We are two days away from the 35th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, a major marker in modern history. Not only was it the date when South Vietnam succumbed to North Vietnam, but it also signaled American defeat in the Vietnam War. Vietnam was a tiny tropical country whose communist insurgency could not be contained and reigned in. The whole situation was a mess and resulted in tens of thousands of people fleeing on April 30, 1975.
I was six years old at that time and remember being extremely scared. That’s just from the perspective of a child. My parents, both in their 40s, were under far more stress. We were fortunate to have been able to leave by plane a week before Saigon totally collapsed. Many others had to escape by boat or were forced into reeducation camps and then found other routes to leave the country.
The Vietnamese refugees and immigrants who rebuilt their lives abroad have moved on. They’ve given birth to second (and maybe third) generations of hyphenated Vietnamese people. They’ve taken to eating banh mi filled with meatballs, slurping pho seasoned by Sriracha.
From: Wikipedia.com
Then there’s the Vietnamese-cajun crayfish craze. What’s up with that? John T. Edge, one of my favorite food writers investigated the phenomenon. We chatted a few weeks ago and today, John T’s article appeared in the New York Times. He surveys the Vietnamese crayfish scene across the United States and yes – it’s a hyphenated American thing. Read:
- Vietnamese Immigrants Carry on a Cajun Food Tradition (John T. Edge, NYT, 4/28/10)
- Vietnamese crayfish restaurant slideshow
Also, check out “A Bit Crazy for Crustaceans” (LAT, 9/23/2008) by journalist My-Thuan Tran, a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. It’s about the Vietnamese crayfish craze and copycat restaurants in Orange County’s Little Saigon.
Do you like Vietnamese crayfish boils? Why? What are your favorite spots?
Anyone know if the Vietnamese-cajun crayfish craze has hit Vietnam itself? How about in Australia where the lobster-size giant red claw crayfish?
Goodness, what a difference 35 years makes.
Adam says
My mom is Vietnamese, and my dad is from Louisiana. I've been eating crawfish since I was a kid, but I've actually never heard of a Vietnamese way of doing it. What is different in a Vietnamese boil? As an aside, I find it interesting that there are several spices in common between a Cajun boil and pho.
calily says
Vietnamese folks sure love crawfish! I'm from Southeast TX and it's less than 30 minutes to the Louisiana border - so the folks there usually get their fill of crawfish!
Vietnamese boils usually have a lot of extra ingredients: oranges, garlic, lemons, BUTTER!, along with the regular crawfish boil seasoning.
Viet people tend to like it uber-spicy as well - who knew?! haha.
In my family, we like to dip the crawfish in either mayo or the regular muoi tieu chanh (salt/pepper/lime). YUM!
christine says
Hi Andrea! I'm from San Jose, CA and my favorite spot for crawfish is Boiling Crab. You should definitely give it a try when you're in the area! I must warn you, though, the wait is extremely ridiculous! (1-2 hours of wait) Best to get it to-go. And to answer your question, the crawfish craze has hit Vietnam. There's another restaurant in San Jose called San Jose Crawfish. They've branched their restaurant to Sacramento and Saigon! That restaurant is good, too (more of an extreme butter and garlic sauce, while the latter has a salty, buttery, herbed, garlicky taste.) YUM!
I just wanted you to know that I'm a huge aficionado of your work! I'm a young college student, learning to cook for myself. I've purchased your book Into the Viet Kitchen, and I love it! Thanks so much for your wonderful recipes and keep up the great work!
Oranngwutang says
I'm an American expat who's lived in Saigon for the last three years and I don't recall ever seeing crayfish (or as we called them in Mississippi where I grew up, crawfish) on any menus. Also my wife is Vietnamese and she's never mentioned crayfish or ordered them when I was with her.
Jen says
I'm currently living in HCMC and I went to a crayfish place a few weeks ago. The owner has a handful of restaurants in California. Nha Hang Tom hum dat, 114 Tran Dinh Xu, quan 1. I think this the only place I know of so far that serves Cajun style crayfish.
Andrea Nguyen says
Jen -- what amazing intel you have:
Crayfish/crawfish = tom hum dat = dirt/soil lobsters
Have been introduced to HCMC by a Viet Kieu. Now that's a global evolution of foodways. Gotta check it out next time I'm back in Saigon.
