Viet World Kitchen

Sriracha Hot Sauce Week

Perhaps because we’re closing on winter’s end and longing to warm up in spring but it seems like everyone is talking about sriracha these days. I’ve written lots about it on VWK, with tastings of various kinds, a DIY sriracha recipe, as well as recipes using the Thai hot sauce. But it continues to gain momentum, particularly the Rooster brand made by Huy Fong in the United States. Dare I say it, yes I will, sriracha has gone mainstream.

BusinessWeek magazine ran a terrific in-depth article late last month on the remarkable success of the Rooster sriracha. The company uses no advertising, has no Twitter handle or Facebook page. The owner is Vietnamese-American David Tran. While I was happy to see an Asian-American food business article in a national publication, I noted that the sriracha was compared to other hot sauces, such as Tabasco and Cholula. Why wasn’t it compared to other kinds of Thai sriracha hot sauces? That would have been a more level playing field.

Cheater’s Guide to Little Saigons in America

Want to know where to find good Vietnamese food? Look on a map and check Census data. That’s how you find the Little Saigon enclaves. I used to have to piece the information together but today, I found an amazing resource from the Orange County Register, a newspaper in Southern California, home of the largest population of Viet-Americans.

According to reporter Jim Hinch, the newspaper is running a series on how Orange County influences other areas of the country and world. Hinch interviewed me for his story on Little Saigons in America. Today he emailed to say that it been posted online. “OC’s Little Saigon?  Nothing little about it” contains great insights on the complex nature of the Vietnamese American community, the push and pull between Vietnam and expatriates populations abroad. This isn’t anything new, but the OC Register has done an excellent job in presenting information about Vietnamese people. Major newspapers have featured Little Saigon enclaves but the OC has the granddaddy of them all. Thus, the Register has a strong understanding of and commitment to Vietnamese-Americans.  

Along with the article, there were extra goodies, such as a slideshow of Little Saigon daily life. What blew me away was a this graphic of Vietnamese history and people in America:

Tackling Sriracha Myths, Truths and Confusion

A couple of incidents last week led me to realize that there may be much misunderstanding about Sriracha chile sauce. The first occurred on the October 2011 Food Finds post. Upon checking out Jess Dang’s pitch for a Sriracha documentary film project, @Chrisjone commented that Jess had incorrectly described Sri Racha as an island. It’s a town with seaport. There’s an island nearby. I notified Jess of the error and she promptly corrected it.

The second incident was related to the 2011 CHOW 13 Award listing of influential food people. Coming in at lucky number 8 was David Tran of Huy Fong Foods, the maker of the Rooster brand of Sriracha. I’m quoted as saying that many people don’t know whether or not the Rooster brand’s version of Sriracha is Thai or Vietnamese. It’s kinda messed up and mixed up, I told writer John Birdsall.

Case in point, I’m often asked about Sriracha even though it’s not a traditional Viet staple. In The Sriracha Cookbook, Randy Clemens's introduction describes the hot sauce as an beloved condiment at Asian markets, upscale restaurants, and even Wal-Mart. Clemens follows up with the Thai backstory in a separate chapter but he opens up the book by framing the "Rooster sauce" as a “mainstay in many home kitchens and innumerable college dorm rooms.” This coming Sunday, Sriracha will be part of a Simpson's foodie episode!

After reading the CHOW entry on Tran, Pim Techamuanvivit texted me, “Sriracha sauce is definitely Thai.” Of course, Pim and I know that because we’ve talked a lot about the hot sauce. I’ve had her over for a Sriracha taste-off between Vietnamese, Viet-American, and Thai brands.  But not everyone is as lucky as I am to have a Bangkok-born friend who’s also a persnickety food expert.

That said, I’m throwing out some points here about Sriracha for your consideration and comments:

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.

Pork Blood Pho: Is it True or New?

This is my typical bowl of homemade beef pho noodle soup. I can’t imagine eating it with cubes of congealed pork blood. But maybe that is something going on these says.

Have you heard of or eaten pho with pork blood? During the past several weeks I’ve read about it twice, most recently in The Globe and Mail, a newspaper from Toronto, Canada. In “You eat meat, so why not blood? Chefs strive to warm up diners to the red stuff,” journalist Chris Nuttall-Smith reports on uses of blood in hip, modern food. The article was focused on Western chefs, such as Rene Redzepi of Copenhagen's famed Noma, who marinates vegetables in blood according to photos he posted.

I was looking for mention of blood-laden Asian foods, expecting to see classics like Filipino dinuguan blood stew and Korean sundae (not a dessert). Instead, my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when I read the last three words of this paragraph:

To be sure, this is nothing new to most Europeans – from black pudding to morcilla to Poland’s duck blood soup, the continent has almost too many blood recipes to count. Blood dishes are also common across South and Central America, Africa and most of Asia; you can find blood tofu in many Chinese grocery stores in Canada; some Vietnamese restaurants also offer pork blood pho.

Whoa! I have not seen pork blood in pho before and wondered if it was a new Canadian thing.