Pho in Warsaw? I kid you not. I didn't actually eat at Hung Vuong, but this Vietnamese restaurant was across the road from the hotel I was staying at. The presence of a Vietnamese community in Poland isn't as incongruous as first appears. It's a legacy of the communist era, which saw many leave the old country to work in Eastern Europe.
Interesting. Mind you, a friend of mine worked in Warsaw for two years and says he had some fantastic Indian food there (he is a vegetarian so choice was limited).
ReplyDeleteThat Eastern Europe - SE Asia link with Vietnam, also explains why some of those Vietnamese lager style beers are so good. Czech brewers set a bunch of breweries across Vietnam.
I remember eating in Leipzig (former East Germany) and seeing a lot of Cuban restaurants. The ones I tried weren't great, but their existence in Leipzig was for a similar reason (former communist bloc countries making inter-country immigration easier).
ReplyDeleteGworm - your friend must have had a hard time in Poland. These guys use lard as a spread.
ReplyDeleteA-in-L - the things you learn! I wonder if these places have Cuban-style wurst on the menu. Oh, and big congrats on your 'news'!
Funny where you find Vietnamese restaurants. There are heaps in Paris as well thanks to all the immigration from what was once a former colony of France.
ReplyDeleteGChick - many of the Chinese restaurants in Paris are run by ethnic Chinese from Vietnam and Cambodia. Empire building certainly made food more interesting in many a country!
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