64: Part II: Flavors of Home: Quyen Phan's Culinary Heritage at Anchovies and Salt

Unknown: 0:52

Welcome back to part two, as we follow along Quyen's journey and explore Vietnamese culture and cuisine. Let's talk a little bit about your dishes. So can you tell me what dishes are the most popular right now among your customers? Wow, that's a loaded question. It is of northern Thailand, which is a salty sofa

Quyền Phan: 1:15

inspired by fat tin in Hanoi, which is a well for context. Fall originated in Hanoi and not in Hanoi itself. Legends is that it originated from Nam Ditton, which is a town where my culinary directors from he created a recipe that is inspired by Fortson, which went viral. And it's like very popular right now in Hanoi. They do a salt a steak, and they eat it with onions white got like a heap in full bowl of onions and idea. We I tried it and I really liked it. I said, Wow, this is actually one of the few northern far that I really enjoy, because northern fall tend to be very light, delicate, but also MSG heavy as opposed to bone broth, heavy, Southern fall tends to be very fatty, it has more what they call nuke mill on the top, okay, whereas Northern, you won't see the fat condensing or coagulating on top of the broth interesting. So therefore, they eat it quickly. There's no beansprout there's no bean basil. There's not a lot of sigh veggies. Matter of fact that sigh veggies is often pickled garlic, red chilies. And that's kind of what I've known since I've been to Hanoi pretty much every single file in Seattle for the last 30 years sells a southern farm even if your restaurant is named fallback, for example, which is one of the best restaurants in Seattle for the last 40 years. They sell southern fun, they don't sell Northern. Okay. The name itself is North translated to North Ah, but they couldn't sell a northern far because the palate of everybody here southern I got it. Okay. So when we started selling northern far two months ago, I've seen everybody just drink the whole bowl of soup. To be fair, we serve a small bowl. So if people like it, they would drink up everything. I mean, pretty much every bowl I've seen has pretty much gone empty. Because people really enjoyed soup, enjoy something that's different. On top of that, we use a fresh fall noodle, which everybody has really not gravitated to, or moved to yet because fresh fall noodles wasn't always available in Seattle. It's always like a dehydrated version that you rehydrate in boiling water not fresh. So the texture the chewiness the consistency is very different than fresh file. Okay, for example, for Boxty we use it a dehydrated file Venus on my flagship brand, all five of my location, we still use the hydrated file, right? It's just easier to do and it's a lot less expensive. Sure, we are going to move to fresh fried noodles in 2024 which is like right now you know people is going to be very surprised me like well, how come this doesn't look like anything that I've had in a long time. Now without noodles in South Santa introduced it like about three, four years back when they made it in house. It's something that is trending people understand that a there's such a thing as a different type of fall noodles is flat. And in speaking of fun, who knows a lot of people including like half of my community don't realize that fall is not a soup that fall is a rice pasta, okay? It has nothing to do with the soup itself. The the first soup itself just happens to be the most popular version of it right? That's just like you eat in 10 different form of pasta, some of it might be baked like a lasagna. And some of it might be saute. Some of it might be poached or steam, whatever it might be. That leads me to my poly this one of my most popular dishes is a deep fry Fabula Oh interesting, which is a sheet of far cut into ravioli size Okay, and deep fry into a puffy bar puffy square of fall noodles and topped with sauteed mustard green and steak and onions. Oh my gosh, I've never heard of that. That sounds amazing. It's eaten with a pineapple fish sauce. Wow. And papaya pickles and I found that in a neighborhood called Kong Musa in less Hanoi. So how bad is like on the southern tip of Westlake and Westlake is one of the biggest lake in Hanoi Okay, and on the southeast corner which is where renting is renting is in the southeast corner of Lake Washington and then this neighborhood they sell everything that is far except the suit. Oh, wow. Okay, yeah, you can have stir fry. You can have egg noodle fall noodle deep fry with egg batter. You can have deep fried pho pillows which is what I my favorite thing. You can have steamed pho rolls the whole sheet just roll with steak and basil inside that neighborhood people congregate there just for that. That's kind of like the food scene in Vietnam is like one person does something really well. There's like 10s and millions of people in in Hanoi or in Saigon. So they will congregate to one street. Oh, to