The Scent of Spices, and Vegan Pho, at Bánh

As a little girl growing up in Vietnam, Nhu Ton—the chef at Bánh, a Vietnamese restaurant that opened in January, on the Upper West Side—was surrounded by the scent of spices. Ton’s family worked and lived in a vast open-air market, and in the mornings her nose frequently awoke to adults shelving bags of cinnamon, coriander, and lemongrass. “When I think about my childhood, I smell it first,” Ton told me. The long aromatic tails that the spices left on her memory now make their mark on Bánh’s menu. “I wanted to create the flavors that I craved,” Ton said. “Things that taste like the particular place where I grew up.”

Link: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/11/08/the-scent-of-spices-and-vegan-pho-at-banh