Viet World Kitchen

Taiwanese Spicy Beef Noodle Soup Recipe (Niu Rou Mian)

Tomorrow my husband and I will be celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary. (I was a child bride. Ha! -- NOT.) We were discussing what we should do, where we could go out, what we had eaten on past anniversaries. We didn’t make any concrete plans but I started thinking about the meals we shared when we first started dating in 1989. Yes, we’re an old couple.

One of our favorite places was the Mandarin Deli in Chinatown, Los Angeles. It was a hole in the wall that my sisters introduced me to when they were attending USC down the way. I loved the Mandarin Deli’s giant pot stickers that burned my mouth with their hot juices (they’re mentioned in Asian Dumplings).

An order of dumplings was always paired with hot bowls of beef noodle soup (牛肉麵, niu rou mian). Its inky spicy broth, plump wheat noodles, and chunks of red-cooked beef were perfect with the dumplings. It was good in the cooler months as well as the hotter months. I ate it year round.

Since then, I’ve made various versions of the soup from recipes found in Irene Kuo’s classic, The Key to Chinese Cooking, and Fuschia Dunlop’s enlightening work on Sichuan cuisine, Land of Plenty.  I’ve also ordered plenty of beef noodle soup from Taiwanese joints, such as A&J Restaurant, which has outposts in Southern and Northern California.

Overall, I like the Taiwanese version of niu rou mian (literally beef meat noodles) better than other versions of the Chinese soup. The Taiwanese take usually has more complexity in the broth but I didn't know why until this past weekend.

Stir-Fried Chicken with Black Bean Sauce Recipe

Most Chinese restaurant renditions of stir-fried dishes with black bean sauce are one note affairs. Then tend toward being salty and not much else. They are rarely well-balanced preparations because the fermented black beans standout too prominently. When you make such dishes at home, you are in command of the seasonings and can add nuance. You can tweak the flavors to coax out the tangy, winy qualities of the black beans.

Someone asked recently if buying black bean sauce in the jar is okay. My response was: it is NOT okay.

Prepared “black bean sauce” is like jarred or canned spaghetti sauce. All you need to make a great Chinese-style black bean sauce are fermented black beans (which are actually salted black soybeans). Similarly, all you need for a terrific spaghetti sauce is a stash of good tomatoes! Why let someone else mix up the sauce for you?

Where do you buy fermented black beans? Head to a Chinese market. The beans are sold in little plastic bags or in cylindrical paper cartons with some preserved ginger thrown in. I prefer the paper carton, though you have to buy a large amount. Once home, put the black beans in a jar and refrigerate.

Fermented black beans are also sold online, should you not live near a Chinese market. As long as you have the black beans, this dish comes together quickly.

Should you rinse fermented black beans before using them? It’s up to you. For delicate applications as in this stir-fry recipe, rinse them to remove some of the saltiness. For punchy preparations, such as those in the Sichuan repertoire, leave the salted fermented black beans in their lusty, earthy primal state.

Book Review: Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge

No matter how many cookbooks you own, there are certain ones that you repeatedly reach for. They are your ‘go-to’ books written by your ‘go-to’ authors. These are women and men that you’ve relied upon for recipes that work, technical guidance, and/or compelling stories.

Such writers comprise your culinary brain trust. When you have a cooking quandary, you ask, “What does X have say about that?”

Grace Young is part of my culinary brain trust. Her first cookbook, The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen (1999), was a wonderful work on her upbringing in San Francisco’s Chinatown, her family stories and rich heritage. The spot-on recipe collection reflected her Cantonese background, spanning traditional and modern preparations.

My Wok Conversion
What struck me most about Wisdom was Grace’s intense focus on woks. She recounted her surprise discovery that many contemporary Chinese cooks use skillets instead of woks – an act of convenience that she questioned with more than just a hint of disdain. I was so taken by her passion (she was downright uppity!) for wok cooking that I went out and bought a carbon steel wok.

