A review from US Embassy October newsletter

MATCHBOX—Pho Phusion Okay, so I’m a sucker for cured meats—so much so that, for my birthday this year, my wife bought me a guide to making charcuterie at home. The thought of that nice pancetta, patiently curing in the spare bedroom, is really warming my heart. Not surprisingly then, the first thing I noticed on the menu of this quaint little bistro was the beef carpaccio appetizer. I ordered it, it was really good, and before I had even seen the main course, I decided I liked the place. But we’ll come back to that. Matchbox, located off Nui Truc across from the Lycee Francaise and about 15 minutes by foot from the Embassy, was opened earlier this year by Ha Pham, a Vietnamese chef who honed his craft in Australia and New Zealand. The menu is immediately familiar to the Western bistro diner— duck confit salad, hummus and house-made bread, bacon-wrapped steak over mashed (sweet!) potatoes and asparagus, lamb shank with demi-glace, gnocchi with fresh herb sauce, spaghetti with chili/ olive oil/pecorino, chocolate mousse, tiramisu. Although such a menu screams “pricey”, the prices are actually quite reasonable, with nothing on the menu over VND180,000 (excluding wine). Such a menu also screams “wine list”, but here Matchbox falls short. I’ve dined there three times now, but have only been offered the choice of two red wines —a merlot from Australia and a cabernet sauvignon from Chile. Both are reasonably priced and very good, but with such a menu, I could’ve used a few more options, e.g,. a pinot noir from New Zealand or a nice Aussie shiraz. However, beer connoisseurs take note—the list of nice Aussie and Euro brews is much more extensive. It all sounds good in theory, but is this just another place (a la several in the Old Quarter that shall remain nameless) that offers up the promise of Paris and Rome, only to deliver the flavor of a food court? Fortunately, the answer is an emphatic “Khong!” Pham is a real foodie and, for the most part, manages to pull off the ambitious menu. The duck confit legs, served over a medley of thinlysliced vegetables in a béchamel sauce, was excellent. Although the quality of duck cannot be compared to what we get in the States, it was nonetheless meaty and superbly moist and tasty. Like good musicians and FSOs, Pham knows it’s all about who you steal your riffs from: his source for the duck confit recipe is celebrity chef Thomas Keller’s excellent bistro cookbook Bouchon. Even more impressive, the tiramisu surpassed anything I’ve tried in Washington, Rome, or Florence. Pham’s secret is his house-made mascarpone. Not content to just replicate Western dishes, Pham is also creative in adding subtle Vietnamese touches to liven things up, like lemongrass-infused olive oil and the distinctly “pho-esque” character of the beef carpaccio. This really caught my attention, because as much as I like pho, sitting over a steaming hot bowl of soup on a summer day in Hanoi is not my idea of phun. Served over arugula and citrus, this is like a pho-phlavored salad! The recipe? Coat the beef tenderloin with a mixture of star anise, cinnamon, salt, and a special Vietnamese pepper from Sapa, cover and let cure in the fridge for four days, slice, and serve. Pham, take a bow, because this is phusion cuisine at its phinest. Any complaints besides the inadequate winelist? The dining room always seems a little too warm, and the small size of the place means that you can feel like you’re sitting in the kitchen, smoke vents and all. But these are minor issues. If you like eating at a restaurant where the chef/owner obviously cares about the quality of the food he is serving, you should give Matchbox a try.

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