Mr Vietnamese Banh Mi in Fortress Hill

I started apartment hunting this week. I've been looking forward to home search all month, but now that I'm finally doing it, I'd like it to be over. Having just moved from a serviced apartment in Roppongi Hills, it's safe to say that I need to adjust my expectations in Hong Kong and accept the fact that our bathtubs will not be automated by friendly robots and our washer/dryer will be in the kitchen.

Our real estate agent in part Vietnamese and being around Viets always makes me crave Vietnamese food. So to reward myself for surviving the first 2 rounds of viewings, we tried a highly rated (on Open Rice, the Yelp! of Hong Kong) banh mi shop in Fortess Hill.

Mr Vietnamese is pretty decent and I'm sure I will return to try the other variations. It's a very small shop with a few places to sit and enjoy your made to order sandwich. The bread is spot on with the fillings hitting all the right notes, though lacking a bit of punch.

Mr Vietnamese
Shop 9, G/F, Wang Fai Mansion, 2-12 Wang On Road North Point

Take the tram to the Fortress Hill stop. Walk down Oil Street, turn left on the street after Electric. It's the shop with the green awning.

Recipes From Mom :: Warm Crab Noodles

Remember when my mom put me through Vietnamese cooking Bootcamp before I moved to Japan? Well, this was one of the dishes she taught me but I hadn't made it in Japan until this week. Mostly because I wasn't sure what kind of noodles to buy but I gave it a guess this week and guessed right! Hooray! This is a super easy recipe if you can buy cooked crab meat easily. In Japan, it's a seafood aisle staple and not too expensive either. 


Crab Cellophane Noodles (Mien Xao Cua)

two packs of cellophane noodle
one full cup of fresh cooked crab meat
3/4 cup chicken broth
one small white onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper 3 scallions chopped
1 tablespoon sesame oil
olive oil

1. Soak noodle with cold water for one minute. Drain and cut to preferred size (4-5 inches long)
2. Heat two table spoon of olive oil
3. Stir fry onion until clear
4. Fold in crab meat, add salt and pepper to taste
5. Cook two minutes at medium heat, and set aside the crab mix in a bowl.
6. Put pan back on the stove, bring two tablespoons spoon of chicken broth to boil7. Add the noodles and slowly spoon in chicken broth. The noodles will soak up the broth so keep adding more broth until the noodles look clear and tender, but be sure not to add too much broth at a time. This is process is similar to making risotto.
8. Fold in crab mix at low heat for one or two min.  Add the  sesame oil.


Transfer into a dish, garnish with cilantro or chives.


And as my mom said in her emailed recipe - "Voila, bon appetit!"

The Best Banh Mi in Tokyo

I've searched high. I've searched low and I can say with certainty, that the Banh Mi Sandwich shop in Takadanobaba is the best Banh Mi you'll find in Tokyo. The bread is baked fresh on site and they flavor their meats with a lot of lemongrass. Now, keep in mind, I didn't say these are the best banh mi sandwiches ever but definitely the best in Tokyo. For example, there's no pate and no hot peppers. I'm also pretty sure they use Korean kochujang instead of Sriracha. But hey, they do their best.

In any case, this place makes me happy and gets the job done. They also make desserts and breads you can buy to go.

Banh Mi Sandwich Takadanobaba (バインミーサンドイッチ　高田馬場）
新宿区高田馬場 4-9-18
畔上セブンビル101


* Take the Waseda exit at JR Takadanobaba Station, go left down the main street, take your frist left after the Becker's Cafe then a right down a small street/parking lot. Keep an eye out for the red awning.


* Be warned that they sell out fast and once they sell out, they're done for the day. Go early if you can. 

Vent Session:: That's Rude!

An interesting thing happened to me today. An "acquaintance" (Google+ tells me that this is "people you've met but aren't particularly close to" so let's go with that) today asked me if I spoke Vietnamese in front of a group of other acquaintances, to which I answered honestly. (I don't) His response was, roughly: 

"What is wrong with you Californians? You grow up in a multicultural place and you can't even speak your own language." 

Whistle! Penalty! Foul! Red card! Technical!

What I am about to write is more for me than it is for you because this exchange has really thrown me into a tizzy and I need somewhere to work out my thoughts in a meaningful way. Something more productive than "F#%! that guy!" and "Are you effing kidding me?!" Though it feels good to go on a whinge like that, it's not that helpful. But if you want to keep reading, please do. It is a blog after all. 

I think I responded to this comment as best as possible given the shock and embarrassment I was experiencing at the moment. That is to say, I gave him the stinkiest stink eye I could muster and just waved him off because it wasn't worth my time. And it's not. I can't be bothered with stuff like that at this point in my life. Maybe if I were 22 and still minoring in American Ethnic Studies, I'd have some awesome speech for him quoting Ronald Tataki and Spike Lee. But I've calmed down a bit since then when it comes to racial stuff. It can get really tiring being offended all the time. It's also really hard to explain yourself without sounding defensive or like you have something to apologize for. So it's better to just pull the stink eye out. That's what it's there for. 

