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T O P I CS What is Into the Vietnamese Kitchen about? How does your book differ from other Vietnamese cookbooks? Where did you get the recipes? Who worked on the book with you? What led you to write this book? Where did you travel for the book? What do you suggest for those who want to learn more about Vietnamese food after reading your book? R
E L A T E D Into the Vietnamese Kitchen main page
E X T R A |
What
is Into the Vietnamese Kitchen about? But before
you leap into the kitchen, it's important to get the fundamentals, which
is what the subtitle, "Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors,"
is about. Vietnamese cuisine evolves much quicker than other cuisines
because Viet people are hyper entrepreneurial and creative. They are constantly
coming up with something 'new.' My contention is that before you can innovate
well, you need to pay attention to the basics and to get solid background
information; painters study the Masters before attempting post-modern
works. I mesh old-fashioned cooking knowledge with modern techniques and
New World ingredients to guide readers toward making great tasting food.
I also include Vietnamese history, personal family anecdotes, information
on the Viet-American community, and a bit of lore to provide readers with
a rich cultural perspective on Vietnamese cuisine. What
is the book not about? How
does your book differ from other Vietnamese cookbooks? Though not encyclopedic, this is the most comprehensive book on Vietnamese food that's been written in English to date. In about 350 pages, there are 175+ recipes that range from simple, homey preparations, such as kho dishes that are simmered in caramel sauce, to more complex specialties, such as Tet sticky rice cakes (banh chung) that are encased in bamboo and banana leaves and boiled for hours and moon cakes (banh nuong) that require a fair amount of skill. Instructions are detailed but not overbearing. I don't exoticize the food by making it seem remote. Rather, the book demystifies the cuisine and makes it accessible to people. It's here and now and a lot of it isn't hard to prepare. I'd love to see people integrate Viet foods into their daily lives. Practical tips are scattered throughout to provide modern home cooks with knowledge to prepare the recipes well, but also to be better cooks. That's why the information ranges from finding fatback, overcoming the fear of frying, to selecting juicy limes. Along with
the recipes, there's accompanying text on Vietnamese food traditions and
techniques so that readers have a foundation for understanding, preparing,
and enjoying the cuisine. I include history, family anecdotes, information
on the Viet-American community, and a bit of lore to provide readers with
context. The extensive glossary is also of great value. The eleven main recipe chapters include those for conventional food categories (e.g., starters and snacks, soups, poultry and eggs, seafood, meat, vegetables, rice, sweets) as well as ones for charcuterie, noodles, and banh (savory cakes, dumplings, crepes, buns, and fritters), which are a bit unusual and more specific to Vietnamese cooking. Each chapter opens with an introduction that frames the recipes that follow. The recipes are presented in subcategories, with the easier ones presented first and the more complicated (or culturally challenging) ones presented at the end. A basics chapter concludes with recipes for sauces and other commonly prepared foods. Where did you get the recipes? I selected the recipes for this book from foods that my family and I have enjoyed over the years. Even though they are modern in technique and approach, they represent a broad range of what are considered Vietnamese classics. My aim was to present a wide sampling of the repertoire to help readers to fully appreciate the cuisine. When developing each recipe, I consulted with my parents (and sometimes their friends too), cross-referenced Vietnamese cookbooks written in English and Vietnamese, and reviewed works on Vietnamese foodways. Because Vietnamese cooking touches upon other Asian and Western cuisines, it was also necessary at times to check delve into publications on those traditions. (The Selected Bibliography at the end of the book reflects the extent of my research.) After developing the recipes, they were sent to recipe testers to ensure that things worked well. Minor tweaks were made as necesary before the recipes were considered finalized. The overaching
goal was to offer readers what I considered as the best approaches to
making food that neither compromised the spirit nor disrepected the culinary
traditions of Vietnam. Who
worked on the book with you? An author's
words don't go straight to print. There's a wonderful collaborative effort
that goes on in making a book. I benefited from having a great publisher,
Ten Speed Press, and a terrific, dedicated editor, Aaron Wehner. He assembled
an amazing team of excellent, seasoned professionals, including copy editor
Sharon Silva; proofreader Desne Ahlers; photographer Leigh Beisch, assisted
by Angelica Cao; food stylist Karen Shinto, assisted by Katie Christ;
prop stylist Sara Slavin (with prop loans from Sue Fisher King); designers
Ed Anderson, Toni Tajima, and Katy Brown; and indexer Ken DellaPenta. Recipe testers
Sue Holt, Victor Fong, Al Meyers, Maki Tsuzuki, and Mike Crane ensured
that I stayed on the mark. My parents tirelessly answered questions and
my husband stood by patiently and ate every bit of food. Food experts
such as Bruce Cost also lent their invaluable advice. The book
informs on many levels. Whether a reader is a beginner cook, jaded Vietnamese
food junkie, or someone in between, he/she will find recipes that appeal.
Avid eaters may read the book to become savvy about the cuisine. What
led you to write this book? A week before the fall of Saigon in 1975, my family abandoned our home in Vietnam. We settled and rebuilt our lives in San Clemente, a small beach community in Southern California. Living in a town with few other Asian people—let alone Vietnamese folks—my parents looked to food as means of preserving their heritage and family stability. Their resourcefulness and dogged determination to recreate the foods of their homeland came from a lifelong interest in food, cooking and culture. My mother was known as an excellent cook in Vietnam. When she left Saigon, she crammed her most precious belongings into her handbag—a few family photos, some jewelry and an orange notebook containing her recipes. Growing up in such a household fueled my desire to preserve Vietnamese foodways and ethnic integrity at a time when practicality and rapid change often prevailed. To this day, reading and cooking from books written in Vietnamese is one of my favorite past times. In general, I've been a cookbook geek since childhood, which is why I've wanted to write this book since I was ten years old. I knew that the good food our family enjoyed was vastly different than what many other American families ate. I've read a variety of Vietnamese cookbooks and didn't see myself or my community in them. The works didn't explain Viet culinary concepts well and the instructions weren't thorough enough for a non-Viet person to understand and succeed in the kitchen. The spirit of Vietnamese people and their food was never fully captured. That's the void that I wanted to fill. Where
did you travel for the book? In 2003,
I took my first trip back to Vietnam. The visit gave me a better sense
of traditional Viet foodways but also how is it evolving too. I also frequent
the Vietnamese communities is San Jose and Westminster, California, where
largest communities of Vietnamese people in America reside. Every chance
I get, I check out Viet restaurants and markets. That includes surprising
places like Avignon, France, and Napa, California. What
do you suggest for those who want to learn more about Vietnamese food
after reading your book? Travel to Vietnam, explore one of the Little Saigon communities, talk to Vietnamese people about their cuisine, grow some Viet herbs and/or chilis, cook and eat. Do one, some, or all of those things and have a good time. |
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