make sure that street become known for this street is Freifunk. This street is pharmaceuticals. This tree is by me it becomes like a full a small neighborhood of one single thing almost Yeah. And there's enough population to kind of support that concept of lung. Why are we are opening right next door to each other and selling the same exact thing. The fry for pillows is really hard to do, you won't find anybody doing. I haven't found anybody in the United States that have done it. It just recently kind of migrated to Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon. But people don't do it. The concept of it to do it probably take years to master Wow. And we only offer it for dinner and offer for lunch. Okay, because lunch is slower, and it allows us the time to do a dinner crowd is too much. So we do not offer five pillows, I'm gonna have to come in and try it. You've really captured my palate. I can't even tell you the way you described it. I'm like, Yeah, I'm craving that. I gotta try it. It's definitely one of our signature dishes. I know, northern dishes. So we have a good five, six signature from the north, a good four or five signature from central Vietnam. Our executive chef is from central Vietnam, my culinary director who lives in Vietnam. That's amazing. He's from London, which is the origin of it. But he lives in Saigon now okay, and he consult on all of the dishes because he just has an amazing palette. I love it. And then a lot of the sauces and recipe from the south is my mom's recipe. So we we try to represent all three regions. Even the restaurant is built out in three regions and our restaurant is like 200 feet long that runs north and south.

Unknown: 7:56

In the US, is that right?

Quyền Phan: 8:01

It is the largest Vietnamese restaurant on Earth outside of it now. Oh my gosh, from all of our research maximum capacity of 441 11,000 square feet inside outside. I didn't attempt for it to be that way. It just it came naturally. Wow. So the only thing that we know of is Samsung and oh Kim Sung in Houston. They have three locations that are like a fake banquet halls that are like over 20,000 square feet. The name is Vietnamese, but their food is anchored by Vietnamese, Chinese and sometimes Japanese food for me personally when I made that statement, I don't think if you sell Chinese food, then you can claim your restaurant as being a Vietnamese restaurant. Because you need another culture to kind of help fill the space right? You have Chinese restaurants are abundant. But if you had to put Chinese food into a Vietnamese restaurant, I think that automatically in my mind just disqualifies them as being a Vietnamese exclusively Vietnamese restaurant. So two more quick food questions. What unusual dish Should I order from your menu for dinner all the sides we have a villagers pork belly, which is basically bacon lemongrass and shrimp paste one of the most nostalgic thing you can eat from the enemy's food it resonate with North South and Central Vietnamese being that it just a goes like a teeny bit of it can feed a whole family if you eat it with white rice, right? Our culture is very rice centric. Like we sell Vietnamese family dinner, which is highly encouraged to be balanced with veggies, savory food, rice and soup. It has to be a combination of everything. Sometimes I will have somebody sit there and eat up a clay pot. Black Cod that is that is very savory. Yes without rights without anything, right? And I'm like, Oh no, that's not that's not going to be balanced. or somebody's eating a sour soup by itself. When it's meant to be shared with five different people. I see the thing that I am most proud of. We sell a thing called the forbidden eggplant not fermented eggplant pickled eggplant sometime lightly just toss in a vinaigrette. Yes, obliged us but dipped in a shrimp paste and added it was delicious. I remember that we have both the option of northern and southern shrimp base in our culture growing up in the United States this negative stigma to it smells so bad. Our parents, our friends, everybody would be afraid to bring it to school. Like you wouldn't put that in your lunchbox Sure. It is never in my life. Have I've seen it serve in a Vietnamese restaurant. Okay, but it's very tasty. Yes, it's full of it's made out of shrimp salt in Nepali MSG, all right. The fact that we put it on the menu and we feature it proudly on our sauce bar is because we are I'm apologetically authentic. We're not going to apologize for what we love. So we put it front and center. I mean, if you can't stand the smell, if you can't stand the flavor, then we are definitely not, it's definitely not something you should try. We are so inclusive is that, because we know that the menu ranges the opposite end of the spectrum is we have Wagyu beef skewers with North Vietnamese pepper, something that that almost everybody loves, because who doesn't love wagyu steak on a steak? Oh my gosh, we have sizzling steak and