Rough transition: I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this before, but the Tokyo expat community is pretty weird. I don't mean that as an offense, but it seems to be very different from other expat communities in the world. Foreigners just aren't that friendly with other foreigners here. Everyone thinks they're better than the other guy for various illogical reasons. Because you can speak Japanese fluently. Because you're not an English teacher. Because you've lived here longer. Because you have Japanese friends. Because you're married to a Japanese person. Because you think you're not an obnoxious foreigner. It's weird and I think that this is just a Japan thing. 

Another interesting thing about foreigners in Japan (or actually, just people in general) is that they tend to fall back on wildly stupid generalizations about each other in a not jokey kind of way when meeting strangers.

• "Oh you're from Australia? Have you ever pet a Koala?" -- No, because they all have chlamydia and are high on eucalyptus leaves
• "Oh you're from England? Do you know Kate Middleton?" -- No, but she's hot. 
• "Oh you're American? Fuck you." -- Oh...umm, ok. Nice to meet you too. 

You know that tidbit about the rest of the world hating Americans? It's totally true!  Hating on Americans simply because they are Americans is a thing. Fair enough. I get it. Sometimes I hate America too. (Okaaay, "hate" is a strong word but whatever, free speech! Yay America and yay the internet!) But their understanding of Americans and American culture can be very limited. Rightfully so! You didn't grow up there, so why would you know the difference between the East and West coast? Why would you understand anything about Asian-American families and the American immigrant experience? I tend not to fault people for their first offense of ignorance. I try my best to educate people about my country and culture in a non-condescending and polite way. But..I don't know, what happened today went beyond that. I just don't feel like I need to explain myself. This was personal for the kind of relationship we had. 

My feelings over this whole matter are pretty weird in that I'm really surprised that I'm so affected by the exchange. I had a pretty intense fight or flight response in the moment. And once that kind of settled, I was just sad. My mind was rationalizing everything saying "It's fine. He didn't mean to offend you. He just doesn't know." but my body wanted none of that. I just wanted to punch something. Or cry. So I did a little, in the bathroom. I'll admit it. And it felt good I guess. But then I was upset that I had let him get a reaction out of me which made me want to cry more...a vicious cycle! 

Truth be told, I am really sensitive about my inability to speak Vietnamese. It's always been a sore subject for me since my teens, so it's no wonder he struck such an emotional nerve. But even though it's an issue for me, it's really not something people should comment on. That's my opinion. There are plenty of people who, for various reasons, can't speak their parents' native tongue fluently. That's America and that's what's great about it. How many Italian-Americans can actually speak Italian? Why isn't anyone up in arms over that?  

Look see? I'm totally Vietnamese! I've BEEN to Vietnam! My last name is NGUYEN!

Just because I don't speak Vietnamese doesn't make us any less Vietnamese. I'm really proud to be Vietnamese-American. I really am. And I'm proud of both - to be an American and to be of Vietnamese descent. Maybe I didn't always feel that way - yeah, when I was little, I wanted to be taller and have blonde hair. I've been called "whitewashed" a plenty of times. I'm not Asian enough or not White enough -- that's sort of the feeling. But I've come to terms with all that. When I went to high school and started seeing more people "like" me, it sort of washed away all those insecurities. I guess today was a little bit of a wake up call. 

A gay friend of mine recently told me a story about how his Japanese boss put him on the spot at a work function about which woman in the office was his type, basically trying to get him to admit that he was gay. I remember him telling me this story and feeling sorry for him, but now I really get why that was a big deal to him. Both being Bay Area kids, we were brought up in this little bubble where people are slightly more educated about diversity, be it homosexuality or race. But we're not in the hand-holding, flag waving, accepting Bay anymore and things like this are bound to happen from time to time. Even though we grow out of these insecurities, the scars are still there. If you poke at it hard enough, it'll remind you how you got it in the first place. 

Chao Ga :: Vietnamese Rice Porridge with Chicken

It's officially Tết, or the Lunar New Year, so again, Happy New Year! I had a lot of ambitious dreams of making some traditional Tết treats, like Banh Chung and Thit Kho but decided to go with something much simpler. We're talking 2-ingredients simple. Rice and water. That's all you need. Of course, you can fancy it up with toppings and flavorings, but at the core, it's just boiled rice and water. It's simple, healthy and perfect cold or sick food. In our house, when we were feeling under the weather, we got a steaming hot bowl of gingery, peppery Chao Ga instead of Chicken Noodle Soup. 