By the time Grace’s second book came out in 2004, I was hooked on Grace’s kitchen wisdom. I got a copy of The Breath of a Wok and took in all the different ways you can cook with a wok, stir-frying, deep-frying, steaming, poaching, you name it.

Grace had firmly set her foot on a path to inform the public on the usefulness of Chinese wok cookery. She traveled with a set of woks and digital photos of traditional techniques collected from her research. She collected recipes from Chinese cooks all over for The Breadth of a Wok , a beautifully photographed book. Grace's cookbooks have received numerous award recognition for stellar research and writing.

Wok Woman Warrior
Grace is calm yet feisty when she speaks of wok cooking. She’s a determined woman warrior of the wok. She writes because she has something to say.

A few weeks ago, I received Grace’s new book, Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge. It was obvious that her journey was multipurpose. Consider the lyrical title that inspires you to energetically stir-fry to the heavens.

IACP Cookbook Awards Postmortem

The 2010  IACP cookbook awards were presented last Thursday in Portland, OR, and Asian Dumplings did not win. Colleagues and friends were rooting for the book at the gala ceremonies. Katie Christ and Leslie Jonath, two pals who sat next to me, gave me lower lip pouts and hugs when Go Fish was announced as the winner in the single subject category.

There were more hugs and downcast looks when the lights came up and the crowd of 1,000 or so dispersed. On Friday, friends on Twitter and Facebook, such as Ivy Manning, Robyn Eckhardt, and Wendy Tien reminded me that I do impactful work. Asian Dumplings photographer Penny De Los Santos and recipe tester Candace Grover sent good wishes that made my smile.

Luke Nguyen, nominated for The Songs of Sapa, got me laughing. “At least two of the greatest books of all time were nominated,” he humorously emailed from Sydney, Australia.

Was I disappointed? Of course! Who likes losing? Nobody. It sucks.

But I had the great honor to have been a finalist. This is my second cookbook and I’ve been a finalist four times between IACP and James Beard. That's darn good, Aaron Wehner reminded me; he's the publisher at Ten Speed Press and was my editor on Into the Vietnamese Kitchen.

There are many other worthy cookbooks that should and could have been contenders. Awards such as these are strange, and it can be hard to make sense of the final results. As the sting wore off, I thought of the following:

Asian Food Writers Dish it Up at Yale

I just spent a weekend with my niece, Paulina, a freshman at Yale University. You may recall seeing her in a post last summer about Little Saigon in Orange County. Paulina has always been interested in writing, and over Christmas vacation we discussed doing something for Asian American history month, which annually falls in May.

When young people are teenagers, adults are like space aliens to them and vice versa. I always saw Paulina around her family, not her friends. She’s very bright but shy. Little did I know what a dynamic young woman she truly is. I had to go to Yale to see her in her element.

The gorgeous view of Yale outside my window. Complete with a tree in bloom!

Over the past 4 weeks, Paulina and her friend Eunju organized a special event with their cohorts of the Asian American Students Alliance. They wanted to bring together three Asian food writers to discuss their career paths, work, and personal histories. The arranged for travel and accommodations, made and posted fliers, and used Facebook to get the word out.

What Cookbooks Influenced You?

I have been interested and food, cooking, and cookbooks for over 30 years. The windy road that led me to where I am today was somewhat convoluted. Even though I write primarily about Asian food and cooking, there have been many works and people who have influenced how I think and communicate what I do.

Of course, my parents had something to do with my culinary interests. They made sure that I was well-fed and I responded by being chubby. The fact that our family came to the United States as refugees in the 1975 also affected how I perceive the importance of food and identity. Those personal situations undoubtedly shaped my food pursuits.

Andrew Gray of Cookbooker.com asked me 5 questions last week that got me to set those personal factors aside. His questions focused my thinking on the process of making a good cookbook and how you become a good cookbook writer. I work constantly hone my cookbook writing skills. Multimedia publishing (social networking, blogging, and print) adds yet another dimension to food writing.

