North Centennial Inn features Vietnamese cuisine

Press release
On the evening of Sunday, July 27, owners Nick and Livia Vandenbelt and Chef Greg Murphy of the North Centennial Inn will host a special dinner featuring Vietnamese cuisine. Last fall long-time friend Tim Leahy proposed preparing a Vietnamese dinner at North this summer. Tim is currently finishing a Master’s degree in Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan and has lived and traveled in Vietnam and Southeast Asia over the past several years.

The idea for the event began simmering last summer when Tim was living with a Vietnamese family in Hanoi, endeavoring intensive language study and conducting preliminary thesis research on Vietnam’s food culture and culinary history. Greg and Nick thought this event would be a unique opportunity to fuse Tim’s intimate knowledge of Vietnamese cuisine with Greg’s culinary expertise and offer North’s patrons a truly unique gastronomic experience.
The purpose of the evening is to celebrate America’s richly diverse culinary culture by showcasing authentic Vietnamese food. Each dish aims to reflect Vietnam’s dynamic regional cuisines and abundance of foreign culinary influences while maintaining the integrity of traditional Vietnamese cookery — that is light, fresh and crisp flavors. Great for the summer season in northern Michigan.
Vietnam’s long history of foreign occupation by the French and Chinese, together with centuries of exposure to outside cultural influences has had a profound impact on Vietnam’s regional cuisines.
Despite these influences, the Vietnamese have long maintained a distinct culinary heritage through carefully incorporating foreign ingredients and culinary techniques in accordance with Vietnam’s culinary and gastronomic traditions. For example, while French baguettes and pates are commonplace in Vietnam, butter and cream are virtually absent in Vietnam’s culinary repertoire. Diners will surely savor Vietnam’s vibrant culinary influence on the country’s cuisine.
Greg, Nick and Tim have carefully chosen a tasting menu that includes Vietnamese duck pate, fresh spring rolls in the Saigon style, scallops wrapped in a rice paper purse with fragrant herbs, Hanoi style “ph” beef noodle soup, green papaya salad with prawns, Hawaiian Mang Chung filets stuffed with prawns with ginger, marinated beef tenderloin skewered on lemongrass and a mango sorbet with seasonal fruit for desert. Each diner will be given the opportunity to sample Vietnamese coffee and tea that Tim recently brought back from Vietnam. Each diner will also receive a small information packet that will include the menu, background information on Vietnamese cuisine and recipes of the evening’s dishes.
The dinner will begin at 8 p.m. Please call North at (231) 228-5060 for more information or to make a reservation. North is open daily at 5:30 p.m. and will feature a $23, three-course meal on Sundays and Mondays throughout the summer months.