I've made this a few times in Japan and I think I've finally worked out all the toppings and flavorings to my liking. So here it is: 

Chao Ga :: Vietnamese Rice Porridge with Chicken

Porridge 

1 cup of rice, jasmine or japanese short grain

8 cups of water 

2 inch piece of peeled ginger thickly sliced 

1 bunch of scallions chopped in 1 inch pieces, whites only 

8 whole black peppercorns 

1. Put everything in a large pot. Bring to a boil then simmer on low for 1 hour. Stir occasionally and scrape rice from the bottom of the pan. 

Chicken 

1 chicken breast 

1 inch knob of ginger, sliced 

1. Poach the chicken breast in water with the ginger until done. Set chicken aside to cool. 

2. When the chicken has cooled, use two forks to shred into bite sized pieces. 

Customize your own bowl with different toppings. I put the chicken on top of a small bowl of soup and splash some fish sauce on the chicken. Then flavor the soup with Maggi Sauce. It also gets a healthy sprinkling of chopped green onions. One of my favorite toppings when I was little was something I called "carpet" which is a really salty dried pork that is then shredded (thịt chà bông). It looks like a giant jar of dog hair but it is delicious, especially in chao. 

In Japan, rice porridge soup is called okayu and is eaten with sesame seeds, mushrooms or umeboshi, pickled plums. In Hong Kong, congee is a popular breakfast meal filled with meat, fresh green veggies and greasy donuts. I'm sure other Asian countries have their take on chao and I'm sure that it's a sentimental dish for everyone since it can be topped and mixed with just about anything. 

Pho Ga :: The Inaugural Bowl

Ever since I watched the video above, I've been craving Pho. There is a pretty good Vietnamese restaurant in my neighborhood but since I've been cooking and blogging so much these days, why not give it a try at home? I googled a couple of recipes and decided that this Wandering Chopsticks post was a good jumping off point. I emailed my mom the recipe and she gave it the thumbs up with a few tips of her own. She suggested using fewer spices and concentrate on the ginger and garlic since those go so well with chicken. 

This being Japan, I of course had to make a few compromises. First, no whole chicken. Usually, you make the broth from a whole chicken. The bones are the most important part but most cuts of chicken are deboned in Japanese grocery stores. I managed to find 2 large chicken thighs with the bones still in and used those with a couple extra drumettes. In the end, this didn't turn out to be a deal breaker but the broth wasn't as deep as I had hoped for. Blammo begged to differ. He enjoyed the soup very much. I myself liked the chicken the best. 

Ingredients

1 whole onion, halved 

2 inch nob of ginger 

1/2 a head of garlic, smashed 

8 cloves 

1 cinnamon stick

4 cardamom pods

2 pieces of star anise 

1 whole chicken or a suitable amalgamation of pieces, as mentioned above 

2 teaspoons of salt

2 teaspoons of fish sauce

1 large piece of rock candy (or 3 tsp of brown sugar) 

1 package of Banh Pho (wide flat rice noodles)

bean sprouts

cilantro

lime wedges

chopped green onions

thai basil

sliced hot chilis 

Sriracha Sauce

Hoisin Sauce 

1. Char, roast or dry pan fry all the ingredients in red. The point of this is to bring out the flavors of each seasoning element. Keeping the broth clear is an important part of making Pho Ga. You don't want to have to worry about biting into a big chunk of star anise or clove. My mom suggested straining the broth through a fine sieve before serving, but that just seemed a little too much work for me. Also, I don't own a fine sieve. (Do you?) So, I got all MacGruber in the kitchen and whipped up my own little spice contraption.

E voila! I cut open a jasmine tea bag, poured out the tea leaves, replaced them with the pho spices and tied it back up. Worked like a charm. Removing the spices was a breeze and I didn't have too much debris floating around my broth. 

2. Wash the chicken and place it in a large soup pot. Add 2 tsp of salt and the charred flavorings. Cover with water. Bring the pot to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for an hour. Turn off the heat and let the soup cool. Then refrigerate overnight. 

3. The next day, skim all the solidified fat off the surface. I am sparing you a photo of this step. It is a little gross, but very necessary. 

4. Remove the chicken from the pot and shred the meat off the bones. I suggest using your hands. Again, it's a little gross, but very necessary. I like big meaty pieces but you can make yours whatever size you want. 

5. Set the meat aside in a bowl and add the bones back to the broth. 

6. Bring the broth back up to a boil and simmer for another hour. If you have a slotted spoon, occasionally skim as much floating spice and chicken bits out of the broth as possible. 

7. Season the broth with fish sauce and sugar. Traditionally, the broth is sweetened with rock sugar but brown sugar will work as well. You can also add carrots to the broth from the very beginning and the natural sweetness from the carrots will do the trick. 

8. Boil the noodles and add them to a large bowl. Top the noodles with pieces of chicken, cilantro, green onions and bean sprouts. Ladle the hot pho broth over the chicken until everything is covered. 

