Hello Vietnam

There used to be a time when the promenade of DLF Cyber Hub, that Mecca of foodies in Gurugram, would be thronging with people most times of the day, with weekday afternoons often as busy as weekend nights for the scores of restaurants there, thanks to all the executives who work in the MNC conglomerates that rim around the hub.

Today, with an ongoing pandemic, universal work from home options, and a general fear of stepping out, we have no problem getting a table at Viet: Nom, our first dining out review since those early chaotic days in March. While the kitchen is helmed by Executive Chef Aakash Nakra, the restaurant staff does their part in making sure you feel safe and secure, from each setting of crockery and cutlery crisply packed for your safety, and staff armed in gloves, visors, masks, and much handwash.

The restaurant bar is open as well so you can gain some liquid courage through their top nosh, er, notch signature cocktails, while you wait for your food. Try the fruity, peppery Gin and Nom, as delish as it sounds. We start our meal with some Southeast Asian staples: a Papaya and Pomelo Salad and Crispy Lotus Stems. These dishes, and the ingredients that are used in them, are common across the region, as noted by the chef, but used in differing quant i ti es and compositions.

For instance, this Vietnamese variation of the Thai Som Tam, uses tiny Pomelo oranges and grape fruit to give the salad its familiar citric tang. Similarly, the lotus stems are also gentler and a tad sweeter than their Oriental counterparts, and indeed that would be an ideal descriptor of Vietnamese food, for those not too familiar with it: a gentler type of Thai and Malay flavours, with as much complexity of tastes, but subtler inferences. Similarly, the Pork Spare Ribs marinated in tamarind paste, are as tender, juicy, and falling of the bone than any Asian preparation of the same succulent meat, but not as in your face as some of the more fiery and robust renditions.

And by the way, this, dear reader, the feeling of digging into fabulously prepared dishes, fresh out of the kitchen, is why dining out can never be replaced, or even recreated, no matter how competently home delivery or take out are done. Our mains comprise Vietnam’s national dishes: namely a Seafood Pho, and Mango Curry with Jasmine Rice. The Pho (pronounced fuh) is an ambrosial clear soup in which bits of fresh fish, tender prawns, squid swim amidst a forest of glass noodles and fresh herbs and spices. It would be the perfect winter dish but we enjoy it just fine in a balmy September.

However, our personal favourite is the Chicken Mango Curry, which is our new favourite Asian curry. Think the best Thai Red Curry you have ever had, with its heat tempered by mango pulp that doesn’t so much sweeten the dish as bring its spices to the forefront. We continue to bid the summer adieu, sticking to mango to the last with a dessert of a chilled mango and sticky rice pudding, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. As always, there’s always room to finish a good dessert.

How to tell South Asian flavours apart
The lotus stems are gentler and a tad sweeter than their Oriental counterparts, and indeed that would be an ideal descriptor of Vietnamese food, for those not too familiar with it: a gentler type of Thai and Malay flavours, with as much complexity of tastes, but subtler inferences.