Many Vietnamese people fled their home country after the Vietnam War and ended up in Louisiana. The Vietnamese were exposed to new, local foods resulting in some current mainstays of Vietnamese cuisine, such as Cajun crawfish boil, chicory in Vietnamese coffee and of course, boiled peanuts. These are popularly boiled with just salt, or with Cajun spices, but in this recipe we’re going to keep it simple and…
Miso soup is a rich, savory, steaming hot soup typically served as side dish with a Japanese meal. It has a cloudy broth from some dashi, but primarily miso paste, and has bits of seaweed and tofu throughout. It’s usually served when you’re having rice, with other grilled, fried, or cooked food. Japanese miso soup recipe is very simple to…
This pandan sticky rice dessert, or xôi lá dứa, is great blend of sweet, salty, and nutty flavors. The star here is the amazingly aromatic pandan leaves, highlighted by sweet coconut, brought together by warm sticky rice. Glutinous rice is used for this, not just regular rice that you can make sticky! The main flavor comes from pandan leaves, which…
This dish is something I often eat as an appetizer at Japanese restaurants and it always leaves me craving more! So I decided to make it at home, where I can have as much as I want without feeling guilty asking the waiter for more refills. This is a side dish is called sunomono, which has a nice and light vinegary…
Vietnamese chicken curry (cà ri gà) is a hot bowl of comfort packed with FLAVOR. Although there is some wait time involved with the marinade to season the chicken, and frying the potato and carrot so they hold their shape, this curry recipe is hard to mess up. This is, yet another recipe, that I have been lucky enough to…
If you’re looking for dessert on the richer side, something deep fried and crispy always delivers. This sesame balls recipe (Vietnamese bánh cam) satifies snack cravings with a crispy golden glutinous rice outer shell, filled with sweet mung beans, and covered in white sesame seeds. My grandmother was a child raising machine. As if raising nine of her own kids…
This is love in a bowl. If you’ve had bún thịt nướng you know what I’m talking about. You have your sweet bits, sour bits, caramelization, some crunch, and aromatic herbs in a single, colorful arrangement. This was one of the more popular dishes at my mom’s restaurant back in the day! Depending in which restaurant you order your grilled…
One of the staples my mom and grandma kept in the kitchen was dưa chua, or pickled mustard greens. It was often served as a side dish for meals throughout the day. These pickled greens counter-balance many salty dishes such as thịt kho. Northern Vietnamese more commonly eat this with thịt đông. I remember seeing a plate of this at…
The name bò bía is likely a Vietnamese adaptation of the Chinese roll “popiah.” These two foods are quite different though. It’s plausible to think bò bía was adapted by the Vietnamese and ingredients were substituted with what was available. The first noticeable change is the Vietnamese use a rice paper wrapper instead of a wheat-based one. Other changes include the sauce and…
I never thought I’d be craving a vegetable soup. Until now. In fact, I have strong memories as a kid, really hating the taste of tomatoes. Tomatoes even in a burgers were crossing the line. During my weekly piano lessons, my teacher would throw back a little bottle of V8 vegetable juice, leaving her breath with the wretched smell of…
Snacking on chả giò (egg rolls) plain is fine if you’re in a rush, but sometimes I need something more substantial. Plus I get to pat myself on the back for actually eating some greens. Bún chả giò is one good way to handle that. The bowl is lined with fresh shredded lettuce at the bottom, then topped with just rice vermicelli and…
Getting the hang of making this Vietnamese dipping sauce (nước chấm) is an important step to making your cuisine just right. Since it’s just about everywhere in Vietnamese cuisine, it’s simply referred to as “dipping sauce”. This is a dipping sauce I grew up with as a kid, with mom and grandma making this pretty often, for the dishes that…