Soul of Saigon:
V I E T N A M E SE C U I SI N E IN T HE VA LLE Y by Kathleen Pierce
photos by Kevin Harkins
LOWELL — With head cheese, pig’s blood and chicken feet on the menu, Vietnamese cuisine is an epicurean adventure limited only by your own palate police. Taking cues from Thai, Chinese and Cambodian cooking, food in the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam is awash in fresh vegetables, pungent herbs, stir fries and savory delicacies many New Englanders have never tasted. If you are willing to eat outside your comfort zone, you’ll find this healthy cuisine to be a flavorful and even addicting experience. In my quest to find the most authentic Vietnamese food in the Merrimack Valley, I vowed to stray from my “pho” roots. This aromatic soup, which simmers for 24 hours to achieve its essence of anise, cinnamon, ginger and clove, is the wonton soup of Vietnamese food — excellent, but entry level. Served with rice or egg noodles, chicken, beef or shrimp, the noodle dish is where the neophyte’s knowledge of Southeast Asian fare begins and ends. After researching the valley, Lowell became my target. Home to the largest Southeast Asian population this side of the Mississippi, the immigrant city has a surplus of diverse Vietnamese dining options run by entrepreneurs longing for the tangy, fresh taste of home. Many are tucked off the city’s main drag and will never surface in a Google search. To be certain I wasn’t missing the best, I enlisted one of Lowell’s rising ethnic chefs, Y Sok Woodward of Rebel Chef Catering for guidance. Where would this serious foodie, who teaches a course in Vietnamese cuisine, begin? Answer: at the Hong Cuc Sandwich Shop for the cultish banh mi. Vietnam’s famed hoagie, also known as the Saigon sub, is made in many Southeast Asian bodegas scattered throughout Lowell. But there’s a reason the no-frills Hong Cuc Sandwich Shop in the Acre neighborhood churns out 300 protein-packed subs on a crusty rice and wheat flour baguette every day.
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merrimack valley magazine