If you are looking for The Danish bar and restaurant Storm P in Ho Chi Minth City you will no longer find it in Cao Ba Quat. But do not panic: Storm P. has recently changed location to 5B Nguyen Sieu Ward Ben Nghe, district 1. Here it is still possible to get brown bread, Gammel Dansk, and the all time best seller fried bacon in parsley souse.
“We wanted to have our own place,” says Klaus Krogh, the owner of Storm P. “The other place was rented, but now we have bought this, so we can stay as long as we want to”, he says. And the customers like it. “The new restaurant is a bit bigger and I think we have around 20 per cent more customers. Maybe because this place is a bit more cosy.”
Klays Krogh started Storm P. in 2003. At that time he had already been living in Vietnam for a couple of years. “I was really sick and tired of Vietnamese food,” says Klaus Krogh. “I felt there was a need in Ho Chi Minth City for something else.”
Klaus Krogh has previously worked as a chef in Germany, so he had no problem teaching his Vietnamese staff how to bake brown bread, make their own liver pâté and rolled seasoned meat. Only more demanding items on the menu such as red sausages and Gammel Dansk, are directly imported from Denmark. This does not only attract Scandinavians. People from all over the world visit storm P.
Apart from enjoying Scandinavian food people also come to hang out. “Every Wednesday we play cards together. And on Sundays we have brunch before we go to play golf,” he says and leans his back on the restaurant’s wall which depict the familiar scenery from Nyhavn in Copenhagen. “Well, I couldn’t move the wall. So I had to paint a new picture”, he laughs and take an other sip of his draft beer.
