At the weekend a couple of friends and I enjoyed a wonderful evening of good food and good company at a Vietnamese supper club in Hackney, east London. Saigon-born but London-raised Uyen Luu cooks (along with her mother) up a Vietnamese feast every Friday evening to paying guests. After studying fine art film and video at Central Saint Martins School of Art, she had a clothing and jewellery boutique, travelled the world, before transforming the ground floor of her flat in Hackney into an intimate Vietnamese restaurant each weekend. She is a warm host and makes you feel instantly at home, with freshly cut flowers on the tables, candles and fairy lights in the back terrace and her Scottie weaving in and out of your feet.
Guests arrive at 7.30 for drinks before settling down at communal tables- it feels a bit like you’re having a dinner party at a friends house. Then you are brought the freshest summer rolls with pork belly, prawns and her mother’s homegrown herbs, followed by succulent cod’s cheek fishcakes wrapped in mustard leaves (also homegrown) and beef in betel leaves. We then had crispy pork belly on vermicelli noodles, spicy hot scallop salad and a steaming, fragrant chicken broth. I think there were a few other dishes in-between, but it was all so delicious I lost count! It was a gentle rollercoaster of spicy, sweet and sour, all topped off with an ice cream cake using blackberries foraged from Hackney Marshes. I thoroughly recommend it, the evening was a perfect respite from chain restaurants or busy high streets.
Uyen also offers cookery classes and has a cookbook called My Vietnamese Kitchen (it’s like the Vietnamese version of Rachel Khoo and her little Parisian kitchen). There’s some much better images of her food on her website, where she has some great recipes for noodle soups, teriyaki chicken and summer rolls, so be sure to have a look there.
