“Back in the day, my grandma loved making bánh mì, but not for sale,” Thien Ha says. “She loved making them for the family [in Saigon] to enjoy. In the neighborhood, the people in the ‘hood [would] come over to my grandma’s house and ask, ‘Can we buy five or ten bánh mì just for the holiday?’ … but she never turned it into a business.”
Ha, 25, owns Ding Tea, a Taiwanese boba tea franchise at the corner of Cook Street and Country Club Drive in Palm Desert. Ha is a young master of the bánh mì sandwich (known as the Vietnamese Sandwich on Ding Tea’s menu). He was taught to make the sandwich by his mother, who, in turn, learned the magic combination from Ha’s famous (in the ‘hood) grandmother. For those who have not had the hand-held pleasure of this delightful mix of Vietnamese and French culture, bánh mì consists of a crusty baguette cut lengthwise with a filling of pâté; pork belly; cucumber; shredded carrot; pickled daikon radish; cilantro; and sliced, fresh jalapeños. The crunch of the bread, the unctuousness of the meats, the heat of the pepper, the twang of the pickled radish, and the refreshing coolness of the vegetables combine to create a deceptively complex but immensely satisfying bite.
Ha, an unfailingly polite and laid-back man, did not initially aspire to sandwich stardom. He emigrated with his father and sister in 2014 to join an uncle who lived in the Valley in time to attend and graduate from La Quinta High School. (“My first day in the U.S. was here!” Ha says.) He then attended College of the Desert, where he studied business administration. Ha was a budding entrepreneur from an early age. He saw a niche worth exploiting – exporting limited-edition items back to Vietnam where, say, a Pharrell Williams collaboration with Nike could sell for up to five times the price he paid in the United States. During high school and his first semesters at college, Ha sourced items sought by merchants in Vietnam and earned a commission by acquiring them.
Increasingly, though, Ha aspired to own a business. A cousin who was based in Melbourne, Australia, came to the desert to visit and found himself stranded during the COVID lockdown. Every day, he and Ha would talk about the possibility of going into business together. They traveled up and down the California coast, researching and evaluating various business possibilities. Ha leased the space in the shopping center at Cook and Country Club before he and his cousin made a final decision on their business “because, with the colleges nearby, I knew I wanted to do a business for teenagers and younger people,” Ha says. He decided to open a Ding Tea franchise because it required little overhead in terms of equipment and supplies. After Ha and his cousin completed a two-week course at the Ding Tea headquarters in Taiwan, they flew home and opened the doors of their business.
A friend of mine discovered Ding Tea about a year ago. Our daughters, who are BFFs, take figure skating classes together at the Berger Foundation Iceplex at Acrisure Arena on Saturdays. It became part of our ritual for the girls to take their lesson, then go to Ding Tea for boba, then head back to the arena to practice. Unfortunately, Ha did not have a food menu at the time, so it was always problematic to get the girls fed before their second round of practice. Ironically (because, at the time, we didn’t know Ha was Vietnamese), we stopped at another restaurant in Palm Desert that advertised bánh mì sandwiches, picked up a couple, and took them back to Ding Tea to have with our boba drinks. The sandwiches were terrible, from the mass-produced bread to the greasy meat to the utter lack of fresh vegetables.
Incredibly, only a week later, we found ourselves at Ding Tea, which was starting a brand-new food menu. It advertised steamed buns (huge buns filled with spiced ground pork and a quail egg for only $4.99), tater tots, egg rolls, french fries, and, of course, the Vietnamese Sandwich. Ha said so many customers asked him to include a few food items that he happily agreed.
The fact is, Ha is a foodie. He is passionate about the subject, especially regarding the cuisine of his native land. He will happily bend a listener’s ear and describe the subtle differences between the pho served in Hanoi and the version served in Ho Chi Minh City. This passion makes Ha’s bánh mì so outstanding. For starters, he bakes his own bread. He achieves a baguette that features a crunchy crust while maintaining a light, chewy interior. He braises his own pork belly and makes his own pâtè, which he describes as more of a “ham paste.” He uses a mayonnaise-based sauce only because he hasn’t yet duplicated the traditional sauce of his mother and grandmother … though he’s working on it. The positive reaction he’s received not only motivated Ha to increase the menu items at Ding Tea but also convinced him that his future lies in opening a Vietnamese restaurant.
“Honestly, I have been thinking about a menu for years,” Ha admits. “I’m easy, but I’m picky at the same time because I’ve lived in Vietnam and I’ve tried really, really good food. And I want to bring a good taste, a good food to the U.S. because I want to represent my town.”
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