I’ve fully embraced the fact that I’m addicted to salt and crunchies. To preen me away from a jar of anything picked is like separating a mother bear from her cub. Please don’t get between me and my precious jar of pickled vegetables. Just don’t even think of going there. OK?

With that submission to salt made clear, I’m blaming it all on my Vietnamese heritage because I pretty much started at birth (once I moved to solids) to eating pickled foods as part of my meals. The colorful collage of Vietnamese cuisine includes fresh textures of raw herbs/greens and often bright and crunchy pickles of some sort. I love eating my food in layers, where I have the luxury of biting into a pickled accouterment alongside savory grilled dishes, or tearing fragrant raw herbs into my hot bowls of brothy soup.

Each bite of Vietnamese food is exciting because of the diverse contrast of cool, crunchy, sour, sweet and salty textures.

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Read the rest of Vietnamese Style Pickled Carrots from Eating Local Cookbook (455 words)

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The leaning tower of pork belly banh mi: not for the light hearted

I’m not a comedian, nor was I trying to be one when I spoke frankly about my mother’s Nail shop cooking escapades. Like I’ve always said, my mother is a culinary fool, a manic of a woman who lives to feed her family of 6 kids and our extended family of neighborhood friends. She’s been known to get even more carried away and feed her nail shop clients homemade noodles and fish sauce while they’re getting their pedicures.

My mother’s nail shop has launched her notoriety as the local nail salon that leaves you twinkling with pretty red nails and stinking of fish sauce. Or in our case, smelling so umami-delicious!

Her salon is a combination Viet food joint slash Tuesday-after-5pm-pedicure-special nail salon. And it tickles me #32 bottle-pink to see the buzzing jive of food and eyebrow “wacks” that are going on. The ladies are still trying to pronounce “wax” correctly. Good luck.

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Read the rest of Vietnamese Caramel Braised Pork Belly Banh Mi – Nail Shop Eats #4 (1,106 words)

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Post tags: Asian Recipes, Family Recipes, Meats Recipes, Party Recipes, Personal Stories, Pork Recipes, Recipes, Sandwich Recipes | Banh Mi, Vietnam, Vietnamese Recipes

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I can’t imagine a life without curry. Thinking about it brings a void and desperate plea to my palate, “Noooooo!”  The warm, fragrant combination of spices topped over warm rice, tofu, veggies,  fish or meats is indispensable for me. Long ago, I swore to not live a bland life. I shall not live curry-less.

As versatile as it is delicious, my curry gravy is great accompaniment to almost any dish that needs a quick burst of flavor. Simple olive or grape seed oil, garlic and shallots can quickly bring life and flavor to most things I eat, but sometimes a dash of curry perks up the flavor scale a couple of tasty notches.

I used to call this a curry sauce, but when it’s thickened  a bit  with  the cornstarch slurry, it becomes a thicker, clingy gravy  (borrowing the term more from the old fashioned definition of gravy, rather than the modern meat juice, flour, & milk concept of gravy) that makes dinner more exciting.

The bright, grassy and aromatic depth of fresh lemongrass is what makes this curry gravy exceptional. I’m a lover of lemongrass both in the kitchen and in the garden, plus pulling a fresh stalk of thick and plump lemongrass thrills me as a gardener (almost anyone can grow lemongrass). It’s like a noxious weed, and it nice that you can cull the weeds and still cook with it too.

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Read the rest of Versatile Curry Gravy with Fried Fish (or what ever you heart!) (1,011 words)

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Post tags: Appetizers | Spreadable Dips, Asian Recipes, Family Recipes, Personal Stories, Gluten Free Recipes, Recipes, Sauce Recipes | Dressings, Seafood Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes, Vietnamese Recipes

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For the longest time, we’ve been making the best darn hamburger on the face of this earth (insert personal bias.) We’ve never had a specific name for the recipe until someone tagged it as the “magic meat”, but not as in “mystery meat” or “I can’t tell if this is chicken or beef.” Rather, it was to describe the magical flavor sensations that everyone experienced when they bit into one of our patties. That “magic meat” term  described the juicy, flavorful and savory burger patty that everyone fought over. Sometimes the buns were tossed to the side or forgotten because the meat was just so darn tasty.

