West Stockbridge: Tastes of Vietnam

View of the dining room of Truc Orient Express in West Stockbridge.

Surviving 25 years in the tough Berkshire restaurant business is commendable. To remain consistently good is remarkable.

Though I have eaten at Truc Orient Express often, I might complain, at times, of slow service, but never of a bad meal. I consider Truc's one of the finest restaurants in the Berkshires.

Owner Luy Nguyen and his wife, Trai Duong, opened their establishment as a full-fledged restaurant in June 1979, in the space now occupied by La Bruschetta.

The couple came to the United States under remarkable circumstances, escaping Vietnam under the cover of dark in a small open boat after the communist takeover of Saigon in 1975.

Their tale was worthy of the best fiction: Spending weeks at sea; being detained in the Philippines; then in Guam and, finally, at a refuge camp in Indian Town

With them were three of their four children (their 18-month-old son was left behind) and three of Trai's brothers. They had left with only the clothes they wore and a few boxes of powdered milk.

Thanks to Trai's previous business and familial connections, they made it out of the detention camp. Her sister, married years before to an American soldier from Connecticut, sponsored them, and eight of them joined her family in Hartford.

There they worked in her uncle's Rising Sun restaurant until they saved enough to open their own -- Truc Restaurant. Truc means bamboo in Vietnamese. It grows straight, yet can bend to handle big winds.

They so impressed one of their customers, West Stockbridge developer A. Gordon Rose, that he invited them to open a similar place here. The rest is history.

When you dine at Truc Orient Express, the Happy Pancake is a must. It's listed as an entree, but I recommend sharing it as an appetizer. It's a crispy (that means fried in Truc's menu-speak) rice-flour crepe, stuffed with shrimp and pork or chicken, mushrooms, onions, bean sprouts and served with a popular Vietnamese fish sauce, Nuoc Mam, incorporating garlic, lime juice, sugar, and chile pepper.

If you've ever tried to bake with phyllo dough, you know how frustrating and difficult it can be trying to prevent the filling from oozing out of the cylinder you've just rolled and it never quite seals properly.

At Orient Express, Trai manages to roll shrimp and a good assortment of uncooked vegetables in a transparent, seemingly non-existent rice paper. Cilantro and mint are the delicate flavors that are enhanced when you dip the roll into the bean-based sauce that accompanies this appetizer.

The salads are more than generous. If you expect to eat a three-course meal, you might want to share one.

The Chicken with Grapefruit is refreshing and unique, combining cabbage, carrot, onions and the fruit. It is topped with sesame seeds and served with a citrus dressing.

Another of my favorites is the Crispy Eggplant on the vegetarian menu. Crispy refers to the cellophane noodles that almost act like a batter covering the seasonally fresh eggplant.

A special sauce accompanies most dishes. In Vietnamese cuisine, sauces are as ubiquitous as ketchup in the USA. In this case, it was a flavorful plum one with plum jam, vinegar, ginger, allspice and onion powders.

Trai's version of ravioli is a paper-thin rice-noodle crepe filled with tofu (or pork) and black mushrooms.

Delicate is the word that immediately comes to mind and respectful -- i.e. none of the flavors overlap or overpower one another.

For the Atkins devotees, the Shaking Beef, so named by a customer, who long ago suggested this metaphor for stir-fry, is very popular. It is cubes of marinated filet mignon sautéed with garlic and served on a bed of watercress in vinaigrette sauce.

Another table favorite was the Five Spice Chicken. A whole hen is gilded with five-spice tamarind sauce and served with fine rice noodles.

Vietnamese food is refreshing, subtle and textural. This is particularly noticeable in their soups, one of the more popular courses in this cuisine -- especially the hot and sour.

Similar to the French bouillabaisse, soups are stand alone, meaning they can often double as an entree. Handfuls of tofu, mushrooms, bay corn, bamboo shoots, peas, carrots and snow peas are tossed into a broth and gently simmered.

When Luy and Trai first came here, they had nothing but an amazing work ethic -- and talent.

Trai Duong is a terrific chef. This cuisine is very labor-intensive, and garnering all the fresh, and sometimes hard-to-find produce is not always easy.

Vietnamese food, more than Chinese or Thai. uses myriad fresh leaves and herbs. Trai often travels every week to Hartford to procure the spicy perilla leaf, three different types of mint, anise, cilantro, lemongrass, daikon radish and unusual chile peppers she uses in her kitchen.

Desserts are not usually the strong suit in most Asian restaurants. Not true here. The lemon mousse, a creation of Binh Duong (Trai's brother) is deliciously airy and tart.

The sweet and creamy textured flan, though not as good as the best, is more than appreciated at the end of a richly seasoned, somewhat spicy dinner.

I read somewhere that Vietnamese people, in the USA, like their own traditional food and many cannot tolerate Western food for more than a week.

I feel quite the opposite; I don't think I would have any trouble eating at Truc's every night of the week. It should take me a while to try everything on their menu.

Truc Orient Express Vietnamese Restaurant.

3 Harris St., West Stockbridge. Tel. 413-232-4204

Style: Vietnamese

Dress: Casual

Prices: Soups, starters, salads: $3 - 6:50. Entrees: $10.95 - $18.50.

Smoking: No smoking

Winter hours: Dinner: 5-9 p.m.; closed Tuesdays.

Reservations: Recommended on weekends

Credit cards: All major

Handicapped accessible

Noise level: Quiet to moderate

Special: Beautiful Vietnamese and Asian boutique items available in gift shop: lacquer ware, baskets, clothing and pre-war garden pottery.