I came across this review of a new Vietnamese restaurant just down the street from Eden Center. If you don't know, Eden Center is the apex of all things Vietnamese culture and food in the heart of the DMV area, and has been a local landmark for decades.

I looked up the restaurant's website and...while I will not comment on the food, as I'm sure it all will taste delicious to an upper-middle class palate who doesn't really know Vietnamese food....I cringed at the ambitious claim of "Elegant Vietnamese" as the restaurant's primary ethos.

"Elegant Vietnamese"....as if "elegant" and "Vietnamese" were a dichotomy of two mutually exclusive entities that were begging for a savior to reconcile that divergence - a role that the owner of this restaurant audaciously declares she owns. "Le believes that Vietnamese cuisine and culture are often misunderstood in the American context, and aims to change that through Nue."

Her solution? Build a menu that is so Euro-centric that one can barely detect any trace left of the Vietnamese, at a price point so high that it ensures the very people who inspired the menu would never be able to afford.

You cannot claim to be the advocate of your people, and then build a structure that would bar 99% of them from ever entering.

But beyond the Euro-centric menu and the exorbitant price points...I want to make one thing clear:

We don't need a savior to make Vietnamese elegant. Vietnamese is ALREADY elegant. Vietnamese and elegance are interwined like the eternal yearning love of the Fairy Mother and Dragon Father from whence we descended. And it has absolutely nothing to do with expensive ribeye steaks, fancy silk gowns, or Instagram-worthy, sanitized dining rooms that you call "serene."

We're elegant in the way we have always rebuilt from the cruel ashes that foreign invaders have left us, after endless failed attempts of usurping our land, our culture, our identity.

We're elegant in the way we can sit outside a war-torn sidewalk cafe, with nothing but a cheap cup of coffee, a faded notebook, and a worn-out fountain pen, amidst the imminent threats of bombs and guerilla attacks, and still create some of the most immortal songs, music, and poems known to mankind.

We're elegant in the way that we can make 2 skinny fishes and a clay pot of rice stretch for 5 people.

And we're elegant in the way that our sun-bronzed smiles exude grace and resilience, as we endure the scorching heat while we make due with what little resources we have, be it on the dusty sidewalks of Saigon or the rusty strip mall of Eden Center...and we still create some the best foods that tourists from all over the world crave for.

So no, sis, you're not "elegant Vietnamese." We are ALREADY elegant. Go to Eden Center to get your Vietnamese food, where the aunties and uncles can teach you a thing or two. And Cà Phê Sữa đá only costs $4 a cup there, not $9.