Viet World Kitchen

October 2011 Food Finds: Young ginger, pho novel, Sriracha film project

This is something new that I’m launching on VWK—a monthly recap of food-related bits that I recently stumbled upon. Well, they’re not just odd ends, but rather interesting information, ideas, and edibles. They are things that I physically and mentally chew on. They provoke me to think about our resources, savor the season, and celebrate Asian foodways.

It’s difficult to dedicate a post on each item. I may tweet or flag it on the VWK fan page but who knows if you received them? That said, this is the first of the “Food Finds” posts. Hope you enjoy it!

Edibles

• Young ginger - See the pinkish tipped ginger at the top? It’s mild “young” ginger that you don’t have to peel to cook or pickle. I bought that hand last week at New May Wah market in San Francisco. Young ginger’s season won’t last for much longer so enjoy if you can.
• Excellent chow fun noodles - At last. Thickish, restaurant-style chow fun noodles for home cooks. Poke at it to make sure it’s still soft, then cook it up the day you buy it. These are a scant 1/8 inch thick and 5/8 inch wide – thicker than what you want for noodle soup but perfect for stir-frying. The one I got is a Bay Area product. Maybe your Asian market carries something similar?
• Fresh chiles - Get what you can NOW and freeze them. I grew the long (Holland) chiles above from seeds I saved from purchased chiles. 
• Fennel extract – Terrific for digestion and easier than chewing on fennel seeds. Mix it with club soda for a refreshing beverage too. Got this from my local health food store but you can source it online too. 
• Dry-farmed tomatoes ­- The season is coming to a close on this Northern California specialty crop. Pioneered by Molino Creek Farm, the tomatoes are minimally watered, resulting in smaller fruit with intense flavor.

Reads

• The Beauty of Humanity Movement – If you’re into the intricacies of pho and modern Vietnamese history, this historic novel by anthropologist Camilla Gibb is for you. Set in Hanoi, it trails the disillusionments and triumphs of a pho street vendor. Vials of MSG as prized keepsakes? That’s among the rich details in the engaging work.
• Asian dumpling pro: This New York Daily News profile of chef Peter Lee gives a glimpse into what it’s like to make 1,000 dumplings daily for a dim sum house.
• Hong Kong-Style wonton noodle soup in LA - On the Eat Drink & Be Merry blog, Dylan goes dissects one of his favorite dishes, revealing the cultural nuances that only an insider would know. His journey includes a list of noteworthy noodle joints.
• Diversity in agriculture – The New York Times published a great story on the rise of “refugee agriculture.” Farmers from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are growing produce that they traditionally eat, not the usual suspects. I'm looking forward to that!
• Immigrant owners of food trucks – The Vilcek Foundation’s fall newsletter, Keep on Truckin’ profiles immigrant owners of food trucks, including Roy Choi of Kogi BBQ, Jerome Chang of Dessert Truck, Theo and Elena Butuya of Elena’s Restaurant.  Iliana de la Vega's Oaxacan El Naranjo inspired my spicy sardine corn empanadas.

Multimedia

• Good Girl Dinette in LA – Thanks to Michelle Esperanza for pointing me to this KCET (public TV) video review of Diep Tran’s Los Angeles restaurant, Good Girl Dinette. Blogger Kathy Chaplin and writer Lien Ta critique the banh mi and pot pie. Tran discusses her road to restaurateurship.
• Sriracha hot sauce film project – Viet-American filmmaker Jess Dang is looking for funding for a documentary on Sriracha. You can back it for as little as $10.
• Tofu family legacy - Cookbook author Grace Young and novelist Monique Truong pointed me to this  WNYC public radio segment about the challenges of keeping the Fong Inn Too tofu factory open from generation to generation. 

 Feel free to add your reactions and comments. Pose questions too.

How Have Your Tet Foods and Feasts Changed?