And that's that! Homemade chicken pho. Don't be intimidated. I was at first, because pho is something I usually only have at restaurants that specialize in it. But this was just as easy as making good old chicken noodle soup just with different spices and flavorings. I'd say the toughest part is getting all the ingredients, but if you're in the U.S., you won't have a problem at all. If I recall, they sell Vietnamese noodles in the Asian sections of Whole Foods and other grocery stores.

Talking Like a 5-Year Old on Lang-8

      

ベトナムの料理

Aug 16th 2010 23:01

近頃天気がすごあついです。レンジを使いたくないです。だから先週ベトナムのりょうりをしました。これはスプリングロールズ。中はエビと豚といろいろな野菜と麺類です。おいしかったです。

私はアメリカ人ですが、両親はベトナムから来ました。ドイツの大学に行きました。そのあと、カリフォルニアに行きました。私はベトナム語を話すことができません。残念ですね。外国語が上手じゃない。母はとても上手です。フランズ語と英語とベトナム語とドイツ語を話すことができます。すごい！さあ。。。私は両親をとてもしたっている。

ベトナム語を勉強をしたいんです。でも、今日本語を勉強をしなければなりません。時間がありません。

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm trying to improve my Japanese. It's a bit silly that it took me exactly 1 year to realize this but hey, at least I'm trying! Along with listening to more JapanesePod101.com podcasts (shameless plug...) I recently joined a social networking site called Lang-8.com. I had heard about this site from other blogs and decided to finally give it a shot. It was started by a student at Kyoto University as a way for peers to help each other with their foreign language studies. You write journal entries in the language you're studying and then native speakers of that language that are also using the site correct your sentences. In return, you can correct other peoples' entries in your native language. There are people on there writing in all kinds of languages, but I think Japanese-English are the most popular. 

I've been using it for about a week now and it's pretty cool actually. The website is a little clunky but aside from that, it's a really great idea. You get to put what you know to use and you end up learning a lot of vocabulary words along the way. The corrections usually come within 5 or 10 minutes of writing so the process is pretty quick. As an added bonus, people are really friendly and they write comments about what you wrote and tell you how great you are. No really! It's quite a confidence booster. 

I have to warn you though, it can be addicting. Not so much the writing part, but the correcting! For all you grammar snots out there, this is the site for you. It's just so tempting to go through and correct non-native English. For the most part, you can understand the gist of what they're trying to say and it makes you feel really helpful to give your 2-cents. Here's a part of a post of one of my "friends" : 

Many beer gardens open in summer. Most of them are held on the roofs of department buildings. I don’t know an origin of “beer garden.” However I know these roofs have no garden.

A lot of English words are used as Japanese, but there are many Japanese English which we can’t make sense of what it means. “Beer garden（ビアガーデン）” which is held on a roof of building is such a Japanese English.

This was a particularly satisfying post to correct as I could impart my German language knowledge on him. JA WOHL! I really enjoy reading Japanese peoples' posts a lot. Since I have so few friends to actually talk to, this is a nice way to break down a tiny piece of the wall between me and Japan. So far I've read about a woman who has just ended a friendship and is pretty bummed over it, a guy who went to his high school reunion and everyone said he looked fat and another guy that I thought was gay because he kept talking about his partner but he just means his girlfriend. 

I realize that this service is building up a false confidence in me because despite all the positive feedback, my Japanese is actually not that great. Those characters look really cool and everything, but it's basically 10 different childlike sentences like "It's hot." "I like to cook." "I'm an American." strung together in a somewhat coherent manner. Whatever, like I said, at least I'm trying.

By the way, the post above basically says this: 

It's really hot. I don't want to use the stove. So, I made Vietnamese food. These are spring rolls. Inside, there's shrimp, pork, various vegetables and noodles. Delicious! I'm an American. But my parents came from Vietnam. They went to a German university. Afterwards, they went to California. I don't speak Vietnamese. It's too bad. I'm not good at foreign languages. My mom is really good at foreign languages. She can speak French, Vietnamese, English and German. Awesome! I really love my parents. I want to study Vietnamese. But right now, I have to study Japanese. I don't have time. 

Summer Rolls the Remix :: Bun Thit Nuong with Fried Scallion Rolls

Working off my kitchen high from yesterday's spring rolls, I decided to to take a stab at one of my favorite dishes Bun Thit Nuong. This isn't too different from a summer roll actually. It's like a deconstructed summer roll. You know how at Chipotle, you can order something called a burrito bowl? This is like a burrito bowl, but less gross sounding. It shares about 90% of the ingredients from the rolls which is good because I had a lot of leftovers that I didn't want to waste. An added challenge for the evening was making my own carrot and diakon pickles. I've never really pickled anything before and yeah, in theory, it seems pretty easy. But for some reason, I always shied away from it. After tonight, I don't think I'll become a pickling master but it will be nice to have a jar of these tangy and crunchy pickles in the fridge.

