cơm - steamed rice

 I must admit I am not always good at this. I never care enough the rice/water ratio as I never care about measuring ingredients (apart from making cake). I remember when I was about 13 year old, my mum threw chopstick and scolded, "hôm thì sống, hôm thì khê; hôm thì nát, hôm thì khô" which can be roughly translated "once uncooked, once burnt; once mushy, once dry " . I was shocked, she had never been like that especially in a meal.

That's the importance of rice when you have to eat it everyday ...

The problem with cooking rice is the rice/water ratio must be right from the start(especially for the old type of rice), you cannot adjust water later and even if you can, it wouldn't taste as good. Another problem with cooking rice is  it need a special care along the way till cooked unless you have a electric rice-cooker and that's a genius invention.Though conventional method bring out the best, 80/20 rules, I'll still go for a rice-cooker, my rice won't get too far and I can  focus on other dishes. 

Mum's generation, This earthen pot brings out the best steamed rice ever, especial if after the boiling point you cover it under dim tiny coals (in the past, we  used dry leaves, stalks, stems,wood, barks), aromatic!!!!  my old summers!!!

My generation, thick cast iron pot. After the boiling point, you douse the fire but leave the coal burnt, occasionally turn the pot. When we started using gas stove and couldn't douse fire, we put a thick piece of metal underneath ... and  rotated occasionally till cooked

and now we use this, simple adding rice,water and leave it

If you love Asian food, since most of Asian dishes are supposed to go with rice, you should have this, £12 from Argos would do the trick. Otherwise, you can learn the conventional method (my other post) OR forget all about it until you ready.

Yesterday, I thought of dishes that would go with mashed potatoes and breads ...

bánh xèo - sizzling pancake

You might forget all Vietnamese Pancakes but not banh xeo - sizzling pancake and banh cuon - rolled rice pancake. Let roll another day and sizzle

You can google or youtube banh xeo and come up with many results however this is the best. She, craftswoman Muoi Xiem (Muời Xiềm), has been making banh xeo for 50 years.

Helping her family since young age, she later followed their paths ( her mum and her grandmum). Not only learned from family, she also listened to customers' feedbacks, till one day, people say, you need not change anything :p. Watch for her recipe:

Again, this is in Vietnamese, I'll write her recipe later (at my pace or as request)

Further facts.

She received an honour for her skill and her dedicated life
Banh xeo Muoi Xiem became a brand name for it's texture and flavour

Apart from banh xeo she has been creating 60 types of cakes

Sources:
Muoi Xiem and giant sizzling Pancake - Nghe nhan Muoi Xien do banh xeo ky luc
Muoi Xiem in US - Ba Muoi Xiem sang My bieu dien lam banh

nước mắm - fish sauce

If you are going to cook Vietnamese food, you must know nuoc mam - fish sauce

I once mentioned, we have three regions: North, Middle and South ... travelling from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City you can experience the changes in culture, language and cuisine. But however the change, food from all regions are seasoned by nuoc mam and complemented by nuoc mam. Like olive oil and lemon in Italian cooking, like soy sauce in Chinese and Japanese cooking, nuoc mam is irreplaceable in Vietnamese cooking.
Basically, it's the liquid extracted from prolonged fermented salted anchovy, mainly. It then went through a process which purifies and addes flavor to it. You can compare nuoc mam with salt as it add saltiness to dishes. however, if salt alone is quite plain, nuoc mam is more pleasant:

"Fish sauce, and its derivatives, impart an Umami  flavor to food due to their glutamate content"

"Umami (IPA: [uː mɑː mi]), popularly referred to as savoriness,is one of the five basic tastes together with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Umami is a loanword from the Japanese umami (うま味) meaning "pleasant savory taste".This particular writing was chosen by Professor Kikunae Ikeda from umai (うまい) "delicious" and mi (味) "taste". The Chinese characters 旨味 are used for a more general meaning, when a particular food is delicious."  (wikipedia)

I wont go on talking about this as you can just google.

If possible, you should use two types of nuoc mam, a normal one for seasoning and a fine one (nuoc mam nhi) for making nuoc cham - dipping sauce, salad sauce (I'll write about dipping sauce another time) but generally, you can use all-purposed nuoc mam from squid brand

recommended by many people for  dipping sauce

Chin-su is also good for dipping sauce, my mum like it

vietnamese food, vietnamese recipe

Come dine with me

The only picture of the night

When Charlie came, we started to talk ... I was in and out of the kitchen for starter, main course then dessert. We ate, we chatted but we didn't take any picture :(


The morning after, I felt bad. Gosh, why didn't I take any picture, it was good, was fun and the food was beautiful.

Promising me: stop hesitate to promote myself, I took some pictures as having my breakfast from the leftover (I took picture for people' nights but when it's my turn, I hesitated)

Extra information:
Bad news: only Charlie turned up
Good news: I had two spare seats for my beloved friends, not enough space was the only reason I asked them to bring food to their rooms.

Lesson: I should always double check to make sure we all have the same information. Kim is reliable; I remember when we signed for this event the weather wasn’t good and only Kim and I turned up. Ebba must be busy with her election; I can understand and wish her luck.

They both contacted me afterward anyway. Kim thought it was a day after as a result she spent the evening in the lab so she would have time with us.

vietnamese food, vietnamese recipe, pho 

Bún bò Huế - Hue's beef vermicelli

from Hanh's mobile

  
 So we came to a friend's house last night and had bun bo Hue - Hue's vermicelli soup. Forget all about unimportant part, cheesy me, let come back to what we are all interested in, food.

I am not going to show you how to cook, it's not a right start, many steps and techniques, many strange ingredients and some ingredients, we couldn't find here. Maybe, when you are familiar with some simple dishes and cooking techniques, we will cook a substitute bun bo Hue but for now, just wandering a bit
If you're love spicy aromatic flavour, you're gonna love it

Hue's vermicelli soup OR vermicelli soup of Hue, a city, our old capital. Taking about Vietnamese Food we must mention the difference between three reasons from North to South (which I hope my future trip will discover the distinction to subtle level).
But basically,
Middle part: hot and spicy (chilli)
South part: more sweet (using much more sugar)
 In the North, people do not use so much chilli or sugar, seasoning are less strong and more balance but tend to use more meat than fish and vegetable.

Come from the middle, bun bo hue is supposed to be very hot and spicy, prepare yourself to bust in to tears :d :p,
OR you can cheat by using less chilli as you cook, but if you are going to Hue, be prepared :)

 

You might not understand Vietnamese but I love the old lady, love her manner - her voice. She is known for her contribution to Hue's culinary art, reserve and develop.

Am thuc xu Hue - Hue's culinary art

vietnamese food, vietnamese recipe, pho