‘Que Huong’ (Homeland) restaurant, owned by Le Thi Hoai Thu, 51, from Thanh Hoa, and her husband and daughter, opens early in the morning. The three family members get up very early, and prepare materials to make 70 Vietnamese dishes to serve hundreds of diners every day.

The restaurant is located in Wongok-dong in Ansan City in Gyeonggi, South Korea. Having been operating for 22 years, the restaurant specializes in serving Vietnamese dishes. Pho is the favorite dish of the restaurant, which not only attracts Vietnamese people who live far from their homeland, but also foreign diners.

Thu told VietNamNet that she came to South Korea in 1994 as a trainee. After three years of working there, she married a man who worked in the same company.

As the international monetary crisis occurred in 1997 and her husband faced troubles at work, Thu decided to open a Vietnamese restaurant, hoping that the business could be a source of stable income which would cover her living expenses but also help relieve her nostalgia for her homeland.

“At that moment, more and more Vietnamese came to South Korea to work as guest workers, so I thought of running a restaurant to serve Vietnamese workers,” she recalled.

In 2002, she borrowed $20,000 from her older sister (VND300 million) to open a restaurant, Que Huong. She hopes that the diners could feel the flavor of the homeland

Thu works as both the owner of the restaurant and the chef. The restaurant serves Vietnamese dishes and specialties of the northern, central and southern regions of Vietnam, such as bun cha (kebab rice noodles), bun dau mam tom (tofu, shrimp sauce and noodles), banh my (bread), banh xeo (sizzle cake), banh cuon (steamed rolled rice pancake), cha nem (spring rolls), goi cuon (fresh spring rolls) and com rang (fried rice).

Of these, beef pho is the most favorite dish, attracting both Vietnamese-born and foreign diners.

Thu said her beef pho is made with a special recipe, but keeps the most traditional taste. She learned how to make pho from her elder sister. She also bought a lot of books that taught her how to cook. She spent time trying pho at different restaurants and created a recipe of her own.

Thu said the most important thing in pho processing is fresh, high-quality materials. Thu chooses the materials. The beef for pho is fresh meat she buys from the market every day. As for rice noodles, she has to import dry noodles from Dong Thap, Vietnam.

Dong Thap ranks third in Vietnam in rice growing area and rice output. Farmers there grow organic rice varieties and provide high-quality rice, so she believes that rice noodles from Dong Thap are the best.

The broth for pho is created by simmering beef bones for 14 hours. To ensure the Vietnamese taste, she uses special species, such as purple onion, ginger, garlic and anise.

Thu said that she has used the recipe over the last 20 years and has never changed.

Lim Jung Hyun, a diner from Seoul, who has tried pho at Thu’s restaurant several times, commented that as the restaurant owner used rice noodles from Vietnam, the pho served there is more delicious than other restaurants using noodles from Thailand.

“I tried beef pho at some restaurants in Vietnam and in South Korea. However, I think the pho made by Thu is the most ‘Vietnamese’,” she commented. “I feel happy as I can taste truly Vietnamese pho right near Seoul."

Thu’s pho also caught attention from local mass media. Thu’s restaurant is the first one in Ansan, where there are many expats, including Vietnamese. Her restaurant was introduced on many different TV channels in South Korea.

At first, Thu’s clients were mostly Vietnamese workers, but later, the restaurant also attracted foreign travelers, including those from China, Japan and Thailand.

The pho restaurant now covers an area of 100 sq m, with 20 tables, capable of serving one hundred people at the same time. The interior decor makes visitors feel as if they are in Vietnam. Every day, it serves 200 bowls of Vietnamese pho.

Phan Dau