โGrowing up my parents and I ate Vietnamese food, Texas barbecue, and well, sometimesย we had Fuddruckers, too."
Andrew Ho and Sean Wen, the Co-founders of Curry Boys BBQ in San Antonio, Texas, break out into laughter because itโs true. Itโs their life. But itโs also surreal. All of it is. This is something they never thought theyโd have. Not just the bubblegum pink shack sitting behind them, but the community, the friendships, and of course, the food.
โAs an Asian Kid growing up in Houston,โ Wen says, โcooking to me just meant helping my parents in the kitchen, and I used to hate it. It was a chore.โ He glances over, watching a customer place their order at the window. โBut I think the older I got, I started to glamorize the food and beverage industry.โ
Hoโs experience was similar, although his time in the kitchen was something he and his father bonded over. Growing up in a Vietnamese household in Houston, Ho found a rich culture of Viet-Cajun cuisine to tap into.
But it wasnโt until Ho brought his familyโs Viet-Cajun Crawfish boils to the University of Texas at Austin, that he realized it was something truly unique. It quickly became something of a party-trickโfriends would gather and be amazed by the bright, new flavors of his crawfish. โIt was something that I grew up doing,โ Ho laughs, โitโs always been completely โnormalโ to me, but people loved it. Like, loved it.โ
Viet-Cajun, if youโre not familiar, is a blend of Vietnamese food and Cajun food, one that is almost serendipitously perfect. It arose from Vietnamese immigrants moving to the American South and using flavors and spices from Asia with local ingredients, like crawfish.
โIn Houston, Viet-Cajun Crawfish is like the thing,โ Wen adds, โI didnโt even know there were just normal Cajun Crawfish Boils โcause I only ever really ate Viet-Cajun with garlic butter sauces.โ
When college friends begged them to open up a restaurant, and do it full time, Ho and Wen shrugged it off. โThat just wasnโt the life we saw for ourselves,โ they say, almost in unison.
And yet, life post-graduation wasnโt exactly right, either. Ho quickly found himself at a corporate job. He smiles, โA friend came up to me one day and said, โwanna go teach English in Asia?โ And I was like, โdude what are you talking about?โ And he said, โdude, weโre gonna die in Houston,โ and so immediately, I was โlike, yes, obviously, letโs get out of here. โโ
Wen visited Ho in Asia several times, and each time, heโd bring up the crawfish boils. โWe really should do this crawfish thing,โ heโd say, and Ho would just kind of laugh it off. Until one day, they just decided: Fuck it.
โWe took the redeye and we had jet lag and we did it out of the truck Iโd been driving since high school, and we set up in this parking lot in Mueller and it pretty much sold out instantly,โ Ho recalls.
Operating out of Hoโs Ford F-150 heโd been driving since high school, with a portable butane stove and a tailgating tent, they started to sell out everywhere.ย All over Austin and San Antonio, people couldnโt get enough.
โThen the next thing we know, someoneโs like โyou should open up a restaurant,โ and โhereโs a space,โ and I remember we signed the lease and we just looked at each other immediately after like, โwhat did we just do?โโ Wen laughs.
Sitting with Ho and Wen outside of Curry Boys is akin to being inside their homes: the space is inviting, welcoming, full of fun. Neighbors and friends walk by, stop to chat and then rush to get their order in before they sell out.
โIt wasnโt always like this, though,โ Wen says, grimacing through the sun.ย โAbout six months in at our first spot we sat down and were like, we gotta bootstrap this thing.โ Ho adds, โIt got so bad that I broke up with my now fiance and was like โfuck it Iโm going back to Asia.โโ
He didnโt. Instead, their key to success was simple, albeit, not too obvious at the time: Make the food more approachable.
โWe were selling banh mis and if people came in and they couldnโt read the menu, theyโd just walk out,โ Wen says, โOr theyโd ask for tomatoes on the side and Iโd have to be like โno, we donโt even have tomatoes.โโ
Ho and Wen describe a different San Antonio than we see today, although it hasnโt changed as much as it should. โI could count the number of Asian restaurants on one hand,โ says Wen. โBut even to this day, people will walk up to Curry Boys, and ask if they can get just the barbecue, because โcurryโs stinky,โย and just not get it. Thatโs not an option.โ
Like the crawfish, the curry and barbecue work together in perfect harmony. The smoky flavor of the barbecue ties together the heat and spice of the curry, and served together over rice, each bite is the perfect juxtaposition of hearty, comforting, and flavor-packed.
But make no mistake, this is not fusion. โI hate the word fusion,โ Wen says, โit feels so forced.โ
Ho agrees, โExactly. We just happen to be Asian, and also love barbeque.โ He smiles, โThatโs it.โย