl of fiery udon with shrimp, pork hock and crabmeat and your temperature will soar.
Hu Tieu Dai Dac Biet ( clear noodle in soup topped with pork and seafood) might sound so- so as described on the menu but if you like the Korean japchae noodles ( which I happen to be eating too much of as I write this) you’ll bond with this dish which you can order “wet” in a soup, or “dry.” Japchae is a chewy noodle made from sweet potato starch.
Thao goes off- script with the spring rolls, using egg roll wrap for a crunchier texture instead of the usual rice paper wrap. “They’re made small because the bigger it gets, it loses texture,” Tien says.
If I lived nearby, this would be my destination on too- lazy- to- cook days. You could easily fill yourself up on a $ 7 bowl of pho or even a $ 3.50 banh mi ( Vietnamese sandwich with barbecued chicken or pork).
Cuu Long is the kind of place where, should you be a regular customer and find your car battery’s died, dad Long Tran will go out with jumper cables and get you back on the road. As he did on an evening we visited.