The combination of ingredients — turmeric, dill, shrimp paste and fish sauce — delivers an intriguing muskiness bolstered with chiles, silky noodles and a thicket of other fresh herbs to season the chunks of moist fish. My memories are still vivid after 10 years.
(Judging from many blog posts, recent visitors have had a more negative experience: touristy and expensive.)
But the dish has made a strong impression on today’s cutting-edge chefs, who are intrigued by the surprising abundance of dill, an herb that is rarely associated with Southeast Asian cuisine. Those who have been to the restaurant (and some who have not) are now bringing it to American tables.
Michael Bao Huynh, who owns BaoBQ restaurants in downtown Manhattan and is from Saigon, noted that dill is uncommon in Vietnamese dishes and that when it is used, it is more in the north, especially in the cha ca dish and in a fish soup. The version he serves, called bun cha ca, is made with grilled catfish satays with herbs over rice vermicelli.
Andy Ricker, the Portland, Ore., chef who has won a national reputation for his take on Southeast Asian food, made a point of going to Hanoi in 2005 to taste cha ca la Vong. Though his restaurant, Pok Pok, features mostly Thai food, he has been serving the dish since the place opened in 2006, and has put it on the menu of his New York branch, Pok Pok NY, which opened in April on Columbia Street, near the waterfront in Brooklyn. His recipe, which he calls “a stab at the famous dish,” is made with a Vietnamese catfish called basa.
Angelo Sosa, who tucked his take on the dish into a baguette when he owned Xie Xie in Hell’s Kitchen, has started serving it again at Social Eatz, his year-old place in Midtown. He slathers seared turmeric-marinated tilapia with sriracha mayonnaise and sweet onion jam. He also offers a version with a whole broiled flounder and turmeric oil. He said his experience of the Hanoi restaurant and its signature dish “was one of the greatest food memories of my life, a reason to go to Vietnam.”
Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who has also been to Cha Ca La Vong, interprets the Vietnamese dish as a salad made with halibut at his Spice Market, which opened in 2003 in the meatpacking district. “We use dill and cucumbers,” he said. “It’s very fresh and still on the menu.”
At Talde, a new restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Dale Talde serves roasted branzino with cha ca seasonings, including turmeric and herbs, an idea he said he got from Mr. Sosa. And Lon Symensma, formerly the chef at Buddakan and now the chef and an owner of ChoLon in Denver, is serving cha ca la taco at lunch. “I was always intrigued with the amount of dill in the dish,” he said, “but it makes sense once you try it.”
Simpson Wong, whose new Asian fusion restaurant in Greenwich Village is called Wong, went to Cha Ca La Vong in 2009 with his mother. “She loved that dish, and that was a big influence for me,” he said. “I tried it at home, and it was a big hit with my friends, so I knew it had to go on the menu.” He could not resist the play on words, calling it cha ca la Wong.
Mr. Wong’s many-layered interpretation is something of a monster, calling for an encounter with a well-stocked Vietnamese or Thai store or Web site. His recipe omits the stinky shrimp paste, and he prefers fresh turmeric to the ground variety because it is less bitter. He uses only a little of the ground spice as a binder. The turmeric on the fish seasons the oil, though his recipe is not as oily as the original. And he warns a cook to wear gloves because turmeric stains.
Once the various components are assembled, the cooking is fast, and the payoff is worth the effort. It is less demanding than a trip to Vietnam, though these days you don’t need a plane ticket to taste the dish in a restaurant.