Writing, like cooking, is a never ending craft. It's something I practice and get great pleasure from. I'm very fortunate.

Read my responses to Cookbooker.com's 5 Questions, then let us all know your thoughts on:

1) What was your first cookbook?
2) What cookbook(s) influence(d) you most?
3) How do you judge a good cookbook?
4) What kinds of cookbooks would you like to see published?

External links  of interest:

• See 101Cookbooks and Cooking with Amy for my favorite cookbooks  and why I cook.
• On Cookbooker.com, also check out Omnivore Books owner Celia Sack's comments on What makes a good cookbook. 

Thai Pork Belly Stir-Fried with Garlic and Broccolini Recipe (Pad Kana Moo Krob)

One of the great things about cooking up a hunk of meat is that you can re-purpose it for a variety of dishes over the course of days. A case in point is the crisp roast pork belly from last week. Man, has it come in handy this week when I needed to put together quick meals. My husband and I couldn’t eat all 3 pounds of it at once so I made pork belly banh mi sandwiches from part of the leftovers. With the remaining amount of roast pork, I prepared this Thai stir-fry. I recently tasted this dish at Lers Ros and was instantly captivated by marriage of rich pork belly with a garlicky-spicy-savory-sweet sauce.

Lers Ros is arguably one of the best and most authentic Thai restaurants in San Francisco these days. It’s open till 2am, if you’re game to venture to the Tenderloin at those hours, or any hour for that fact. It’s worth it, I assure you. (If you know how to properly pronounce the name, please help the rest of the dining public with some phonetics. Update 3/21/10: Thanks to Leela, we now know how to say this. See the comments section below.)

My husband and I went to the restaurant for a reunion of sorts with my food friends, stylist Karen Shinto and photographer Penny De Los Santos. Journalist Scott Hocker, editor of TastingTableSF also joined us. Karen had read Scott’s mention of the fried pork belly at Lers Ros and she wanted to order it. Scott was delayed as he was biking over and as we waited for him, we couldn’t find the pork belly on the restaurant’s dizzying menu. When Scott arrived, we handed him a glass of wine and promptly asked him to find the pork belly on the menu. Alas, it was hidden under rice plate offerings. Look for item #62, Pad Kra Pow Moo Krob.

Asian Dumplings Finalist for IACP Cookbook Award!

The Oscars may be a few days away but in the world of food publishing, we have just  entered the throes of the cookbook award season.  Today, the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) announced its list of  2010 nominees. Guess what? Asian Dumplings is one  of the finalists! If you're unfamiliar with the IACP awards, they are among the most prestigious in the cookbook writing profession and publishing industry.

Last fall, over 500 books were submitted for the IACP competition. The judging committee evaluated and then nominated my book for an award in the single subject category, which covers publications that “focus on specific foods, cooking methods, techniques or appliances.” IACP judges, food professionals with stellar credentials, test drove recipes from Asian Dumplings just like many of you did.  I am darn glad to have passed your and their tests!

My first book, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, garnered two IACP nominations in 2007 in the first book and international book categories. I was thrilled then as I am now by such validation of my work.

Winners will be announced on April 22 at the Awards Gala of the IACP conference in Portland, Oregon. Who know what the outcome will be, but I’m DEElighted to be in the final running.  Thanks for your continued support!

Full list of award nominees:
At the time of this posting, the cookbook award finalists can be found at the IACP Amazon.com bookstore. It's odd but welcome to the modern era. 

IACP will be posting its full list of finalists and award categories online very very soon. Check here later today or tomorrow: http://IACP.com.

[Update 3/4/10: The official 2010 IACP cookbook award finalists was posted late yesterday afternoon. Note that Luke Nguyen's Songs of Sapa is in the running in the international category. We are not related.  Luke and I met in Sydney last October and I also reviewed his terrific cookbook!

Another contender that I reviewed and have referenced in the duck experiments is Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking. Luke dukes it out with Eileen in the same category and it's stiff competition, especially with the gorgeous Seven Fires in the mix.]