Hamburg’s Grindelallee Avenue, located near the University of Hamburg, is a favorite place for food lovers on a budget. This street is well known for its variety of foods from as far away as Vietnam and as close as Bavaria.
The Ha Long Vietnamese restaurant, catering to all those whose mouth waters when hearing of Vietnamese delicatessen and don’t want to pay an arm and a foot for a wholesome meal, has opened recently on the Grindelallee.
The restaurant is owned by Mr. Huynh, a true Vietnamese, who jumped for the opportunity to open his restaurant when the African Ethio restaurant closed its doors.
This is not Huynh’s first foray into the restaurant business. As a three-year owner of a Sushi bar in Rostock, a city that is within 2.5 to 3 hours travel time to Hamburg, Huynh has had ample experience to understand his customers’ culinary demands.
“A good friend from Munich actually gave me the idea to open a Vietnamese restaurant. He opened a Vietnamese restaurant in a small town. Today, he owns one of the most favored restaurants in that area,” explained Mr. Huynh.
Understanding His Trade
When asked what is important in the making of a good restaurant, Huynh answered, “A normal, fresh and varied menu is on the top of the list. The rest is up to the taste buds of the patron.”
He suggests that one uses little or no oil when one wants to offer its clients crisp vegetables. He asks us to remember never to precook vegetables in oil. To retain the crispness, the raw vegetables go straight into the Wok and should only be cooked for a very short time.
The 24-year old Vietnamese learned his trade from working in a number of Asian restaurants.
“I cooked in a Thai and Vietnamese restaurant,” shared cook Haduc.
He was enthusiastic about the Vietnamese breakfast national dish, the Pho-rice noodle soup and loves to cook spicy meals. This is important, as the restaurant serves all meals with a bowl of soup.
“This Asian rice noodle soup seems to be making inroads in Europe. From what I understand it has gained popularity in America. The Vietnamese soup is different from the Thai version– less spicy. Thai soup is very spicy because of the curry in it. We are certain that we can’t serve spicy meals to our European customers,” said the cook.
Typically, Ha Long serves vegetables and meat on a bed of warm salad leaves. This type of food arrangement is not only known to the lovers of the Vietnamese kitchen, but also to those who want to enjoy a meal served with a lot of green on their plates. The vegetables and meat are cut into a size easy to pick up with chopsticks.
The owner and chef believe that food not only should look great on the plate, but be easy to eat, a delight to the taste buds and easy to digest. Huynh says, “Food must be easy on the stomach.”
Something special are the spring rolls. They are surrounded with a thick and crispy crust and available with different kinds of fillings.
To accommodate different taste buds, the owner places different seasonings on the table. Besides soy sauce there is Samba Oelek, a sauce made from mashed chili, salt, sugar and vinegar. Then, the fermented fish sauce, Nuoc Man, an Asian favoriteo is also on the table.
“The Samba Oelek is used by those who want their meals spicier,” explained Haduc.
For Vietnamese, the most important accompaniment of a meal is tea. Therefore, it is served with each meal and included in the cost of the meal. Even coffee that is very strong and black is always is served with a cup of Vietnamese tea.