One of my favorite sportswriters, Peter King, lived in Montclair, NJ for many years before moving to Boston last year (yeah!). Nope, I wasn’t stalking him; he frequently mentioned Montclair in his weekly football column. And when I drove there for work a few weeks ago, I realized the only thing I knew about Montclair was that Peter King used to live there.
Now, having been a few times, I’ve learned something else about Montclair — it’s an attractive town with an enviable number of ethnic restaurants. Among them: Ethiopian, Greek, Jamaican, Thai, Peruvian… there seems to be a little of everything on the main drag. It’s impressive — and makes me slightly jealous.
And there’s Vietnamese! Well, okay, it’s not actually in Montclair, but minutes away in the next town of Bloomfield. I found this place on Yelp when I was looking to grab a bite before a meeting.
The shopping plaza itself is interesting — it’s called The East West Plaza, and is like a tiny Asian enclave, with an Asian bakery and an Asian supermarket.
I wouldn’t classify Binh Duong as a hole-in-the-wall, but “no-nonsense” and “focused on food over ambience” sound about right.
I placed my order and the food came out practically straight away. First the hot-out-the-fryer spring rolls, which I rolled in the lettuce leaves and dipped in nuom chac sauce.
And then my noodle bowl of grilled chicken, vermicelli noodles, crunchy veggies and more nuom chac.
The noodles were a little wet — they could have used one more shake in the strainer. Other than that, this was just what I appreciate about Vietnamese cuisine: textures, flavors and freshness. The cost of the noodle bowl? $6.50. That’s a good deal.
It’s fair to say there are abundant dining options to choose from on my next trip to Montclair/Bloomfield. It’s just too bad Peter King doesn’t live there anymore. We could have talked football and eaten Vietnamese.
Vietnamese in New Jersey
One of my favorite sportswriters, Peter King, lived in Montclair, NJ for many years before moving to Boston last year (yeah!). Nope, I wasn’t stalking him; he frequently mentioned Montclair in his weekly football column. And when I drove there for work a few weeks ago, I realized the only thing I knew about Montclair was that Peter King used to live there.
Now, having been a few times, I’ve learned something else about Montclair — it’s an attractive town with an enviable number of ethnic restaurants. Among them: Ethiopian, Greek, Jamaican, Thai, Peruvian… there seems to be a little of everything on the main drag. It’s impressive — and makes me slightly jealous.
And there’s Vietnamese! Well, okay, it’s not actually in Montclair, but minutes away in the next town of Bloomfield. I found this place on Yelp when I was looking to grab a bite before a meeting.
The shopping plaza itself is interesting — it’s called The East West Plaza, and is like a tiny Asian enclave, with an Asian bakery and an Asian supermarket.
I wouldn’t classify Binh Duong as a hole-in-the-wall, but “no-nonsense” and “focused on food over ambience” sound about right.
I placed my order and the food came out practically straight away. First the hot-out-the-fryer spring rolls, which I rolled in the lettuce leaves and dipped in nuom chac sauce.
And then my noodle bowl of grilled chicken, vermicelli noodles, crunchy veggies and more nuom chac.
The noodles were a little wet — they could have used one more shake in the strainer. Other than that, this was just what I appreciate about Vietnamese cuisine: textures, flavors and freshness. The cost of the noodle bowl? $6.50. That’s a good deal.
It’s fair to say there are abundant dining options to choose from on my next trip to Montclair/Bloomfield. It’s just too bad Peter King doesn’t live there anymore. We could have talked football and eaten Vietnamese.
Binh Duong
61 Belleville Ave.
Bloomfield, NJ
973-680-8440