By Eric Griffey
Photography by Brooks Burris
At chef and dumpling empresario Hao Tran’s Thanksgiving table, dinner requires a little participation. Paper-thin slices of beef go briefly into a fragrant broth, then into rice paper with noodles, herbs and vegetables. Each person assembles a roll, dips it into sauce and begins again. The pot stays warm in the center of the table.
Nobody needs to hurry away.
The dish is bò nhúng giấm, Vietnamese beef vinegar fondue, and it has long occupied the place a turkey might hold in another household. Tran’s mother tried preparing the American holiday bird. Eventually, the family returned to the meal they preferred, keeping the gathering while making the food their own.
“We ended up just enjoying our little hot pot and eating what we were used to,” Tran says.
Born in Vietnam, Tran came to the United States with her family after the fall of Saigon. Relatives settled in different parts of the country, making the occasions when they could gather especially meaningful. Sometimes Thanksgiving meant only Tran, her brother, her sister and their parents. Sometimes friends joined them.
Her father made a point of bringing the family home.
The hot pot belonged naturally to those reunions. A Vietnamese celebration dish, it keeps the cooking and eating together, with everyone reaching for ingredients and making something suited to their own appetite.
“It’s a very family-oriented, like communal type eating,” she says. “So to us, that is like Thanksgiving.”
Later, raising two daughters, Tran continued the tradition. After her divorce, the girls ate turkey at their father’s house and came to hers for hot pot. Sometimes there were three at the table; sometimes friends who needed a place joined them. “Everybody was welcome at the table,” she says.
For her 360West photo shoot, she invited women who share another kind of family ritual.
Every Saturday at 7:30 a.m., this group gathers to volunteer with Meals with Meaning, the nonprofit that feeds people in need. Once the meals are packed and sent out, they spend about half an hour drinking coffee, talking and catching up before heading into their weekends.
They call themselves the “Saturday sisters.”
Tran wanted the women at her table because their steady work often happens outside the attention given to chefs and organizers. Her own sister joined them, too. The dish brought together the family she was born into and friends whose companionship has grown through the weekly work of feeding others.
The broth combines vinegar and coconut water with garlic, ginger and lemongrass. Around it are rice paper, vermicelli, lettuce, fresh herbs, cucumber and pickled carrot and daikon, along with green banana, star fruit and pineapple. Her written recipe pairs the rolls with mắm nêm, a fermented anchovy dipping sauce brightened with pineapple, garlic, chile and lime. Sourness, sweetness, fresh herbs and the richness of the beef arrive in a different balance with every roll.
These are the kinds of flavors Tran wants to give a larger home at Duong DeVille, her forthcoming Vietnamese restaurant in White Settlement. The owner of Hao’s Grocery & Cafe also teaches culinary arts full time at Trimble Tech High School. Between the classroom, her business, volunteer work and restaurant preparations, her days leave little unclaimed.
Duong DeVille will occupy about 4,000 square feet in Entrepreneur Park on Loop 820. Its name combines a reference to a sweet street with DeVille, honoring a prized Cadillac her father owned. The food will draw on family recipes from western and southern Vietnam, including dishes she learned from her aunt and grandmother.
“The restaurant, it’s a celebration of food and family,” she says.
Her commitment has been substantial. To help finance the venture, Tran sold her house, packed the essentials and put belongings in storage. She lived in a garage apartment at Rosen House Inn for two years before moving into an apartment near Lake Como. The business that began with supper clubs in her home is becoming a restaurant built around the food of that home, even as she has given up the house itself.
At the time of the interview, a custom charcoal oven made in Italy was the last major piece of kitchen equipment still to arrive. Tran had chosen a larger model and a custom color rather than settle for something immediately available.
“I only get one chance, right?” she says.
She speaks about the people helping her build the restaurant with the same attention she gives the Saturday volunteers. Chef Luu Lac will lead the kitchen when Tran is teaching.
Morgan Lewis, whom she knows through Meals with Meaning, is joining her as sous chef. Her team will help carry the restaurant through the hours she spends at school, preparing another generation for work in hospitality.
“I get to express the foods that I grew up with and the recipes that I learned from my aunt and my grandmother,” she says. “And I get to share it with anyone who walks through that door.”
At Thanksgiving, that sharing still happens one roll at a time. Her daughters return, the broth simmers and the ingredients pass around the table. The gathering her father insisted on continues, with room for the people Tran has welcomed along the way.
