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instagram.com/gionggiongpops

April 2-3, 11 AM to 5 PM

April 9-10, 11 AM to 5 PM

“That was our last-minute addition,” says Tran-Dean. “I kept looking for them in Chicago and I hadn’t been able to find them. I was like ‘Yo, what’s that heavy thing?’ And I showed you a picture.”

“And then it was, ‘Duh, corn ice cream,”’ says Hollinger.

“It’s a natural pairing.”

Tran-Dean thinks the Vietnamese version is too heavy and sweet to finish, so they added dry, crumbly queso duro. “The salty cheese cuts through sweetness and richness,” says Hollinger. “It’s very chewy. The textures are strangely the same.”

Giong Giong also opened with a pair of banh mi, including one coddling a mushroom-stuffed chile relleno; and a pair of conchas, one filled with a jackfruit-pineapple compote and the other with a coconut-chocolate crémeux, but they plan to mix those up in the remaining weeks with pandan-coconut cream, and lotus root-tres leches versions.

One thing that stays in its lane is the Hanoi-style pho, less herbaceous and less