eggs. We have the short ribs, which is brace and fast spices and finish off on the grill. Probably our number one seller I had the mu said try this. And I did. And oh my god, that was unbelievably good. That that is probably going to be our number one seller for a long, long time, along with the fact that they're the only complaint I've ever heard about that it might be a little bit too fatty. In two months, we probably sold 1000s of those short ribs already. We can audit quickly enough. Wow. And that's like, and I almost refrain from encouraging that dish. Yeah, because that's kind of like one of the very few dishes that is modern. Okay, it's my take on everyone put in short ribs and they're far so it's like we're this far is too big. How can we put it in a bowl, if this short rib is too big to be put in a bowl, we instead of putting the rib into the fall? We put the fall into the rib? So we cook it in for spyshots. Okay, and we just infused far flavor into the short ribs. It was my culinary directors idea. I told him Look, everybody selling short ribs. He's like, Yeah, but I hate the way they do it. I love that sometime. It looks like a dog bone inside a ball. Yeah, there's no love into it. He's like, I think I am going to do something different. Yeah, when he presented it to me, and I ate it. I started texting on my my team. I said, this is the best thing I've eaten in 40 years. I've kind of gotten almost sick of it. Because I've eaten it barley like oh my god 100 times in the last five, six months of r&d in it. But it's so good. That's how many times I've emailed. It almost takes us away from our purpose, you know, right. All Purpose introduced culture and soul into Vietnamese food. Oh, I love that. That is so amazing. Because you did you really did. I mean, from my perspective, and my wife's perspective that keeps us coming back. We have so much I like to tell people audience, anybody's like, look, I will always guaranteed that if you try something you don't like it's on the house. And they say, well, we don't want to do that we don't want to, we don't want to feel like we're robbing you or cheating you. So now you actually are helping me because if you like every single dish on the menu, which is going to be rare, but if you like 60 70% of the menu, as opposed to just one dish that you always go to, you're going to come back to my restaurant many more times. You come three times. But I want you to eat three different things every single time. And that is going to make you come back for me so much more my business model. Yeah, I always want to guarantee the food, right. And we have a Vietnamese brunch and lunch menu that is so inclusive of North Central and South Vietnam. And then people come for dinner. It's like, well, I want to eat that breakfast dish. And I'm sorry, do you go to the Metropolitan grill and ask him if they have bacon and egg but then Oh, could they do you like an egg omelet and French toast for dinner? Every culture has different aspects of a food. Yeah. And we want to introduce a brunch culture and lunch culture, a street food culture and a dinner culture. Right. And I have to coach on my own community with that. It's like they come in and they're like, Well, why don't you guys have been well, why? Or why don't you guys offer steak and eggs for dinner. I'm like I am offering you family meal, which has not exist in Seattle for the last since 1975 When the first Vietnamese might be bought migrated. Wow, no one has so family food and is so unique, but they are so used to fun. Like they said, Oh, even though I'm Vietnamese I came here for fun only. This is Vietnamese family meal. Yeah, this is the stuff I want you to eat. This is the stuff that I want you to bring your mom and I want you to write home about I want you to bring in your friends to introduce them to a completely different part of the culture that has never been highlighted. And I want it to put it on the largest stage possible to understand what Vietnamese dinner looks like. And I want Vietnamese family to sit down and finally eat a family meal again part of the culture that's been forgotten because everybody sits at the table with an iPhone and an iPad. True. I feel like if the food is good enough, it will stop you from playing with your phone. It will stop you from taking pictures even Yeah, I was so happy this morning when I saw a post on on the foodie group. It just it was all in words is that oh my goodness. My culinary experience at anchovies was mind boggling. And I don't have any pictures to prove it. Oh, wow. You know, because I ate it all too fast. And I want to thank the creators of Seattle, the Seattle foodies group, because that's how I met you. That's how I found out that you were open. And that's how I thought I got to have them come on the show, I gotta have them shared a story. They are by far my favorite group I've ever been a part of. It's incredible, extremely positive. They don't filter anything until it goes