Dive in to explore Asian cooking and traditions
Author + Teacher + Consultant
Just because summer is coming up does not mean you need to put aside your pho forays. Pho is a year-round thing in Vietnam, with people slurping up bowls in hot temperatures to cool themselves down. But aside from the noodle soup, how can you get the pho-ish flavor during grilling season? Cue that…
My family regularly had our own pho party on Sunday mornings, but when I was growing up, I didn’t realize it. We’d attend 8 a.m. Mass, eat the little communion wafer, and our tummies would start to rumble. “Join us for doughnuts and coffee in the hall after service,” someone would announce but I knew…
When my mom came to America in 1975, she faced challenges like starting a new career, negotiating a foreign society, and raising five kids with my dad. She also wanted to feed herself and our family good food. On the trip from Vietnam, she packed a small orange notebook of hand-written recipes of foods that…
When summer hits, I’m on the lookout for green tomatoes. No, not the heirloom, fancy ones that are green in their ripe state. I’m talking rock hard, unripe tomatoes. They’re firm, meaty and perfect for pickling because they’ll retain a little crunch. I eat pickles too fast to do the canning jars and sterilization. Instead,…
I was at a Vietnamese market today and overheard a conversation between two Vietnamese people lamenting having to diet. “It’s so boring and difficult to eat lean vegetables all the time,” the woman said. “I’m tired of it.” The man responded, “Dieting isn’t about giving up everything. Just a little here and there.” I’m in…
How to tweak an American Thanksgiving menu so that it includes Vietnamese touches? That's what two people asked last week. Toni wrote that her future daughter in law is Vietnamese and she wanted to combine the cultures at their upcoming holiday celebration: I love your banh mi book and have made almost all the recipes…
I’ve been hooked on dim sum since I was young. It’s not only because I love food but also because I love to try many different things. As you know, I like to eat them as much as I like to make them. Here’s a quick A to Z run down that I originally put…
When I’m far from my favorite Asian snack shops, I make the noshes myself. Last week on Lunar New Year, I took the day off and tinkered in the kitchen, preparing traditional Viet eats and these northern Chinese dumplings. I was replicating panfried savory pastries that we’d enjoyed at the Beijing Pie House in…
The first dumplings I ever made were wontons. I reckon that there were also among the first dumplings that I ate too. Wontons are Chinese in origin and they are super popular in the Vietnamese kitchen, where they’re called hoanh thanh. My family often fried them for a party appetizer. My mom makes wontons…
Most people associate pickled ginger with Japanese sushi but it’s prepared and enjoyed in other parts of Asia. Years ago thumbing through a classic Vietnamese cookbook from the 1940s, I came across a pickled ginger recipe that was similar to the Japanese preparation but less sweet. Here’s a Thai recipe that is more tart than…
Seven years ago I was in Hanoi on assignment for Saveur magazine. My task was to explore Hanoi-style pho for a column called “Classics.” I’d done lots of reading and research and knew about ingredients like peanut worms (sa sung), which are used for umami in pho. I arrived in the capital thinking I’d…
Last month I spied a sweetened condense milk recipe embedded in a Food & Wine magazine recipe for lemon meringue pie. It was a chef recipe and I decided to give it a try. It was simply whole (full fat) milk and sugar with a touch of vanilla plus a lot of time —…
Hello, this site was created and maintained by me — Andrea Nguyen. Based in Northern California, I’m an author, freelance writer, editor, cooking teacher, and consultant. Let’s dig in →