Viet World Kitchen

Chicken and Bamboo Shoot Noodle Soup Recipe (Bun Mang Ga)

The other day, I soaked and cooked a bunch of dried bamboo shoot (mang kho) and squirreled them away for Tet so that I could simmer some with pork hocks. But the chilly winter weather got to me today and I defrosted a batch of the prepped bamboo shoots to make bun mang noodle soup, a Vietnamese favorite; bun refers to round rice noodles (think bun rice noodle salad bowls!) and mang refers to bamboo shoot. I looked in my cookbook library and found Vietnamese recipes that paired bamboo shoot with chicken, duck and pork hocks (called bun mang ga, bun mang vit, bun mang gio heo, respectively).  Chicken is the fastest and easiest to make as it is readily available at any supermarket. It’s also less expensive than duck and lighter than pork.

Vietnamese food is often quite simple yet seemingly complex. That's the beauty of this preparation -- just a few average ingredients coming together for spectacular results. People have asked me what makes bun mang taste good. The answer has less to do with the protein than the quality of the bamboo shoot; for tips on buying and preparing this standard Asian ingredient, read “How to Cook Dried Bamboo Shoot.” The dried bamboo shoot lends its golden hue and naturally sweet-savory flavor to the broth for bun mang. Normally, wood ear mushroom is added for contrasting color and crunch but I love to drop in some reconstituted shiitake mushrooms so that the soup is super laden with umami goodness. 

A Message from My Nephew Colin

A ginormous THANK YOU to the many people who assisted with my nephew's Flat Stanley school project.  Just in the past few days, over 40 people put Flat Colin on a bullet train/Concorde supersonic jet and welcomed him into their homes. He became quite the cosmopolitan traveler and has made many new friends. I truly appreciate your international contributions as we've all greatly expanded the reach and scope of Colin's world. All the neat stories you shared will not go to waste. Maybe we'll be in his class show-and-tell . . .

Just today, my sister Tasha and Colin added this comment to the original post:

Hello all from 3-D Colin and his mother,

Thank you all for the virtual tour of the world. If Flat Colin ate all the foods you mentioned he would be the size of 3-D Colin, whose favorite VN food is bun nem nuong [garlicky grilled meatballs with rice noodles] accompanied by some good nuoc dung for pho bo (broth for beef pho).

Flat Colin is in TX and after that Alaska and Washington. There are lots of good VN food in TX so we will see what he eats while there. Unfortunately Flat Colin won't make it to many of the places in his virtual tour, but then again it's not that easy to go to New Zealand.

Here's a shout out to auntie Andrea for her nifty idea, although from the pix she did scar Flat Colin for life...

-- Tasha and Colin

Yep, I had to send Flat Colin to Dallas where he's spending time with a finance expert. Maybe Flat Colin can tell us where interest rates will be going?! ;-)

How to Cook Dried Bamboo Shoot (Mang Kho)

Several people have emailed asking about how to cook dried bamboo shoot. I looked up the familiar Asian ingredient in all my books but for some reason, dried bamboo shoot is seldom mentioned in Asian cookbooks. It is a terrific and standard ingredient sold at Chinese and Vietnamese markets. Dried bamboo shoot is shelved at Asian grocery stores alongside other dried foodstuffs, such as dried mushroom, seaweed, turnip, squid, beans, etc. In Vietnam, the shoots are simmered along with pork, duck, or chicken for a classic rice noodle soup called bun mang. Such preparations are traditionally saved for special occasions, such as the Lunar New Year – Tet Nguyen Dan. Since Tet is coming up (in 2010, it falls on Valentine's Day!), I cooked up a bunch of dried bamboo shoot today in preparation for the holiday cooking ahead.

What is the difference between fresh and dried bamboo shoot? Fresh has a crispness whereas dried has a meaty quality. Both have that musty bamboo funk but since bamboo shoot has to be cooked for a long time, the funk disappears. Bamboo shoot is called mang (“mahng”) in Vietnamese and dried bamboo shoot is mang kho (“mahng koh”). Dried bamboo shoots are not hard, but rather leathery. Once reconstituted and boiled until chewy-tender, dried bamboo shoots have a chewy-tenderness and pleasant sweetness that’s not found in fresh or canned bamboo. Whenever I cook dried bamboo shoot, I marvel at how it transforms its cooking broth into a perfumy brew. If you’ve had Japanese ramen noodle soup, chances are that you’ve had dried bamboo shoot (called menma) as a topping. 

Help My Nephew's Flat Stanley Project

Do you have or know elementary school kids? If you do, you may have come into contact with Flat Stanley, a children's book by Jeff Brown. The plot low-down is that Stanley gets crushed by a falling bulletin board while he's asleep. In his flattened state, Stanley goes on many adventures, the best one being that his parents mail him in an envelope from New York to California. He meets new friends and connects with family, eventually returning home where his little bro helps to turn Stanley back to his 3-D self.

One of the common elementary school projects in America is to have each student send a flat version of themselves to  adults in their lives. The adults then take the flat child around and report back in the child's passport book. Eventually, the flat child is mailed home, full of wonderful stories to share with his/her classmates.

I have eleven (11) nieces and nephews. Over the years, Rory and I have hosted Flat Cynthia and her brother Flat Michael in our home. Over the weekend, Flat Colin arrived via FedEx from New York City. He'd already ventured from his house in Los Angeles to his Japanese grandma's place in San Gabriel then to my parents' home in San Clemente. My folks took Flat Colin to a local clam chowder cookoff and took snapshots. During the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season, Flat Colin went to New York, Milan, and then back to New York. My sister says that he overextended his European and Big Apple sojourn and needs to get back home. Flat Colin can't go home till his passport is full. (Read: My nephew is behind on his assignment!) He needs help.

Fragrant and Very Crispy Duck Recipe (Xiang Su Quan Ya)

What started out as my pursuit of homemade Peking duck has turned into a pursuit of Sichuan fragrant and crispy duck. As I mentioned last week in my initial foray into cooking a whole duck, the deep-fried Sichuan preparation is often served instead of roasted Peking duck at Chinese restaurants abroad. In many of the Chinese cookbooks that I have, authors such as Irene Kuo, Barbara Tropp, and Ken Hom say that the Sichuan approach is their favorite for home cooking. When you think about it, most Chinese home kitchens do not have stoves. Deep-frying is a fast and fuel efficient substitute for roasting.

That said, the first Sichuan fragrant and crispy duck was phenomenally good, but I wanted to make the skin a tad crisper. Last week, I went back to the Chinese market and carted home another duck, in addition to a wealth of locally grown, pesticide-free Asian vegetables.  Rory and I went at it again this weekend and the following things came to mind about creating a Chinese crispy duck: