Restaurant Review
18 Jun 2008

Khên Lá – Ho Chi Minh City

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Hill Peoples’ Food – clockwise from top left – restaurant facade, su su xao (60,000 VND), smoked pork (85,000 VND), com lam (15,000 each)

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I stumbled upon Khên Lá over a month ago while working on an article for AsiaLIFE. Here’s a snippet that I wrote about the place in our June issue:

Restaurants specializing in Hue cuisine are a dime a dozen in this town, but eateries serving the foods of north-western Vietnam are few and far between. Khên Lá serves up minority tribe specialties including sup nam huong Sapa (mushroom soup) for 35,000 VND and com lam (bamboo sticky rice) for 15,000 VND. Ga nuong Ngia Lo, a dish of the Thai minority comprised of grilled chicken marinated with cardamom, sweet fennel and cinnamon, is also on offer for 145,000 VND. The strictly Vietnamese menu offers a good selection of Australian and French wine and champagne. Open for lunch and dinner.

Taking a break from our beloved lunch lady, The Astronomer, Nina and I ventured to Khên Lá last week. The restaurant was completely empty because it’s more of a dinner spot. Usually when I scan a menu, whether it be here or in the States, I have a fairly good idea what most dishes are. At Khên Lá, that certainly wasn’t the case. While I could identify individual ingredients, I was clueless for the most part about the mode of preparation and final presentation.

With a lot of help from our minority-tribe-garb-donning waitress, we settled on one main, one vegetable and three orders of bamboo sticky rice. All the dishes arrived at once with accompanying sauces and dips.

My favorite item was the bamboo sticky rice paired with crushed sesame seeds and salt. The rice didn’t taste particularly different from regular xoi, but the slightly drier texture was a notable and tasty difference.

My second favorite was the su su xao or stir-fried chayote with carrots and wood-ear mushrooms paired with a soy-based sauce. Flavored with bits of ginger and a dash of MSG, this simple combination was a very pleasurable way to take in vegetables.

The smoked pork dish was pitifully dry and tasteless on its own, but paired with a sour and spicy chutney/salsa, it was actually quite palatable.

All in all, a decent introduction to the foods of the hill people, but my loyalties and taste buds remain with the folks down north, central and south.

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Khên Lá
17B Mai Thi Luu Street
District 1, Ho Chi Minh City
Phone: 8242434

Saigon
17 Jun 2008

Vegetation Profile: Durian

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The durian (IPA: [ˈdʊəriən, -ɑn]) is the fruit of trees from the genus Durio belonging to the Malvaceae, a large family which includes hibiscus, okra, cotton, mallows, and linden trees. Widely known and revered in Southeast Asia as the “King of Fruits,” the fruit is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk.

The edible flesh emits a distinctive odor, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Regarded by some as fragrant, others as overpowering and offensive, the smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odor has led to the fruit’s banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in Southeast Asia.

Durian fruit is used to flavor a wide variety of sweet edibles such as traditional Malay candy, ice kachang, dodol, rose biscuits, and, with a touch of modern innovation, ice cream, milkshakes, mooncakes, Yule logs and cappuccino.

Southeast Asian folk beliefs, as well as traditional Chinese medicine, consider the durian fruit to have warming properties liable to cause excessive sweating. The traditional method to counteract this is to pour water into the empty shell of the fruit after the pulp has been consumed and drink it. An alternative method is to eat the durian in accompaniment with mangosteen, which is considered to have cooling properties. People with high blood pressure or pregnant women are traditionally advised not to consume durian.

According to a “You know you’re Vietnamese if…” list that reader N linked my way, #42 is likes durian. While #6 rang a little too true, “your parents think you’re 12 when you’re really 18,” when it comes to sau rien, I’m not that Vietnamese. While most people are put off by the smell, for me, it’s the taste. Whereas durian registers as sweet and creamy for fans, it just tastes like mushy roasted garlic to me. I don’t hate durian, it’s just far from my favorite.

Which side of the durian fence do you sit on—love or loathe?

Banh Kep Ngo
16 Jun 2008

Bánh Kẹp Ngò

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Vietnamese vendors are extremely business savvy. In order to entice customers to purchase additional goods, they willingly offer up free samples. Once while at a market in Da Nang, I approached a fruit vendor to purchase guavas, and he insisted that I try a bon bon. He peeled it before I could object and came this close to sticking it in my mouth. Needless to say, I left his stand with a kilogram of guavas and an unplanned kilogram of bon bons in hand.

A cookie dealer in District 3 got me using the same brilliant technique. The Astronomer and I visited the store with the intention of buying a couple kilograms of banh lo tai, but ended up with an additional purchase of banh kep ngo after an addictive free sample.

Although vendors can be a bit pushy, I do appreciate being force fed because otherwise I’d be missing out on some really good stuff.

Banh (cookie) kep (pressed) ngo (cilantro) isn’t your average sweet cookie. It is comprised of a sprig of cilantro pressed between thin layers of crispy rice sheets. It’s difficult not to make a mess when biting through the multitude of layers, but crumbs are an unavoidable part of this treat. The best part of the cookie is the PEANUT BUTTER filling. The cilantro flavor is gentle, while the smooth, sweet and salty peanut butter takes center stage. If you’re a peanut butter aficionado like I am, theses crazy cookies are definitely up your alley.