The largest Vietnamese restaurant exterior of Saigon is positioned on Lake Washington, by the use of Gene Coulon Memorial Seashore Park. It’s Anchovies and Salt, a surprising ode to Vietnam with the menu to match. However regardless of an honorable effort to redefine a delicacies usually diminished to “low cost eats,” this restaurant has been an underdog from the bounce.
It began, because it usually does, with one fateful TikTok made by an out-of-town customer. The TLDR of her 30-second take was that Anchovies and Salt, whereas lovely, was overpriced and portion-stingy. The impact of her take was decidedly huge—a whole lot of 1000’s of views and a mob of commenters amassed inside days. Anchovies and Salt hasn’t been capable of shake the “costly” vibes off since.
However ought to they?
Let’s have a dialog about Asian spots searching for to raise Asian tradition, and our position in letting them, or not.
A Low-cost Historical past of Double Requirements
Image this: You’re at a neighborhood Italian joint, so dimly lit you are feeling such as you’re in Hollister. The waiter units down a plate of contemporary pappardelle smothered in a wealthy duck ragu. The dish is $34 (plus a 22% service cost). You don’t even blink. Chef will get a handshake, restaurant will get a Story put up: “Gatekeeping this 😏”
Now think about you’re at a Vietnamese restaurant, the brand new one on the block, and as you scan the menu, you discover your favourite mixture is on the market for––spit take––20 US fucking {dollars}? The server brings out a aromatic, steaming bowl of pho… and whereas scrumptious, you are feeling dismayed. You open Yelp, Twitter fingers able to let unfastened. “What a rip-off.”
Low-cost wasn’t the origin story of those cuisines, typically, however it’s their origin story within the US. Some may be shocked to be taught the depth of which premium seafood is utilized in Vietnamese dishes, or the deft methods used to take advantage of well-known mainland Chinese language delicacies. Asian immigrants introduced these traditions with them to America, fairly actually with their households on their backs, making an attempt to determine how you can feed half a dozen heads with simply as many {dollars} and 0 prospects for extra.
In that method, the means was the top: Feeding folks. However how do you introduce a model new delicacies to a tradition that doesn’t realize it but? You promote it low cost—curiosity comes sooner at $5 a plate.
What began as a necessity turned an expectation. For Chinese language, Thai, Vietnamese, and different immigrants, “low cost eats” turned a defining label, and the combat for the underside rung of the culinary ladder dragged racial stereotypes together with it.
All of this has made its mark on Asian meals’s legitimacy in American tradition. And whereas this wrestle isn’t distinctive to Asian meals (Italian and Mexican cuisines confronted related origins), these cuisines have been ultimately allowed to develop, to change into aspirational. In the present day, we rejoice $30 pasta and $20 taco plates. When will we lend Asian meals the identical credence?
Getting What We Pay For
Anchovies and Salt proprietor Quyen Phan is aware of this actuality all too properly. “Twenty years in the past I assumed Seattle was behind. Twenty years later, we’re a lot extra behind than I initially thought.” He’s speaking concerning the readiness to simply accept new ideas within the Asian meals scene, an angle he’s been sizing up since 2012 when he opened his first restaurant Saigon Sundown, adopted by the primary Vinason Pho Kitchen. Now, with Anchovies and Salt, he’s pressured to surprise if he’s pushed a little bit too far.
“We’re so used to paying a sure worth level that we are able to’t open up our menus to indicate folks what we actually eat in Vietnam,” says Phan, whereas we sip water overlooking Lake Washington exterior his restaurant. “I wished to construct one thing that might make Vietnamese Individuals proud, and present Individuals what Vietnamese tradition has to supply them.”
Phan has constructed a unprecedented ode to his residence nation. Towering teak doorways impressed by Southeast Asia welcome you in. Every wing of the restaurant displays a distinct area of Vietnam, full with curated drinks and a cornucopia of condiments—three totally different shrimp pastes, eight totally different fish sauces. The menu boasts premium elements, together with geoduck (the coconut butter geoduck is ethereal) and wagyu beef, starring of their $24 pho. Even the rice is high shelf: Phan served me award-winning ST25 Vietnamese rice with the thrill of a dad introducing his child to his favourite band. He wasn’t mistaken—the rice is pretty much as good as every part else.
So what’s the rub? Again to the TikTok, which leveled claims regarding worth and parts regardless of the grandeur. These are metas Anchovies and Salt can not escape, and the battle to be understood and accepted locally continues to be uphill.
So I lastly requested Phan: “Why is Anchovies and Salt so costly?”
“I hate that folks really feel that method. It’s not about charging folks extra… it’s about giving everybody essentially the most. The one method to try this is to begin opening up the menu and main by instance.” He balances satisfaction and frustration in his face earlier than he continues. “As an illustration, we eat an abundance of seafood in Vietnam, and all Individuals know is grilled pork banh mi and pork spring rolls. We’re caught on the $5 worth level burned into folks’s minds, and it’s holding us all again.”
