Discovering Southeast Asia in New Jersey

By Anthony Ewing / Photography By Anthony Ewing | January 02, 2019

Bánh mì at SEAK, Edgewater

You don’t have to travel far to get a taste of Vietnamese cuisine. New Jersey has a rapidly expanding roster of Vietnamese restaurants across the state, from Bergen County to Atlantic City.

Wherever you are in the Garden State, chances are you are not that far from a spot serving local takes on iconic Vietnamese dishes, from phở to bánh mì and beyond. The most recent Vietnamese immigrants, first-generation restaurateurs, are introducing Vietnamese food to more Jersey towns than ever before. These new family-owned restaurants join the original Jersey Vietnamese restaurants, opened by the Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in the 1970s and 80s. Their culinary competition and ambition mean excellent food for everyone. Here are a few recommendations.

Grilled Pork Bun at Phở Ninh Kieu, Parsippany

Phở Ninh Kieu • PARSIPPANY

Lang Huynh and his wife Hien Tram run the kitchen at Phở Ninh Kieu. This “Vietnamese noodle and grill restaurant” is named for a city in Vietnam’s Mekong River delta. According to their oldest daughter, Lanh, who manages the front of the house, her father arrived in the United States in 2010. In Vietnam, he had worked as a professional photographer. Her mother was a makeup artist. After a few months working at another Vietnamese restaurant in New Jersey, Lang Huynh began to test his own recipes extensively at home. The family opened Phở Ninh Kieu in May 2016.

Phở Ninh Kieu’s extensive menu includes grilled meats over thin rice vermicelli noodles (bún) or rice (cơm) and 18 versions of phở, the restaurant’s most popular dish. Each bowl—sized medium through extra-large—arrives with a hearty portion of vermicelli in a clear, beefy broth. The secret, according to Lanh, is allowing the broth to simmer for 10 hours. Choices of what to add to that rich broth include thin slices of meat like brisket, eye round, flank steak, tendons, tripe, or all of the above (the “House Combo”). Add fresh mint leaves, bean sprouts and jalapeno slices as you wish. Phở Ninh Kieu serves a wonderful version of bò tái chanh—thinly sliced rare beef in a lime and fish sauce marinade served with fresh basil leaves over a bed of julienned onions and red bell peppers. Think beef carpaccio, but exploding with sweet, sour and salty flavors. A healthy sprinkling of chopped peanuts and fried shallots on top adds a crunchy texture to the dish.

Phở Ninh Kieu serves an egg yolk, condensed milk and club soda drink (soda hot ga). I have yet to find Hanoi’s staple, the egg coffee, on a New Jersey Vietnamese menu, but Phở Ninh Kieu’s egg yolk, condensed milk and club soda drink (soda hot ga) is an intriguing option.

Bánh xèo crepe at Pho Miu, Washington Township

Phở Miu • WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP

Daniel Ta arrived in North Jersey from Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) seven years ago. He also taught himself how to cook the food he grew up with—enlisting advice and recipes from his mom (beef phở) and his mother-in-law (Phở Miu’s “special soup,” bún thang)—and developed some of his own dishes, like his fried chicken wings. He named Phở Miu after his youngest daughter, and opened in 2014. Phở is his most popular dish. According to Daniel, since he left Saigon only seven years ago, he “still remembers the true taste of the phở.” The secret to his phở, says Daniel, is using only fresh ingredients, no MSG paste, and preparing each broth—beef, pork and chicken—separately. His beef broth takes 12 hours to prepare, often cooking overnight.

Like Lang Huynh in Parsippany, few of Daniel’s customers are Vietnamese, and he has adjusted his recipes to accommodate different palates. Phở Miu leaves the jalapenos off their bánh mì— unless you ask for them. The bánh xèo crepe here is excellent.

Hủ Tiều Miền Tây • PLEASANTVILLE

Some of the best bánh mì in New Jersey can be found at Hủ Tiều Miền Tây, a bustling, almost hidden restaurant located in an Atlantic County strip mall just outside of Atlantic City. (South Jersey, in fact, is where you’ll find the largest Vietnamese immigrant community in the state. See “Vietnamese Atlantic City Style” in the Fall 2013 issue of Edible Jersey.) The classic bánh mì sandwich is carefully constructed on a freshly baked French baguette. The traditional first layer is pork pate, topped with slivers of pickled vegetables (daikon, carrots, cucumbers), raw jalapenos, sliced meat (ham, roast or BBQ pork), cilantro stems and a smear of butter on the top half of the baguette. (Another strong bánh mì contender is Edison’s Baguette Delight, a small deli counter on New Jersey’s historic Old Post Road (the route George Washington traveled to his 1789 inauguration). If General Washington passed by again, he would surely stop for the lemongrass and beef bánh mì.