Hao Tran’s Vietnamese Beef Vinegar Fondue
Yield: 6 servings | Vietnamese communal hot pot
Bò Nhúng Giấm is a Vietnamese family-style dish where paper-thin slices of beef
are quickly cooked in a fragrant vinegar and coconut-water broth, then rolled in
rice paper with noodles, herbs, and vegetables, then dipped in mắm nêm.
Ingredients
For Beef
- 3 pounds beef tenderloin, sirloin, or eye of round, sliced paper-thin
- 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 2 green onions, cut into 2-inch pieces
For Vinegar Broth
- 1 cup vinegar
- Coconut water from 1 fresh coconut
- Water as needed to make approximately 6 cups liquid
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 stalk lemongrass, white portion bruised and cut into pieces
- 1 small piece ginger, smashed
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
Rice Paper & Noodles
- 1 package (12 oz) Vietnamese rice paper
- 8 oz fine rice vermicelli
Vegetables & Herbs
- 1 head butter or romaine lettuce
- Fresh mint, Thai basil, cilantro, and other Vietnamese herbs as available
- 1 cucumber, thinly sliced lengthwise
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 1 green banana, thinly sliced
- 1 star fruit, thinly sliced
- ½ fresh pineapple, thinly sliced
Quick-Pickled Carrot & Daikon
- 1 medium carrot, julienned
- 1 medium daikon, julienned
- ¼ cup vinegar
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
Mắm Nêm Dipping Sauce
- 3 tablespoons fermented anchovy sauce (mắm nêm), plus more to taste
- ½ fresh pineapple, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small Thai chile, thinly sliced
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
- ½ cup water
- Fresh lime juice, to taste
Method: Combine garlic, chile, sugar, vinegar, and water. Stir until the sugar mostly
dissolves. Add chopped pineapple and gently press to release some juice. Stir in
mắm nêm and lime juice. Taste and adjust with additional sugar, vinegar, pineapple
or mắm nêm. Set aside to let the flavors develop.
Directions
- Pickle the carrot and daikon – Combine the carrot and daikon with ¼ cup vinegar, ¼ cup sugar, and ½ teaspoon
salt. Mix well and let stand at least 30 minutes, or refrigerate overnight. Drain and
gently squeeze out excess liquid before serving. - Prepare the Beef – For easier slicing, chill the beef in the freezer for about 30–45 minutes until firm but not frozen solid. Slice paper-thin against the grain. Arrange on a platter with the yellow onion and green onion. Cover and refrigerate until serving.
- Prepare the Vermicelli – Place the rice vermicelli in a large bowl and cover completely with boiling water. Soak for about 5–6 minutes, or until tender with a slight bite. Drain, rinse under cold water, and drain thoroughly.
- Prepare the Vegetables – Wash and dry the lettuce, herbs, cucumber, and bean sprouts. Arrange with the pickled carrot and daikon, star fruit and pineapple. For the green banana, combine 1 cup water with 1 tablespoon vinegar or lime juice. Peel and thinly slice the banana, placing the slices immediately into the acidulated water to prevent browning. Drain just before serving.
- Make the Vinegar Broth – Combine vinegar, coconut water, enough water to make about 6 cups of liquid, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, sugar, and salt in a medium pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for 10–15 minutes. Taste and adjust. The broth should be light, aromatic, slightly sweet and pleasantly sour. Transfer to a tabletop hot pot.
How to Serve
- Keep the vinegar broth at a gentle simmer in the center of the table.
- Using chopsticks or a small skimmer, place a few slices of beef and onion into
the broth and cook briefly until done to your preference. - Lightly moisten a sheet of rice paper.
- Layer with lettuce, herbs, vermicelli, cucumber, pickled carrot and daikon, green
banana, star fruit or pineapple, and cooked beef. - Fold in the sides and roll tightly.
- Dip the roll into mắm nêm and enjoy. Continue cooking and rolling at the table
throughout the meal.
Alternative dipping sauce: Serve Vietnamese sweet-and-sour nước chấm for guests
who prefer a milder dipping sauce.
Hao Tran’s Restaurants
Hao’s Grocery & Café
120 St. Louis Ave., Suite 103B
Fort Worth, TX 76104
682-250-4751
haosgrocerycafe.com
@haosgrocerycafe
Duong DeVille
405 Jim Wright Freeway, Suite 150
Fort Worth, TX 76108
@duongdeville