Viet World Kitchen

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.

How to Wrap Banh Chung (Tet Sticky Rice Cakes)

Today I made my annual batch of banh chung (baan choong), a traditional must-have for the Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration. I made five of them instead of my usual foursome since I over bought the pork that goes into the cakes. In the above photo, the ancient looking packages are of the foil-wrapped cakes freshly fetched from their 7-hour boiling. Inside, there are bamboo leaves and banana leaves that surround sticky rice, buttery mung beans, and rich pork seasoned by fish sauce, salt and pepper. With only a handful of ingredients, they come together deliciously. (For background information of banh chung and its cylindrical sister banh tet, see this post.)

Even though you can buy banh chung at Vietnamese and Chinese markets, the cakes are at their absolute best when made at home and eaten warm. I got my banh chung recipe from my mother, who got it from a friend, Mr. Lung. In the 1970s, Mr. Lung had written a lengthy article on banh chung and included detailed recipe instructions for the cakes. When Mr. Lung escaped from Vietnam, he brought the article with him and shared it with my mother and other friends so that they can recreate these savory cakes abroad.

Because a number of people have expressed interest in making their own banh chung this year, I decided to post these images on how to wrap banh chung. (They’re also available in a downloadable PDF document too.) These images are a companion to the banh chung recipe in my cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. See the “World of Banh” chapter, pages 261-264. I hope these images encourage and guide you toward successful banh chung making!

How to wrap banh chung with a wooden mold

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

More on Tet:

Cultural information

• 2010 Tet Food, Festivals and Fun: General information for this year
• The Year of the Tiger: Tiger birth years, traits, and famous tigers/tigresses
• Simple Ways to Celebrate Tet: Easy, no-sweat things to do for Tet, such as a downloadable Tet couplet for your door,  pointers on how to wish people “Happy New Year” in Vietnamese, Cantonese and Mandarin, and how to attract good luck for the New Year (xong dat)
• How to find a Tet Festival: Tips for locating these events, which hare typically advertised only in the Vietnamese community!
• Traditional Tet Flowers and Blossoms: My father used to cut blooming branches from trees he found in the neighborhood. You can clip like him, or buy, like me. This post tells you what to look for.

Food

• Special Foods for Tet Celebrations: What is typically eaten during this holiday? Great for menu planning.
• Banh Chung and Banh Tet: What are they and how do you eat these sticky rice cakes
• Chicken and Bamboo Shoot Noodle Soup Recipe (Bun Mang Ga)
• Banh Chung Tet Sticky Rice Cake Recipe
• Candied Lotus Seeds Recipe

2010 Tet Food, Festivals and Fun

Get ready to ride the Tiger. The Lunar New Year celebration is on Sunday, February 14. For the next three weekends, Vietnamese communities all over the world will be kicking off festivities for Tet Nguyen Dan (that’s our official name). Take it all in as Tet is like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Yom Kippur, and Easter all rolled up into one. The build up and fervor can be overwhelming as people try to square away all unfinished business before the New Year commences. Repaying debts, cleaning the house, and xong dat New Year greetings are some of the ways that Vietnamese people address Tet superstitions and ensure good luck for the next twelve months. Tet gift baskets to your superiors work too!

At Vietnamese markets, delis, and bakeries, you’ll find an array of colorful candies, sweetmeats, cakes, cookies, pickles and sticky rice cakes called banh chung and banh tet. The cakes are must-haves for Tet. They are essentially supersized dumplings wrapped in banana leaves and boiled for hours. They may look like abobe bricks or door stops, but don’t be put off as they are really delicious when made well.

2010 Tet Celebration: The Year of the Tiger

On Sunday, February 14, 2010 double dip to celebrate Valentine’s Day and Lunar New Year. Be a romantic tiger (or tigress) as you bid a fond farewell to the Year of the Ox and great the Year of the Tiger. I once worked with a tiger and boy, did he roar sometimes.  Not fun. In case you’re wondering if you know any tigers (or if you're one!), here are tips for identifying tigers and dealing with their strong personalities:

Tiger birth years:  

1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998 or 2010

If you were born in late January or early February, you’re on the cusp and should consult the lunar zodiac calendar for your birth year. If you are Asian, your parents probably know what sign you are and can supplement with details. For example, my mom vividly remembers the day I was born as her little monkey on February 9, 1969. Lotsa pain was involved. That date was at the tail end of the year of the monkey (curious and smart trouble makers) and beginning of the year of the rooster (fashion conscious good cooks). I have a little bit of both in me, though it’s hard to think of a simian-like chicken.

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. 

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. 

Vietnamese-Korean Connection: Grilled Pork Belly Lettuce Wraps

 

Last Sunday, I went on a Korean market tour with 3 gal pals – Hyunjoo Albrecht, Linda Lim, and Karen Shinto. You may know Karen, the food stylist who tried to stab me with chopsticks on my Asian Dumpling cookbook photo shoot. Hyunjoo is a Korean food expert and Linda is a lifestyle marketing expert and avid cook and eater.

Korean food is a mystery to me as I’m a little rusty with my Hangul (!!) and most Korean ingredients are labeled in their language full of neat circles and straight lines. There are only a handful of Korean ingredients involved in the cuisines of the Land of the Morning Calm. For example, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and chiles are the dominant seasonings. Gojuchang is a fermented chile paste that has an addictively smoky, earthy flavor that I’ve enjoyed on numerous occasions in bibimbap rice preparations. However, whenever I’ve gone to a Korean market and had to face with a wall of Korean chile paste tubs, I can’t figure out which to select and blindly choose the highest priced gojuchang. Don’t get me started on cryptic vegetable labeling such as “Korean radish” and “edible leaves.” I’m a mess in a Korean produce section and the banchan side dishes section of a Korean market.

Banh Chung Tet Sticky Rice Cake Recipe

The weekend before Tet, as I was following my own directions to make a batch of banh chung, so was Tam Ngo. She followed the recipe in my cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen (Ten Speed Press, 2006) and posted an adaptation of the recipe (actually, it's very similar to the published version) on Serious Eats, one of the best food sites and ezines. 

As a cookbook author and someone advocating for good Vietnamese home cooking, Tam's post is music to my ears! Check out her work and make a batch now or bookmark it for next year's Lunar New Year celebration. (We celebrate on the same day as Chinese New Year!)