Viet World Kitchen

Dad’s Other Holy Trinity: Tiger Balm, Eucalyptus Oil, and Toothpicks

My father’s birthday is this coming Sunday. He’ll be 81 years old. Bo Gia (“Boe Zaah,” Old Daddy in Vietnamese) has been through much in his life, having been forced to migrate repeatedly and weather Vietnam’s turbulent history through the 20^th century.

As a young man, he pondered becoming a priest but went into the military instead, taking on the role of provincial governor by the time he was in his late 20s. After the Diem assassination in 1963, Bo Gia switched careers to become a business development consultant (today’s equivalent of a start-up pro). My dad had always wanted to study and live in the United States; in his youth, he even applied for a scholarship abroad. In the end, it was the Fall of Saigon in 1975 that brought him and our family here.

If you asked Bo Gia about his eventual good fortune of living in America, he’d respond that it was mostly because of his religious conviction. My dad attends mass every morning at his local Catholic church. He can lead a rosary in Vietnamese – which resembles a light chant – like no one else can in our clan. Religious statues are displayed in various prominent spots at my parents’ home.

My dad’s devotion to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is combined with his belief in three material things that have helped him get out of many tough jams: tiger balm, eucalyptus oil, and toothpicks.  Those are his fix-it tools. Seriously.

Red Wine and Beef Stew in Claypot (A Franco-Viet Experiment)

Because of France’s occupation of Vietnam from 1883 to 1954, many people assume that Viet cooking is heavily influenced by French foodways. While there are a handful of old French cookbooks written in Vietnamese, pure French cooking was mostly for those who could afford the ingredients. 

As cultural survivalists, Vietnamese cooks wove French elements into their traditions, just like they did with other cultures that they came in contact with over the ages. That’s why Vietnamese food can confound as much as it delights. Beefy classics such as pho noodle soup and beef stew with tomato, lemongrass, and star anise are prime examples of fusion Vietnamese fare. There are so many Eastern and Western elements in those dishes that it's hard to simply call them Viet-Franco food.

On the other hand, Viet cooks can be inventive in replicating foreign culinary concepts, such as a beouf Bourguinon. That’s what I pondered as I set about making a red wine and beef stew, an cool weather dish that seemed fitting with the season. I typically rely on Julia Child’s master Zinfandel of Beef recipe from The Way to Cook when making a beef stew. This time around, I combined JC’s techniques with some borrowed from Jennifer McLagan’s new book, Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal. While there are a number of Asian-inspired recipes, most of McLagan’s recipes are western in nature. The point of the book is to encourage cooks to look beyond the usual “middle cuts,” such as beef and pork tenderloin, to discover the delicious appeal of ears, tongues, feet, and tails.

Asian cooks don’t have much issue with this concept as evidenced by the tripe and chicken feet at dim sum! Nevertheless it's good to be reminded of their exceptional flavor and textures. Asian markets have a wealth of odd bits but how often do we buy them nowadays? Not as much as our parents and grandparents used to as they practiced a head-to-tail approach to eating.

McLagan’s classic beef stew recipe was unfussy, called for igniting the red wine (pyrotechnic cooking always intrigues me), and baking the stew. She used rounds of beef shank. I had this frozen chuck roast from my annual share of a grass-fed cow:

As I was reviewing the recipes by Child and McLagan, I thought: How would I make this dish if I lived in Vietnam during the French colonial period? What if I had to cook for or with a French person during that era?

Moon Cakes: Love or Hate Them?

Sunday, September 11, 2011 has been a solemn occasion full of reflection on the past and future. During the past week, my husband and I watched several TV programs and read magazine and newspaper articles about the tragic events that happened a decade ago. Perhaps we overloaded ourselves with 9/11 but today, on the actual anniversary date of the attacks, I decided to switch gears to focus on tomorrow, Monday, September 12, 2011.

It’s going to be the Mid-Autumn Festival (Tet Trung Thu in Vietnamese, Zhong Qiu Jie in Mandarin). It’s also called the Moon Festival because the moon shines never fails to shine super big and bright. Referring to the festival legends behind the holiday, my mom once remarked, “It’s this time of the year that you can see the woman in the moon.” So tonight, I went into the backyard and looked up to see this moon:

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a harvest festival, a time for giving thanks for the plenty of the year that has past. We no longer lead agricultural lives but we can still pause to feel grateful for life’s bounty.

The festival is one of the most important holidays of its kind among those of Chinese, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese descent. People gather with friends and family to hang out and eat. I remember being in Hong Kong one year strolling along the Kowloon side of the harbor among throngs of people out to gaze at the moon. Kids carried colorful cellophane and wood lanterns to imitate the moon, reminding me of when I was a child in Vietnam.

From My Dad: Historic Archive of 16,000+ Vietnam Images

My parents were very touched by last week’s Mother’s Day Tribute. As I suspected, Dad printed out the entire post, including people’s responses, and Mom read them. She called and emailed to thank everyone for their comments. She was wondering where those old photos had gone and was happily surprised to rediscover them in the post.

Our old family photos got my dad thinking and Googling. Yesterday, Bo Gia (Old Daddy) found a humongous archive of historic images of Vietnam. He sent the link and I wanted to share some of them with you. They are so interesting. I haven’t had time to go through all of them but am calling out a few standouts here.

Perusing the archive of images gleaned from postcards, photos, postage stamps, and posters is like walking through a museum exhibit. They were uploaded by someone named Manhhai, and I am totally jazzed that the person took the time to scan them all in. There are French, English, and Vietnamese notations but you don’t need to be multilingual to understand what is being communicated. Additionally, the collection has been extremely well organized in time periods.

Indochine Vietnam refers to the time period when Vietnam was still a colony of France. Here’s a great collection of markets in Vietnam (Tonkin) during that time.

 

Mother’s Day Tribute: Who’s My Mama?

I went to Rite Aid this afternoon to purchase a Mother’s Day card for Me Gia (old mommy in Vietnamese). We are an Asian family that displays little affection so finding an appropriate card took about 30 minutes.  Other Mother’s Day card shoppers came and went as I scanned practically every single card. The funny ones with animals turned out to be for kids to give their moms. The cards with music had American songs that my Vietnamese mother wouldn’t identify with. I finally found a simple one that spoke to her willingness to sacrifice and support her children – martyrdom is her motherly mantra.

As I drove home, I thought why not drag out some of her old photos and share them? Most of these are neat shots from Vietnam. My mom, Tuyet Thi Nguyen (Nguyen Thi Tuyet for purists who like to see the correct Viet ordering of a person’s name) was a real babe born in 1935 in Hai Duong, a town near Hanoi.

She and her most of her siblings migrated to Saigon in 1954 after the country split into North and South Vietnam. That’s her (on the right) in the above photo walking with her older sister in 1955 Saigon. They looked like they had a bit of attitude.