Comments on: Phạm Nguyên Bakery

By: Astronomer

Astronomer — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:34:59 +0000

Thanks for the tip, but rest assured we do know how to spell “Muffin”. The products were named by the bakery, so who are we to alter their spellings… Perhaps we should have added [sic] to spellings we knew were iffy.

By: Victoria

Victoria — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:35:02 +0000

Some of your mispells are patechaud (meaning hot paste), or croissant (means crescent or banh sung trau in vietnamese), Jambon Hawaii (means thit nguoi in Vietnamese), and Muffin.

I don’t mean to be critical on your spellings, and I’m sure the pastry shop in VN spelled them the way you do. I don’t blame you.

By: Astronomer

Astronomer — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:31:23 +0000

Raine,
Yeah, semi-sweet pastries are pretty great, especially when you are actually hungry. Many American pastries (cupcakes come to mind) are so sweet that their primary purpose in a meal is to convince people to eat a bit more even though they’re already full, just because they can’t resist.

No pictures of the fancy cakes yet, but we’ll put some eventually for sure…

By: Astronomer

Astronomer — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:27:31 +0000

Duy,
On the subject of portion sizes, I don’t mean to suggest that I think Vietnam should change. Huge portions at restaurants definitely deserve some blame for the American obesity epidemic. If I tried to eat out every meal in the U.S., I would feel sick and overindulged. In Vietnam that never happens, which is awesome. The fact of the matter is that I have to order a little something extra every meal to get by, but I’m not complaining–it means I get to try more dishes!

As far as Vietnamese interpretations of Western foods, I think that historically you’re right–I’m glad that pho, etc. are unique and don’t taste like Chinese or European dishes. The variety of banh mi sandwiches are an example of an interpretation that works wonderfully–whoever thought of putting pickled vegetables on a sandwich is a genius. However, in recent years attempts have been made to capitalize on the popularity of American culture by copying foods such as hamburgers and muffins, and the results just aren’t very good. I seriously doubt that a Vietnamese person would prefer a muffin from Pham Nguyen or a hamburger from Lotteria to a real American one if they got to try both.

So I think the moral for me is that the Vietnamese do traditional Vietnamese food best (that includes dishes that were influenced by other cultures many years back) and should hold off on attempting popular Western dishes until they know what they are doing. Some in Saigon certainly already do–I’ll have to blog about Tous Les Jours bakery sometime. I too hate it when Vietnamese dishes are watered-down or modified in attempts to increase their appeal to tourists. Street food is the way to go.

By: Astronomer

Astronomer — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:09:48 +0000

Nhu,
My two male American friends lost about 20 pounds each during their first couple of months in Vietnam. I dropped a few as well, but finally we all figured it out and started ordering more aggressively. When I have time, I find that the best solution is to order entrees at two different places. The variety makes things more fun, and no one cook is left with the impression that I’m a glutton. And of course, topping off the meal with a baked good is also an excellent choice.

By: Raine

Raine — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:49:17 +0000

My tastes buds have been molded to enjoy those semi-sweet pastries, but it’s such a disappointment because all of the ‘American’ bakeries over here make everything so sweet! There are so many vietnamese pastries I miss from California, like Pâté sol(?), which was phyllo(?) dough wrapped around a circular piece of meat. Bánh Oc was my mom’s favorite (I talk about my mom a lot huh? lol) when she was a kid, but over here, they make it with puff pastry and use more of a cream rather than a custard/creme/glaze.

I’d love to see any picture you took of the pretty decorated cakes (:

By: Duy

Duy — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:28:42 +0000

the food portion in VN is for Vietnamese people. It provides enough calories for one person for the time between one meal to another. the food portion you get in US is sure bigger , hence excess calories, that’s why a lot of US people get so fat . about the Vietnamese way of interpretion of western food, we copy the look but not the taste because Vietnamese taste is different than westerner taste. THat’s is how we got Pho*? instead of Chinese noodle or French Beef stew. That’s is how we are Vietnamese, not Chinese or French .
Sadly, a lot of Viet Kieu came back to Viet Nam and denmanded that some dishes has to be big portion or cooked in a certian way to suit their Americanize tastes, which changes a lot of things in Vietnamese cuisine. That’s why everytime i went back to Viet Nam, i ate street foods, because those are authentic Vietnamese cuisines.

By: Nhu

Nhu — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:51:36 +0000

haha the part about imitating Western food and the Vietnamese “interpretation” made me lol bc it’s sooo true. You’re also right about the food portion in VN…def not enough for ANYONE let alone a full-grown man. I got weird looks whenever I ordered seconds on my last trip too