Viet World Kitchen

New York Vietnamese Restaurant Recommendations

When visiting New York, my question always is: Where should I eat? This weekend I'm in New York and a number of people have emailed, tweeted and Facebooked me restaurant recommendations. One person, Jennie M. sent this detailed message and though I can't go to all of these places, I'm sharing her list of mostly Vietnamese restaurants with you:

Hi Andrea,

I just saw your tweet about NYC asian food recommendations on Twitter.  Honestly, Asian food is really watered down in the city.  Cong Ly is about the only Viet place I go to when I'm in Manhattan's Chinatown. I usually order pho, #57, banh beo, or cha gio there.  I think the outer-boroughs have much more variety and flavor compared to Manhattan.  It's not California for sure, but it's the best list I've got. 

Thai Sticky Rice with Coconut Cream a la Chez Pim

I live in Santa Cruz, a beach/hippie/arty/university town in Northern California that is very slowly shedding its mantra of “Keep Santa Cruz Weird.” Eleven years ago when my husband and I moved here from Santa Monica (Los Angeles), a long-time local told us that Santa Cruz is a cosmic place. Groovy, man . . . I don’t know if this quirky town offers a harmonic convergence or not, but life has put us here and I’ve met some wonderful, one-of-a-kind people, including Pim Techamuanvivit, the gourmet behind the Chezpim.com blog.

Pim and I get together on occasion for coffee and dinner out, but we have more fun when we cook together. Recently when Pim was over, I had a pot of purple rice prepared from a new rice blend I found at the Whole Foods down the street. I’d never seen the Alter-Eco fair trade rice before but it was an interesting combination of Thai rices: long-grain jasmine combined with short grain black. I made a pot of Alter Eco’s “purple jasmine” (photo below) earlier in the day to test it out, and the brilliant purple-stained result was more like a soft Thai black sticky rice, rather than regular long-grain rice. The flavor was delicately sweet and very much like com nep (Vietnamese sticky rice cooked in a pot like regular rice). A good canvas for Thai sticky rice and coconut milk?

Megachef: Premium Fish Sauce You Have Not Heard of – Yet

It’s not hard for anyone to figure this out about me: I love fish sauce. The salty-sweet, umami-laden condiment occupies the soul of and serves as the ballast for countless Vietnamese dishes. I’ve test tasted various brands of fish sauce (nuoc mam in Vietnamese, nam pla in Thai) and for years settled on Vietnamese-style fish sauces, such as those produced by the Viet Huong company that have a lighter flavor than Thai or Filipino-style fish sauces. Last week in Sydney, Australia, I attended a launch event for Thai-produced Megachef fish sauce, and it made me reconsider my options for nuoc mam.

It was a swank party, with wine flowing and lovely passed hors d’oeuvre prepared from recipes in David Thompson’s new book, Thai Street Food. (The gorgeous oversize book won’t be released in the U.S. until October 2010 though I managed to get a copy. Sorry.) Thompson is one of the world’s leading experts on Thai cooking and I use his work, Thai Food, as a reference book all the time. I have immense respect for Thompson, who has a dry wit that charms. The chef behind Michelin-starred Nahm restaurant in London, he is not a particularly commercial man but he has decided to become an ambassador (spokesperson) for Megachef fish sauce. His picture is on the tag around each bottle. Thompson’s endorsement piqued my interest and attracted me to the event.

Richmond and Footscray: Old and New Vietnam in Melbourne

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Australia was among the nations that opened its doors to Vietnamese refugees. There is a very large population of Vietnamese-Australians, numbering roughly 200,000, and 75% of the Vietnamese people in Australia live in New South Wales (Sydney) and Victoria (Melbourne). My trip to Australia began in Sydney where I explored the Vietnamese community of  Cabramatta with Luke Nguyen. On my own in Melbourne, I headed for Richmond and Footscray, as recommended to me by Stephanie Wood, a Sydney Morning Herald food journalist who also blogs at The Elegant Sufficiency.  Stephanie used to live in Melbourne and directed me to these two suburbs to explore the Vietnamese scene here. Some of you recommended Springvale as well but I did not have enough time to make the trek.

Richmond
After checking in to my hotel, I got on a tram and spent the afternoon in Richmond, located just a few kilometers from Melbourne CBD (central business district/downtown). Most of the Vietnamese shops line Victoria Place so I spent hours walking up and down the street. Great little markets, restaurants, and fantastic houseware and restaurant supply shops. At Unicorn, I scored Chinese egg tartlet pans that are hard to get in the U.S., and at Chefland I found moon cake molds to add to my collection.  What’s striking about Richmond is how much it looks like Vietnam. Narrow buildings with some colonial architecture, there’s even a mini version of the landmark Cho Ben Thanh market clock tower from Saigon. With the peeling paint and Melbourne’s dreary spring weather (think Seattle), I felt like I was in Hue or Hanoi in winter. Only most of the people here are southerners.

My Favorite Cookbooks on 101cookbooks

Ask me for a cookbook recommendation and I go on and on and perhaps bore you to death with suggestions. I’m a cookbook geek, having read and collected them since childhood. Given that, you can imagine how thrilled I was that Heidi Swanson asked me to write about my favorite ones for her lovely and informative site, 101cookbooks.com. We both share a love of  cooking and book making, and can barely stop talking whenever we meet up.  I have great respect for Heidi’s thoughtfulness, humor, style, and savvy.

Of course I said “YES!” to her invitation and gave myself a month to come up with a list of favorite cookbooks. But that became two months as I kept pondering the short list. Then the summer’s wildfires prompted me to focus on what I’d do if all my books burnt up in a blaze. How would I replenish my collection to keep me happy and working? The wildfires lit a fire under my feet (poor humor, sorry) and I finally committed to a short list. To take a look-see, do visit Heidi’s site 101cookbooks.com.