Thanks everyone else for adding favorites, etc.
Btw, the Viet crayfish boil used to be similar to the Louisiana original but with a Viet dipping sauce of lime, salt, and pepper. But now, some people add lemongrass and lemon butter/margarine.
Tebonin says
This is one of the dishes I love most. But we always have it in summer in china with hot chill source.
Mytah says
PLEASE, call them Crawfish. If you call them Crayfish everyone will know you're a noob 🙂 and you will make the Crawfish Queen cry. Haha
I live in Pensacola, FL. (not far too from Cajun country)and have been eating crawfish for years. The absolute best I've ever had was a few years ago in Houston when I was attending a friends Viet Wedding. That wedding was amazing, and I was honored to be a part of it...but I digress. The rehearsal dinner consisted of a huge backyard boil. I was amazed when I saw the cook pour gallons after gallon of orange juice into the boiling pot. The spices were essentially the same as a Cajun boil but after they were cooked and steeped the crawfish were dumped in a cooler and a "sauce" of melted butter with lightly sauteed very fine garlic and onions was poured on top and it was all shook up in the cooler. Cajuns do not do that or the O.J.! hehe
Around here when we don't feel like cooking up our own we shoot over to Mobile, Al. for the BEST cooked ones in the area. D.I.P. Seafood...incidentally...run by a Vietnamese family.
This weekend is the HUGE festival in the crawfish capital of the world Breaux Bridge, La.
http://www.bbcrawfest.com
BTW Andrea, you rock! I've been coming to this site for years now, when it was not much more than an Herb Primer 🙂 Never before have I had anything I considered would be interesting to post. Your books are awesome and have really helped in enjoying the food and culture of Vietnam. My version of ItVK is gettin a little tattered from use and is a mainstay in my kitchen. So...THANKS! 🙂
Andrea Nguyen says
I initially spelled it crawfish but noticed that the NYT used CRAYFISH. As a writer, I have to be consistent. The NYT is "the newspaper of record" so there you go!
Thuy says
We call these yabbies in Australia, our Vietnamese family use to catch them by the bucket load when we first came to Australia. It was a social event shared with other Vietnamese families. After the catch, they were stir-fried in a wok with garlic, tomato sauce & sweet chillies sauce. Completely awesome!! Though they have never taken off to 'restaurant' status.
facelift says
What is this? Is it ea table? It looks weird!
Andrea Nguyen says
Thuy -- Yabbies... Aussies have the best words for things (i.e., woop-woop). Love it that your family caught them by the buckets. Yep, our fresh-off-the-boat immigrant ways are now kinda hip. Isn't it about time?!
Boracay hotel rooms says
Wow! I can feel my mouth watering and my stomach rumbling. Delicious!
Anh Tran says
http://www.boston.com/ae/food/restaurants/articles/2010/05/05/viet_cajun_arrives_in_dorchester_at_brothers_crawfish/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed6
Andrea Nguyen says
Anh -- Thanks for the link. Brother's Crawfish, would you like a side of Spam fried rice with your Viet-Cajun crawfish?
Dee says
I remember back when I was a kid in the late 70's, my father, uncles, and the guys from the local VFW's (mostly Vietnam vets) worked like madmen helping the Viet refugees secure homes down here along the Gulfcoast.
I'm pretty amused that crawdad boils have made it back to Vietnam from the Deep South.
Brett Sutcliffe says
I remembered when I was teen ager... in the market one bottle of beer with one plate of this dish...chat with my friends.
Wai Bowman says
I love the vietnamese-cajun style crawfish!!!!Yum....Does anybody have a recipe to share????
boracay hotels says
my girlfriend way back in college brought a lot of this to our apartment , we were eating this food for 1 month. it was really yummy. i love eating this one.
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walkerica says
One of my favorite ways of cooking crawfish is the boiling crawfish. I still remember how my grandma used to cook us crawfish. It’s really tasty and delicious.
Thailand Seafood says
To top it off, we were both feeling a bit under the weather so a therapeutic and comforting bowl of cháo (rice porridge or congee) was the first thing we made as soon as the jetlag wore off.
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marlon says
I'm pretty amused that crawdad boils have made it back to Vietnam from the Deep South.
Greensboro restaurant says
Looks delicious and i love Crayfish! I