by weight. So when I post it shows up for restaurant, they allow restaurant to post one times a month, and most restaurants don't even knew that because they are afraid of spamming people. Right? Right. So it's very respectful. In terms of the restaurant community. They're good guys. Like when I tried to pose I want it to be education, because it's this such part of the community that they don't know what Vietnamese steak and eggs is like. They don't know that we have pate in it because we was colonized by the French for 100 years. Okay, that we've been making Vietnamese parte for 200 years now. Wow. And it's like Vietnamese, by today is going to be so different than French, right? They don't know that Vietnamese culture. We are. We have a lot of head cheese. Right? Yeah. Which if some people don't know, cheeses, it's like a hammer most right? I can, like put together with fat and all of the best part of the pig and make it into a meat cheese. Right? You got nothing to do with dairy. But it's still call head cheese, right. But there's a big part of my community that has never seen head cheese. If I was to put it on the menu that only their mom would appreciate it. So, you know, it's the amount of positive energy that has resonated out of the dining experience at the table. It's been amazing. It's that's why I'm at the table all the time, because I needed them to see my perspective on why I did so that they don't draw their own conclusions. So it's been a blessing, to have time and health. Just to be at the table side to kind of say hi to ever Yeah, I'm coming through the restaurant, right? Just imagine I'm walking. I park I come down. I'm looking at the waterfront and I walk into this beautiful restaurant. come walking in your restaurant, what do I see? I built it to represent family and built it to represent more importantly culture. I built it to represent Vietnam. Yep. Geographically, culturally, family food when you walk into a doors, probably the biggest door of any Vietnamese restaurant you will ever see. And it's handcrafted by me and myself and my own team out of tea, right tick is a hot word found in Southeast Asia and found in Vietnam, very prized, and it's gonna hold up to the element. It's a what you call it a pivot door. It's humongous, but it's people friendly. It's very easy to open and immediately when you go in the grandiose size of the waiting area is like 20 feet high with anchovies. And so on the left Yeah, because I wanted a background for people to remember that they just enter anchovies and so and on the right we have beautiful woodwork with that represent the craftsmanship and the love that we put into this and our hostesses are wearing traditional Vietnamese iei which is the national dress of Vietnam Yes, it's also symbolic made out of oyster shells and sea shells on all of our ingrained into all of our tables. That's the first thing I want people to know that this is Vietnamese traditional this is what we were right in front of you as you hit it you're gonna be stopped by this humongous four foot why Onyx? J this jade is abundant in central Vietnam. And it's like a gateway to your house. It brings energy into good energy into the restaurant growing up Buddhists. I want my space to be Zen to be welcoming to be warm. Yes, I have a huge shelf that display Vietnamese culture right behind it. I wanted it to be toned down because I want it to not not to be the only story that was told on your right hand side you see this water dragon so my son has Zodiac is in his element is the water dragon. Wow. Just like Greek mythology and every mythology, he anchors my infrastructure because we are on the lake. And just imagine we have 200 lineal feet of waterfront with 100 seats outdoor, and my son and I we share a super special bond, we have the same burden. Oh, we have the same birthmark. And he's like an identical clone. If cloning was about, I don't know how that is even possible. So I always like to think that I'm beyond blessed. Right? Yeah. And I will always answer every question of how you is because I have really nothing to complain about. So on the right of that we have the whole main banquet room is anchored by him and it's the Saigon room. It anchors southern Vietnam. With beautiful architecture, everything is handcrafted wood, it's 100% Cherry, our office is going up the stairs is going to be the employees office, it's some of the remnants that I kept from the previous infrastructure. So I kept it there and I built wooden screens around it really make it look like it's, it's southern Vietnam. So when you go towards your love, you're gonna see a mural with the hand of God on it. The hand of God is a bridge in BANA hills in SunWorld. In Vietnam, and it's they call the official name is the golden bridge, okay? Like the Golden Gate Bridge, but it connects to, to mountain side. And it so it's very symbolic. It's crazy to see that two hands coming out of the mountain holding up a bridge. And the