The Golden Age of Ho Chi Minh City

I first experienced “new Vietnamese” cuisine in 2017 at Ănăn, a buzzy, dimly-lit restaurant set in a time-honoured wet market in Ho Chi Minh City. Previously at the helm of Hong Kong’s lauded Chom Chom, the chef Peter Cuong Franklin earned headlines for his clever interpretations of Vietnam’s staple dishes—from bánh xèo rice crepes playfully reformatted as crunchy pork “tacos” to classic phở slow-simmered for 24 hours, then finished like French consommé.

Though more polished Vietnamese restaurants had always existed in HCMC, referred to colloquially as Saigon, they catered to business people, expats and tourists. Ănăn may well be one of the first concepts to reimagine Vietnamese food while still appealing to discerning locals. Sure, a dish of caviar served atop a congee-inspired molecular “rice foam” might read, on paper, as elevated for the sake of elevation, but Franklin’s use of local fish eggs and fresh herbs reveal an intimately Vietnamese profile. “We wanted people from all over the world, whether they’re New Yorkers or Europeans, to have