In 2007, Gourmet magazine ran a short piece on Vietnamese cooking in Senegal. I thought it interesting and novel and filed it the back of my brain. Last week, Amy Scattergood of the Los Angeles Times "Food" section reviewed a cookbook called Yolele! Recipes From the Heart of Senegal by Pierre Thiam, a Brooklyn-based chef. The article included a flavorful black-eye peas salad but what was more interesting was that Scattergood mentioned that Senegalese food is influenced by Vietnamese culinary concepts.
Her comment piqued my interest and with some research, I realized that both Senegal and Vietnam were French colonies. (Those European colonists couldn't stop!) Moreover, in the early part of the 20th century, Senegalese men were sent to Vietnam as soldiers . A number of them took Vietnamese wives and brought them back to Senegal. That's what I got from a July 2007 Voice of America story on a lau hot pot meal at the home of Jean Gomis, a Viet-Senegalese man. Gomis decribed himself as being "mixed, with red blood and black skin, but that his heart is gold, referring to one of the colors on Vietnam's national flag. " He was born in Vietnam and makes a Vietnamese food daily.
Here are some other facts I've gleaned on the Vietnamese community in Senegal:
- The Vietnamese population is concentrated mostly in Dakar, the capital.
- In the 1990s through a United Nations food and agricultural program, Vietnamese agricultural technicians arrived for a mutual assistance program.
- In 2001, some of those technicians started making nuoc mam fish sauce with local sardines.
- There are Vietnamese restaurants in Dakar. Le Dragon is the oldest one, and credited with starting the Asian food trend in the city.
Do any of you know additional information? Please add your knowledge.
2/18/09 Update: Morocco, also a French colony, absorbed some of the ideas from Vietnam. Simon Bao pointed me to a Moroccan recipe for baked phyllo rolls that are quite similar to cha gio -- they're eaten with lettuce and cilantro. Here's a page for details and a recipe for Moroccan Briouats of Shrimp from Kitty Morse's Cooking at the Kasbah: Recipes from My Moroccan Kitchen (Chronicle Books).
Gastronomer says
Wow! That is absolutely fascinating. I wonder if the Vietnamese community in Dakar refer to it as Little Saigon...
Simon Bao says
Hmmm, I wonder if the name Little Saigon stirs blood and madness in Dakar the way it can here in the USA. Nah, doubt it. 🙂
Andrea, that's a very interesting bit of history and diaspora, and thanks very much for sharing it. I'd be interested now in trying some Viet Senegalese Jollof Rice and seeing what's in it. I googled a bit to see what other information is available about the history of that community but it's not much -- and it occurs to me that information may be out there in French r
Al says
Simon: "it occurs to me that information may be out there in French rather than English"
I have often wondered what resources for Vietnamese cooking are available in French, but have never explored it.
I always say that food is all about history and geography. This is a good example.
Somewhere, I have a North African recipe that makes "egg rolls" with wrappers of ouarka.(sp?) French colonialism was the catalyst here, too.
Bobby Chinn returns the favor by making b'steeya(also sp?) with rice pape
Wandering Chopsticks says
Oh wow. Totally fascinating. I knew of some Chinese communities in Africa, but never thought about the French colonial connection for VNese. A long time ago, I met a VNese guy who did business in Africa. I totally forgot which country or what he did there.
Andrea Nguyen says
I know, isn't kinda crazy but not? Al, I need to get Bobby's book. I saw it in Asia when if first came out but didn't want to lug it home. You should make his bisteeya with banh trang rice paper and see if it's the same as phyllo. I'm somewhat skeptical.
Seems like the numbers are huge in Dakar but it's quite remarkable nevertheless.
Well, if anyone reads French, please do a bit of research and help us out here!
I'll poke around in Senegalese cooking to parse the Viet influence.
Erica Peters says
Vietnamese rebels and convicts (or just plain poor workers) were also brought to various French regions of Africa as early as the 1880s. They established rice fields and vegetable gardens in the Congo and in Gabon. See, for instance, Jeremy Rich's book, A Workman is Worthy of His Meat: Food and Colonialism in the Gabon Estuary (2007), pp. 56-57. I don't know of any in-depth treatment of these migrants or their food systems. As far as Senegal in particular, I've seen concerns that French colonial
Robyn says
That's fascinating. I missed that Gourmet article. Coincidentally we spent half a day in Saigon last week trying to find two African restaurants we'd heard about. No luck.
Andrea Nguyen says
Erica -- thanks for the insights -- since the 1880s. The French regions of Africa were kind of like a destination for exiles and the unwanted, an Australia of sorts. Btw, my uncle, a Vietnamese expat who lived most of his life in Aix en Provence worked for years in Gabon on an architectural/engineering project.
Robyn -- you and Dave -- do we surf the same wave lengths or what? The Gourmet piece was very small and easy to miss.
serena says
i am Asian (Malaysian), & up until two weeks ago was living in Dakar.
there are indeed plenty of Vietnamese settlers in Senegal (as distinct from the newer wave of Chinese traders & entrepreneurs), & most Asian restaurants in Dakar (there are quite a few) boast a menu at least partially Viet-influenced. Nems - fried spring rolls akin to Vietnamese cha gio, but meatier & chubbier - are found everywhere, & are very much part of the country's snack food landscape, being dished out by itinerant vend
serena says
i am Asian (Malaysian), & up until two weeks ago was living in Dakar.
there are indeed plenty of Vietnamese settlers in Senegal (as distinct from the newer wave of Chinese traders & entrepreneurs), & most Asian restaurants in Dakar (there are quite a few) boast a menu at least partially Viet-influenced. Nems - fried spring rolls akin to Vietnamese cha gio, but meatier & chubbier - are found everywhere, & are very much part of the country's snack food landscape, being dished out by itinerant vend
Mary-Anne Durkee says
Today there is an interesting article on Do Dac Loc, South Vietnam's Ambassador to the Ivory Coast who stayed on in Abidjan with his family in 1974 when North Vietnam over-ran South Vietnam. In that year, the Loc family was one of five Vietnamese families in Abidjan. Now there are more than 3,000 Vietnamese men, women and children and a dozen Vietnamese restaurants.
The Vietnamese have been drawn to the Ivory Coast, in part, because they share the Ivorians's French heritage. Also, the climate
Andrea Nguyen says
Mary-Anne, Great fine. Thanks so much for contributing that piece of info.
Dianne Le says
wonderful to run across this posting. i was in senegal a few years ago, and came across a bright red sign "hong kong and vietnamese cuisine". i found this fascinating and dropped by for what turned out to be delicious vietnamese food. vietnamese people in senegal? i was THRILLED!
the grandmother and grandfather came to africa after 1954. apparently, they joined the french army and left vietnam in 1954; they would eventually live in numerous african countries...then senegal. living in the united
Simon Bao says
Andrea, for purposes of a progressive dinner I was looking at some possible Moroccan appetizers, and came across some references to Briouat. They are sheets of pastry dough, wrapped around a sweet or savory filling, and then deep fried. Like a Samosa, but also in many cases just like a Cha Gio. In fact, the seafood Briouat recipes all called for dried mushrooms and rice vermicelli and a few other ingredients that have more in common with Cha Gio than with anything Moroccan.
Then I came across
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marie says
Yes my family lives in Senegal and we are senegalese/vietnamese...
marie says
By any chance do you know the Goudiaby's Vietnamese/Senegalese family in Senegal... My Grandma Thi-Nep Nguyen used to have a restaurant on the army base waayy back in the days.