Patrick Lin and Ly Nguyen

EM

35

VIETNAM

According to his parents, Patrick was a shy child who barely spoke at all until the age of five, when suddenly he spoke three languages fluently: first Teochew, the dialect spoken in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong, China (and at home in its diasporic communities such as the one where his parents grew up in Vietnam), then English, because he couldn’t help but absorb it from his American surroundings, and Cantonese, because he went to a private primary school in Manhattan’s Chinatown and picked up his friends’ native language there.

Though his parents were born and raised in Vietnam, and Patrick’s language collection has been steadily growing all his life, Patrick didn’t really feel motivated to master the Vietnamese language until he met his wife, Ly Nguyen. Her Vietnamese language, culture, and culinary know-how is now at the very center of his existence: The couple runs two Vietnamese restaurants in New York and sells favorite soups and smoothies at the Queens Night Market on Saturdays in the warmer months.

“I was born in 1985 in San Francisco in the Tenderloin, moved to NYC at age two, and have been based in DUMBO, Brooklyn, since age five. My bike kept getting stolen when I was a kid, so I’m still really bad at riding bikes. . . . But now DUMBO is bikes everywhere, and I can’t ride one!

I was in grad school getting a master’s in accounting but graduated during the financial crisis and couldn’t find a job, so I went to Vietnam for the first time ever, working with my uncle in his fruit import business.

My parents are from Vietnam, but I’m ethnically Chinese—all four of my grandparents are from China and emigrated to Vietnam. My grandparents were actually pretty wealthy, and when the Communist Party won the Vietnam War, they put some of my uncles in prison. My grandfather was in prison for three years, so they hid any of the wealth that they had—as much as they could—and eventually the family was able to escape as refugees. They were basically boat people.

My parents used to sell meat to restaurants, mostly Vietnamese restaurants in New York City. So we would bring containers of beef bones—that you use to make the pho stock—to our warehouse in Williamsburg and then distribute it to the restaurants. We were getting them basically straight from farms in the Carolinas. So when I was a teenager I’d help out—make deliveries at restaurants, some butcher shops.

The USDA had just approved longans and lychees to come to the United States, and I was already bringing in dragon fruit. So I flew to Vietnam within a few weeks of that announcement and I was there wandering around and walked into a nail salon—and that’s where I met Ly. I got her phone number; we went to watch a movie. I was still jet- lagged, so I fell asleep, and then we went to get smoothies afterwards—just like the smoothies that we sell at the Night Market and also at our brick-and-mortar store. It’s a thing in Vietnam. And then I flew back to the States, we kept talking, and because I was still doing the longan and lychee business, I was flying back every month. In terms of hours, I spent a whole month of that year on airplanes.

So eventually I was there long enough and we were crazy in love, so I rented an apartment. Before, she lived in a place with no kitchen. I used to joke with her that I can’t marry her if I haven’t tasted her cooking. Just joking! But she kind of took that seriously and made hủ tiểu for me, which is our signature noodle soup at the restaurant, and that we sell at the Night Market.

It was an interesting choice, because hủ tiểu is actually a dish from the part of China my grandparents are from, where a lot of people immigrated to Vietnam in the early 1900s. And I was blown away—’cause my mom makes the same dish, and hers was better than my mom’s. She kept making these amazing dishes now that she had a kitchen to work with.

I proposed to her a few months later. Then we were thinking, What is she going to do when she comes to the States? Share her wonderful cooking of course! We found a small space in Brooklyn and opened a restaurant, Em, and also started selling at the Queens Night Market in April 2019.”

Patrick and Ly at their restaurant in Bensonhurst, showcasing a bowl of their hủ tiểu

THİT KHO
Braised Pork Belly

Thịt kho is the quintessential Vietnamese family dish, something almost every Vietnamese family will eat at home on a weekly basis. It’s often served during Tet, first offered to ancestors, and then served at the table for the family. Ly is from Central Vietnam, where the style of cooking is different from the North or South. This recipe does not call for eggs, and black pepper is featured more prominently since it is produced in the region. The rich, savory sauce goes perfectly with rice, and it keeps for days, perhaps even getting better.

Makes 3 or 4 servings

½ cup (110 g) plus 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar

1 pound (455 g) sliced pork belly, cut into ¾-inch (2 cm) cubes

¼ cup (60 ml) fish sauce

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

Cooked rice

Chopped scallions

Diced Thai chiles or jalapeños

1. Heat 2 packed tablespoons of the brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until caramelized, 60 to 90 seconds, being careful not to burn the sugar. Turn the heat to low and slowly add the pork while stirring. Continue stirring until the pork is cooked through, about 15 minutes.

2. Add the fish sauce, pepper, and the remaining ½ cup (110 g) brown sugar. Continue stirring over low heat until the sauce reduces to a dark brown color, about 10 minutes.

3. Serve over the rice with a generous helping of the sauce and garnished with the scallions and chile.

SINH Tố Bơ
Avocado Smoothies

On Patrick and Ly’s first date, they went to a movie, followed by a visit to a smoothie stand, where they sipped avocado smoothies, chatted, and people-watched for hours on the streets of Saigon. As far as smoothies go, sinh tố bơ is on the heavier side due to the avocado and condensed milk, and it is treated more like a dessert.

Makes 2 servings

2 cups (260 g) ice

1 Hass avocado, peeled and pitted

¼ cup (60 ml) half-and-half

¼ cup (60 ml) simple syrup,* or 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

¼ cup (80 ml) sweetened condensed milk

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large blender. Blend on high until pulverized into a smooth consistency.

2. Serve in two glasses with straws or spoons.

* To make simple syrup, boil and dissolve 1 part rock sugar in 1 part water.