Chef/owner Trinh Nguyen (Ramie, Sucres, Ba Sa, Pho T&N) joins us for a wide-ranging conversation on Vietnamese cuisine. Learn how she went from putting her college dreams on hold, in order to run her parents’ pho shop at age 19, to finally fulfilling her passion—serving cutting-edge Viet dishes—at Ramie. Are Seattle diners ready to explore the evolution of Vietnamese food the same way they’ve embraced the evolution of Italian, Japanese, Filipino, and other international cuisines? What barriers are still in place that need to be overcome?
We also talk about local seafood, as Trinh wonders why the PNW doesn’t cultivate a wider variety of native fish and shellfish.
Plus Meg’s reppin’ cozy cideries, Mark’s reppin’ live music, and we all rep the local restaurant scene with the latest news—and our favorite bites—of the week.
Places mentioned in this episode:
Little Jaye
Ba + Me
Woodshop BBQ
Temple Pastries
Menya Musashi
Mee Sum Pastry
Karoo Cafe
Copa Cafe
Hellinka
Cockrell Cider
Mezzanotte
Letterpress Distilling
Pidgin Cooperative
Taz
00:00 Intro
07:08 How Trinh Started
15:19 Ba Sa and Expanding Pho T&N
23:21 Ramie
33:20 Meg’s La Huerta Numero Dos Mystery Snack
39:49 This Week’s Restaurant News
53:19 Why Isn’t More Native Seafood Cultivated Here?
59:34 Ramie and Evolving Vietnamese Cuisine
1:11:39 Sucres
1:16:42 Thanks, I Ate It!
1:30:46 Coming Up Next Week