Everyone is busy these days yet we still try to squeeze as much of our cultural traditions into the nanoseconds that we have to spare. Last Thursday and Friday, I was scheduled to be in Seattle for an Asian Dumplings luncheon at Monsoon East restaurant (the room was packed to the brim with nearly 70 guests). I didn’t return home till Saturday afternoon. How did I rearrange my Tet celebration to welcome in the Year of the Tiger? My strategy unfolded as so:

• Last Tuesday: Soaked rice, cooked mung beans, and cut banana leaves for banh chung sticky rice cakes.
• Last Wednesday: Wrapped banh chung cakes, made pickled shallots (dua hanh) and tangy pickled cauliflower, carrot, and red bell pepper (dua gop). Refrigerated it all.
• Saturday, after landing in San Jose: Went directly to an Asian market to pick up vegetables, lots of pork. Rory pulled out the Tet decorations and we hung all the red and gold around the house. Attended a Chinese dumpling-making party.
• Sunday: Ate a banh chung sticky rice cake and pickled vegetables, called my parents to wish them chuc mung nam moi, and texted a bunch of friends to wish them the same. Marinated the meats for pork riblet kho and Vietnamese charcuterie (gio lua, cha mo, gio bo). Candied orange peels (mut vo cam).
• Monday: Made Vietnamese sausages, head cheese, simmered pork riblets in caramel sauce, cleaned the house.
• Today:  Putting last minute touches on more food and preparing for a blowout Tet dinner with friends, including Pim, David Kinch, and winemaker Randall Grahm and his family.

I’m sliding into home plate but it’s been lots of fun. My Tet celebrations are not as coordinated as they used to be in the past. Despite the pressures of a hectic schedule, I try my best to be as old school as possible. It’s not easy but I turn off the computer and head to the kitchen.  Apparently, the reverse is happening in Vietnam. This morning I found a story from Vietnam about how Tet foods and menus there are now less complicated than in the past. The causes were related to how more women now work outside of the house and people purchase things or go out, instead of preparing traditional foods at home. Take a read  for the changes going on in Vietnam.

Top Chef Sees Changes in Lunar New Year Feast

What did you do or are doing for Tet 2010? What has changed for you? How do you manage to keep the spirit of the Lunar New Year alive?

P.S. For recipes of the items mentioned, above, I crack open (really!) my cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, and follow my instructions.

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:

1,000 Newly Discovered Species Found in Mekong River

My parents and other older Vietnamese folks have told me about strange creatures from Vietnam's waters. The lovely dwarf deer is an animal that my dad fawned (pun intended) over. For the most part, I went "Ya, ya, ya. Stories from the old country. Must be myths or they're long extinct."  My assumption was that people either hunted and ate them or they died out due to environmental changes.

This morning Simon Bao pointed me to a 12/16/08 CNN story about a wealth of unusual creatures found in the Mekong Delta. The Mekong River, which starts out in the Himalayas and fans out into a delta region that includes Vietnam and five other neighboring countries, is one of the longest rivers in the world. I knew that thousands of species live in the Mekong but now, they've discovered 1,000 more in the delta alone!

After reading about the spider with a foot-long legspan and the Laotian rock rat that resembles a squirrel, I'll never doubt the stories again. I also won't be such a chicken about the skunks that are partying in our neighborhood these days. 

Heard of or seen any strange Vietnamese animals that you thought were so outlandish that they couldn't possibly exist? Share your story with the rest of us!

The New Yorker's 2008 Food Issue - Non-Asians on Asian Food

Want some good info on Asian food? Check out  The New Yorker's annual food issue released today. There's a fabulous profile of Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford, the folks behind Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet (food traditions along the Mekong River) and the latest Beyond the Great Wall (foodways of western China).  Naomi and Jeffrey are terrific people and it's a pleasure to get to know them even better.

Journalist and author Fuschia Dunlop strikes another blow for Asian cooking. Her story about a Hangzhou, China, chef who strictly adheres to high standards demonstrates how Asia is not all about quick-money-making schemes and tainted food. Dunlop wrote a great memoir called Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper and cookbooks Land of Plenty (Sichuan) and Revolutionary Chinese Cooking (Hunan).

What does any of this have to do with Vietnamese food and cooking? These are the kinds of writers who demystify and de-exoticize Asian cuisines, connecting and knitting them into the global culinary landscape instead of letting them sit on the margins. That's what the aim of this blog is. If you read and cook from these people's works, you'll be able to connect the dots between Vietnamese cooking and the cooking of the region!

Finally, I often am asked: Do you have to be Asian to authoritatively write about Asian food? Do you have to be Asian to cook Asian food well? What do you think?