A ridiculous name for a remarkable emporium
If you believe Anthony Bourdain or Saveur magazine, New Orleans is the culinary capital of America. Visitors come to devour Creole or Cajun cuisines and regional seafood like crawfish, oysters, and catfish. What is less known is that the Big Easy also offers the best Vietnamese food in the country.
Prior to 1975, there were 15,000 Vietnamese in all of the United States—today there are 15,000 in New Orleans alone. Toward the end of the Vietnam War, thousands fled their native country and came to America. Perhaps because, like Vietnam, New Orleans has strong French influences, a subtropical climate, and swampy terrain, many of these immigrants were drawn to the city. Most settled on the West Bank, locally called the Wank. The first Vietnamese restaurant in New Orleans was Hong Lan, which opened in 1976 but closed just two years later because business was actually too successful and the owner grew tired of working 18-hour days.
Info
Address 925 Behrman Highway, Gretna, LA 70056, +1.504.394.7075, www.hongkongmarketnola.com | Hours Daily 8am–8:30pm| Tip More recent years have seen Vietnamese restaurants migrate from the Wank to the more accessible Uptown and Carrollton neighborhoods. Among them, Cafe Minh in Mid-City (4139 Canal St) is more upscale and a favorite of local food critics. Lilly’s Café (1813 Magazine St) is a tiny spot in the Lower Garden District with no more than five or six always-filled tables, often with a celebrity chef like Tom Colicchio or restaurateur like Upperline’s JoAnn Clevenger.
Today, it’s hard to keep track of all the Vietnamese restaurants in NOLA. The Wank remains the heartland, with classics like Pho Tau Bay and Dong Phuong. It’s also where you’ll find the poorly named Hong Kong Market—a vast Walmart-sized retail sea of Vietnamese foods, frequented by both local chefs and home cooks. Here you can buy produce (kimchi to durian), fish, meat (including duck tongues), sauces (nuoc mam), and don’t forget your mung-bean starch.
The aisles display more varieties of noodles than Baskin-Robbins has ice-cream flavors. The back of the store sells fresh shrimp and oysters next to even fresher catfish and tilapia, still swimming in tanks. There are several stands where you can dine inside the massive store. Saigon Grill & Deli will hack up an entire roasted duck right in front of you, Pho Danh 4 serves hot bowls of noodles, and you can wash them down with teas from Mr. Bubble’s, in flavors like honeydew with rainbow tapioca and avocado.
Nearby
Back
To the online map