Saturday, February 24, 2007

Hope you've recovered from Tet celebrations and that the Year of the Pig is off to a wonderful, oinking start! Last week, I wrapped and boiled a batch of banh chung sticky rice cakes for the festivities, cleaned and decorated the house, made a tons of food, and had friends over for dinner on Saturday. Boy was I tired on Monday. Thank G.O.D. it was a national holiday in the U.S.!

Among the people who sent electronic Tet greetings was Karl, who emailed a photo of beautiful rosy pink blossoms. Inspired by his holiday cheer, I drove to the San Jose Viet area where of course, I found a Tet floral market. Pots of huge yellow chrysanthemums and kumquats were being inspected and selected by careful shoppers. An older gentleman cajoled customers (including me) into buying his branches of blossoms. Transporting them home was a bit scary but they bent and fit nicely in my station wagon.

At one of the markets, Hai Thanh, I found an unusual looking potato called khoai tu, which had been imported from Vietnam. It's weird looking - "like a sock monkey" my husband remarked - but "it has a very special taste" my mother and the produce guy said. At $2.49 a pound, it better be special. The ends were dipped in wax to seal and the skin was cracked. All those bumps made it look more like a funny rodent-like animal. Once peeled, it proved itself to be rather slimy. Discoloration set in quickly so I slipped it into water while bringing a pot of salted water to a boil. It boiled for a good 10 minutes or so and didn't fall apart or disintegrate like regular supermarket potatoes. Once cooled, I tasted it and you know what? It had the flavor and texture of a really good potato - creamy, and slightly sweet. My mom says it's like taro but I think of it more as a cross between taro and potato. There are many kinds of potatoes the world over and this one was nice. I'm glad I tried it but I'm not sure I'd go out searching for it. If you have thoughts on khoai tu, let me know.

Many porky articles came out in the news in time for Lunar New Year. I was honored that two journalists, Carolyn Jung of the San Jose Mercury News and Pat Tanumihardja of the Northwest Asian Weekly, included recipes from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Pat's choice of pork simmered with eggs in coconut juice (thit heo kho trung) is a southern Viet classic for Tet. If you want Pat's article... Traditional foodways are always highlighted in Viet newspapers for Tet. This year, Saigon's popular daily paper, Tuoi Tre, ran a very nice article on the book. Camly Bui, based in New York state, interviewed me for it. (Sorry, Camly's article is only in Vietnamese and there aren't any recipes.)

Lots of Southerners chimed in last week. In Houston, Lori reccommended Hong Kong City Mall, the Southeast's largest indoor Asian mall with mostly Viet shops. Cindy, though she now resides in Seattle, fondly remembers meals at Saigon Cuisine in Greensboro, North Carolina. I also got a recipe link to Vietnamese heacheese from Courtenay in North Carolina. Ellen (I'm not sure if she's from the South) sent in a Mama Says tip on cutting calories when coconut milk is needed. Keep the recommendations coming folks!

Travelers to Vietnam may want to check in with Hello Hanoi, a non-profit with local students who provide tourism information. The info is bilingual English/Vietnamese. For U.S.-based travel agencies, my good friend Kathy suggested Southeastasiatours.com, an award-winning company.

People send in recipe requests and I try my best to respond accordingly. When I have time to test something, I post it on the site. Yesterday, I became obsessed with banh bong lan spongecake. Minh-An in Southern California wanted technical tips and a recipe. Trial runs of a couple cakes yield extremely nice results. Very simple. Super tasty. With a little practice, you can whip one up quickly to impress friends. They freeze too.

There are lots of cooking classes planned this year. Next week, I'm in Southern California at Let's Get Cooking, Gelson's, and Simply Cooking. Classes are also scheduled for Sur la Table in San Francisco, Draeger's (San Mateo and Palo Alto), and Ramekins in Sonoma. In early May, I'll be in Eugene, Oregon at Cook's Pots and Table Tops.

If you're in the Bay Area, come to one of the San Jose Public Library Vietnamese author events in March and April. I've been invited to give talks at three libraries. (Event .pdf flier in English and Vietnamese.) For details and a full schedule of activities, see the Classes and Events listing on the site.

And, what about the beer, you ask? After the last newsletter, I engaged in an email conversation with William in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (another Southern voice!), about Beer 333. He reminded me that it was originally Beer 33 when brewed in Da Nang. We pondered about the extra "3" and if there was a difference between 33 and 333. Turns out that the name changed in 1975, and perhaps in an effort to distinguish themselves as a new era/new brewer of the well-established beer, new owners Saigon brewing (owned by Heineken, I believe) added the extra "3". "333" speaks to an independent, unified Vietnam that has shaken off the colonial, Western yoke. It's the same beer legacy, but the name has just slightly changed. That's very Vietnamese. Someone has to always go changing things to be distinctive, make a statement. Then no one can figure out why exactly but everyone goes along with it. There's more on Beer 333 history on the official site, as well as unofficial information (scroll down until you get to the antique "33" label).

So chug a lug and have a great weekend!

Andrea

P.S. Just in this morning -- Mike in Illinois is about to make his first batch of pho using the info on this site's mega pho page. In our exchange, he asked about packaged pho spices called gia vi nau pho (seasonings for cooking pho). Here's what I had to say...