Falansai

Established in 2013. Falansai restaurant is offering Vietnamese cuisine with a twist. Dishes blend the heritage of Vietnamese street-food food with ChaoZhou and French flavors. The menu features local favorites like shaking beef, lemongrass pork chop, caramelized cat fish in clay pot, Dads shrimp rolls (ChaoZhou style) and five-spice chicken. Vegetarian options include vegetarian Imperial rolls, vegan crepe with three mushrooms, lemongrass tofu and green papaya salad. The restaurant was named after the chefs Chaozhou-bred fathers mispronunciation of the world franais and many of the dishes are adaptations of family recipes. The interior of the Falansai restaurant was designed with recycled materials: French doors turned into windows and giant lights from an abandoned eatery illuminate the space. Birdcages and banana plants give the space a Southeast Asian vibe. The restaurant serves beer and wine, including local and German Rieslings, Viernamese coffee and desserts. Happy hour: Tues-Fri 5:-7:30pm Growing up in Vietnam, my father often told stories of his experiences with the Falansai (faa-laan-sai). Father had left Chaozhou, a region in Southern China, during World War II to escape war and drought. He arrived in Vietnam on a fishing boat as a teenager. In the early years, he scraped a living together by transporting catfish from the Mekong Delta to Saigon. It was dangerous work. Frequently, he had to travel over washed out roads and dodge Falansai checkpoints. Later on, he worked as a taxi driver ferrying the well-to-dos around town and his passengers were often the Falansai. For much of my childhood, I had imagined that the Falansai were a powerful and fascinating tribe. Only years later did I realize that Falansai was my fathers phonetic butchering of the word Francais – the French. And so there it was, a Chinese man in Vietnam attempting to pronounce a French word. Like much of the cross-pollinated culture of Vietnam, the food of Vietnam reflects a r