White on Rice Couple

We want to introduce you to some of our new “food video” making friends. They are Travis at Rock and Roll BBQ and Tony at Olive Juice! Since our video’s have been circulating in the blogosphere waves, we’ve received so much support and love from all you watching and reading. Thank you!! New video friends have stopped by and shared their love of creating cooking video’s and here are two guys that really, really have their stuff together! Travis and Tony are two hugely talented guys who make cooking video’s based on their personal cooking styles and every single one is fantastic! Their video’s are informative, entertaining, funny, professional, and inspiring! They keep us on our video making and editing toes!

Travis is all about the BBQ- everything from fantastic ribs, brisket and beer can chicken! This musician not only plays a mean guitar, he makes amazing BBQ on his smoker. His video’s will show you just how to cook the meat down to it’s heavenly texture. He’s got his own BBQ sauce for you to try. Sorry, Veg-Heads, he’s not your type, but his cool personality is worth watching. Just don’t hate him cause he loves his meat! His smokin’ hot site is at Rock and Roll BBQ.com

Tony creates some simply delicious foods with Mediterranean flair and pizzazz. His fully entertaining and clever editing makes you smile and drool over his fresh, flavorful creations. You’ve gotta check out his Foccacia video, it brings back memories and it’s very cool. So Veg-Head’s, he’s the man for you. His avocado shake is stellar and you’ll love his Tzatziki and Muhhammara videos! Go visit him on his blog at Antonio Tahhan.com

Kick “Pork” Butt -6 Hour Smoked Pulled Pork

This post is dedicated to you guys: Tony, we’re answering your question of what our “go to dish” is , which is our slow cooked pulled pork in the smoker, something that Travis will love. Travis, this is for you to show you, our “BBQ King” that we love BBQ-ing too!

For large parties, we’re all about heating up the smoker and BBQ-ing pounds and pounds of pork butt and beef brisket to feed the hoards of carnivores, all salivating, with beers in hand. Back off the smoker people, it’s take hours to get these beauties ready!

Our slow cooked, 6 hour pulled pork with home made BBQ sauce is so versatile and always a crowd favorite. We’ll take this “melt in your mouth” pork and offer some tortillas ( warmed up on the BBQ), freshly sliced cabbage, cilantro & lime for some pulled pork tacos. The warm, BBQ toasted tortillas are kick ass with the pork and a ice cold beer. We’ll also get some fresh, light, Viet baguettes and make our HUGELY popular, pulled pork Viet baguette sandwiches, called Bánh Mì.The smoky richness of the pork is the perfect filling for banh mi, with flavorful pate, tangy ,tart carrots and daikon radish, cool cucumbers, fresh cilantro and jalapeno heat. Depending on who’s invited and how many sandwiches we make, our generous, gracious hosting skills take effect, “Back off Jerry! Limit 3 per person, you squabbling , pork hoarding carnivore ! There ain’t enough pig for everyone to go for a fourth round!”. Yeah, that’s how good they are.

Are you salivating yet?! So there it is, pulled pork dishes that always make a starring role on our party table. The pulled pork banh mi and tacos (sorry, no pic’s) are so popular, there would probably be a mutiny if we decided to change the menu. Peace, peace, our beloved carnivore guests! No need for choas! This meat will always be served!

• Pulled Pork Recipe Here

• Pulled Pork Bánh Mì ideas here

• Home made BBQ sauce Recipe here

Keep up the great Video work guys and let’s all make more food videos!! Show us your mojo via video! We’ll be writing up another post later for more stellar food videos we’ve found.

View all our VIDEOS Here Cooking & Exploring !

Working in the retail business has it’s ups and downs. One of the drawbacks of working with the general public in the service industry is being swamped for the whole Mothers Day weekend, helping everyone else ensure that their Mom’s are taken care of, pampered and recognized, while our own Mother’s get a quick hug or phone call as we run off to work.

But Mom and Mẹ Ơi , here is another quick shout to you and all Mom’s out there that you are loved unconditionally for all your nurturing, sacrifice and unfaltering devotion to us, your children. You’ve kept us warm and fed, healed us back to health during our sick days and forgiven us for our stubborn youth. We apologize for being pains in the asses at times and not holding our tongue when we should. Yes, you are the ones that brought us in to this world, and you are fully capable and entitled to taking us out too!

We are not perfect, nor do we strive to be. But your guidance does helps us to become better people. Thank you, we love you!

Happy Mother Day !! Here are some orchids and Eden roses from the garden for all of you Mammas !

What did you give/receive for Mother’s Day? Please share…

There are so many food blogging events, but so little time.The small hand full of marvelous events that we already enjoy participating in has us scrambling till the very last wee hours of the night to submit our contribution. Procrastinating might be the evil force hiding behind our 2am post writings, but some minds work better under pressure. In our case, it’s two. But between two very busy jobs and continuous projects in the works, we blog when we can and that means late into the night. And by the way, make that a double cocktail at 1:23 am to alleviate any writers block!

