Là Lá Bakeshop Opens in the East Village With Vietnamese Desserts | Eater NY
"A new Vietnamese bakery opened in the East Village over the weekend — the first U.S. outpost of an Ontario-based chain — located at 73 Second Avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets. The piece frames dessert critique within Vietnamese taste, noting that the harshest criticism is to call a dessert ngán, which loosely translates to meh, and preserves the owner's warning that “That is the mark of death because it means your food does not excite the palate,” said Brian Tran, the co-owner. As Tran explains, “Vietnamese like textural variety,” and the shop specializes in layered desserts designed to deliver that contrast: the signature salted egg yolk cake is described in detail as consisting of “fluffy chiffon layers interspersed with gently sweet salted egg cream, salted egg crumbles, plus a smattering of chewy pork floss,” with the salted egg itself explained as essentially salt-cured duck egg yolks (a rich, intense yolk flavor). The write-up also preserves the tactile explanation of pork floss as “dried and finely shredded pork that looks a lot like the fuzzies on your sweater and tastes like sweet jerky,” and captures Tran's assessment that the combination provides a double dose of umami that “isn't quite sweet, isn't quite salty,” says Tran. The founders' backstory is kept intact: Tran and his partner Harry Pham started the bakery out of their home kitchen in Toronto during the pandemic in 2020, Pham previously baked as a hobby in Ho Chi Minh City, they opened a first brick-and-mortar in downtown Toronto in 2021, and now manage three bakeries (soon to be four) across Ontario with longtime partner Michelle Pham and New York–based Tung Pham. Interior and product details are preserved: the space is painted a cheery shade of yellow, a sleek glass case displays cream-filled milk buns, individual tubs of layered mini cakes, and full-sized cakes in flavors like taro and pandan sticky rice (the latter with a thick layer of glutinous rice); the popular Durian Supreme is “filled with a generous amount of the famously stinky fruit,” and there are playful riffs on tiramisù such as Vietnamese coffee and matcha pandan. The summary keeps the founders' stated cultural mission and branding notes: the collective goal is “to present a younger, more forward-thinking vision of Vietnam,” as Tran put it; Tran designed the branding (including an elegant ginko leaf motif and the music selection, which might include a song by Vietnamese pop star Hoàng Thùy Linh), and the write-up even notes a real ginko tree growing outside. Finally, the pragmatic outlook for New York is preserved in Tran's voice: “Of course the New York food scene is competitive, but people find their niche; they survive,” said Tran. “I believe that our community is strong enough that we can thrive.”" - Mahira Rivers
