Bún chả is a northern specialty, and here I was taking this French-Lao Việt Kiều, with a southern bias, into uncharted territory. After her six-month stint in Sài Gòn working for a Francophone education project, a remnant of a faded empire the French refused to believe was over, Sophie’s job had moved north. She’d only been in Hà Nội for a month or so. Her mother had been more disappointed about the move north than Sophie was, and I found out some years later that her mother had given her one piece of advice (really more of a threat) before she headed north. “Whatever you do, don’t bring back
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