artists that I commissioned has been Amis artists. And he immediately he saw it as a bridge of culture, right, just bridge in the north and the south bridge in Seattle with Vietnam. Like it's a cultural bridge. So, so the first thing he did was like, he's like, let me draw this on a napkin. And he made it into an anchovy. Oh my gosh, he's like, bro, you are using this tiny little fish to bridge a humongous gap in cultural understand. Wow, enlightening not only myself, but just the culture put in and highlight and Vietnamese fish sauce. Anchovies pays on the map, something so insignificant yet it's the backbone of conversation. This. It's the bridge between now and then. So it's like, man, it took this guy a minute to put together this message that I've been dreaming about for like, Oh, that is incredible. Yep. So I instantly instantly said yes to it. And so that's why you see this giant hands holding up anchovies. And I call it the banana kitchen. Because the town is called mana hills. And it's in central Vietnam. And then when you look to your left, we have this beautiful teal blue bar, because it's a reflection of a dining which is a beach town in Vietnam in central Vietnam, which is like 30 minutes from by now you just traveling through Vietnam. Now, all of our doors are my folding. So they it's like accordion doors that open, the whole restaurant will open up to the waterfront. And this bar is like a tiki bar that you can walk up to from the water. So when you walk through the bar, and towards the north end, you will enter who I am. Who I am is an ancient city right next to Danang, it's only 30 minutes away. It's one of my favorite city on Earth. And it's UNESCO protected high end is an ancient trade import for Vietnam, China, Japan, France, it's untouchable because the world has chosen to protect it. And it's a UNESCO protected site. And I built it out to look exactly like the way home and would look in a private room with lanterns and color scheme plant life. It's like I want you to be Trent transported into a whole tropical world. That is who I am. Yeah, I have a painting there. I bought 20 years ago for my dad at Zodiac is it's embroider by some blind kids in a school and a tiger. So the tiger represent my dad because he's like a Liberian. He reads a lot. He's very educated. Yet he's never taken any chances in life. Other than the fact that he brought us to the United States. That was his biggest accomplishment, right? bringing us to the United States and just working his butt off in a factory day and night so that he can afford to build Wow. So he was able to bring my whole family eventually on nine kids to come to the United States. And not once did he have a chance to spread his wings. So I have him just chillin are just inside this library that is consider her and that's just my tribute to to, to his sacrifices. Go on outside. I have two more pillars that is also drawn by those either the artists like the foundation of my infrastructure is my youngest son who is a ox. He's a golden, my wife who is the goat they anchor infrastructure and they don't really get the limelight. My wife, she's not fancy. She doesn't show up about anything. I feel like they all are my foundation. And then above the Nang is the hallway lounge. So hey, is where my wife is from. My executive chef is somewhere in the hallway is the ancient capital city of it. Wow. The actual palace. We call it that in a way or the Imperial Palace. My wife lives like five minutes away. I may the whole room feel like it was Imperial Vietnam, from the woodwork to the craftsmanship. It needed to reflect what I understood about Vietnam. I'm about the ancient times. And I don't have a deep history lessons of sure, but I did my best. So it's been very well received probably everybody's favorite room beyond the homeland, because it has the whole water view 50 feet of water, wow, on that room. So going down the stairs, you're gonna see like in front of you a, like a Buddha, a gigantic Buddha floating on a bridge that you normally won't see. And it's precision behind the hand of God, and I have it very hidden is because I don't like to impose religion on anybody. I just want it to be extremely low key, because my faith or my family's faith, it's about Zen is about peace, it's about tranquility, it has nothing to do with essentially will all we want is like peace, and the ability to be able to provide for ourselves and other people. That's kind of what my mom does all day, now that she was retired, that she just take care of people and in the form of some type of charity, that's what I look up to, that there is symbolic of my mom, and her devout faith to Buddhism. And the teaching that that she instilled in all of us is just like, life is just full of cosmic forces. So just go out into the world and do good. And that's all you can really ask. And don't ask for nothing in return. Just do it. And that's kind of business saying in Vietnamese is call Look, don't