Chef/owner Trinh Nguyen (Ramie, Sucres, Ba Sa, Pho T&N) joins us for a wide-ranging conversation on Vietnamese cuisine. Learn how she went from putting her college dreams on hold, in order to run her parents’ pho shop at age 19, to finally fulfilling her passion—serving cutting-edge Viet dishes—at Ramie. Are Seattle diners ready to explore the evolution of Vietnamese food the same way they’ve embraced the evolution of Italian, Japanese, Filipino, and other international cuisines? What barriers are still in place that need to be overcome?

We also talk about local seafood, as Trinh wonders why the PNW doesn’t cultivate a wider variety of native fish and shellfish.

Plus Meg’s reppin’ cozy cideries, Mark’s reppin’ live music, and we all rep the local restaurant scene with the latest news—and our favorite bites—of the week.

Places mentioned in this episode:

Little Jaye

Ba + Me

Woodshop BBQ

Temple Pastries

Menya Musashi

Mee Sum Pastry

Karoo Cafe

Copa Cafe

Hellinka

Cockrell Cider

Mezzanotte

Letterpress Distilling

Pidgin Cooperative

Taz

00:00 Intro

07:08 How Trinh Started

15:19 Ba Sa and Expanding Pho T&N

23:21 Ramie

33:20 Meg’s La Huerta Numero Dos Mystery Snack

39:49 This Week’s Restaurant News

53:19 Why Isn’t More Native Seafood Cultivated Here?

59:34 Ramie and Evolving Vietnamese Cuisine

1:11:39 Sucres

1:16:42 Thanks, I Ate It!

1:30:46 Coming Up Next Week