This year, too, the 2026 World Cup is being held in the US, Canada, and Mexico, countries half a world away from us. But there will come a time when I crave home-cooked food, so I decided to proactively search for restaurants selling Vietnamese food early on.
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| The author of this article enjoyed beef pho and spring rolls in New Jersey, USA. |
In the early days of the World Cup campaign, I stayed in New Jersey because it was near Metlife Stadium, the venue where many major teams like Brazil, France, Germany, and England would be playing. And in this age of booming digital technology , it wasn't difficult for me to find Vietnamese restaurants online. After about 5 minutes of searching and filtering, I found a restaurant that met my minimum requirements: close to my hotel, specializing in Vietnamese food, and with good ratings on restaurant review platforms.
The restaurant, called "Thanh Huong," is located on West Side Boulevard, about a 10-minute taxi ride from Metlife Stadium. My first impression of Thanh Huong was that the decor was quite simple but very clean. Even without considering the food, the tables and chairs were in a very Vietnamese style. And if I hadn't mentioned I was in New Jersey, looking at the photos I took, my friends would probably think I was visiting a restaurant in Hue or Da Nang .
Before going to the restaurant, one of my concerns was whether it was truly owned by Vietnamese people. I'd been to many Vietnamese restaurants in the UK, Spain, and France... and been disappointed because it was often just a "label" to attract customers, and the staff, or even the owner, sometimes didn't even understand the names of the dishes they were selling. But this time, luckily, the place I went to wasn't like that. Both the owner and the staff were Vietnamese expatriates, and they were very welcoming to a fellow countryman who came to support their restaurant.
The restaurant's menu is very diverse. If you count the individual dishes, there could be dozens of different choices for diners. Main courses include various types of pho and banh mi, side dishes include spring rolls, and there are also desserts like sweet soups and refreshing drinks such as sugarcane juice or pennywort juice. My choice for lunch was a bowl of beef pho, a plate of spring rolls, and a glass of sugarcane juice. Despite the owner's warning that I couldn't possibly finish it all, having traveled halfway around the world, I couldn't possibly miss trying Vietnamese food in America, could I?
Indeed, the pho here is served in very large portions; I had to really strain myself to finish both the pho and the spring rolls. As for the sugarcane juice, I'll have to take it home, otherwise my stomach wouldn't let me rest. But the most important thing, of course, isn't the "quantity" but the "quality." The spring rolls here are pre-packaged, like the ones we usually buy at supermarkets in Vietnam, so there isn't much difference. The pho broth is relatively good. Instead of the familiar rice noodles from back home, there are dry pho noodles. Overall, while it doesn't reach perfect flavor, it's clearly a great effort on the part of the owner for a restaurant so far from Vietnam.
So now I can rest assured whenever I miss Vietnamese food, I have a place to go in New Jersey. The journey ahead will take me through many other cities, but I'll be back here at the end of July, when the finals of the tournament take place. Next time, I'll try chicken pho and pennywort juice.
Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/the-thao/worldcup-2026/an-pho-cha-gio-giua-long-new-jersey-1044441
