GUD FEATURE ARTICLE

Where Detroit Meets the South China Sea

Every major metropolitan area has its ethnic neighborhoods and Detroit is no different. Places like Southwest Detroit, Dearborn and Hamtramck all contain multiple restaurants, food markets, and retail stores that offer a small piece of home for their various immigrant populations. Hidden in plain sight is the vibrant Southeast Asian community in Madison Heights. Though sprawling and interspersed with typical suburban strip mall establishments, there are numerous places where one can grab a hearty bowl of pho, a banh mi sandwich, a bag of dried rice noodles, or a crunchy, shrimp-flavored snack.

Start your tour on the west side of John R. Road between 11 and 12 Mile Roads, Thang Long makes a good pho. And what’s not to like about a massive bowl of rich, slow developed meat broth flavored with spices and filled with rice vermicelli noodles and beef? But we are truly into their combo vermicelli with shrimp, crab and pork crispy roll (bun cha gio tom cua). It’s a bowl of those same rice noodles with the addition of cucumber, fresh cabbage, daikon, pickle, carrot, fried garlic and mint. Instead of broth, you’ll get a small bowl of garlic fish sauce dressing to pour over the works. It’s an uncomplicated dish, yet deeply satisfying.

Spicy with chile, lemongrass and shrimp paste, we order a cup of Thang Long’s hue soup every time we dine there. It’s nasal-clearing and belly-filling with chunks of tender beef. Hangovers will run and hide. Other good dishes are the lemongrass beef or chicken. Try quail roasted in five spice with a lime, salt, and pepper dipping sauce as an appetizer. With all the quality Vietnamese dishes on the menu we never find the urge to order from the Thai section.

Two doors up is Chinatown Market where the shelves are stocked with a variety of food from frozen dim sum to fresh, whole duck. Chinatown Market caters to a general Asian clientele and is where we shop for noodles. Ramen, soba, udon, egg, flat rice, rice vermicelli, bean thread (aka glass noodle, aka cellophane noodle) and more, the noodle aisle is like natural history display of Asian food.

Farther north on John R. near 13 Mile is another strip mall restaurant and market pairing. Many claim that Thuy Trang serves the best Vietnamese food in the area. Frankly, we believe that all of these places have their strengths and weaknesses. Find out for yourself. A few doors up, Saigon Market is a good place to purchase prepared foods and drinks. They make an excellent banh mi and many times you can find multi-colored steamed rice cakes (banh bo hap) that come with a sweet and salty coconut dipping sauce ideal as a light dessert.

Across the street, Que Huong is said to have the ultimate banh mi. Filled with shredded pork skin and the other requisite goodies, their sandwich is quite good, though we prefer the chewy texture of a fresh bun vs. the toasted one we received here. But add Que Huong to your pho tour of Detroit and be sure to order the avocado smoothie that is the perfect balance of creamy, sweet and refreshing.

Head east to the intersection of 13 Mile Road and Dequindre Road. This little strip mall corner of Madison Heights has it all. We love banh mi from Pho Hang restaurant if only because they give you the fresh ingredients, cucumber, cilantro, hot peppers, pickled carrot and daikon, in a small bag to add at your convenience. This is another spot to hit on the pho tour.

Next door, Kim Nhung Super Foods sells everything you need to make an authentic Vietnamese meal in your own kitchen along with numerous frozen and specialty products from items as mundane as tapioca flour to exotic canned grasshopper. Stop by on a Saturday and you’ll find Styrofoam coolers full of live frogs, snails, oysters and other surprises.

Further down, QQ Bakery is a tiny gem that offers everything from bubble tea to curry pastries but they really shine with a simple sponge cake. Airy, moist and lightly sweetened, each bite is a delicate morsel that practically dissolves on the tongue.Try it flavored with pandan, a mildly nutty tropical screwpine leaf, and rolled Swiss-style around a thin layer of cream. We often see diners that were sitting near us at one of the restaurants chose to hit QQ for dessert. Finally, for a quick, hot portion of juicy, roasted pork or duck to go, visit Liang’s Oriental BBQ. While you’re there amongst the hanging, roasted animals you might imagine you stepped into a wormhole and landed square in a Hong Kong side street.

There are nearly twenty ways to order pho at Pho Viet at the corner of 13 Mile Road and Ryan. Most are some combination of proteins — rare beef, well-done flank, brisket, tendon, tripe, beef meatballs, or all of the above. With a depth of flavor from long simmered bones and a delicate hand with the spices, the broth really is the star in this dish. A plate of bean sprouts, Thai basil, fresh hot pepper slices, lime and culantro (a large leaf herb that tastes similar to cilantro) accompanies the soup. Also, try a sweet, sour, salty and refreshing soda made with preserved lime (chanh muoi). Needless to say, this is another requisite stop on the pho tour.

Rarely do these small, independent ethnic markets and restaurants see the type of media buzz that upscale or downtown establishments generate. Yet most of them see steady trade throughout the week and will likely survive whether or not they are revealed to a non-immigrant population. Indeed, even after years of eating and shopping in this area, we’re still discovering places to explore and new foods to sample. We certainly don’t intend for this list to be all-inclusive of what the community has to offer. In fact, we just recently discovered the Filipino flavors of New Lutong Pinoy.

At most, a few open-minded visits to this neighborhood can permanently alter the worldview of an individual that has been long sheltered from the culture of their immigrant neighbors. At least, a tasty smoothie and a glance into the melting pot that is Detroit is half of an hour well spent.

All photos courtesy of Marvin Shaouni Photography.

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Posted on 2011.08.15 by Todd Abrams at 2:21 pm
This entry was posted in Features and tagged Inside Detroit, local. Bookmark the permalink.

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