Sean Dang, and his wife Mai Nguyen are the co-owners of the Sapa restaurant that started construction in September 2008. They bought the three Vietnamese wooden houses in their native country to make the atmosphere perfect for their "dream restaurant. (Photo by Scott Sommerdorf)

Asian fusion Sapa to be family-oriented, exotic at the same time

By Jennifer W. Sanchez | Salt Lake Tribune

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Mai Nguyen left her homeland of Vietnam as child with her family in 1982, settling in California as refugees.

But 16 years later, as a successful restaurant entrepreneur, she returned to Southeast Asia to visit relatives. There, she saw a wooden-stilt house for the first time and fell in love with its architecture. She knew that look would be perfect for her “dream restaurant.”

“I was so excited,” she said smiling. “I wanted to pack it up and bring it back with me.”

So, a decade later, she did.

Nguyen and her co-owner and husband, Sean Dang, bought three stilt houses — they might be at least 200 years old — in Vietnam, and had them disassembled, packed up and delivered to Utah. The unusual structures now are set up in what will become her dream restaurant’s Asian-themed courtyard with a pond. It will be called Sapa, and it’s all under construction at 722 S. State St., just north of Sears.

“I always wanted something different … Something other people don’t have.”

Mai Nguyen (right) and Sean Dang, are the co-owners of the Sapa restaurant that started construction in September 2008. They plan to open in June 2009. (Photo by Scott Sommerdorf)

Nguyen, the eldest of seven kids, said she comes from generations of eatery entrepreneurs, including relatives who still have restaurants in Vietnam. She’s an interior designer who started opening restaurants and selling them in 1992 in Oakland, Calif., with her mother, Linda. She also has owned eateries in Oregon and Washington.

In fall 2007, Nguyen and Dang opened Pho Green Papaya restaurant, an affordable sit-down noodle house, in diverse West Valley City.

For their second spot, they said they wanted a unique, cultural restaurant in the state’s capital — which is unlike most big cities that have districts such as a “Chinatown.”

“We’d like to bring something vibrant to Salt Lake City,” Dang said.

To do that, she imported the restaurant’s antique-looking wooden front door from China. She plans to train her cooks for 45 days before opening. She declined to talk much about the family-recipe-based menu, only saying it would include sushi and exotic and vegetarian dishes.

Above all, she wants Sapa to be affordable.

“I’d rather it be busy than exclusive,” she said.

Vietnamese Fish Head Soup

By Steve Barnes | Times Union

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Tootling along Central Avenue the other week, I nearly rear-ended a bus when a 2-pound striped bass flopped into my lap.

I’d watched the fishmonger at Lee’s Asian Market give the bass a couple of mallet blows, after which he scaled and gutted it and snipped off tail and fins. I put the bag containing the fish atop other grocery bags on the passenger seat next to me and headed to work. As my car approached a light where a bus was stopped, the fish gave three mighty flops, the bag slid off its pile and the fish hit the steering wheel during another flurry of activity before it fell into my lap. Regrettable as the creature’s suffering was, I could do no more right then than throw the bag onto the floor, where the fish spasmed about eight more times before expiring.

“We’ve got very fresh fish,” I reported to my podmates.

Americans generally view fish heads — indeed, the heads of any creature they eat — as unfit for consumption. We don’t even like to see our shrimp with the heads still on. But other cultures regard the head as the tastiest part of a fish, and in larger species like halibut, grouper and yellowtail, the cheek morsel is prized as a delicacy.

Using fish heads in soup provides an additional meal from what otherwise would have gone in the trash and is economical in other ways, too: The whole striped bass I bought, at $5 a pound, was less than half the price of bass fillets. Filleting a fish isn’t difficult; excellent instructional videos on YouTube will teach you how to do it in 2 minutes. But the best reason to use heads is because they add a lip-smacking unctuousness to soup and deepen umami, the Japanese word for the fifth taste, roughly translated as “deliciousness” or “savory.” Pineapple broadens the broth’s flavor spectrum by adding a hint of sweetness and an acidic zip.

This Vietnamese fish-head soup is a version of one a friend and I made for a dinner party last fall, where it was a big hit — except for the person who couldn’t get past the idea of fish-head soup. If you’re feeding a similarly unadventurous diner, fudge a little and call this vegetable soup with a fish broth. That will work unless you’ve got a guest like one of my colleagues, who appreciated the soup at first but decided the aftertaste reminded him of spoiled milk mixed with mustard. It doesn’t. I promise. The soup is easy and relatively quick to make, healthful and delicious.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

2-3 fish heads or 1 (2-pound) fish of choice, heads split and body, if using, chopped into 4 pieces
4 tablespoons fish sauce, divided
2 leeks, white parts only, trimmed, washed and chopped
8 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 (2-inch) piece gingerroot, peeled and chopped
1 cup pineapple, chopped
3 quarts water
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 cup bamboo shoots, cut into matchsticks
1 cup enoki mushrooms, preferably fresh
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup Napa or Chinese cabbage, shredded

Rinse fish pieces, and make sure gills have been removed. Season fish with 2 tablespoons fish sauce and pepper, and let sit for 15 minutes.

