Secrets to cooking "Vietnamese-style steak
Near noon, Mr. Pham Hoang Ha (70 years old) is busy opening a restaurant located on the bustling Hoe Nhai street.
After preparing the final stages, rearranging tables and chairs, he began to welcome visitors to the shop.
Mr. Ha's steak shop opened in 2007, and has been operating for nearly 20 years. The shop only serves one dish.
Before sticky rice, Mr. Ha used to sell rice, pho, wonton noodles, vermicelli and many other dishes. Realizing that this was a dish suitable for the tastes of young people at that time, he decided to try selling it.
Thanks to many years of cooking experience, I self-study to perfect the recipe during the sales process. Over time, I gradually adjusted the processing method to make the dish more suitable for diners' tastes," Mr. Ha shared.
A full portion of steak is prepared quite elaborately, including beef, pate, omelet, french fries, bread and special sauces researched by Mr. Ha himself.
According to the restaurant owner, the beef is selected from filleted belly, marinated with spices and then incubated for about 5 hours before processing. Many types of spices are imported and mixed according to their own recipes to create a unique flavor.
The processing step is completely done on a cast iron pan. After heating at high temperatures, Mr. Ha quickly puts the beef into the pan, continuously flipping to make the meat cook evenly but still retain its softness and natural sweetness.
Compared to Western-style steak, the meat at the restaurant is thinner and fully cooked, suitable for Vietnamese eating habits.
Besides beef, the dipping sauce is also impressive to many diners when eating at the restaurant. Mr. Ha jokingly calls it "divine sauce", because he spent a lot of time experimenting to find a recipe with a light sweetness, aroma and richness.
This type of sauce is added when preparing dishes, and is also added separately for diners to dip or pour on the meat.
To complete the steak serving, the restaurant owner also puts a lot of effort into the side dishes. Potatoes after boiling will be fried briefly and then fried again to achieve the desired crispness.
For banh mi, he prioritizes types with hollow flesh, many shells and are grilled crispy before serving to easily absorb the sauce.
Especially, only when customers order food, Mr. Ha starts cooking to maintain the heat and the most standard flavor.
Nearly 20 years of keeping diners
For many years, Mr. Ha's restaurant has been chosen by many people when they want to enjoy traditional style steak. The restaurant's customers are mainly Vietnamese, especially young people and families with young children.
Among them, there are many couples who have been eating since they were in love, and after getting married and having children, they still often stop by the restaurant.
As a regular customer who often takes her children out to eat on weekends, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong (44 years old, Hoan Kiem ward) said that steak here still retains the original flavor compared to the first time she experienced it.
I have been eating here for quite a long time and see that the quality of the dish is maintained stably. The beef is always soft, fresh and maintains a uniform flavor, so I have never felt disappointed when returning.
Compared to many steak restaurants in the same style, I like the sauce here the most. The sauce has its own flavor, not too sweet but more rich, very suitable for the taste of Northern people," Ms. Huong shared.
To serve diners, Mr. Ha starts working from about 6:30 am to 7 am every day. After getting ingredients, he returns to the restaurant to pre-process and prepare for opening hours. The restaurant operates continuously from 10 am to 10:30 pm.
A full meal costs 110,000 VND. In addition to the accompanying dish in the steak meal, the restaurant also serves free potatoes and pickled vegetables for diners to use if needed.
Currently, the restaurant has two premises located in the same area. One location is used to serve diners, while the other is a place for processing and preliminary processing of ingredients.
Thanks to maintaining a stable flavor for many years, this place has become a familiar address for many diners in Hanoi.
