Yen Le, executive chef and owner at Madam Yen Vietnamese restaurant in Auckland, describes herself as a perfectionist.
She spares no effort in upholding her belief that only the freshest and best quality ingredients are used to cook her dishes, and would personally seek out market-fresh produce.
That is why, even her banh cuon (Vietnamese rice rolls) are made fresh and not made from dried rice paper.
Banh cuon is a soft rice roll dish filled with ground pork and wood eared mushrooms, eaten with fresh vegetables and a bit of nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce).
Making them fresh is labour intensive - from mixing the batter, making the fillings, to the most difficult part making the rice roll paper thin when cooking.
Banh cuon is one of Madam Yen’s most popular crowd pleasers, with several customers claiming on their social media posts and reviews as being the best in Auckland.
“The banh cuon are made fresh to order in store, and the soup stock are made fresh every morning. We don’t keep any stock overnight,” Yen said.
The restaurant’s name Madam Yen is named after Yen Le, who came to New Zealand in 2019 after living in Russia for five years where she also ran a restaurant with friends.
“My husband came to New Zealand to study management, so I had to follow him,” she said.
“I was working at a cafe serving Vietnamese food, and I thought to myself that I could start my own business and serving my style of Vietnamese cooking.”
They moved here with their elder child, who is 13 now, and had another New Zealand-born who is 2-years-old.
Besides staying true to the traditional style of Vietnamese cooking, Yen says Madam Yen tries to use natural and fresh produce as much as possible, including making soup stock and sauces from scratch.
“Actually that is how true Vietnamese food should be, where I come from in Hanoi, how good a dish is judged by how fresh the ingredients used,” she said.
“I love cooking and I want Kiwis to taste authentic Vietnamese cuisine that is cooked like how we do it back home.”
Yen said her menu was inspired by her paternal grandmother, who is also in the restaurant business.
She is passionate about serving lesser known, delicious specialities from her home country, and determined to show Kiwis that Vietnamese food goes beyond pho and banh mi.
A spicy cousin to the more common beef pho is the bun bo hue, which originates from Central Vietnam. This dish, served piping hot at Madam Yen is rich and spicy, with deep layers of flavour.
Bún bò Huế literally translates to Huế beef noodle soup - Huế city was Vietnam’s capital in 1802 when the Nguyen Dynasty seized control of the country and ruled from this central city.
Unlike other regions of Vietnam, this central city is known for having spicy foods.
While the broth in phở is typically all beef or all chicken, the bún bò Huế at Madam Yen uses both beef and pork in the broth, and the use of added shrimp paste, pork bones, and chilli to give more punch.
Then there’s Banh Xeo, the crispy and savoury Vietnamese crepe.
Yen’s version is filled with delicious flavours from pork, shrimp onions and bean sprouts and is served to customers hot-off-the-pan. The pancake is meant to be eaten with fingers, wrapped in fresh veggies and dipped in a flavourful sauce.
There are lots to explore at Madam Yen, and it will take quite a few visits to try all of Yen Le’s delicious dishes.
Madam Yen 31 Clyde Road, Browns Bay, Auckland
Tried and Tasted: Bánh cuốn, Bánh Xèo, Bún bò Huế
This article is brought to you in partnership with Madam Yen.