I made something really similar a year ago when my mom taught me how to make cha gio. Instead of cha gio, this dish has grilled pork in a sweet marinade. If I could get my hands on lemongrass paste in Japan, I would definitely add that to the marinade, but alas, I am without. I tried to get a proper recipe from my mom but she went to bed before she got my email and catering to my every request just isn't on the top of her list of things to do anymore. So I googled a bunch of different recipes, took what I thought made sense, sprinkled that with some of my own knowledge and gave it a try. It may not be the most authentic, but it is delicious!

I felt like I'd really miss the crunch of cha gio, but was also too lazy to whip up a batch. Instead, I paid homage to the nem nuong I had in Nha Trang in 2004. Once upon a time, there was a pretty kickin' night market on the beach and I had these amazing spring rolls with pork meatballs. What I loved most about these rolls was the crunchy fried scallion wrapped inside. It was just a scallion rolled up in rice paper and fried but it added the perfect texture and made these irresistible. I was really sad to find out that this night market is no longer popular, thus, the delicious nem with crispy scallions are gone.

Fear not! They live on in my memory...and now in my kitchen. I fried up some of the leftover chinese chives wrapped in egg roll wrappers and added them to my bowl thus officially making this MY recipe.

Ingredients


Fried Scallion Rolls

• Egg Roll wrappers
• Scallions, chives or any other herb you can fry

1. Cut 5 inch pieces of chives. Roll in egg roll wrappers, sealing with egg wash. 

2. Fry for 2 minutes on each side. Set aside. 

Thit Nuong 

• thinly sliced pork
• 1 TB fish sauce
• 1 TB sugar
• 1 TB mirin or sake
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• lots of black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced

1. Put everything but the pork in a plastic bag and mix well -- make sure the sugar dissolves. Add the pork and marinate for 30 minutes to an hour. One thing I learned through Japanese cooking is that if you have thinly sliced meat marinating in alcohol, you don't want to marinate for longer than an hour. The point of the alcohol is to tenderize and if your meat is sliced too thin, you're going to break down too much protein.

2. Grill or pan fry. The sugar is going to caramelize and burn a little. Let it. That's part of the charm of this dish I think.

Nuoc Mam Sauce
Mix all contents together in a bowl. 

• 1/4 Cup Sugar
• 1/4 Cup White Vinegar
• 1 Cup of Water
• 1/2 Cup of Fish Sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon of crushed red pepper
• 1 Garlic Clove, finely diced

Bun Thit Nuong

• Cooked rice noodles, room temperature
• Lettuce
• Sliced cucumbers
• Bean sprouts (I totally forgot to put bean sprouts in my bowl -- doh!) 
• Pickled daikon and carrots
• Mint
• Cilantro
• Thit Nuong
• Peanuts
• Crunchy rolls, cut in half

1. Fill the bottom of a large bowl with rice noodles. Add all the veggies in varying quantities depending on your taste. 

2. Add pork and sprinkled crushed peanuts on the pork. 

3. Add some crunchy rolls. 

4. Top the noodles, veggies and meat with nuoc mam. 

Summer Time, Time for Summer Rolls

It is still balls hot right now in Tokyo. I'm apparently allergic to A/C so I've been using it in tiny spurts here and there but for the most part, the apartment is just too hot to cook in. While I've enjoyed eating out, I just could not kick a craving for fresh summer rolls. And who better to make it than me? Thankfully, summer rolls require very little cooking.

After I made my first roll, I literally jumped up and down and squeeled with glee. Partly because it looked so pretty and partly because this is the first time I've ever made goi cuon on my own and I managed to do it in Japan. I cannot stress to you more, the frustrating nature of wanting to make a certain dish and not be able to do it properly (or at all) because you can't find the right ingredients. (Cue slideshow of failed attempts to make thit kho, risotto, pie, chicken curry and tomato sauce) For me, cooking in Japan takes a lot of effort. In order to make these 10 spring rolls today, I went to 2 grocery stores, translated Vietnamese and Chinese into Japanese, try to find sufficient substitutes for the things I couldn't find and then hope that it all worked out. That one spring roll gave me so much joy because it represented one of the very few victories in my kitchen this year. I guess it's just a good reminder that cooking is hard and I don't know...be more prepared? Hopefully I'll have more victories in this 2nd year in Japan. I'm a little bit more hip to the game and more aware of the things I can or cannot get at my local grocery store.

So yeah, I made summer rolls or goi cuon (salad roll). Aside from assembly, the cooking part of this recipe couldn't be easier. It's a good thing my mom put me through Vietnamese Rolling Techniques bootcamp last summer.

