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…
What Is Bò Bía? 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…
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 cooking, 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…
My mom is an great cook and a very generous person. Her keen sense of taste and relentless persistence allows her to fine-tune recipes until they’re excellent, and worthy of sharing with others. It was my mom and grandma’s cooking that made their home the gathering point for lunch and dinner multiple times a week. Additionally, she readily (and happily) contributes large quantities…
This is a simple garnish of scallion and oil for Vietnamese foods. It’s found on a lot of dishes such as bún chả giò, thịt nướng, bánh hỏi, bánh bèo, cơm tấm bì and many others. So it goes very well with grilled meats or rice noodle dishes. Mở hành (litterally oil onion) is a good way to add a nice aroma and…
If you’ve had Vietnamese food, you’ve probably at some point caught a whiff of these pungent pickles. Đồ chua literally means “pickled stuff.” Weird right? It makes no sense to have such a generalized name because the vegetables in it don’t change–it’s always carrots and daikon. But anyways, like pickles in other cuisine, they go well with salty or fatty foods. It’s great…
For a quick side dish, sometimes I like to saute some green beans. This is like a side dish you find at many Chinese restaurants except the green beans are swapped out for the thinner string beans, which I was just in the mood for. Other variations of this side dish which I still want to try out include oyster…
Lu rou fan, or stewed pork with rice, is a very common dish in Taiwan. The pork is seasoned and stewed until very tender and served over rice. Meat that’s stewed like this is fork-tender, something I really like. It’s a simple and satisfying dish considered comfort food by many. It is very similar to the Vietnamese thit heo kho in…
