Eating Vietnam

The sights, the sounds, the smells... yes, the sweet smells of Vietnam. It's a pungent mix of exhaust fumes, earthiness and fish sauce... I love it.

There is a very distinct smell to Vietnam and when I encounter that same smell anywhere else in the world, it brings me back to the busy streets of Saigon.

{overlooking Saigon AKA Ho Chi Minh City - the Mekong Delta}

I've been lucky enough to travel to Vietnam twice: once when I was 16 and last year, 12 years after my first family trip. Most of my relatives still live in southern Vietnam so it's always a big reunion when the '"viet kieus" can make it back to the homeland (even though I was born in the U.S.).

Besides being able to reunite with amazing family members, I am most ecstatic about the delicious goodies that I get to stuff into my belly! Vietnam is a food-loving country. You've seen the TV shows documenting such things, and yes, that's how they live. Food stalls, food alleys, food being prepped on the street... it all adds to the uniqueness that is "eating out" in Vietnam.

I would say 60% of my time in Vietnam was spent figuring out my next meal, I know, life is tough.

While you can most of these dishes in the U.S., there is something about plopping your butt down on a plastic chair, pulling it up to a tiny plastic table and watching the lady make your food right in front of you, there is nothing like it.

Since I took so many food pics during my trip last year, I decided to compile my Top 10 favorite things to eat when I'm in Vietnam (in no particular order).

1. Fresh Fruit: With Vietnam being a tropical country, the fruit that grows there is lush, vibrant, and delicious! You can get a lot of the fruit in the States, but they're usually frozen/canned, which takes away from the flavor. The fruits that I usually indulge in when I'm over there are: lychee, mangosteen, rambutan, longan and the custardy goodness that is DURIAN! A lot of people think durian smells like rotten onions, I on the other hand, think it smells wonderful and musty (in a good way).

{mangosteens at the market - the mangosteen flesh!}



{L: spiky durian! R: various tropical fruit}

2. Banh cuon (stuffed rice rolls): The ladies on the street make the thin rice sheets on a steamer right in front of you. If you wish, you can ask for the rolls to be stuffed with a pork/woodear mushroom filling. The rolls are topped with cha (pork rolls), herbs, cucumbers, bean sprouts, and fried shallots. Pour some fish sauce on top and this is the perfect cool meal for the sweltering Vietnam heat.

{banh cuon}

3. Banh xeo (viet crepe): The sizzling pans filled with batter that is tinted yellow from tumeric is the Vietnamese version of a French crepe. The banh xeos are usually filled with shrimp, pork, and other goodies. We came across some cute mini banh xeos in Nha Trang - that was cooked with shrimp and squid. This dish is what I usually crave when I come home... it's always more fun to eat this dish with a group of people.

{this banh xeo was bigger than my head!}



{baby banh xeos}

4. Banh canh: My mom makes a mean banh canh, but there was a lady down the street from my grandma's house that has been selling banh canh for decades! She sets up her shop in an alleyway and she usually sells out by Noon. I love the unctuousness of the thick noodles and the floating congealed pork blood is always a plus. Throw in a pigs foot and I'm in heaven.

{banh canh: so simple yet so complex at the same time}

5. Fresh seafood: Since Vietnam is hugged by the South China Sea, the seafood is plentiful around these parts. The best things to get are the cua rang muoi [salted fried crab], and the ever present snails. There are streets in Saigon that are known for cooking up snails. You grab a plastic seat/table, order from a full list of flavors (coconut, lemongrass, tamarind, etc.) and then work on sucking out the delicious meat! The periwinkle snails are small, so you don't even need to use a toothpick to get the meat out.

{L: snails in a coconut sauce. R: The snail carnage!}



{L: Fresh seafood for sale on the street in Nha Trang. R: Cua Rang Muoi}

6. Sweets: I like Vietnamese sweets because they're not as heavy as the treats that we're used to. We really love tapioca drinks, and one of my favorites is the Che ba Mau (3 color drink). Che is a generic word for anything that is a sweet/tapioca/starch type of sweet. Che ba Mau has three different components of different colors, hence the name. I love the coconut milk mixed with the black beans and tapioca. YUM. I also had one of the best flans EVER in the beach town of Nha Trang. It had a nice coffee flavor to it and yes, we like to eat our flan with ice. Try it, it's amazing.

