You may be wondering why I have included this noodle shop under a historical category, rather than dining. Well, its owner played host to both Americans and Viet Cong during the war, and his son has amassed quite a collection of pictures and citations in the name of his father. Thus, when we walked into this shop, it seemed he had been expecting us. Before I get into the story of this place, let me tell you that they serve a positively wicked vegetable pho. If for nothing else, come here to have your soup. I squeezed as much lime as I could find, and believe me, going down the gullet was never easier. And this is after the food poisoning episode. Ngo Toai refused to give his tables and chairs and any of his war memorabilia to the War Museum. The restaurant floors are begging for a good scrubbing, but it is with reverence that one enters the premises; I was a bit hesitant at first, but within a few minutes, a tall man came to greet and seat us, and brought out some albums and newspaper clippings for us to review. There are pictures of Ngo Toai with American soldiers eating in his soup kitchen; we also find out through the articles that the shop served as a front for the undercover command post from which the plan for the Tet offensive was devised. After the war, foreign tourists would pay up to $13/night to put their heads on a pillow in the very area that served as a gathering place for the Viet Cong.
A Reuters article provocatively begins this way: " In the early years of the Viet Nam war, Ngo Toai lived a double life: seller of noodles to U.S. personnel and surreptitious revolutionary". And of course, you read on. There are certificates on the wall bearing the red communist star; medals are photographed but now shown. Apparently, a few days following the offensive, a South Vietnamese tried to kill Ngo Toai, but somehow he escaped death only to find life imprisonment and torture instead.
When the war ended, Ngo Toai returned to his beloved noodle shop and continued to serve his magical brew. It seems the menu has not changed much since that day. Heartwarming are the photos of U.S. veterans who returned to this shop, and have their arms around the old man.
There was as much implicated history here as any other memorial we had seen; the bonus came in the form of pho.