Last week my wife and I were lamenting the fact that there were no restaurants nearby that offered Vietnamese cuisine.  In fact, there are no Vietnamese restaurants in our whole entire state!  We had to travel up to Pittsburgh or Columbus to find the closest. We have a few recipes for Vietnamese dishes, but proper ingredients are hard to come by. This is about the change in a big way.

West Virginia is about to get its first Vietnamese restaurant. Pho Vinh Long  is expected to up in October 22nd on D Street in South Charleston, West Virginia.  This is just a few blocks south of the Mound. We are looking forward to trying it out. When a new restaurant opens, we always give them about two weeks before trying them out.  This gives them a chance to work out any kinks.  It may be  hard for us to wait that long this time.

 

What makes Vietnamese food so special? Isn't it same stuff you get at a Chinese Take-out?  Well, no. Vietnamese cuisine is totally different. One of the more popular dishes is Pho noodles. Pho is properly pronounced as if you wanted to say the work fudge, but without the 'dge' part.  In other words, "fuh" is the correct pronunciation.

I'm feeling a little lazy tonight, so I'll spare with the details describing what Pho is.  Besides, there is a decent Wikipedia entry for Pho and you can check it yourself here.

Pho restaurants have been quite popular in larger cities of the United States, such as New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas, I have noticed a few places opening up in smaller cities with greater frequency.  For example, I was surprised on a recent trip to Greenvile-Spartansburg, South Carolina that there was Pho just outside my hotel. I ate there each night of my stay.

I am not sure if West Virginians will be eager to try Vietnamese food. But, there are quite a few transplants in the Charleston area, and this may be enough to stay in business. The Charleston market may be just a little too small, but if the food is good and word spreads around, they should do OK. Good luck to the owners of Pho Vinh Long.