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Amy, a resident of Rhode Island, sends me lots of nifty ideas and feedback. In the past, she tried making banh cuon (steam rice rolls) with banh trang rice papers made from tapioca. She heated them in the microwave oven and found them to be not bad! I suggested she steam them and see what happens. After getting her hands on a copy of Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, she sent more energetic remarks. This time, Amy included pictures!

Here's what she contributed:

I don't know if you remember me but I'm the crazy banh cuon girl that used tapioca sheets for the wrap. Your advice to steam them sound really good but I haven't had the chance to do it. I did, however, make the banh cuon recipe in your book. Of course it was fabulous and easy too. (thanks to the wonderfully written recipe instructions).

Anyways, winter's almost gone by over here and my whole family's been craving grilled food like crazy! I followed the "ga roti" recipe/marinade and used it on the chicken wings. Unfortunately, that night was negative wind chills outside so I baked them on the oven on a wire rack. Still fantastic!

[The recipe is actually for oven roasting but Amy's original intent of grilling the wings would be pretty good! -- Andrea]

And of course, this weekend was spectacular weather, so I decided to marinate some beef. I think the sirloin tips were on sale so I marinated it (wow, say that 3 times fast... marinated it, marinated it...LOL) with your "grilled beef skewers" recipe. I didn't have time to get the sesame seeds but they were awesome nonetheless!

[Those lemongrass beef skewers are divine and Amy used the sirloin tips instead of bottom sirloin (tri-tip) steaks or flap steak. Brava! -- Andrea]

I guess I just wanted to let you know that I'm a devote fan and I'm still testing out more and more of the recipes in your book! Also, I figured you'd be very happy to see that your book does touch upon many readers such as myself. Thanks so much!