Ingredients

(there is no green tea in this recipe, I just have a messy kitchen) 

• 10 shrimps, shelled and deveined 
• 1/2 lb of pork loin or roast 
• Vietnamese rice noodles
• Vietnamese rice paper
• Lettuce (I have no idea what kind I used, but it resembled butter lettuce) 
• 1/2 cucumber, halved and sliced thinly
• Cilantro
• Mint
• Chinese chives or scallions 

1. Poach the shrimp in salted water until cooked through. Halve the shrimps when cool enough to handle.  

2. Poach the pork in salted water until cooked through. Slice thin pieces of pork when cool enough to handle. 

3. Cook rice noodles in boiling water until cooked through. Rinse under cold water. 

4. Fill a large bowl with warm water. 

5. Dip the rice paper in the bowl of water so that the whole sheet gets wet, but don't soak it. You'll have to figure out how much water to use for yourself, but rice paper absorbs water slowly. You may think it's not soft enough but just be patient. 

6. Set the rice paper on a clean cutting board. First place the lettuce on the side closest to you. Top the lettuce with noodles, then mint, then 2 pieces of pork, then cilantro. Place 4 slices of cucumber directly on the rice paper above the lettuce. 

7. Roll the rice paper half way, then stop. Add 3 pieces of shrimp onto the rice paper. Fold in the sides. Place 1 leaf of the chive onto the shrimp so that it sticks out of one end. 

8. Fold in the sides of the rice paper and finish rolling. 

TADA! Wasn't that easy? There's a really good rolling tutorial here. 

The dipping sauce is a combination of hoisin, Sriracha and chunky peanut butter cut with a little bit of water. Play around with your own proportions because I'm too lazy to think about how exactly I made mine tonight. I think it was something like, 2 TB Hoisin, 3 TB PB, 2 TB water and a healthy squeeze of Sriracha. 

Dad's Favorite :: Com Tam

Going along with the nuoc mam theme, here is a simple but popular rice dish we had in Saigon, com tam. Com Tam is broken jasmine rice with a pork chop. It is usually eaten with pickled jicama and carrots, a dollop of scallion oil and a not so appetizing sounding pork skin salad -- don't let the name fool you, it's quite tasty. The small bowl on the right is the nuoc mam sauce that is spooned over the pork and rice.

Com Tam means "broken rice" but it is synonymous with this pork dish. The rice used really is broken - they are the grains of rice that have broken into tinier pieces through processing and transport. The pork's marinade is very sweet, so it works well with the saltiness of the nuoc mam although a fellow Australian diner disagreed. She asked the waitress for some soy sauce which made me cringe with anger and embarrassment. Sigh.

Banh Cuon Machine :: Breakfast of Champions

I mentioned in my last Vietnam post that all of my favorite Vietnamese dishes are ones that are either dipped or doused in nuoc mam, the most common sauce in Vietnamese cooking. Banh Cuon is one of those dishes and while we were in Hanoi, we were lucky enough to have a family run Banh Cuon shop right across the street from our hotel. I was totally mesmerized by these ladies' skills and even more mesmerized by the fresh steamed rolls they were dishing out. The filling is made of ground pork and mushrooms and topped with crunchy fried shallots and shrimp powder. They also made an egg filled roll which I have never seen before. We tried one, but I think the original filling is the best.


In the states, banh cuon is served with a side of nuoc mam but here, they had their own sauce made of a mix of pork broth, lime juice and fish sauce. I was a little skeptical given my love for nuoc mam, but their sauce was bangin'. As you can see above, we polished off quite a few plates during our 3 day stay in Hanoi and made quite an impression on the owners. You know it was a really good meal when I don't have a "before" picture of the dish because I was too excited to start eating.

Not that many people read my blog, but I was lucky enough to get my first comment from a stranger. The Ravenous Couple has a great blog about Vietnamese cooking and they recently posted a recipe for Banh Cuon.

Asian Pancakes and Crepes :: Banh Xeo and Okonomiyaki

Banh Xeo is a southern specialty, more specifically a Saigon specialty. I asked a young girl in Nha Trang, a southern beach town, if there was a place we could get Banh Xeo and she straight laughed in my face. Banh Xeo is a savory crepe (a nod to the French) made with coconut milk and is eaten wrapped in lettuce and dipped in fish sauce. The most popular filling is shrimp, pork and bean sprouts. Banh Xeo may seem like a simple dish, but it really does have to be cooked perfectly to be truly appreciated -- it must be crispy on the edges and the batter should be light and fully cooked. I realized on this latest trip that my favorite Vietnamese dishes are the ones in which you either dip or douse the main course with nuoc mam, fish sauce mixed with vinegar, sugar, lime and chili peppers and Banh Xeo definitely fits the bill. I guess I'm a little addicted to that salty, tangy flavor.
There is a Vietnamese restaurant in my neighborhood in Tokyo that serves Banh Xeo and they market it as the Vietnamese Okonomiyaki. I found this to be pretty funny, but it does kind of fit the description. Okonomiyaki means "the things you like, grilled" -- ok, rough translation but that sort of gets the point across. It's a grilled pancake and the batter is mixed with all sorts of crazy things - squid, octopus, shrimp, cheese, pork, kimchi -- the list goes on. It is then topped with seaweed powder and mayo. Mmm...sounds good right?! I had my first Okonomiyaki last weekend in Kobe and it was DERICIOUS. I think the key to liking Okonomiyaki is to actually order the things you like. We opted or corn, cheese, spring onion and bacon. While we may have gotten a good laugh from the old lady that ran the joint, we absolutely loved our creation, so much so that we went back the next day and had it for lunch.

