HIYO: A Vietnamese Refugee's Childhood Wok, Reopened in Kiryat Haim

The pho broth arrives still steaming, an amber pool flecked with star anise and clove, slow simmered for hours before a single bowl is poured. Around it: a tangle of rice noodles, jewel pink slices of beef cooked by the heat of the liquid itself, scattered Thai basil, fresh lime wedges, scallion greens. The smell hits first, woodsy and warm, the kind of clove and cinnamon haze that rises only from a stockpot left alone for an entire afternoon. The counter behind you erupts with the controlled clatter of wok hei, a metal scoop scraping a roaring wok over flame, vegetables hissing into screaming oil, a ribbon of smoke unfurling above the open kitchen. This is HIYO on a Tuesday afternoon in Kiryat Haim, and the chef working the line is the reason a kosher pan Asian counter in a sleepy Haifa suburb has become the most talked about new opening of the winter.

Tal Wong, the chef and owner, has been cooking Asian food in Israel for more than twenty years, but his story stretches back further. In 1979 he arrived in Haifa as a small boy with the wave of Vietnamese refugees Israel took in under Prime Minister Menachem Begin. His parents opened one of the first real Chinese restaurants in the north, and he grew up inside it, learning the rhythm of the wok before he learned the alphabet. He went on to run Siam at Hamat Gader, the long running Thai room next to the sulfur pools, and he quietly built a meat supply factory that feeds Asian kitchens across the country. HIYO is the place where the whole arc closes, the chef returning to his neighborhood with a menu that braids Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai instincts into one accessible counter.