buy take karma take karma to defeat talent. That's kinda like an old ancient saying, in Vietnam that, you know, comma, without, without do or talent any day. And you know what I was thinking about this, as you were telling me the stories of your restaurants and the struggles in the beginning and the success that you've had. That is truly karma. There's no question in my mind that you have amazing karma. I could just feel it. As you're sharing these stories. I'm like, you're doing these amazing things. I gotta say this. So if you are listening right now, and you're in Seattle, or the Seattle area, or you're coming to Seattle, you have to go see anchovies, and salt. You have to experience this amazing restaurant in this amazing Vietnamese culture and food. Thank you so much. The last thing is just the north end of the restaurant is dedicated into three rooms. They are like beautiful private rooms, or public because we're overflow to sit in there. And it's meant to represent Hanoi, SAPA and Halong Bay, and it's just symbolic of the geography and the culture. I never thought in my wildest dream that northern food will be my favorite food on Earth. Right being that I'm from the south Asia is mind blowing, finally, visit Hanoi coming back many times. And wow, there's like all of this has been kept from me all my life. People telling me not to go here. That the food's Wow. And I'm like, Wow, this thing is amazing. It just the weather is nice, certain times that the year you're in June and July is hot as hell yeah. It just full of mountains and lakes. So Hanoi is beautiful. Saba, which I haven't even got a chance to go to yet. But the pictures are so mesmerizing, that it's like mountains and mountains of rice. Like you say mountains rise, you wouldn't think that rice grows on mountain men. My people carve the side of a mountain to grow. Right? Wow. I don't know how that's like, I can't even fathom that as a child. How is that even practical? How do you get water irrigation to go up a hill? Or is there any source of water from the top to even be able to do this? And it's just mind boggling. That can be a thing because I grew up in a rice paddy field in South Vietnam. And it was always flat. SAPA is like really, really ingrained in my mind. And I want to visit it very soon. And then Halong Bay, which is a biggest room in the north end. And it's all it has its own private entry, its waterfront, it has the screens for you to do corporate and family dinner, and it's beautiful. And I have my uncle just drew like a humongous eight by 10. Eight by 12 painting of Halloween. Oh my god. He's an artist. He's like 80 years old from France. And he built he drew this amazing art. Wow. Most people don't know that. Halong Bay is like, it's considered the eighth wonder of the world. Yeah, it's a natural wonder, like, unlike anything that you ever seen over 1600 Island, in a bag. Oh, my gosh, beautiful and tranquil. And I believe that it's already a World Heritage Site. It's protected by the global community. It can't be taught people are living on floating cities. And you just I don't know. I went there for like one day and I feel like I need to be out there for like, a whole year to be able to touch every corner of it to see like, this thing is crazy. I'm adding it to a bucket list. I'm adding it to my bucket list. I think it's the eighth wonder of the world. It should be everybody's bucket list. I went there and I was just canoeing around and I'm going into from one caves over to the next lagoon. It's like you going from lagoon to Lagoon by going under a rock. It's so hard to conceptualize with the mind, every picture that I look online, it just doesn't do it justice, because it's so far ranging that no one can take a picture, right? You need a picture from an airplane when there's when the day and the clouds are absolutely clear for you to kind of see what 1600 islands in a day, you know, so I really want people to really walk the whole restaurant, and allows them to kind of be transported to visit. Yeah, that's amazing. I just My wife is an artist and she was blown away by the art and the care that you put into the design. I mean, you can really see it. It's not a typical restaurant. It's a true experience. So how can our listeners connect with you? How do we find you online? How do we get to your restaurant? How do we experience anchovies salt, just check us out on Instagram or on on our website. I'm always looking at the emails come directly to me. I'm simply one email a phone call away even when I'm at the restaurant. What's your email, Quinn at anchovies and salt.com. He's also going to have a guest page on our voice for chefs website. I can't thank you enough for being a guest for sure in your culture, your journey. You are truly a voice for chefs and a voice for Vietnam. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Welcome back to part two, as we follow along Quinn's journey and explore Vietnamese culture and cuisine