AThe older Asian woman is shattered by a gas stove that serves pasta, and two young wives mix a distance in a small Buddhist temple, and comes out a permanent group of families from Vietnam supermarket with giant rice bags. It is an original Vietnamese scene as much as I can expect to find it. But I am not in Vietnam or even Asia. I am in Prague.
SAPA, or Little Hanoi, as it is known as affection, is the center of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic, which is far from the towers, virtue and the splendor of beer covered in the historical center. This city was placed inside the city unclear on its suburbs Good chance Or sell large quantities of delicate large geese.
The fact that there is a Vietnamese society in Prague may be a surprise for anyone who visited. Unless it appeared in the Zawiya store – Food -For some potato chips late at night, or accidentally stumbled in one of the cheap clothing stores, it is unlikely that your paths have exceeded. But after the Ukrainians and Sloven, the Vietnamese is the largest group of minorities in the country.
“All this happened during communism,” says Khan Ta, who – along with his brother Jiang – with his brother Jiang – has four Vietnamese restaurants in Prague. “The agreement between Vietnamese governments and Czech governments means that talented students from Vietnam gave the opportunity to study here and then work later. My parents came in the eighties of Fu Thu, a small town of 40 miles (70 km) from Hanoi, then they got jobs in the textile industry.”
Not only was the Vietnamese who were invited through such a scheme; Students from Mongolia, Laos and Cuba also came. However, after the velvet revolution in November 1989, which clarified the end of communism in Czechoslovakia, it was not the Vietnamese that remained. “Quite simply, there was a better life here,” says Ta said.
You assumed that with such a long rooted presence, the Vietnamese food was one of the Czech essential elements for decades. But when I arrived in Prague 15 years ago, there were no prominent Vietnamese restaurants to talk about, and the Vietnamese people who made restaurants serving Chinese food.
Treene Thi Duan, the owner of The House Police Pho u Summer Restaurant in Prague 7. “The Chinese were here in front of us, and the Vietnamese food was unknown to the Czech people. It seemed much easier to sell Chinese foods because the Czechs used to it.”
All this changed slightly more than a decade, when the first Vietnamese Prague restaurant, VietnamIt was opened in Vinohrady, with other restaurants such as Pho U LetNé in principle. So what made this sudden change happen?
You see him handing me a well -known according to it Bok Bou Nam Bo ((8 euros)and And he says: “With more Vietnamese people continuing to reach the Czech Republic, the Czech Republic began to travel to Vietnam. They tried our food there and told us how good it was. So the Vietnamese people decided to try to sell their food in Prague, and they just fell.”
This is cheap. Despite the first few months in which restaurants are struggling to attract skeptical local population, there was a surprise increase in 2015. Only through an oral word alone, Prague-with the help of a rise in foreigners looking for abnormal alternatives-flowing to Vietnamese institutions in the city.
“The Vietnamese kitchen is a simple kitchen and although there are many flavors, it never overcomes,” says Khan Ta. TaroA developed concept restaurant in the city center. “Here we take the food we love from our childhood, but we make it a little different. It is not very different, because the feeling of food must always be the same.”
Through the demonstration, it is wiped with three Vietnamese pottery-crab basket, cauliflower crochet and sidewalk Puff Pastry with Tartare Steak, all with a clear authentic Vietnamese but gave a flowing glamor. the Universe This following is designed with the same: Rice pies made from a specially imported machine from Hanoi, but served with juicy cubes of pork, which is a more common treatment in the Czech menu.
The entire meal-a tasting list of seven impressive dishes (105 euros)-is delicious, and when the green rice ice cream offers- Kim – From the polystyrene box, such as the one who uses bike tenders in its original town, you cannot feel that, in fact, you have suffered from his childhood taste.
However, the most originally authentic place to experience the kitchen and Vietnamese culture in Prague is undoubtedly Sapa. Located in Libuš (Take Tram 17 from the center, or bus 197 of Smíchovské nádraží), this is Mecca all Vietnamese things. Once through the entrance to the temple style, you were thrown into a chaotic maze of alleys, wholesalers and market kiosks that sell all kinds of talents, clothes and thin games. It is not designed for tourists – as “no photography” signs and the random method of some sellers – but if you dive into the heart of the portable Saba, you will be richly rewarded.
Under the title of golf River horse coffeeFor example, it is a good place for coffee-robosta grains that were imported from Vietnam and roasted at the site by the owner, obsessed with golf-and ball (Baguettes, about 4 euros) is offered from street stalls behind a delicious Lotus restaurant.
When everything is said and done, the Vietnamese food always revolves around In – While there are many wonderful options, Fu Tong He is the undisputed king. The vessels are always hot and vibrant with beef and pasta, and a free smooth pile sidewalk – Delicious fried dough sticks- Make wonderful diving (7 euros). True, you may not get a lot of smile from the waiter, but by the time you have finished this pathological meal, your smile is likely to be great enough for both of you.
