Viet World Kitchen

Hanoi Food and Travel 2010

I've been feeling like one of the luckiest people on Earth these days. A few weeks ago, I was invited to go on a press tour sponsored by Sofitel Hotels and Cathay Pacific airline to China and Vietnam. Our Vietnam visit was in Hanoi. I have not been to Hanoi, the capitol of Vietnam, since winter of 2003 – one of the coldest winters they’d had in years. This trip was the polar opposite.

It was sweltering, around 100F with humidity. But I really didn’t mind as Hanoi is now a more modern yet still charming place. The airport is bigger and the immigration people smile. The patina of slight neglect adorns many Hanoi structures.

We only had 2 full days in Hanoi and I could have remained at the Metropole Hotel, which was recently renovated and expanded to launch Sofitel’s Legend brand of historic properties. But that was out of the question! I couldn’t wait to hit the streets at 7am to stroll around Hoan Kiem Lake and see people exercising, playing badminton, and visiting with friends.

I’m on my way home and jet lag lingers, but I couldn’t wait to share a few snapshots and notes with you.

Gifts in the Mail: Handmade Knife from Vietnam

It is one thing to open up an Amazon package of something I ordered for myself, but it’s another to get surprise mail like the envelope above. Historian and novelist Dana Sachs sent it to me, prefacing on Facebook that she had a gift to add to my kitchen. I had no clue what to expect. Then the  manila envelope arrived.

It looked plain and unassuming. Being flat, it couldn’t contain artisanal palm sugar or homegrown chiles, a couple of past food gifts that I’ve received in the mail.

But it must have had something to do with Vietnam because that is Dana’s area of specialty. (Her new book, The Lives We Were Given, details the fall of Saigon through the journey of thousands of babies airlifted from Vietnam in April 1975.) On the back of the envelope, Dana cautiously warned me to open it carefully, lest I cut myself. Did she send me one of the 'killer' dao bao shredder/peeler knives?

Turns out that she sent me a handmade knife from Hanoi. She carefully wrapped the blade in paper and affixed this post-it note:

These are my favorite knives in the world. Don’t put it in the dishwasher. Also, they rust, so just wash it off. But they never get dull.

I slipped off the newspaper sleeve and found a hand-forged blade. My gawd. I’d never seen such a rustic knife. But I could not use it – yet.

Sad Song of Yellow Skin: Important Film on 1970s Saigon

I got two interesting emails this morning. One from journalist and author John T. Edge who notified me that his story on Vietnamese crayfish restaurants in the United States was published today in the New York Times. After reading John T's terrific piece (yours truly was quoted!), I opened up an email from Tan, an editor at The Guide travel publication in Saigon. Tan sent a link to Sad Song of Yellow Skin, a documentary shot in 1970 in Saigon. Directed by Michael Rubbo, the film is now available from the Canadian National Film Board.

I was riveted to my computer screen. I called my husband over, even as he was rushing to go to work. Sad Song of Yellow Skin is one of the most compelling movies I've seen on pre-1975 Vietnam. The movie captures the experience of three young American journalists to tell the stories behind the lives of Vietnamese people. I caution you that the piece is disturbing at many points.

You'll see plenty of cooking going on -- catch the woman who blows air into a duck with her mouth! Not quite like my approach to blowing up a duck. It was a tough time, and Rubbo conveyed plenty of edgy tension and ambivalence. The Vietnamese were caught in an odd limbo, trying to stay afloat, trying to make sense of the chaos around them, trying to find peace.

After watching Sad Song of Yellow Skin, let know your thoughts to this question: Many things have changed in Vietnam since 1970 but what has not? Did the filmmakers have a political agenda?

Don't hold back on the good, bad and not-so-pretty.

