Chef Ha

With the 15-day Lunar New Year celebration playing out across Houston, Spring Branch can claim at least one role in upholding the holiday’s traditions favored especially by Asian-American communities.

It’s thanks to celebrity chef Christine Ha, a Spring Branch resident whose The Blind Goat restaurant has drawn customers to the neighborhood from across the metropolitan area.

The focus is making the Vietnamese delicacy banh chung, a skill she recently shared with dozens of guests as part of a class at The Blind Goat.

A large video screen showed every move Ha made.

“Lunar New Year is the biggest celebration in Vietnam,” Ha said, detailing how her paternal grandmother would make dozens and dozens of the cakes to give out to family and friends during that time.

“This is a homage to my grandma,” she said.

Banh chung is more than just sustenance, The Blind Goat said in an e-mail to customers. “It embodies the spirit of the past and the hope for the future.”

Ha said her goal for 2024 was to “have fun,” with the class being an example of one way. To make the event more like a party rather than just a class, each guest was offered sparkling wine as they entered. Ha herself partook in the celebratory toasting while she explained the significance of the cake, which is central to Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.

The ingredients are simple: pork belly, nestled in a layer of mung beans encased in sticky rice, and wrapped in leaves.

Ha said in her e-mail: “Imagine an elegantly wrapped present, but with savory flavors that evoke memories and tradition.”

Making banh chung seemed fitting not just for Lunar New Year but also with the first anniversary of the opening of the Spring Branch restaurant coming up. The green banana leaves of the cake symbolize prosperity and growth.

The bamboo strings used to hold the bang chung together signify the security of home. During the pandemic, Ha and husband John Suh decided to make Spring Branch their home.

They were looking for more room to walk their newly adopted dog, George; she said she saw tremendous potential for economic growth in the area.

Indeed, several new businesses have opened close to The Blind Goat, including Ha’s own sandwich shop concept, Stuffed Belly, in the same shopping area as newbies Barnaby’s Cafe, Hando sushi house and JINYA ramen bar.

The process of assembling the banh chung was simple enough, especially with Ha’s instructions and Suh and others walking around the restaurant providing moral support and tips. All the ingredients were prepared and pre-measured, so no actual cooking was involved — until you got home.

Mike & Kristen

After wrapping the cake in aluminum foil, the instructions everyone took home outlined that it should be boiled for six hours, then submerged in an ice bath, then wrapped in towels and then allowed to set for eight more hours under a heavy cutting board.

But wait, there’s more.

After that, the instructions suggest, the cakes can be sliced and pan-fried until crisp and sprinkled with soy sauce. Ha’s grandmother also liked to dip the cake into a little sugar.

Among those on hand for Ha’s lesson were Houstonians Kristen and Mike, who had never been to the restaurant but were very familiar with the menu concept and Ha’s food.

They had eaten at The Blind Goat when it was part of Bravery Chef Hall downtown, and — more importantly — they had their wedding reception at Xin Chao, Ha’s first stand-alone restaurant with husband John Suh.

(Ha and Suh sold Xin Chao after deciding to prioritize two restaurants they recently opened in the Spring Branch Management District).

Kristen and Mike were there to make the unique rice cakes but also to sample an assortment of the regular items on The Blind Goat menu.

They cooked their cakes on the following Saturday after class. “They were delicious,” Kristen reported.

If you missed the class or don’t want to spend hours making your own cakes, The Blind Goat has now added banh chung to the restaurant menu for a limited time.

Just as in the class, the restaurant’s version features tender pork belly, mung beans and perfectly cooked sticky rice.
The Blind Goat serves the cakes “fried so the outside is crispy with pickled Fresnos, Maggi and our G.O. A.T. Saté sauce.”

The Blind Goat, as well as other restaurants in the Spring Branch District, invite the public to celebrate the Lunar New Year and “savor the flavors that connect us to tradition and community.”

— by Dorothy Puch Lillig