Bún Thįt Nướng at Pho Today, South Plainfield

Phở Today • SOUTH PLAINFIELD

Phở and bánh mì might be the most well-known Vietnamese menu items here in New Jersey, but there are many more dishes to try. A nice introduction is the extensive menu at Phở Today, a newcomer to Middlesex County’s dynamic Asian food scene, which opened last January. A Vietnamese diner disguised as a sports bar, this two-story restaurant sits between Route 287 and a Best Western Hotel. There are multiple comfortable seating areas, lounges and private event spaces. The fact that the restaurant has a full bar immediately distinguishes Phở Today from just about every other Vietnamese restaurant in New Jersey, which are mostly BYO.

Like any respectable Jersey diner menu, the Phở Today menu is huge. Our server insisted that we order by number. Beyond the multiple bánh mì, phở, noodle and rice options, the menu includes main dishes like soft-shell crab tempura, clay pot stewed fish and stir-fried goat curry. Try the grilled pork and spring rolls over vermicelli (bún thịt nuờng), with shredded lettuce, pickled vegetables and fish sauce (nuoc cham) for dipping. Even better is the beef jerky papaya salad—tart green papaya sticks soaked in lime juice and laced with a spicy chile paste, topped with shredded beef jerky, cilantro and chopped peanuts—which reminded me of the nôm bō we had sampled on the streets of Hanoi. Thanks to Phờ Today’s liquor license, you can wash this powerful appetizer down with a cold beer.

SEAK • EDGEWATER

For a modern twist on Vietnamese cuisine, Edgewater’s Southeast Asian Kitchen, or SEAK, which opened in August 2017, highlights small plates from across the region. SEAK’s chef, James Wang, draws inspiration from the floating markets of Southeast Asia, serving the cuisines of both Thailand and Vietnam. The vibe here is decidedly trendy, with Edison light bulbs and Thai iced tea served in mason jars. A counter “bar” serves fruit smoothies, teas and Vietnamese coffee. The SEAK dining room features a beautiful view of the Hudson River and Upper Manhattan’s Riverside Church tower. Brightly painted wooden window shutters on one wall evoke the French colonial architecture you might see in Hanoi.

While the dishes we tried lack the assertive flavors you’ll find at other Jersey Vietnamese restaurants, they arrive with generous portions of fresh ingredients. SEAK’s bánh mì offerings, for example, overflow with heritage pork or grilled sesame beef but omit the pork pate and include mayonnaise instead. An overstuffed crepe filled with shrimp, pork and bean sprouts was much larger than any bánh xèo we had encountered in Vietnam. SEAK’s jumbo lump crab fried rice with jasmine rice and a shrimp paste reduction is a standout entree. The restaurant’s banh mi frites— twice-fried waffle fries topped with pickled vegetables, caramelized pork crumble, cilantro and sriracha aioli—are a popular Southeast Asian–American mash-up.

VIETNAMESE FOOD

It is a good time to embark on a Vietnamese food tour close to home. Here are 15 places to explore Vietnamese food across New Jersey:

Baguette Delight
381 Old Post Rd.
Edison
732.626.5542

Binh Duong
61½ Belleville Ave.
Bloomfield
973.680.8440

Com Ga Ninh Kiều
1124 Atlantic Ave.
Atlantic City
609.572.9211

Hủ Tiếu Miền Tây
700 E. Black Horse Pike
Pleasantville
609.646.8977

Miss Saigon
3333 Route 9 N.
Freehold
732.462.7497

OoLaLa! Vietnamese Kitchen
2569 Route 10 E.
Morris Plains
862.260.9434

Pho Eden
1900 Greentree Rd.
Cherry Hill
856.424.0075

Pho Today Bridgewater
623 E. Main St.
Bridgewater
908.864.4111

Phở Miu
255 Pascack Rd.
Washington Township
201.497.3915

Pho Ninh Kieu
73 New Rd.
Parsippany
973.521.9900

Phở Today
101 New World Way
South Plainfield
908.822.2030

Saigon
2239 S. Clinton Ave.
South Plainfield
908.561.9085

Saigon Café
286 Essex St.
Millburn
973.376.6061

SEAK
725 River Rd.
Edgewater
201.402.3400

Thanh Huong
533 West Side Ave.
Jersey City
201.333.3030

CAMBODIAN FOOD

Cambodian food is more of a challenge to find in the Garden State. While more than 25,000 New Jerseyans report Vietnamese ancestry, fewer than 2,000 trace their roots to Cambodia. You may need to cross a river to sample Cambodian cuisine. Across the Hudson on Manhattan's Upper East Side, the sole Cambodian restaurant in New York City is Angkor Cambodian Bistro. There are more options across the Delaware River in South Philadelphia, where there is a cluster of Cambodian restaurants. For fish amok and other Cambodian dishes, try:

Angkor Cambodian Bistro
408 E. 64th St.
New York, NY
212.758.2111

Khmer Sweet Basil
1801 S. 6th St.
Philadelphia, PA
267.437.6056

New Phnom Penh
2301 S. 7th St.
Philadelphia, PA
215.389.2122

I Heart Cambodia
2207 S. 7th St.
Philadelphia, PA
215.468.2022

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