Truong Thanh
2096 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC
Again, I am not sure if I am setting up a precedent: In the last two weeks, I have written post on Vietnamese shops, specifically, banh mi shops (Ba Le and Tung Hing Bakery). This week, I went once again to a Vietnamese shop but… Instead, thanks for post from fellow bloggers Kevin of 604Foodtography and gastronomydomine of Foodosophy, I went to Truong Thanh for something Vietnamese but not your usual pho or banh mi…
Similar to my trip to Tung Hing Bakery, I west driving westbound on Kingsway and Truong Thanh was on the south side of the street. That meant doing some wacky driving around to end up on the south side other street. Sigh, when will I learn… Anyway, when I walked in, there was an odd bleach-like smell at first but it quickly went away. I guess my nose got used to that smell really fast. As for customers, there was only one other table when I arrived and they were talking in Vietnamese and, from the laughter, either the joke was good or they were really enjoying their food. A good sign?
The menu is small but was a little bit confused at first. Most of the items in the menu are around the $6-$7 range. That in itself is not a problem. The problem is that I wasn’t sure about the portion size, i.e., if I order something at $6 would I be hungry after I finish it? Or it might be larger than what I thought? I had to take my chances started with…
As mentioned, I went to Truong Thanh for something other than pho and banh mi and this is that “something different”: Banh Cuon or steamed rice rolls. Yes, something similar to the steamed rice rolls you would find in dim sum, yet it was different at the same time. Whereas the ones from dim sum had some thick texture to it, the ones here was quite… light… OK, that was probably a bad description. It was thinner to the point it barely managed to “hold” the ingredients inside. However, that worked quite well, as it made the different not just a rehash of the dim sum steamed rice rolls. And that odd “stringy” thing on the side? OK, how about a close up…
That would be pork floss which, in an interesting way, worked quite well with the banh cuon. It had the pork taste while “dryness” complemented to an extent the texture. And, the fried pork cake was… odd. Think of a paste with pork flavour but, at the same time, had an odd texture to it. Hmmmmm… I will take a break here. Yes, I admit I have used the word texture a lot in this post but there is a reason: a great deal of the dish is based on the combination of textures. And to contrast that soft texture of the rice roll, it came with…
A side of greens with lettuce and some other herbs (which I noticed after I was chewing them). The pickled vegetables were crunchy but lacked some other flavours. As for the sauce, it only had a small hint of sweetness and acidity but I had to try hard a bit to “taste” it. Not necessarily “good” but not necessarily bad either.
Now, I omitted a small detail on purpose, that I ordered a second dish, that dish being another dish gastronomydomine wrote about: xoi or sweet steamed rice. Now, unlike banh cuoh where I could use rice rolls as a yardstick, I thought I could glutinous rice. Wrong. They were not as “sticky” as the glutinous rice and, by itself, it wasn’t too flavourful (then, again, we are talking about rice here). However, one obvious thing was that, unlike most rice, where it “breaks” down, here, each grain retain its shape even after cooking!
But, it wasn’t rice the “key” here. Instead, it was the piece of pork it came along with the order. Hmmmmm… Let me try again, it was the sauce the pork came with. Well, the pork was really tender but it did not have much pork taste. But the sauce had a flavour I can’t describe other than it remind me of the Hakka cuisine of my grandmother.
Overall, the dishes were different to the Vietnamese dishes I have had previously. Were they good? To a certain extent, yes. Well, I won’t say it was without any doubts, as from what I tasted, there is a certain acquired taste component. Regardless, it is work a try.
 |
 |
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hmm… the pork looks like a Chinese dish called Couw Yeuk with preserved mustard greens. Just like you, it reminds me of home cooking as well. Can’t go wrong with pork belly.
Yum yum. Those pork floss does look like burlap. HAHA I want to try out this place too!
Now I know where it is! 
Different indeed. My brain went to pho from the start. What a wonderful surprise. Both dishes are new to me, with the rice rolls looking really appealing. It’s funny you wrote ‘stringy’, just like eating with your eyes first; I usually do a quick scan of your pictures first. So when I passed that, I thought…hmmm what’s with the rope garnish? Fantastic Kim!!
Great that you tried this place. And even better that you avoided trying the cliches (pho, bun, etc.) We need more coverage of the “other food” of this great cuisine.
The rice rolls are made in house – if you walk through the back door, you can see the resident rice roll maker sitting next to a banh cuon steamer lading the milky white batter from a big vat. Most other Vietnamese joints use Chinese rice rolls which are thicker, less tender, and don’t have that gelatinous “tooth” that freshly made Vietnamese rice rolls have.
The pork dish is “Thit Koh Toh” or “Porc au Caramel” (to use the French imperial name). It is indeed a dish of probable Chinese origin (like most common Vietnamese dishes) and very similar to hong shao rou (“Red Braised Pork” – a favourite of Chairman Mao).
The key ingredient to the family of “au caramel” dishes is the Vietnamese caramel syrup (nuoc mau) which imparts a signature bitter-sweetness of burnt sugar to a dish.
You must log in to post a comment.