You'll
notice that I often ask you to adjust the seasonings at the end of a recipe
to balance out the sweet, salty, sour and spicy. Harmonizing all these
elements is key to allowing each dish to strike multiple notes. The proportions
of seasonings in each recipe are meant to guide you toward understanding
how to paint with a Vietnamese flavor palate. Don't hesitate to adjust
for more (or less) fish sauce, lime juice or sugar. As master of your
own kitchen, it's your right and duty to verifying final flavors according
to your ingredients and taste preferences so that each creation is a gift
to the mouth.
I
grew up watching my mother measure ingredients by the rice bowl, handful,
and odd sized spoon. She would sometimes use metric weights to be more
scientific. These were the methods she had learned through observing other
Vietnamese cooks as well as poring over recipe books.
While
such an impressionistic approach has its charm and pushes you to cook
intuitively, it provides little practical guidance for those not familiar
with the cuisine and culture. In developing these recipes, we had lots
of laughs, as I converted the vagaries of Mom's measurements into level
measurements in accordance to American standards. (Thank you Fannie Merritt
Farmer!) On the other hand, too much precision constricts the art and
pleasure of cooking, which is why you'll have to personally define the
meanings of a "medium onion" and a "fat lemongrass stalk".
A linguistic mix of several languages and cultures, Vietnamese is
difficult to read and pronounce. French missionaries romanized the Vietnamese
language, which means that you may recognize the letters, but probably
wouldn't know how to correctly pronounce the terms.
To help you
along, I've provided a loose pronunciation guide for each of the recipes
and many of the food terms. Though devoid of accent marks to help with
getting the tones right, you'll at least come close to deciphering the
words for the ears of a Vietnamese speaker. Some basic knowledge of a
culture's language and food is a powerful combination for furthering communication
and understanding between people.
Because Web browsers must be specifically set to display Vietnamese text,
I've provided all Vietnamese terms without the accent marks. This is an
editing decision that was tough to make. In the most ideal situation,
I would provide the correct Viet spelling alongside the phonetic guide.
Here's a
sample recipe title:
Baked
Shrimp Toasts Banh
Mi Tom Quet Nuong ~ "Bun Mee Tohm Ku-eht Noong"
English
translation of Viet name Viet name without accents ~ Pronunciation of Viet name
