When Lien Ta was made redundant from her oil and gas job during the first wave of Covid-19 lockdowns in Scotland, there was only one place she wanted to go.
“It’s the smell, it’s the taste – it is just everything,” says Lien, who is from north Vietnam but has lived in Aberdeen for eight years. “This reminds me of my childhood.”
Lien’s refuge was the home-style, cooking of Mai Simpson, who from her kitchen and back garden in Mannofield, makes Aberdeen’s most authentic Vietnamese food.
Crispy spring rolls stuffed with bean sprouts and prawn, egg pancakes served in garden fresh greens, steamed bao buns with pork fillings – Mai’s recipes are a loving recreation of the street food cuisine of her home city of Hanoi.
Also on the menu is Vietnam’s most famous dish – the beef noodle soup known throughout the world as pho. For locals, the warming broth, which is served with fresh greens and beansprouts, is the nation’s soul food.
“It healed my mentality,” says Lien, who is now back working but still comes to Mai’s twice a week. “Food is really important to Vietnamese and this is like our medicine.”
Through the lockdown, Mai’s cooking – and her garden kitchen built by Mai’s Scottish husband Dave – built a reputation among Aberdeen’s sizable Vietnamese community.
Cut off from home, they couldn’t get enough of Mai’s authentic recipes, and word quickly spread. The Vietnamese staff at five of Aberdeen’s nail salons were some of the kitchen’s best customers. Dave wound up taking deliveries to the salons every lunchtime.
Bringing authentic Vietnamese food to Aberdeen
A few months ago, Mai decided it was time for her food to go beyond her own community.
This was the start of Mai’s Vietnamese Kitchen, the business she has started from her own Facebook page. And it is the reason I’m standing in Mai’s back garden waiting for her to put the finishing touches to my lunch.
I’m very lucky. Normally, Mai cooks the food for collection only, but today I’m getting to taste the food on-site. I’m joined by Lien, Dave and a few of Mai’s friends.
Wullie the photographer is also keen to tuck in – he’s spent the morning taking pictures of Mai’s food and his mouth is watering.
Mai’s process looks painstaking. The 45-year-old takes all her orders for the week ahead on a Sunday from customers messaging her Facebook page. She then spends the next three days preparing the orders.
The pho requires the most skill to cook. To pass muster with Vietnamese, the broth has to be clear, so Mai simmers it for more than 24 hours on her wood-fired outdoor stove. It also uses three different cuts of beef, one of which is cooked in the broth minutes before it is served.
How to cook authentic Vietnamese food
Lien, my cultural guide for the day, explains why it takes so much effort.
Vietnamese food is not about chopping up the ingredients and throwing them in a pot, she says. Instead, it is the “perfect combination” of every little thing, whether it’s the marinade of the meat or the flavouring of the broth.
“When the smell goes through your nose and the taste to your tongue. then you feel it go to the brain,” Lien says. “And in every step, if you make a mistake, you ruin the food.”
Dave, 47, who first met Mai about a decade ago while working in Dubai, offers his take on Mai’s dedication.
“I can tell you, she spends as much time choosing the right cut of beef while shopping than she does preparing it,” he says. “To me they all look the same. But not to her.”
The food is ready and we sit down at a small table. Wullie hones his chopsticks skills as one of our dining companions, Quyen Tran, explains the best way to eat pho.
It is, says Quyen, a three-step process that includes sampling the broth, testing the chewiness of the noodles and then getting as many of the different flavours in your mouth as possible.
I’d add in a fourth step – chatting with everyone.
In Vietnam, every meal is a social event, and a chance to catch up on gossip. As we tuck into the food, the chatter flies around the table.
“In Vietnam, we like eating and we like talking,” Quyen explains.
Suddenly we are no longer in a backyard in Mannofield – we’re at a street market in Hanoi, enjoying good company and great food.
Upping Aberdeen’s Vietnamese food game
As the meal draws to a close, Mai emerges from the kitchen looking exhausted but pleased.
Her friends say Mai’s passion for cooking comes from a desire to show how good authentic Vietnamese food should be. It is a desire borne from experience. Dave once took her to a Vietnamese restaurant in Aberdeen in an ill-advised attempt to show what the local standards were.
“It was terrible,” Dave concedes.
Now, from her home in Aberdeen, Mai is showing what authentic Vietnamese food should taste like.
“I feel very happy,” she says as her guests scoop up the last of the pho. “And I when I cook I’m very proud of Vietnamese food.”
A short explainer on the correct way to eat Vietnamese pho
What we ate
- Spring rolls with minced pork, shrimp and other vegetables.
- Vietnamese pancake (Banh Xeo) served in fresh leaves and greens from the garden with a chilli dipping sauce.
- Beef pho with three cuts of beef (sirloin, brisket and beef ball) made with spices including root ginger, liquorice root, star anise and coriander seeds. Herbs and vegetables from Mai’s garden including Thai basil and bean sprouts.
How to order
- Place orders through Mai’s Vietnamese Kitchen’s Facebook page from Sunday through to Wednesday. Self-collection only on Thursday from 4pm to 7pm; 11:30am to 1:30pm and 5pm to 7pm on Friday.
- One portion of food costs about £10.
- Address: 66 Braeside Avenue, Aberdeen AB15 7SU.
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