Viet World Kitchen

Belinda’s Amazing Almond Cookies Recipe

One of the best – if not THE best pastry shop in San Francisco these days is B. Patisserie run by Belinda Leong and Michel Suas. I met Belinda several years ago in the kitchen at Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos. She was cheery yet focused. She handed me a chocolate treat filled with extra virgin olive oil. She’d just made it and the little candy was divine, sensuous and exploded with a riot of flavor.

I was with my friend Pim who had a question for Belinda about French canele, a tricky little pastry to bake. Belinda whipped out a small notebook and read off notes from her past work at places like Pierre Herme in Paris. I immediately liked her calm resolution and willingness to share.

We didn’t meet again until about a month ago at a restaurant opening and soon after, I visited Belinda’s stylish bakery. It was packed on a Saturday afternoon, with customers ranging from local chef Mourad Lahlou and his crew of Aziza to well-heeled San Franciscans to humbly dressed Chinese ladies. They were at B. Patisserie for Belinda’s pastries. I went with pastry chef Pichet Ong, who was in town from New York and despite being at the bakery the day before, wanted to revisit. That’s always a good sign. 

My Mom's Dried Persimmon Recipe

We've had a very warm autumn and by the time I handed over the persimmons to my parents last Thursday, they were so soft that you'd dent them with a gentle poke. I apologized and also sheepishly handed over some firm persimmons I'd bought from a local farm.

My mom took one look in the boxes of soft persimmons and confidently said, "I'll take care of these." I knew what she'd do with them: make fruit rolls.

Over the weekend, my dad checked in with VWK (he and my mom are avid readers of this blog!). Dad read Amy's comment. She asked how my parents dry persimmons.

Ironically over the weekend, our friend John gifted us a box of hoshigaki Japanese dried persimmons. He purchased them from a farm in California. The farm goes through a special, lengthy process to dry the whole fruit, which explains the $35 a pound price tag. John also reads this blog and asked me how my parents dried persimmons.

Because your minds inquired, my dad sent information and instructions for drying persimmons. What my father wrote:

Guide to Lucky Sweets for Lunar New Year

Feeling rushed to get something together for Lunar New Year? You’re not alone. It’s part of the fun and excitement of celebrating major holidays. On the other hand, come Sunday, you can slither into the Year of the Snake with a simple sweet and warm cup of tea. Sit down and contemplate the year to come.

Pick your lucky fruit(s). This holiday typically means lots of fruit displays. I keep it to a minimum with tangerines. This year, a friend shared a bag of mandarin oranges grown by her father in Fresno. Sweet as candy, they’re better than store bought! I’m thankful for my friend Diane’s generosity.

Many Viet people go all out for special Tet lucky fruit trays. You’re suppose to make a sculpture with 5 (lucky number!) types of fruit and set them on your ancestral altar.  We never had that when we were growing up because we focused on preparing traditional Viet foods. My parents, ardent Catholics, say their daily rosary in front of portraits of my grandparents. I figure that we’re covered year-round.

Mango Pudding Recipe

Last Friday we went to a Burmese restaurant in Daly City that was just fabulous. We ordered way too much food at Little Yangon that there was little room for dessert. After a lengthy conversation with chef/owner Khinn Ma Ma, we realized that our parking meter was nearly out and hurriedly asked for the check. She promptly responded but also sent us off with a complimentary mango pudding to “sweeten our palate.” It was gelled with agar so the texture was very firm. Flavorwise, it was delicately sweet – much like the mango pudding that you get at dim sum restaurants, which I seldom order. Such mango puddings are often made with evaporated milk, which kind of deadens the fresh brightness of mango. After I had a few bites, I thought about making my own, without evaporated milk.

If you’re not familiar with mango pudding, it has British colonial roots in India but is super popular tropical Asia, though it’s not a major deal in Vietnam. Sometimes the pudding is soft like a custard but  while other times it is super firm like jello. The former is generally thickened with cornstarch while the latter is gelled with agar agar or gelatine. I like the firm, jello-like texture but admit that it's not a luscious pudding per se. However in the Asian mindset, this sweet snack hails from the pudding family but got changed along the way to fit local situations. 

Poached Peaches with Ginger and White Wine Recipe

Whenever I see ugly peaches for sale at a steep price, I think of poaching them for a quick summertime sweet. It’s quick and easy old-fashioned cooking. If you're like me and used to long for the canned peaches that went into the fruit cocktails that our moms made in the 1970s, this is the adult version. 

Super ripe peaches are relatively easy to peel with a peeler or even your fingers. I got these at our local farmer’s market last week. There were the “rejects” at an organic stand where the “best quality ones” were being sold for $3 per pound. My uglies were $1 per pound. I selected four, imagining that they’d fit into a small pot at home.

The peaches were freestone or semi-freestone, meaning that the pit pulled away easily from the flesh; such peaches are great for cutting up for pies and the like. You can use clingstone but it may be hard to halve and remove the pit, a step I take to hasten the poaching process. Most commercially sold peaches are freestone or semi-freestone.