It's the Year of the Horse! I hope you and your family enjoy a year of good health, wealth, and happiness. Last night, I put together a few collages from my recent trip to Southeast Asia and from the VWK archives.
The collage above captures part of my visit to Singapore, where as soon as December 25 passed, they set up for Chinese New Year. Lots of adorable little horses were on sale.
This next collage is from the week and a half that we spent in Vietnam. On the left are the following: the Saigon skyline at night and a few of the great people. People are overall, very happy. Maybe it's a Tet thing but I think not. Things are relatively up in and around Saigon.
In Cholon (Saigon's Chinatown), I saw Tet "trees" made of heads of garlic, hence the "Chuc Mung Nam Moi" banner. The Tet garlic trees are crowned with a golden ingot. The entire thing was about 18 inches (half a meter) tall.
On the right are images of me and a couple of friends we traveled with. That's me at a giant wok-like bowl in the kitchen of the Reunification Palace. My friend Celia Sack, owner of Omnivore Books (an amazing cookbook bookstore in San Francisco) took the photo; she's in the next photo holding a banh xeo sizzling rice crepe.
Then it's me again at Notre Dame cathredral lighting two candles for my parents who got married at the church. Finally, photographer David Hagerman posed with the Vietnam Airlines paper figure. Dave and I worked on an assignment in Vietnam and Celia and her partner met us in Saigon.
Today, I'm contemplating lots to eat. I've got the banh chung sticky rice cake and pot of pork riblets simmered in caramel sauce. They're ready to go. I found a bit of Viet charcuterie in the freezer from the banh mi photo shoot. Those items are part of a traditional Viet Tet meal.
But I'm also contemplating boiling a stash of dumplings in the freezer (I didn't throw those away!) or frying up spring rolls; the former evokes old Chinese ingots and the latter resemble gold bars. And the big hug dumplings filled with kimchi -- for the Korean side of Lunar New Year. So much to eat, so little time and limited calories.
Wishing you a delicious food-filled year!
Darlyne says
Hi Andrea, I love your videos. Just purchased the Pho one yesterday. I wanted to know if I can substitute wheat starch with something else to make your fried sticky rice dumplings. I bought a bag of Bob's redmill sweet rice flour which looks good but need to know, can I use tapioca starch instead of wheat starch for recipes asking for wheat starch?
Toan says
Happy New Year to you, too, Andrea. May you have a year with success in whatever you do, and good health to you and your family.
Doug says
We celebrated with gyoza and lumpia from Asian Dumplings -- A happy new year is leftovers in the fridge! All the best to you and yours...
Andrea Nguyen says
Hi Darlyne,
Wheat starch has next to no starch in it. It's got no stretch. It actually firms things up. I know, the name is weird. You need to get wheat starch. Sounds like you don't have an Asian market near you. Do you have a Middle Eastern market near you? They often carry it.
So look forward to making pho with you!
Andrea Nguyen says
Thank you so much, Toan!
Andrea Nguyen says
Doug, you just put a giant dumpling smile on my face. Happy New Year to you both!
Jason says
I'm signed up for your dumplings class with Craftsy. Can't wait to get started. Love your blog.
Gracie says
Hi,
If your blog focus is food then please do not make irresponsible comment as 'People are overall, very happy. Maybe it's a Tet thing but I think not. Things are relatively up in and around Saigon.' I wonder if you saw old people, children begging for food, money on the street. Yes, there are happy people but majority of the people are poor, hungry, have no ways to make a living.
Thanks,
Gracie
kj24 says
I'm sure she knows what Vietnam is like Gracie, she and her family was born and lived in the country. And the blog is food & culture or related information the author/owner wants to include, not just a list of recipes.
Jenn K. says
Thanks so much for Asian Dumplings, Andrea! We had a terrific Lunar New Year gathering. Your charsiu bao and curried chicken bao were a big hit. Thanks for clear recipes and very helpful videos. ALSO - your blog entry on gluten-free bao was a lifesaver (my toddler is violently allergic to wheat). A real treat to give him charsiu bao he could eat. Thank you!
Andrea Nguyen says
Gracie, I choose my words carefully and I meant what I wrote. In and around Saigon, the feeling was upbeat, as it is generally around Tet. I spoke to a number of locals and sensed the mood too. Of course there are inequities and I won't use the space here to detail some of those things. However, the Lunar New Year is at time for optimism.
For another side of life in Vietnam, there's the Missing Person Project that I wrote about recently from my experience on this visit:
http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2014/01/thi-thu-vo-missing-person.html
I was not being irresponsible.
Andrea Nguyen says
Thanks very much, KJ24.
Andrea Nguyen says
You're very welcome, Jenn! Thrilled that my work is part of your kitchen. Happy Year of the Horse.