Heat a soup pot, add a little vegetable oil and sauté leeks, garlic and gingerroot on medium heat until soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Add fish pieces, pineapple and water. Stir, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove foam that rises to the surface; be sure to get as much as you can.

Strain the soup, return to pot and taste. Add remaining fish sauce, if needed, and about half the cilantro, stems included, roughly chopped. Bring to a boil, then simmer 15 to 20 more minutes to intensify the flavor. Taste and adjust seasoning with pepper and fish sauce, as needed. Flake the meat from the fish pieces, if using, and set aside. Strain broth into teapot to serve.

Put a small pinch each of bamboo matchsticks, mushrooms, bean sprouts, cabbage, cilantro leaves and fish meat, if using, into individual bowls. Pour broth into bowls from teapot.

Note: The vegetables and mushrooms add crunch and depth, but the broth is delicious by itself. For a spicier soup, add a chopped Thai chili pepper to the vegetable sauté at the beginning.

Thoa Nguyen prepares a curry dish in the kitchen of her Mercer Island home. (Photo by Andy Rogers)

By Rebekah Denn | Seattle Post-Intelligencer

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – For years, Thoa Nguyen cooked Vietnamese food for her own family, but told the stories of other cuisines in her professional life.

Chinoise, the popular restaurant she founded in Queen Anne in 1996, specialized in pan-Asian food. The Islander, which she took on in 2003, featured upscale dishes from Hawaii and other Pacific islands.

It wasn’t until a trip back to her native country in 2007, her first visit since leaving Vietnam as a child, that she formally reclaimed the foods she had always known. Traveling in a “culinary delegation” with the nonprofit Peace Trees organization, she renewed old bonds. She wondered why, with a career in the restaurant business, she had never showed others her most familiar foods.

“You need to step out in the public eye,” a friend told her, “and say who you are.”

Spring rolls prepared by Thoa Nguyen. (Photo by Andy Rogers)

Thoa’s Restaurant (pronounced twahz), her answer to that challenge, opened in December in the space at 96 Union St. in downtown Seattle where The Islander used to be, with Nguyen’s modern take on classic Vietnamese foods. She wanted to create, she said, a place for the foods she cooks for guests at home, the sort of restaurant her family might choose for a night out.

The menu includes dishes such as thit ko, braised Vietnamese-style pork, pho that’s free of MSG and moist goi ga salad, with chicken poached to order in a mix of water, lemongrass, lime and cilantro. They’re enticing dishes, but not all are simple for the home cook. Instead, we met with Thoa at her Mercer Island home, where she shared recipes for P-I readers for some savory dishes that were, with directions, simple to make but had tastes worthy of any restaurant. We’re sharing her secrets for a homey, aromatic chicken stew (cari ga) and for citrus beef summer rolls (see my blog, blog.seattlepi.com/devouringseattle, for more tips on rolling and shaping them). She also showed us how to perfect a banh xeo crepe, a dish that has proven hard for restaurant kitchens — it can become greasy if not served immediately — but is doable at home, snapping with flavors and textures that made us want to claim the dishes as part of our own family heritage.

Born in Saigon and raised in Cho Lan, “the Chinatown of Vietnam,” Nguyen left for America with her family as an 11-year-old in 1975 and “never really looked back.” Her parents worked multiple jobs in Denver, where they settled. As the eldest child of five, Nguyen said, “I would make dinner every night.”

She cooked Vietnamese dishes for them. She didn’t try to hide from her past — Vietnam had been part of her life, it was already there. But the task of becoming an American, it seemed, was to become more like everyone else, not to dwell on where she had been.

She began her career as a graphic designer, but always kept her hand in the restaurant world, and realized that was what truly made her happy. She followed her siblings to the Pacific Northwest — she still cooks for family events today — where she married, and opened Chinoise.

When she visited Vietnam with Peace Trees, which sponsors the removal of land mines in Vietnam, she saw relatives from her past and ate the foods she still remembered how to make: “Everything just came back,” she said.

At her past restaurants, she has taken on every role, from designing the layouts to developing recipes, but she has been hidden, in a way. Now, she said, when she answers the phone as she always has, it feels less distant, less anonymous.

“This is Thoa,” she says. And, this time, it really is.