It wasn’t until recently, with all the discussion on Umami (the rich, savory taste in foods) that our burger recipe was re-named as  the hamburger loaded with Umami. Our hungry friends were always stumped to figure out the secret ingredient and could never, ever pinpoint that “magic” flavor that made our patties so unique. It’s the ultimate burger that is so satisfying and savory,  no one can eat just one. Make it a double, please.

But this umami rich burger recipe isn’t a new invention, nor is it a trendy recipe to keep up with the popularity of umami rich foods. It’s a family recipe that started from a Vietnamese family back in the early 80′s, in a 2-bedroom apartment, in the middle of Southern California.

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Read the rest of The Ultimate Umami Burger (990 words)

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Post tags: Asian Recipes, BBQ, Beef Recipes, Family Recipes, Grilling, Meats Recipes, Personal Stories, Recipes, Sandwich Recipes | Banh Mi, Super Bowl Recipes, Vietnam, Vietnamese Recipes

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A new blogging event has just launched and this time, it’s a fun, free for all celebration of Summer’s bounty! Started last Summer by Margaret Roach of Away to Garden and Deb Puchalla, which was called Food Fest, lovers of everything fresh, delicious, and/or from the garden shared ideas and recipes from across the globe. Last summer’s event was a cross-blog event where they would announce a food or “crop” in advance and they would then swap recipes, growing tips, lore and whatever else came up. Their readers did the same, and everyone linked to each other liberally, so everyone benefited.

Now for Summer Fest 2009, Margaret has continued this cross-blog event every Tuesday for the next four weeks, which will be a celebration of fresh-from-the-garden food: recipes, growing tips, even tricks for storing and preserving summer’s best. For this years Summer party, Margaret has collaborated with co-creators  Matt of Matt Bites (who also created the gorgeous plump tomato logo), Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen,  us of White on Rice Couple, and will have guest appearances from Shauna and Daniel Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl, Simmer Till Done’s Marilyn Pollack Naron, and Paige Smith Orloff of The Sister Project.

Read more about how Summer Fest 2009 works on Margaret’s site at Away to Garden.

Herb Week! This week is about Herbs and we’re talking about our huge garden full of Vietnamese herbs! There’s Vietnamese herbs bursting at every corner of the garden. All of last years herb seedlings have sprouted like weeds, but quite delicious weeds that we don’t yank out too fast.

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Read the rest of Vegetable/Herb Spring Rolls for Summer Fest 2009- Share your recipes, garden tips & stories (1,358 words)

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Post tags: Appetizers | Spreadable Dips, Family Recipes, Personal Stories, Garden Recipes, Gardening, Gluten Free Recipes, Meats Recipes, Nail Shop Eats, Recipes, Spring Roll Recipes (Fresh and Fried), Travel | Trips, Vegetarian Recipes, Viet-Nam, Vietnam, Vietnamese Recipes

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I’m an addict and I don’t care.

It’s not that I can’t go anywhere without having my daily, tasty coffee.  It is just that I don’t want to.  Headaches aren’t an issue, nor do I get all that grumpy without a morning hit of caffeine, however my morning coffees provide a brief moment of calm bliss.  Sanctuary lies in a cappuccino with a perfect, velvety foam, Vietnamese coffees (hot or cold – ca phe sau da or ca phe sua nong), or a simple espresso (maybe topped with a dollop of whipped cream.)

They each have the textures, taste, and calming fortitude to embed a bit of sanity in my soul.  A day without one of them is akin to wandering through a crowd and never seeing a smile.

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Read the rest of Vietnamese Hot Coffee – Camp Drinking (771 words)

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Post tags: Beverages, Recipes, Travel | Trips, Vietnam, Vietnamese Recipes

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