In Seattle, a preferred congee store is aware of this story properly. When Akavin Lertsirisin (AKA “Boss”) and his brother Jakkapat (“JP”) opened their first congee idea in 2017 (Congeez), they wished to spotlight what Boss calls “household meals” in Thailand, a meal generally shared earlier than college, work, or journeys—acquainted flavors for the worth. In the present day, the store has developed into the Instagram-darling, Secret Congee, which conversely provides remixed renditions of porridge for a premium worth, together with grade-A seafood that may run as much as $25 a bowl.
“After serving congee for 5 years, we felt we may present everybody, Thai folks included, how lovely even our easiest meals might be,” says Boss.
For the brothers, reimagining congee with essentially the most premium elements obtainable was not solely a enterprise determination, it was a possibility to push ahead a delicacies calcified into the core reminiscences of them and their clients. The Thai congee of their childhood was usually served with pork meatballs, liver, and egg. At Secret Congee, you may get a heaping bowl with wild-caught halibut, Hokkaido scallop, or lump blue crab, so it’s a flex too. Boss jogs my memory that eating places throughout town cost $40 for 2 crab truffles, whereas Secret Congee’s blue crab congee boasts thrice the quantity at solely $23.
Cracking the Code
Not each new-age Asian spot within the metropolis has had the identical “luck” as Anchovies and Salt. One Asian American chef-owner who has seemingly cracked the code is Melissa Miranda of Musang and Kilig notoriety. The James Beard semifinalist has labored tirelessly to reshape the narrative of Filipino delicacies in America, a reintroduction maybe. With a imaginative and prescient to convey to life a permanent instance of her household’s cooking, Miranda’s contemporary tackle Filipino classics has amplified and fortified Filipino tradition in America. They serve acquainted favorites whereas difficult us to see them anew.
It’s at Musang the place you’ll order a serving of rooster adobo for $34, not together with rice, a worth that has bewildered old-school Filipinos since their doorways first opened in 2020. Musang’s rendition contains modernized elements—roasted garlic, coconut milk tamari, brown butter, and black pepper poivre—however these skeptics have been making adobo for many years, and as such have hardened opinions about the way it must be cooked, the way it ought to style, and extra relevantly, the way it must be priced. This contains my very own mom, a proud Pinay who began out Musang-skeptical. However identical to each diner earlier than her, one night time at Musang rejigs your paradigm of what a Filipino meal might be whereas reminding you what you’ve gotten liked about all of it alongside. Mission completed, Musang.
So what about Musang earns respect, the place Anchovies and Salt doesn’t? The reply is neighborhood buy-in.
For Musang, the proof is within the proverbial ginataang pudding. Supporting Musang looks like a community-aligned initiative to have an awesome meal and transfer the tradition forward whereas doing so. To that finish, nearly poetically, Musang was incepted by a Kickstarter. However Musang seems to be the exception, not the rule. We denigrate Anchovies and Salt and Secret Congee for among the similar issues we rejoice Musang for, and it’s not completely the fault of the outlets. Actually, I believe it’s largely ours as patrons.
Let’s Discuss About Us for a Second
Asian Individuals usually declare to need illustration, however we balk on the thought of “elevated Asian delicacies.” It’s price asking: Is there an internalized disgrace that retains us from supporting our personal cuisines? Are we scared to pay extra as a result of we don’t suppose we deserve it?
For those who ask Boss, he’ll let you know that Thai persons are properly conscious that there are totally different ranges to congee. The poor household knew they weren’t consuming the identical bowls as royalty. And as is human nature, people who have been consuming one thing fancier than the common have been both admired or hated. And perhaps the identical factor exists right here as we speak. how we deal with formidable ideas, it looks like we’ve internalized a form of caste mindset the place we expect we solely deserve what we deserve and the place ambition is frowned upon.
Possibly you’re pondering, “It’s not that deep bro. I simply don’t wanna pay $20 for pho.” Honest sufficient, however elevation apart, have we thought of that our native mom-and-pop store is barely making ends meet promoting their meals for something much less? Do we expect the broth magically simmers itself in a single day, and the elements assemble themselves from some celestial pantry? (The identical elements that now price +40% since final new 12 months?) Voodoo Donuts’ current usurping of actual property beforehand occupied by Asian companies (together with a pho store) make these questions much more necessary to consider. Domestically owned noodles making method for “elevated” donuts is the manifest future of a metropolis that follows hype greater than tradition.
Let Asian Meals Be Nice—At Any Value
It is a name to motion to suppose deeper about how we assist new companies. Each time we dismiss spots like Anchovies and Salt, we reinforce a mindset that retains Asian meals and tradition caught within the “low cost” field, and each failed idea is one other nail within the lid.
I’m not asking you to blindly love each “elevated” idea, nor calling for Asian eating places to boost costs with out cause. As an alternative, I’m interested by what makes us comfy spending up for pasta or pastrami however not for rice or banh mi. What’s stopping us from constructing an atmosphere the place cooks like Phan, Lertsirisin, and Miranda can thrive? They’re not simply promoting meals; they’re holding tales alive.
That’s price some further bucks to me.
Thanks for studying,
Michael Wong