Pairing Beer with Vietnamese Food

As you may have surmised by now, my stern mother got me cooking and my wacky father got me drinking. Bo Gia (Old Daddy, a term of affection in Vietnamese) introduced me to red wine and cognac when I was of elementary school age. I suppose that was among the benefits of being raised Catholic in a former French colony. Even though Vietnamese women (let alone girls) are not usually thought of as drinkers, Bo Gia (pictured above, photogenic as always!) and I became drinking buddies. It’s been that way for most of my life and after I got married, my husband Rory became part of our drinking circle.

Last week was spring break for Rory and we headed down to Southern California to spend a week hanging out with family, friends. Our activities revolved around lots of food and drinks. We went to my parents’ house for lunch last Monday, and thought it would be fun to introduce my dad to Pinkus, a great certified organic beer from Germany. In case Bo Gia didn’t like the Pinkus hefeweizen or ur pils, we hedged our bets with one of his favorites, Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale. These are sizable 500ml bottles and we figured that the three of us could polish off three beers.

I knew that my mom would be serving a main course of cha ca Ha Noi, the turmeric and dill catfish classic that is enjoyed with funky fermented shrimp sauce (mam tom). It turned out that she had a three-course seafood lunch menu. (Mom is an overachiever when it comes to spoiling people at her table.) Rory and I surprised Bo Gia with the beers and told him that we’d have an impromptu beer tasting.

Faux Pho: What is it and does it matter?

Let me head this off at the pass – the word faux goes so well with pho. Faux is French for fake and putting faux near food is a nice way to denote inauthentic, wrong, not genuine food. Mon Dieu, there’s also the ‘shame on you’ French term faux pas. I’ve been simmering on the notion of faux pho (which has a whole host of wordplays that you probably already know) ever since I did a public radio interview with the Kojo Nnamdi show on the vibrant pho scene in Washington, D.C., and Virginia. One of the guests said that a local, critically acclaimed chef had prepared a faux pho.

Though I chuckled along with the other participants on the interview, in my mind I was thinking: What exactly is faux pho? There’s a whole industrial category of faux food that is used for displays; check out Fake-foods.com. In Asia, the Japanese excel at manufacturing fake plastic food. But I’m talking about the edible stuff that people are describing as faux pho. We're not talking window display here.

A Near Strawberries and Cream Cake Wreck

I love to hear from young people who are getting into food and cooking. Last year, Kimberly, a Vietnamese-American high school junior, emailed me inquiring about a recipe for a Vietnamese/Asian-style cake. She wanted to prepare a mini-version of a strawberry and cream layer cake for her catering class as she had fond memories of it growing up when her mom bought the cakes at their local Asian market. She found the recipe on Viet World Kitchen and wrote:

It might be a little over exaggerated, but it was almost like fate finding your recipe! I've always like to bake. I never have the right equipment at home, but when I do it at school, I get a sense of enjoyment.

I hope your website is around for a while. I'm going to be off on my own soon. I want to still eat the many foods I grew up with. I know I'll be coming back to learn more about how to make our culture's cuisine.

I wrote back, encouraging Kimberly and asking for photos and a report back when she made the cake. Last Sunday, she emailed and sent the photo above. I love her stamina. Through all her travails, she successfully made the cake for Superbowl Sunday – and is going to repeat it for practice. Her adventure in making and using the strawberry and cream layer cake recipe is full of humor and grace:

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.

Our Crazy Vietnamese Holiday Menu

Everyone is doing a 2009 year in review and looking back, all I have to say is, "What a year it has been." I hope that you've all enjoyed the holiday season. Mine was restful and I'm happy to report that all the family events went smoothly. No one misbehaved.  What do Vietnamese people eat at Christmas time? Well, that all depends as Vietnamese people celebrate the holidays in many ways. It's often multicultural, reflecting the unique cultural amalgam that is at the core of Vietnamese culture. There are traditional foods for Lunar New Year (Tet Nguyen Dan), but for Christmas it's all mixed up. For example, my family is Catholic and we celebrate on December 24 according to the French/European tradition of reveillon. This year, we had an unusual mixture of Eastern and Western fare at my parents' home on Christmas Eve.