BANH XEO

FOR BASIC DIPPING SAUCE (NUOC CHAM)

MAKES 1 CUP

1 or 2 Thai bird’s-eye chiles, thinly sliced or 1 teaspoon store-bought chili sauce* in jar (tuong ot toi)

2 medium garlic cloves, cut into thick slices

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup Vietnamese fish sauce* (preferably Squid brand)

¼ cup fresh lime juice

¼ cup water

# Combine ingredients, set aside.

FOR BANH XEO CREPES

MAKES 10-12

1/2 pound boneless pork loin

20 medium shrimp, shelled and deveined

10 fresh cilantro stems (with leaves)

Dried yellow mung beans*, steamed and seasoned with salt

10 fresh basil sprigs

10 fresh mint sprigs

1 package of banh xeo flour mix*

1 teaspoon turmeric, if desired (for extra yellow color)

1 can coconut milk* (not cream)

1 green onion, chopped

3 cups bean sprouts

5 tablespoons peanut oil

Nuoc cham sauce (recipe above)

Fresh red leaf lettuce

Prepare the mung beans:

# Soak beans in warm water for 1 hour and drain before steaming. In medium-size pot, line steamer with cheese cloth to prevent beans from falling through. Fill with water up to steamer. Add drained beans. Bring water to boil, cover lid and steam 10 minutes. Remove from heat, put beans in a separate bowl, season with salt and set aside.

# Shell and devein shrimp; slice each in half lengthwise. Cook till opaque.

# Rinse herbs and lettuce and drain; set aside.

# In a mixing bowl, prepare batter mix with 3 cups water, 1 cup coconut milk and green onion. Mix until smooth. (Follow directions on package. Note: 1 “bowl” = 1 cup.) Add 1 teaspoon turmeric if you desire a more yellow color. Let batter sit 20 minutes.

# Place pork loin in a covered saucepan; cover with water and bring to a boil over medium heat; simmer until cooked through, about 20 minutes.

# Allow pork to cool, then julienne into strips.

# Arrange pork, shrimp, onion and bean sprouts into separate bowls within easy reach during cooking.

# Heat 1 tablespoon peanut oil in medium nonstick skillet with cover; swirl around until hot. Cook pork, shrimp and onion until they start to sizzle; add 1 scoop of batter and swirl so batter covers the entire surface of pan.

# Place 2 tablespoons mung beans toward the center of the crepe. Drizzle more oil around edge of crepe. Cover the pan tightly with lid. Turn the heat down to medium-high and cook 5 minutes, then uncover and loosen edges of crepe and fold over with a spatula to form omelets. Add oil as needed to pan. Be patient. You want the crepe to be crispy underneath.

# Transfer the crepe to a serving platter and repeat process with rest of batter. Do not cover the cooked crepes or stack them (they will lose their crispness — they should remain light and airy).

# Note: Banh xeo flour is a premixed package of rice flour, self-rising flour, turmeric powder and salt. It’s easy, contains no MSG, and is what Vietnamese use for home cooking.

To serve:

# Place one crepe on a plate, with some lettuce leaves, cilantro, basil and mint. Serve a small bowl of nuoc cham on the side. To serve family style, serve multiple crepes on a platter and use a separate platter/plate for lettuce and herbs.

# Each person cuts a portion of crepe, wraps it in a lettuce leaf with some fresh herbs, then dips it in the nuoc cham sauce.

CITRUS BEEF SUMMER ROLL

MAKES ABOUT 16

For beef poaching broth:

1 cup water

1/2 cup white vinegar

3 pinches of salt

1 stalk lemongrass (bruise by cleaver handle to infuse the scent)

For the rolls:

1 package rice paper sheet* (Look for medium size called “rice paper.” Don’t pick the thinner type called “tapioca sheet.”)

1 pound flank steak thinly sliced (almost shaved) across the grain

1 bunch fresh cilantro

1 cup firmly packed whole Thai basil leaves*

2 cups bean sprouts

1 head red leaf lettuce

1 cucumber, julienned with skin and core removed (English or Asian* cucumbers are best)

1 package dried rice stick noodle*

1 whole fresh lime (Select limes with thin skins — they have more juice. Slicing limes into small wedges makes it easy to get the most juice out of them.)

Fresh-ground salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper to taste

For the dipping sauce:

1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple with juice

¼ cup fish sauce* (preferably Squid brand)

3 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1 clove garlic, minced

½ teaspoon chili garlic sauce* (tuong ot toi)

Prepare dipping sauce:

# Blend crushed pineapple briefly in blender. Combine all ingredients under dipping sauce and stir till sugar dissolves.

# Wash herbs, bean sprouts and lettuce and drain. Separate cilantro into sprigs about 2 inches long.

# Boil noodles 2-3 minutes. While still in pot, turn mass of noodles upside down with spoon, to loosen them and prevent them from sticking together. Rinse in cold water. Drain in colander.

