Viet World Kitchen

Vietnamese Restaurant-Style Grilled Lemongrass Pork a CHOW Favorite

I sometimes worry that I publish too many pork recipes but hey, pork equals meat in the Vietnamese kitchen! Despite all the shaking beef (thit bo luc lac) and beef pho noodle soup that you've eaten, it's pork that rules. It's cheap and tasty meat, affordable to most Vietnamese cooks. And, you can do a zillion things with pork. The photo above is from my trip to Australia, where I went to Cabramatta -- their Little Saigon. The man is doing a morning delivery to a local Vietnamese butcher shop. (Where'd the head go???)

One of my go-to Vietnamese preparations of pork is to marinate pork steaks (photo below) with lemongrass and grill them. Sliced up, the steaks are great bun rice noodles, tucked into a banh mi sandwich, and punches up a bowl of fluffy rice.

This morning, I discovered that CHOW.com enjoys the thit heo nuong xa as much as I do. There was a call for people to name their top 5 best recipes for 2009. My little Vietnamese restaurant-style grilled lemongrass pork recipe was among the writer's top 5 picks. When it's too cold now to cook outdoors, use a stovetop cast-iron grill. The timing will be a little longer.

What a nice way to wrap up 2009! Enjoy.

Our Crazy Vietnamese Holiday Menu

Everyone is doing a 2009 year in review and looking back, all I have to say is, "What a year it has been." I hope that you've all enjoyed the holiday season. Mine was restful and I'm happy to report that all the family events went smoothly. No one misbehaved.  What do Vietnamese people eat at Christmas time? Well, that all depends as Vietnamese people celebrate the holidays in many ways. It's often multicultural, reflecting the unique cultural amalgam that is at the core of Vietnamese culture. There are traditional foods for Lunar New Year (Tet Nguyen Dan), but for Christmas it's all mixed up. For example, my family is Catholic and we celebrate on December 24 according to the French/European tradition of reveillon. This year, we had an unusual mixture of Eastern and Western fare at my parents' home on Christmas Eve. 

Worthy Causes: Charities Cook up Change in Vietnam

Spending Christmas or New Year’s in Vietnam is rather surreal. If you’re in Saigon, it’s hot but there are holiday decorations and Christmas music. I particularly love the fanfare on December 31 because Saigon locals come out for fun; Tet (Lunar New Year) is typically a quiet time for family. Vietnamese people love public celebrations like the one on New Year’s Eve, and the park in front of the Reunification Palace is a giant party and public performance area. Young families ride up on their motorbikes, 3 to 4 people on each, and they hang out, snacking and visiting with friends. It’s loud, colorful, and fun. Multiple stages are set up and you can choose from classical music performance, torch singers, and dance performances by cute young girls dressed up in frilly outfits with stage moms in tow. That night, the scene in the park reminds me of the crazy Asian variety shows that my parents watch on Vietnamese-American television channels.

Indeed, much has changed for the better in Vietnam in the past decade and people, especially young people, are full of optimism. But there is still much to be done to provide greater opportunity to more people. Lots of people visit Vietnam during this season and part of the experience is to understand the needs and potential of the country. We can help out with tourist dollars but you don't have to visit to contribute to change.

Here are three non-profits that are doing interesting work to help improve the lives of Vietnamese people, particularly in the kitchen:

Travel Tips to Vietnam: How to Feed Finicky Kids in Saigon (and still eat well)

There were great tips that people shared in response to the recent piece on travel tips to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). I also received some questions via email but one message this morning got me thinking about traveling to a foreign country with children, particularly those with special needs. Most people I know of have gone overseas when their children are either babies or in their late teens and older. The rationale being that it is easier to cater to their needs or they can take care of themselves.

Ellen posed this question:

We are going to Vietnam for the first time over the holidays and have been reading your website, which is marvelous. Sadly we will only be in Vietnam for just for a few days on the way back from Thailand -and only to Saigon/Mekong area. We are already planning a return visit dedicated just to Vietnam, we are that sure that we will like it.
 
We have two sons, 13 and 11. To say that they have white-bread palates is an understatement. The 11 year old also has autism, so that adds a layer of complexity to travel. I want them to eat local and as native as two Irish/German New Englanders can. Any suggestions? They are not seafood eaters. I want to keep them out of fast food! I have some ideas from your Saigon article, but any place you can think of that might satisfy culinarily-challenged kids would be great...  restaurants, grocery/food market items, types of foods,  etc would be welcome.

Hmmm… as adults, traveling to a foreign country presents both opportunities and challenges. Where to go and what to eat? How to eat safely? When you are traveling with children, particularly those who are finicky or are special needs children, special handling is required. Here are some suggestions and strategies for authentic eating in Vietnam:

Many thanks to Suzanne for sending this photo in!

Prep the kids in advance and start young! If possible, introduce them to Vietnamese classics, such a pho noodle soup before you leave your home country.  That way, they will not suffer culture shock upon arrival. (Ellen and her family will be in Thailand first so that is part of the advance preparation!) To illustrate, the photo above is of a 22-month-old toddler eating a bowl of homemade pho; it was sent in my his Vietnamese American mom, Suzanne (remember the post, Generation Gap: Why some Asian elders bug me?). Here's a tip from when I was a kid: If the bowl of pho is too hot for your child, add an ice cube to the bowl to cool it down. That's how I got trained!

A Tipsy Baker and Hungry Engineer Cook My Books

I had an embarrassing realization yesterday – that I had completely missed out on two wonderful food bloggers test driving recipes in my cookbooks, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen and Asian Dumplings. They published their humorous, heartfelt experiences in November and I was oblivious. Hit me on the head and say, “Duh, Andrea!” I felt like such a turkey, not just because November is all about Thanksgiving!

One of the food bloggers was Jennifer Reese of The Tipsy Baker, who wrote of the challenges and rewards of shopping for and making an entire meal from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Jennifer’s piece appeared in the Northern California edition of Sunset magazine, which up until yesterday I thought I received. Lo and behold I’ve been getting the Southern California edition, which explains all the LA and San Diego stories! A Sunset editor kindly sent me the November 2009 issue in which Jennifer’s piece was printed. Below are the covers that got me mixed up and the generous 3-page spread.

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 If you received that Northern California issue of Sunset, check out Jennifer’s rollicking account of taking her copy of Into the Vietnamese Kitchen with her to New May Wah market on Clement in San Francisco. She’s even photographed holding the book. What’s more touching to my culinary soul is that she fell in love with mam tom – the funky purply shrimp sauce. Jennifer made a simple central Viet preparation of Minced Pork and Lemongrass and Shrimp Sauce (thit heo xao mam ruoc, page 132) and described the dish as “ambrosial.” She tackled the banana blossom salad, water spinach and coconut cassava cake too. Reading Jennifer’s story of how my cookbook helped her get over her anxiety of shopping for and cooking with unfamiliar ingredients put a huge grin on my face. Check out more of Jennifer’s writing at her site: Tipsybaker.blogspot.com

Similarly, April of The Hungry Engineer dove into Asian Dumplings with gusto. She’s a smart cookie who writes with an earnestness that charms and draws you into her words. April recounts how she questioned my suggestion of using the wooden dowel rolling pin for making Asian dumpling wrappers and then becomes a convert, “busting out wrappers like nobody's business.” She thoughtfully read the book to prepare herself to make pork and napa cabbage dumplings, as well as the chile oil. There are people who’ve said to me, “Asian food is so time consuming. Why do you want to make dumpling wrappers from scratch?” Read April’s post on cooking from the Asian Dumplings cookbook and find out!