Lunch Lady has a guardian angel
Late CNN host introduced the world to Vietnamese chef, Mia Stainsby writes.
Anthony Bourdain’s untimely death in 2018 drained a lot of Vietnamese tear ducts. He loved the dazzling country and its people, and made humble café and street cart owners into international names. He even took thenU.S. president Barack Obama to a rustic Vietnamese noodle shop.
Vietnam loved him back and Nguyen Thi Thanh, better known as the Lunch Lady vendor in Ho Chi Minh City, would tearfully agree. She has called him a friend and guardian angel. Her lunch cart was a local favourite until 2009, when he broadcast his bliss about her food on CNN.
Food carts in Vietnam usually offer a single signature dish, but Lunch Lady has one for every day of the week. And now, she’s a stakeholder in a Vancouver Lunch Lady venture, collaborating with Michael Tran and his mother Victoria, who previously operated Five Elements Cafe in the same spot and before that, Mekong, both Vietnamese restaurants.
“I bought the trademarks to her recipes and the Lunch Lady name,” Tran says.
Tran and his mother had built up a trusting friendship with Nguyen on visits to Vietnam. The original Lunch Lady dishes are predominantly on the lunch menu (after all, it’s Lunch Lady, right?) with specialties rotating through the week. I didn’t know this and went for dinner first and then had to loop back for lunch.
The pho (not the vegetarian or vegan ones) on both lunch and dinner menus are also hers, as well as the two lunch appetizers. The daily brunch menu has riffs on dishes the team relished in Lunch Lady’s Ho Chi Minh neighbourhood.
The pandemic put Tran on an emotional roller-coaster during construction, but on opening day, a two-and-a-half-hour waiting list awaited. Be aware that lineups begin an hour before doors open for lunch and dinner.
The pandemic has cut seating to 30 from 55, but the room is abuzz thanks to Plexiglas between tables. Future plans include a patio with the plastic chairs and tables that’s so Vietnam and a mural of the scene around the original Lunch Lady. Now, if they could get tidal waves of motor scooters to roar past all day …
The Lunch Lady’s recipes are passed down from her family, says Tran.
“She’s now my Co Thanh (auntie Thanh) and we invited her to stay with us in February but had to cancel when COVID-19 hit. We’ll have her as soon as it lifts, and she’ll be staying with my mom for four to five months.
I want her to experience life here and see the sights.
“She is so sweet and nice,” Tran adds. There’s a but: “When she’s with her staff, she’s all woman boss and everyone stands up straight.”
Tran, also founder of Pacific Poke franchise (10 locations), aims to keep Lunch Lady to one location in the spirit of the original.
When I arrived at 10:30 a.m. on a Saturday for the 11 a.m. opening, more than 20 people were in line. We scored the last two-seater and the food came up quickly.
I ordered banh canh cua ($15, available on Saturdays). The dish that Bourdain hyped up was perfect rainy morning comfort food, with a rich and soothing crab and pork broth, loaded with pork, shrimp, crab and thick gnarly tapioca noodles.
My husband’s beef pho ($14) was excellent; the broth, a 24-hour process, is fussed over like a consomme with patient skimming and it pays off with a clean, focused taste.
Nguyen’s pork spring rolls ($8) are nicely crafted and the chili lime sauce lifts them off the ground, but I’m not fan-girling over her crispy prawn fritters ($8), as the preponderance of batter, albeit crisp, overwhelmed the prawn.
Chef Benedict Lim is in charge of the dinner menu (always checking with Victoria for her unerring Vietnamese palate). He takes creative liberty in a thoughtful way. You’ll see, for instance, garlic fried Asian noodles sautéed in XO butter and topped with aged Parmigiano reggiano ($16) for come-hither umami.
Caramelized corn ($12) came from the push carts of Ho Chi Minh City.
The pho roasted marrow bone ($14) with “secret” sauce is the like pho in drag, taking a dramatically different form. I didn’t have it, but looked longingly at it on a neighbouring table.
“It was a late, late night idea,” says Tran. “We had some bone marrow and we wanted to make it taste like a bowl of pho with five spices, a glaze of hoisin and on top, some radishes, onions, scallions.”
Cha ca Thang Long ($22) is a riff on the much-copied famous grilled catfish dish from Cha Ca La Vong in Hanoi, cooked over a charcoal burner. In Hanoi, it’s a magical combination of turmeric, shrimp paste and fish sauce, rice noodles buried under tons of dill. Here, it’s modernized. Grilled turmeric ling cod nuggets, scallions and dill in small wok heated over Sterno-like heat is accompanied by a tray with rice noodles, taro crackers, peanuts and shrimp paste sauce — I highly recommend it.
Steak luc lac (shaked and tossed, $24) is luscious. Pieces of rib-eye are marinated overnight, cooked sous vide, then given a hard sear in butter. It’s served with pickled onions, watercress and tomato.
Half chili-roasted Cornish game hen ($18) is slow-roasted with a ton of spices then charred and served with a bowl of pickled veg. It’s very moist and assertively spiced. Eat like an Asian and order the crispy chili salted prawns ($16).
“We float the shells over the prawns (partly separated from the body) so you can eat the shell almost like a chip,” says Lim. The shells are indeed crispy but delicate enough for safe passage down the throat.
And if you really, really want to eat like an Asian, the pork head three ways ($80) is for you (and three others). The first way is pickled pork ear salad; the second is crispy pork head served “cuon” style with banh hoi noodles, rice paper, herbs, pickles and lime sauce; and thirdly, pork jowl is tossed in fried rice.
On opening day, the first two orders were for this dish.
“I was shocked,” Lim says. “The couples tackled the entire head. They weren’t Asian and I didn’t upsell it.”
And once one table has it, there’s a domino effect.
“Two very brave people can handle it,” he says, in case you don’t have spare stomachs at your table.
For drinks, there are East Van craft beers, Vietnamese lime sodas and a modest selection of B.C. and French wines. But try a cocktail. I loved the Tra Da Teani made with jasmine-infused gin, elderflower liqueur, jasmine tea syrup and egg whites.