{L: Che ba mau. R: flan with a hint of coffee}

7. Banh bot loc/banh beo: These two dishes can be separate, but I always group them together because when I was growing up in San Jose, we would go to a place that makes the best banh bot loc and banh beo and we would always eat the two dishes together. The same fish sauce is served with both, so it only makes sense. These two things are at the top of my list because of the texture, the flavor, and the overall complexity yet ease of the dish. I also love eating this because it's not something I can easily make at home. I've made banh bot loc, since that's fairly easy to make, but banh beo is best eaten in those little saucers and I don't have the patience to steam 30+ saucers to quench my appetite.

{L: a Hue version of banh beo. R: banh bot loc}



{breakfast of champions: banh beo AND banh bot loc! The cute lady making the dish in Nha Trang}

8. Hu tieu nam vang: Dry noodle dish with the broth on the side - which is perfect since it's hard for me to eat a hot bowl of anything when I'm drenched in sweat.

{my sis obviously loves hu tieu nam vang as well}

9. Drinks: Vietnamese people love their coffee - it's also one of the leading export items in the country - and there is at least one coffee stall/cart on every block. The thick coffee is ladled on top of the sweetened condensed milk and stirred vigorously, topped with ice (hopefully clean), and it's a great pick-me-up in the middle of the day.
I also love the sugar cane [nuoc mia] drinks. The raw sugar cane is pushed through a presser with half a lime and it's a natural sweet drink that is less than 25cents!

{cafe sua da from a coffee shop near my grandma's house}



{sugar cane being pressed and made into a frothy satisfying drink}

10. Family meals: I've said it before, but food always tastes better when you can share it with your family. The best part of Vietnam is being able to reconnect with family members that I rarely get to see. I enjoy the fact that I can watch them cook and even be allowed to cook for them; doing so allows me the Vietnamese food tradition alive... which is what food is all about. I want to be able to recreate dishes that my mom makes, that her mom has made, and generations before her. These dishes are what keeps me true to who I am and makes me who I am. It is my soul food. One of the best meals I had when I was in Vietnam was this simple chicken porridge my dad's family made for us when we visited. The dish is so unbelievably simple, but the 'yard bird' gave the porridge this lovely natural yellow tint and flavor that I can never recreate here. Maybe it was part food, part family time that made that dish so amazing?

{L: mom's family prepping for a birthday dinner. R: finished product!}

{L: the chicken cooking on the 'still-wood-fired-stove'. R: Chicken porridge}



{sharing a delicious country-style meal with my dad's family}

Alamo City Cerveza Fest '11

Months of preparation, dozens of volunteers, and hundreds of empty beer bottles are all the things left in the wake of the 2011 Alamo City Cerveza Fest.

Even though Micah and I had already moved to Austin, we still wanted to be a part of ACCF; thankfully, we were able to fit in some time to help judge some flights (trust me, there were a lot of flights this year).

Once all the heavy drink judging is out of the way and all the judging sheets get placed into a neat manila folder (my task), the real fun begins! There are various events during ACCF weekend, but the main event is the awards ceremony on Saturday night. Since ACCF is growing every year, the event might outgrow the Blue Star party room next year, considering it was packed this year.

The one thing you can count on at a homebrew festival: AN ABUNDANCE OF FREE BEER!

{beers on tap + some bottled beers}

To avoid being less than an arms length away from beer, Micah and Ben manned the bar the whole night.

{some of the schwag given away at ACCF}

The people that make ACCF such a fun and successful event are all the volunteers! All they get for their hard work is some free beer. HA.

{Sherry manning hot-selling ACCF tee's}

{Oscar emceeing the event}

As much as attendees like winning waffle prizes, they love winning medals even more!

{This Austin Zealot brewer, Mark Schoppe, had the most entries in the ACCF! I think he had like 40+ entries or some obscene number.}


{funkiest of show gets this bad boy!}

The Bexar Brewers (club that hosts ACCF) members made out like bandits with medals of their own.