So there you have it folks - pancakes and crepes, Asian style.

Chuc Mung Nem Moi! :: Happy Lunar New Year!

The timing of our trip was pretty perfect. Tet, Vietnam's Lunar Year celebrations, kicks off in early February but preparations for Tet start weeks before. There are many special Tet treats such as Banh Trung - a grilled sticky rice cake filled with pork and sweet beans and wrapped in a banana leaf. Dip it in some sugar and you've got yourself a tasty little treat. Sounds kind of gnarly, I know, but it is really tasty. My parents make Banh Trung every year for Tet and it is a really special treat for us. In the picture above, this woman is selling Banh Trung that you can grill yourself at home. My mom showed me this special young rice called com. She said that we were really lucky to be able to try it because young rice is only available during certain times of the year; dependent on the harvest schedule. It is somewhat of a Vietnamese delicacy. Lucky me! The rice is very aromatic - it smells a little like sweet perfume and has a chewy texture that I really liked.

Bun Bo Hue

When people talk about Vietnamese food, no doubt Pho, spring rolls and banh mi are the top three dishes that come up. Yes, these things are popular in Vietnam, but it seems that to Vietnamese people, Bun Bo Hue is truly a coveted dish. For some crazy reason, I had never had Bun Bo Hue before this trip and after trying it, it makes me super sad that I have been deprived of this wonderful dish for so long!

Bun Bo Hue is a mildy spicy pho-like soup that originates from, duh, Hue. The central region of Vietnam is often forgot. My mom says they're kind of invisible in the minds of Northerner's and Southerners but that's hard for me to believe since Bun Bo Hue shops were well represented in both Saigon and Hanoi. I tried my first bowl in Nha Trang, which is also known for making good Bun Bo Hue. It has a very strong lemongrass flavor and for you meat lovers, there are slices of tender beef and a whole pork shank in each serving. The noodles are thick rice noodles...similar to Udon noodles. Not my favorite, but with such a flavorable broth, I could care less what kind of noodles they use. Just like with Pho, you get a plate of fresh herbs and veggies to add to your hot bowl of soup. Throw in some bean sprouts, cilantro and a squeeze of lime and you're ready to go.

A tip about eating Vietnamese soups :: Because the broths are made from stewed bones, it is always best to eat soups like Pho and Bun Bo Hue in the morning when the broth is fresh and strong. As the day goes on, restaurants add water to the broth and you lose a lot of the flavor.

I went to Vietnam!

One of the perks of living in Japan, for me at least, is it's proximity to my homeland Vietnam. I have been twice before, the first time when I was about 9 (1994?) and then again in college (2003?). This was my first trip to Vietnam without the complete guidance of my parents (ok....soooort of) which was both exciting and scary. Our trip started in HCMC/Saigon, 5 days in beachy Nha Trang, 3 days in Hanoi with a 1 day trip to Halong Bay, then back to Saigon for a day and a half. My mom and sister were also visiting VN so we fit in a fair amount of family time too, which is always A-Ok with me. Aside from seeing a dead body on the street (bike accident), a cooked dog (in the North...which is still common) and a bout of killer food poisoning, the trip was perfect.

I'll get to the food in some other posts, but this being my third trip in 15 years, I wanted to share some thoughts about how the country is changing...from my perspective at least. The first time I went to Vietnam, I was pretty young which was kind of a blessing. Vietnam was still trying to rebuild itself and it's people. Viet Kieu, Vietnamese people who have left the country, like my parents, were coming back to the country for the first time since they left. Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City was an absolute zoo. Eager families waiting to be reunited with their loved ones waited in a frenzy outside the baggage terminal. For my sister and I, this was the first taste of Vietnam. Oppressive humidity and lots and lots of hysterical Vietnamese people crushed up against a barricades. I remember the streets being stuffed with mopeds and it being hard to breath. Humidity plus ground level pollution - lethal combination. We made our trek to Soc Trang, my mom's hometown, a small village in the south near Can Tho. It was a very long trip but we got to see the country side - the colorful floating villages, The Mekong Delta and the people. Our western fashion clearly stuck out as we were hounded by child and senior beggars the whole trip. I met my grandmother for the first and last time on this trip which is most memorable to me because she is the only grandparent I have ever known. She bought me ice cream with condensed milk on top everyday (kem) and I enjoyed just sitting around hearing her talk to my mom, even though I had no idea what she was saying at the time. My cousins who had stayed in Vietnam were happy people and living a cushy life - 4 story house, a garage full of mopeds, with maids and cooks at their disposal. What I know now is that this isn't the portrait of your average Vietnamese family. Our family was and still is very lucky.

