If you are curious where one of the most famous families in Hollywood has to go, it is Cuc Gach Quan, which is also one of the first places to serve Vietnamese family meals in Saigon.
Owned by architect Tran Binh and his French-Vietnamese wife, Thai Tu-Tho, Binh acquired a derelict colonial mansion and reimagined it as an indoor-outdoor fantasia, blending historic details (antique armoires; a wall map of 1960’s Saigon) with contemporary touches (gorgeous lighting; a floating staircase) to create a strikingly romantic space—a gauzy, soft-focus realm that plays with one’s sense of time. Pre-1975 Vietnamese folk plays on a vintage reel-to-reel tape machine. A flowering cherry tree in the courtyard provides the fragrance. But graceful interiors are a dime a dozen in Saigon.
Remember when Cuc Gach Quan was opened, some people in Saigon tasted each other about an old diner on Dang Tat Street (where you never know what they are selling … because there Each day they will sell completely different items without prior notice.)
Cuc Gach Quan is decorated in old style with wood table; Bamboo chopsticks in ancient French milk and enjoy the soulful food in the bowl of chewy porcelain bowl. The rice dish of the restaurant is simple and cozy, such as tomato sauce, sour soup, boiled shrimp, tamarind sauce or fish.
Especially , Cuc Gach Quan ‘s menu gives priority to processed from vegetables, minimizes MSG and does not use marinated chemicals.
Intensely flavored but not at all heavy, it tingles the tongue then melts in the mouth. Eggplant cooked in scallion oil is deliciously smoky and tender. Diep’s cloudlike house-made tofu is lightly fried with lemongrass, shallots, and chiles, creating a sauce worth bottling and smuggling home.
So far, it is still one of the things that makes Cuc Gach Quan become famous and more and more people are coming to try or find the cozy feeling of the family meal when they are back.
“Thanks for a great lunch, a nice space, good food, we hope to come back next” is what the Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt family left after enjoying a feast. Vietnamese soup with boiled meat and boiled vegetables.