{Micah won 2nd place in the Wood-Aged category for his Russian Imperial Stout}

{Audrey got 2nd place for a Sour Ale}

{Roger got 3rd place for his Wood-Aged beer}


{the power of the matching outfits worked, the brewer from this group won a medal!}

SA's only microbrewery, Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling, had its brewer come out and talk about how he got into brewing and what the brewstillery has coming down the tap line. These guys are doing great things and I'm glad they're a part of the SA Community.

{L: Mark from RC pouring something delicious, I'm sure. R: Rob Landerman talking brew things.}

As usual, we had a great time and can't wait for next year's event! Will Micah be submitting his entries as a BB or an Austin Zealot? DECISIONS.

{All Bexar Brewers except for the person who had the handcuffs, he's an Austin Zealot, go figure. }

Bye bye Taqueria, Hello Organic Living

I've been MIA for the past few months, but I have a good excuse: I was held captive and had to be a part of the Humancentipad. Gross. I know.

Ok, I can't say I've been eating poo, but organic food is pretty close, right?! Just Kidding.

Micah and I have actually been super busy settling into our new city, Austin. It's been a busy two months, but after securing a new job and leaving my San Antonio job, I am ready to be an Austinite!

I will miss my neighborhood taqueria, El Tropiko, where the chilaquiles and hot sauce are off the hook; but I'm looking forward to having several banh mi shops within 5 miles of the house.

{Austin = Willie Nelson land. Photo: me}

Here are my TOP 5 reasons I will enjoy living in Austin (food related, of course):

1. Options: There is an Ethiopian restaurant here (maybe more?). SA had ZERO.
2. Asian Markets: The Asian population is bigger here, hence, bigger Asian grocery stores. The most popular one, MT Supermarket, is exactly 5 miles from our new abode. I miss my Asians.
3. Brew-pubs: And lots of them. This was Micah's main reason for moving to Austin, fo realz. We are really enjoying the new Black Star Co-Op and we've always loved The Draught House. I can't wait to try the new Uncle Billy's Brew-B-Que next to the Oasis!
   
4. Food Districts: There are so many cool areas of town where you can dine al fresco and people watch, e.g. Barton Springs area. SA was sorely lacking in this department.
5. Whole Foods: Their flagship store is here and it's KIND OF amazing. Am I all about organic stuff? No. Do I want to pay 2X the normal amount for bananas? No. But I do enjoy the option to buy that stuff if I want to. The menagerie of prepared dished is seriously out of control.

I realize that Austin will be lacking in the "real Mexican" joints, but I'm sure if I roam around enough, I'll stumble across some.

I can't wait to get the new home in a more livable state so I can really settle in and enjoy all that Austin has to offer!

What are you favorite places to eat in Austin?

Pho Shizzle!

Texas had an abnormally cold winter this year... don't believe me? Check out my dogs playing in the snow!

{YES, THAT IS SNOW!}

Back in January, in the midst of the cold weather, I decided to throw a Pho Party to make sure everyone got through winter with no signs of frost bite.

Since we were inviting a lot of people (20 people showed up), I had to make sure I had enough broth to feed everybody. So what does one use to make a bigazz batch of pho? A turkey fryer, of course! We actually have an electrical fryer leftover from Micah's old brewing rig - RECYCLE, REUSE. The fryer is actually perfect for making pho because the digital temperature gauge can be kept at just the right temperature so where the broth doesn't actually boil (that's a no-no). The fryer also has a basket that I can put all the bones and veggies in, makes clean-up a breeze. The fryer made about 4.5 gallons of broth - the bones, veggies, and basket displaced the water to the top of the pot.