My second trip came in college, again with my parents, but not with my sister. I was eager to go back now that I was an enlightened and supposedly educated adult. This was a very different trip. In need of a real vacation, I begged my parents to take me to the beach town they had been bragging about for years, Nha Trang. Flights to Vietnam were cheaper now since more airlines were adding it to their international routes and tourism was growing. Saigon was a little glitzier this time around - mopeds were still overcrowding the streets but there were still a lot of new things to see. European style cafe's, big chain hotels and cleaner streets. Saigon looked like any other big city...sort of. We took the reunification express to Nha Trang. Holy jesus, it was slow it was about a day and a half to get to Nha Trang, which is a 45 minute flight from Saigon. But again, we got to see some country side views and I'm glad to have had the experience. This train won't be around for much longer. Vietnam Railways with some aid from Japan, is building a high-speed rail line with Shinkansen (bullet train) technology connecting HCMC and Hanoi that will cut down the travel time to around 5 hours. It currently takes about 36 hours. Yikes! Nha Trang was mind blowing. I had no idea beaches like these existed in Vietnam. I thought it was just another made up story my dad told us to make Vietnam sound cool! We stayed at the nicest resort in town, the Ana Mandara. LUXORY! It felt a little wrong to stay in a place so nice, in a country where people made less than $100 a day, but at the same time I welcomed the idea of westerner's coming to VN to see that it is a lot more than a war. There was so much development happening on the main street, Tran Phu. I remember wondering what it would look like a few year's time. (Foreshadowing...)

Fast forward to the present. Here I am in Tokyo, unpacked from my latest trip. It was an invigorating trip that made me really feel proud of my heritage. The streets are cleaner and the people are friendlier. The airports were calm - no barricades out front anymore. Saigon was a little quieter (if you can believe it!) and trendy cafe's and boutique hotels lined the streets. You could tell that many Vietnamese were coming back home after year's living in the West and were setting up restaurants and businesses in the city. The standard of service is much higher in the fancier areas, but even in the markets, things just seem to be a little calmer. One of the biggest changes I noticed was the lack of street beggars. Sure, we got a few people trying to sell us lotto tickets, but there just weren't as many gaunt children running around trying to get their hand on a dollar. When we did see kids, they were usually in a school uniform grabbing an after school snack. That's a good sign. Nha Trang has changed a lot as well. We once again stayed at the Ana Mandara but ventured out into town as much as possible. The main tourist area in Nha Trang was...kind of disappointing. It's overrun by cheesy western bars offering pizza and hamburgers. Some of the smaller hotels with names like the "Seaview" no longer had sea views because the new Novotel was erected right in front of their building, blocking their view. It's only natural that these things happen and I don't mean to sound cynical about the westernization of Nha Trang or Vietnam in general because in many ways, it is a really good thing, but I can't help but feel a bit sad and embarrassed that local business people are being pushed out by Australian, Swedish and American chains.

Up to Hanoi for the first time ever. What an experience! My dad's family is originally from the North so I was really happy to finally see what it is all about. We had been warned that the North and South are very different and that showed in almost every interaction we had. The northern accent is pretty much unrecognizable for me. I don't speak Vietnamese, but I can understand about 70% of what is being said. With the Northern accent, my comprehension takes a dive down to about 10%. Northerners are more buttoned up than Southerners - even the cyclo drivers wear blazers. No pajama parties up here! (In the south, most women wear pajama looking outfits called Ao Ba Ba) I guess the most critical thing I have to say about Hanoi is that it is colder, both in temperature and attitude. It's not a very smiley town and service with a smile is very rare. I don't take it personally, but people in Hanoi are just very serious and cold. That aside, I really liked Hanoi. I think I like it more as a city than Saigon because of all the historical preservation. It is a very charming city and I hope more people get a chance to see what it has to offer.

There are so many images from my trips that stick in my mind but from experience, many tend to fade as time goes by. That's the great thing about food - you always remember the food and the food will always lead you back to those fond memories of when you first had that dish. I always associate ice cream with condensed milk with my first trip to Vietnam, and Nem Nuong with Nha Trang. When I lived in New York, every once in a while I'd pass a hot dog vendor burning his pretzels and the smell would take me right back to a busy corner in Saigon where the sidewalks were filled with street food. So now that I've shared my memories with you...on to the food!