A wild night in 2010 after “falling hard” to launch a Saigon restaurant transformed her life. Nicki served some Phu Quoc fish to some friends one evening, and they were so impressed that they pushed her to start a second restaurant—this time a smaller, more casual one.
Before Nikki realized what was occurring, she had already placed the deposit on a new location that evening, hired a chef, and launched a new restaurant seven days later. Just to have the chef skip opening morning! (Despite the fact that the fortune-teller had given her the opening time.)
Although his famous actress friend, who recommended this new idea, encouraged her, this wasn’t a long-term strategy, and after a month, business started to decline. This was a slap in the face, but it made Nicki realize she needed to improve his cooking skills if she wanted to attract customers who came for the food and not just to perhaps see a celebrity.
Nikki then returned to the United States and opened a restaurant in Houston, Texas after establishing herself in Vietnam. Occasionally, prior to the pandemic, she would spend two weeks at a stretch traveling between Vietnam and the United States.
The conflict between the two workplace cultures proved to be a huge issue for Nicki because it had to be handled quite differently.
This cultural conflict affects various Vietnamese populations in America as well as distinctions between Americans and Vietnamese. Depending on when, how, and how long you arrived in America, there may be friction and discrepancies.
This also applies to the cultural differences between immigrants and their offspring who were raised in a different setting than their parents.
One of the worst things a migrant parent can do, in Nicki’s opinion, is not to teach their kids the language of their own country. Why would you want to deny children the chance to speak two or three languages? In your own language or culture, there is nothing to be ashamed of, claims Nicki.
Nicki does not identify as a Viet Kieu and does not like the phrase; “I think that term was made it didn’t mean well,” she says. Nicki is a Vietnamese naturalized citizen of the United States. She prefers to be referred to as American since she “personally just doesn’t like that phrase.”
We talk about the recent rise in attacks on Americans of Asian descent and how some people may not even recognize a problem exists in their own neighborhood until it affects them personally. Racism and prejudice exist across and among the various cultures that make up America, therefore this issue affects more than simply the Asian community. Nicki compares this to daily care for a bonsai tree to develop straight and believes that education is the answer, but it will take time and repeated modest gestures.
Finally, we discuss how her choice to create a second restaurant while intoxicated resulted in her becoming a “famous chef” on Netflix. I was fortunate! Nicki frankly acknowledges, “I didn’t even know how to cook Vietnamese food very well.
While living in Texas, Nicki developed a taste for crawfish and used to eat it every day while it was in season. Consequently, she returned from Vietnam with two large bags of Louisiana crab boil spice to mix with fresh Vietnamese seafood and serve to his family. She created cajun shrimp and other foods, which spread quickly after they were created
Soon after she launched the restaurant, she was featured in a magazine, which generated further print media interest. In a short period of time, including an airline magazine.
When Nikki didn’t even know what Netflix was, she was then asked about appearing on one show! The host of the program, now-close friend Phil Rosenthal, called it Somebody Feed Phil. Nicki has now appeared on NBC’s Travel Voyager and Netflix’s Ugly Delicious & Street Food, as well as in several international publications like Vice Magazine.
Both at Kau Ba Kitchen in Houston and Kau Ba in Saigon are where you can eat her foods.
About Nikki Tran
Nikki Tran, who is famous for her role in the Netflix series “Ugly Delicious”, serves up her brand of “Viejun” (Vietnamese-Cajun) cuisine at her two contemporary Vietnamese seafood restaurants, Kau Ba Kitchen in Houston and Kau Ba Quan in Ho Chi Minh City. Nikki, a native of Saigon who also lived briefly in Houston, Texas, the birthplace of the Viet-Cajun movement, calls her cooking style a blend of Vietnamese and other cultures but is determined that it isn’t referred to as fusion food.
