Description
The family that runs the kitchen originally hails from Ha Tien, a small border town at the headwaters of the Mekong Delta, best known for being the jumping-off point for secret Cambodia incursions made by the CIA during the Vietnam War. A good deal of the menu is dedicated to South Vietnamese favorites: com tam, broken nubs of steamed rice paired with things like coconut milk-glazed pork chops; and hu tieu, a wide egg noodle cribbed from Chinese cuisine. A less advertised special is hu tieu soup, brimming with slices of deer meat and an oily paste made from crushed chiles. There's also something called bun nuoc ken, a strangely compelling bowl of vermicelli heaped with a mixture of minced catfish, curry powder and coconut milk, sort of like an Asian riff on tuna noodle casserole.
