HCM CITY— Food lovers in Japan are flocking to the hundreds of Vietnamese restaurants that have opened there in the last few years.
"There are about 200 Vietnamese restaurants in Toyko alone," says Nguyen Duc Phuong, director of Saigontourist’s office in Japan.
In Takadanobaba, a busy business centre in Tokyo, Vietnamese native and cook Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang works at a restaurant that receives hundreds of customers each day, most of them young people who have visited Viet Nam.
"Customers are delighted when they know the food is prepared by a Vietnamese," says Hang, "Many ask me to show them how to cook popular dishes."
Hang is one of six cooks employed by HCM City’s Majestic Hotel who are working in Japan. They’ve helped promote the increasing popularity of Vietnamese food there," said Tran Hung Viet, Majestic’s Hotel’s general director.
Many Japanese tourists returning from Viet Nam cannot forget the country’s special dishes, like pho (beef or chicken noodle soup), banh xeo (pancakes), goi (shrimp and meat salad) or cha gio (spring rolls).
Banh XèoParticularly in the last year, tourists from Japan have begun arriving in droves after Viet Nam decided to drop visa requirements for Japanese.
"We must add Vietnamese cuisine on the menus of our restaurants to attract customers," says Yukio Wakui, director of Spice Road, one of Tokyo’s biggest culinary companies.
His company now operates 30 Asian restaurants, two of which are offering Vietnamese food. He says Japanese favour Vietnamese dishes because they have little oil or fat but a lot of vegetables.
"They also remark that Vietnamese dishes bear the elegance of French cuisine and delicacy of Japanese food," he said.
Wakui visited Viet Nam recently to seek cooks for the new restaurants that Spice Road plans to open.
Viet says demands for Vietnamese cooks to work abroad is high and the hotel is seeking capable people to work in other countries.
"All cooks in Japan sent by Majestic Hotel have a minimum of seven years of experience and are skilled in preparing the special dishes of the northern, central and southern regions of Viet Nam." — VNS
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