Ironically, as much as we enjoy drinking and pairing our foods with wine, we’ve yet to participate in any event focused on wine. Luckily, there are some mighty fine folks out there in the blogosphere who are looking out for our inebriating interests. They are Denise and Lenny, the power couple behind the beautiful and delicious blog, Chez Us. They informed us of Wine Blogging Wednesday, a great event that has wine lovers finding a wine that is fits the theme for that month, then write about their tasting notes. This month’s theme has everyone reveling in old world Riesling, which is hosted by Tim over at Wine Cast. A monthly event like this that requires drinking wine is too good to pass up, so we’re joining in on the festivities and sharing our riesling notes on a German 2005 Veldenzer Elisenberg Spatlese by Weingut Max Ferd Richter.

Old World Riesling is an exciting theme for us this month because we were planning to pair this old world spatlese with some Vietnamese stuffed squid in spicy fish sauce. Todd has been craving this wickedly delicious, but rather time consuming, squid dish, which has been a staple and favorite on our Viet family side for so many years. But the time in making our pork stuffed Vietnamese squid is worth every slimy, gut cleaning, ink-sac squirting effort. So we headed down the coast San Pedro’s various seafood vendors at the San Pedro Fish Market, searching for fresh, baby squid. A major port town in Los Angeles County, San Pedro is a busy shipping port and harbor that is a great source for fresh, local and international seafood. Here, fresh fish, crab, lobster are brought in daily and to our delight, there was plenty of fresh squid at our stuffing disposal.

This Spatlese was quite tasty! It had a moderate nose of green apple, peach, and a bit of honeysuckle forecasting what was about to be tasted. Upon drinking, those elements were confirmed, along with a moderate sweetness that is typically found in a Spatlese Riesling. The fruit was luscious with juicy peach now dominating the palate, but being complimented by the flora notes as well as the mildly tartness of the green apple characteristics. The wine was delicious on it’s own, but our main intent was to see how it would hold up to the challenging pair of this Viet Stuffed Squid and it’s palette dominating dipping sauce of Nuoc Cham. The Nouc Cham has a collage of salty, sour, spicy and sweet flavors, with the spicy being felt long and hard. With a fish sauce this spicy, it’s sometimes hard to find a wine that isn’t too harsh or clashing, or that just gets buried under the fish sauce’s power.

How did this Riesling do? When we eat the squid, we’ll wrap it in lettuce, fresh Viet herbs, then dip it in the Nuoc Cham. The mouth is left tingling and salivating for more. This Riesling married perfectly. The juicy fruit and sweetness of the wine drew out most all of the heat as well as rounding out the flavors. The fresh herbs were reflected back into the wine and more flora notes were discovered in the mouth. With the spice on the palate nearly extinguished by the wine, each bite and drink became nearly a virginal taste every time, with only subtle remembrances of the passing nibble lingering on the palate. As with any good pairing, both the wine and the food developed new qualities that were heightened in the dining experience.

As mentioned, these stuffed squids never fail to please, so we decided to share our ways of preparing and cooking these Vietnamese delicacies with a video! One of the challenges of cooking stuffed squid is to thoroughly cook the filling, without drying out the squid. We prepared the squid in two ways, grilling it on the pan and deep frying them with the a panko bread crust coating. For the pan method, we suggest covering the pan with a lid for a minute or two to help cook the filling without rubberizing the squid. Deep frying them with the outler layer of egg wash and panko bread crumbs keeps the squid moist during this quicky fry. Both are two great options for you to play with. Also, you don’t have to burn in hell like we did with all these chili’s, just add enough to fit your level of heat and spice!

Video #8 - Watch Todd & Diane’s Vietnamese Stuffed Squid with Spicy dipping sauce.

Mực Nhồi Thịt -Vietnamese Stuffed Squid Recipe Here ( actually, coming soon…need more time to write out the recipe!)

But in the meantime, check out these great Vietnamese squid recipes:

• Andrea Nguyen, author of the cookbook, Into The Vietnamese Kitchen, has a stuffed squid recipe with a delicious ginger dipping sauce. We’re not sharing this recipe because you must go buy the book! If you’re interested in Vietnamese cuisine, this is a must book to have on your shelf. Andrea does have a great fried squid recipe on her website, Viet World Kitchen.
• Christine’s tasty and healthy Vietnamese Squid Salad at Holy Basil.
• Wandering Chopsticks makes a yummy salty, sour, sweet Green Mango Salad with Dried Squid.
• Marvin at Burnt Lumpia has a great squid cleaning VIDEO ! Watch it Here…

View all our VIDEOS Here Cooking & Exploring !