{electric fryer comes in handy when you need to drain the broth}

Since most people aren't going to make enough broth to feed two dozen hungry eaters, the following pho recipe is good for a 12quart pot. Every Viet family has their own pho recipe but this is how my mom's been making her pho for decades and everyone seems to love it!
Ingredients:

• 6 pounds of beef bones (leg/knuckle bone - the kind w/ the marrow in the middle)*
• 3 pound slab of beef brisket, fat trimmed
• 2 pound eye of round
• 1 bag of vietnamese pho meatballs (usually in the frozen aisle)
• 2 onions
• 1 ginger root
• 1 daikon, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch rings
• 2 tablespoons of rock sugar
• several packages of "fresh" pho noodles, if you can't find the fresh kind, the dry one will work

• Spices:

1. 3 Tbsp. coriander seeds
2. 2 cinnamon sticks
3. 3 cardamom pods (black ones), I slightly crack these with a mallet
4. 4 star anise

• Garnishes: chopped cilantro, thinly sliced onions (half-moons), chopped green onions, bean sprouts, limes, thai basil, fresh jalapeno slices, sriracha hot sauce, hoisin sauce

Directions:

1. Put the beef bones in the pot, fill with water, and a tablespoon of kosher salt. Bring the pot to a boil and let it boil for 10 minutes. This is how you get rid of the "impurities" from the bones. Don't be scared by the weird smell and the greenish tinge! After the 10 minutes, dump all the hot liquid out, wash the bones under cold water and make sure the pot is cleaned as well. Put the bones back in and fill with enough water to cover the bones. Put it back on the stove and bring the pot to a simmer.

{beef bones: delicious bone marrow}

While the bones are boiling the first time, you can get the following done:

{toasting spices, this pic shows a smaller portion of the spices}

2. In a saute pan, roast the dried spices together until they are fragrant, but not burnt. Place all the dried spices into a cheese cloth or a spice holder.

3. On a grill or on a hot skillet, char the (2) onions and the ginger. You can a black char on all everything. Once the onions and ginger are charred, let them cool slightly before you remove the charred bits. You can run it quickly under water, but I don't suggest doing that too much since it also takes away from the flavor.

4. Once you have the bones cleaned and on it's second simmer, throw in the spice bag, charred onions/ginger, daikon, rock sugar, and about 3 heaping tablespoons of kosher salt.

5. If you're using the brisket, you can add it now as well. Take the brisket out after 1 hour of simmering in the broth.

**Note: It is of utmost importance that the full pot never comes to a boil, it should stay at a simmer, otherwise the broth will become cloudy.

{pot of pho with onion, daikon, and meatballs}

6. Simmer for at least 2 hours - the longer the better. Continue to season with salt until you get it the way you like it.

7. 15 minutes before serving, add a 1/4 cup of fish sauce to the pot. You might have to adjust the fish sauce amount to your liking. If you're using the meatballs, this is the time to add the meatballs.

8. Now is the time to prep the meats that go on top of the noodles:
-The cooked brisket should be cut against the grain, about 1/8 inch thick.
-Before cutting the raw eye of round, I throw it into the freezer for 15 minutes so it's easier to cut into thin slices. Get your sharpest knife out to make sure the cuts are SUPER THIN.

9. Cook the noodles. If you're using the fresh noodles, it only takes 30 seconds in boiling water.

10. Making the Bowls: Place the noodles into a large bowl, place a couple of slices of the brisket and the raw eye of round on top of the noodles. Ladle the broth to fill the bowl - the hot broth cooks the eye of round. Top with meatballs and the garnishes that you so wish.

11. Sliced onions, green onions, and cilantro are usually placed in the bowl immediately after the broth is ladled on top of the noodles - but you can leave it on the table if your guests are picky about their garnishes. The other garnishes usually sit at the table.

{greens on top: thai basil, thorn herb, and bean sprouts}

12. Squirt a smattering of hoisin and sriracha into the bowl, stick a chopstick in it with a large soup spoon and DIG IN!

{just a smattering of hoisin and sriracha}


{Linda rocking the apron Micah got her}


{friends taking a break from the massive amounts of pho!}

Want to support HB 660? Come hangout downtown, get some free microbrews and become actively engaged in state politics!

What: Beer Summit: Change is Brewing in Texas

Where/When: Main Plaza (Downtown) - Friday, February 25th, 5:30 p.m.

More Info: Join State Representative Mike Villarreal for a rally to support his legislation to expand the availability of locally brewed beer in Texas.

Enjoy free samples of beer from BlueStar and Freetail from 5:30-7. Stick around for music at 7 p.m. featuring local band, Michael and the Infidels.

I have to work that night (blasted!), but it sure sounds like a great event and a great way to drum up more support!