# Boil the broth for poaching beef; drop thinly sliced beef in boiling broth, turn off heat and swish beef around quickly for 30 seconds (it should remain rare-looking). Remove hot pot from stove and drain beef in cold water.

# In separate bowl, add beef after squeezing out all excess liquid by hand. Add juice of 1 lime, season to taste with fresh-ground black pepper and good salt, and gently toss.

Prepare to roll:

# Gather all your ingredients within reach: Cooked noodles, cilantro, beef, lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumber and basil.

# Wet rice papers, one at a time — briefly — under kitchen faucet with lukewarm water and blot with paper towel.

# Horizontally, across the middle of each rice paper, just below the center, place the following ingredients (in this order, for best success): A torn piece of lettuce, a small clump of noodles, 2-3 pieces of beef, bean sprouts, 2 leaves of mint, a sprig or two of cilantro, and a spear of cucumber.

# Fold the bottom of the rice paper over, press and pull in somewhat tight to tuck in all ingredients. Fold in the sides, and continue rolling toward the top of the rice paper, burrito-style, and keeping tension moderately tight (not too tight or loose).

# Place finished roll on serving platter, seam side down.

To serve:

# Place some dipping sauce in small bowls.

# Serve summer rolls with dipping sauce and, if desired, hot chili sauce.

CARI GA

SERVES 8-10

1¾ pound chicken drumettes

1¾ pound chicken thigh with bones

3 stalks fresh lemongrass, bruised, cut into 3-inch pieces

5 tablespoons yellow curry powder*

fresh-ground black pepper

½ tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

7 tablespoons fish sauce* (preferably Squid brand)

5 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 kabocha squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 2-inch thick slices

2 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 3-inch thick slices

2 carrots, peeled and cut into 3-inch-thick slices

8 cups water or enough to cover ingredients

14-ounce can coconut milk*

Serve with:

Baguettes, warmed in oven and sliced

Steamed jasmine medium- or long-grain rice

Cooked rice or vermicelli noodles

# Combine the curry powder, black pepper and sugar. Add salt and marinate chicken in the mixture for at least 1 hour.

# Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a deep frying pan and fry the potatoes over high heat until brown. (It is not necessary to completely cook potatoes at this point, only to brown them.) When well browned, remove from the pan and set aside until you’re ready to cook the curry. This also can be done the night before you cook the rest of the curry and refrigerated.

# Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil over a high flame in a 12-quart pot. Add the marinated chicken, stirring long enough to brown chicken and evenly coat with curry (6-8 minutes). Add lemongrass and stir briefly. Add 8 cups of water and bring to a roiling boil; skim off foam as needed. Turn heat down, cover lid and simmer for 20 minutes; then add fried potato, carrots and kabocha. Add more water to cover ingredients, if needed. Cover again and simmer another 15 minutes. Add fish sauce and coconut milk at the end of cooking.

# Warm French baguettes in oven during simmer.

# Note: Do not overcook the vegetables. They should still have a relatively firm, not mushy, texture.

To serve:

# This is a soupy curry. Serve in individual bowls with a warm, sliced baguette, steamed rice, and/or vermicelli rice noodle on the table family-style.

To eat:

# While curry and bread are still hot, tear off pieces of warm baguette and let them soak up curry. Eat, crunch, savor and enjoy.

# Add a small portion of rice or vermicelli noodles to your curry bowl.

# Repeat.

– All recipes courtesy of Thoa Nguyen

*WHERE TO SHOP

These ingredients are available at any Asian market. Nguyen recommends the recently expanded Rainier Mekong Market, 3400 Rainier Ave. S., where she found fresh herbs and organic greens, as well as the Vietnamese specialty ingredients.

Other markets with a well-stocked selection of Asian ingredients include Uwajimaya, Viet Wah, HT and Central Market.

KEY INGREDIENTS

A few common ingredients in Vietnamese dishes:

Bac ha: The Vietnamese name for an Asian rhubarb known in English as taro stem. The stems of bac ha are crisp and slightly spongy, absorbing flavor very well in soups, stir fries and meat platters.

Fish sauce: The Vietnamese condiment used in almost every dish, just as salt and soy sauce are used in other cuisines. Made from salted, fermented fish or shrimp, it has a very pungent, salty flavor in its pure form. Fish sauce often is combined with other ingredients such as sugar, garlic and lime juice to make various dipping sauces known as nuoc mam cham.

Tamarind: A large brown pod with soft, sour pulp and hard, black seeds. Tamarind pulp is rich in vitamins and has a tangy, acidic taste; it’s a popular souring agent throughout the world.