My mom doesn’t drink alcohol so I can’t toast her with champagne love this coming Sunday, when we celebrate Mother’s Day in the United States. However, she cooks. A lot. She inspired my learning and work in the kitchen. Every year, I pause to think of how my mom has impacted what I do in the kitchen. How I cook, create, and eat.
You may have remembered last year’s homage to Me (Vietnamese for mom, pronounced “meh”) in which I revealed her kitchen quirks. A number of people divulged that their moms were like mine, doing strange things such as covering their kitchen counters with plastic. For 2010, I’m focusing on Me’s obsession with using the ice cream scoop and industrial-size cooking projects.
We never had ice cream scoops in Vietnam. But when we came here, my mom discovered the ice cream scoop. She got one to scoop up portions of one of her favorite American discoveries – Thrifty’s pineapple and coconut ice cream. Then she discovered that the scoop was a great cooking tool for evenly portioning sticky rice flour dough for Vietnamese specialties such as banh gio rice pyramid dumplings.
And when she engaged in industrial quantity cooking, which seems like quite often from all the cooking chores I was given, she reached for an ice cream scoop. The scoop allowed her to quickly distribute ingredients. The photos above show her prepping French coquille Saint Jacques (scallops in cream sauce). With the ice cream scoop, she is facile with her fingers, able to fly through cooking repetitious cooking steps without minimum minimal messiness.
Which brings me to why she scoops so much. Her obsession with using the ice cream scoop is related to a desire for industrial cooking. Why cook for a village when you’re just feeding a family?
A lot of old world cooks like to tackle big cooking projects. They’re undaunted by Costco-quantity cooking. They buy storage containers at Costco so they can pack up and store all the food they make. Perhaps it is because they can feed and shower a crowd with culinary love. Or, they are used to banking their culinary efforts. ‘Putting food up’ by canning, drying, or freezing is routine.
For my mom, industrial cooking winds down to this: She finds a deal on an ingredient and buys big time. Most recently, she and my dad bought 102 pounds of over-the-hill bananas from a Turkish market in Mission Viejo, a town near where they live.
“They were really good bananas, just slightly bruised here and there,” she said. “These Turkish people know how to find cheap fruit at the Los Angeles produce market. They bring it to their store and we benefit! They have better stuff and lower prices than the Asian markets.”
You must understand that when I was young, my parents scoured American supermarkets for bags of cheap bananas – old, black-spotted ones. I was embarrassed at their frugality but my misgivings melted away at the first bite of Vietnamese banana bread (banh chuoi) made from those bananas. (Our family recipe is in the “Sweets” chapter of Into the Vietnamese Kitchen; see page 292.) Nowadays, supermarkets don’t sell those spent bananas so my parents hunt them down at ethnic markets.
She spent days dispensing with the bananas, dehydrating 80 pounds of them. Her yield was 14 pounds of chewy, intensely sweet bananas. (My mom makes careful notes of her industrial food experiments. That’s how she remembers that she purchased 102 pounds of bananas.) My mom owns 2 electric dehydrators, purchased at bargain prices at local yard sales, of course. She sent a box to Wisconsin to Mr. McMahon, an old friend of my father’s. (Her tip for mailing food: Stuff as much as you can in a post office priority mail envelope. The price is the same!)
With the remaining 22 pounds of bananas, she made the Vietnamese banana cake. “It’s basically mostly bananas and is so healthy, Dad and I eat it for breakfast,” Mom said. “Would you like some to take home?”
We were traveling and didn’t have space to take her banh chuoi with us. My sister, Tasha, a busy corporate attorney and mom, took a bite and said, “I’ll take it!”
That’s my mom’s way of spreading good food love. Find a deal, make a bunch of food, then gift it to others. We can all learn lots from that.
What kinds of cooking obsessions does your mom have? Oh, do tell!
momgateway says
What an efficient way of doing things!How does she prevent the banana disks from turning brown (I add lemon juice but it makes the bananas too sour) and from caving in (thin at the center but thick on the sides)?
Madeline says
My parents also do industrial purchasing and cooking. They get over-the-hill veggies and fruits by the case, but we have a network of distribution system as well. 🙂 As well as a network of folks who scours deals for us.
Erin says
My mom's not Vietnamese, but she sure likes to feed a crowd! And she always cooks 3X the amount of food needed for that one meal. Then she corners us on the way out the door with an armful of tupperware containers and makes us take home lots of leftovers! I say she makes us, we don't argue too much!
Andrea Nguyen says
@Momgateway: My mom halves the bananas lengthwise for drying. Then you don't have to worry.
Dave Weinstein says
I knew that I had inherited the family "When expecting 3, cook for 30" gene when I first had my own place.
A few friends were coming over. I made five pounds of pasta, and about a gallon and a half of sauce.
Tuyet N. says
My mom is the same way. Whenever she threw dinner parties, she would always have too much food. I used to get upset when she threw parties because I knew I would be helping in the kitchen for hours knowing there would be tons of food left over. I'm slowly becoming more like her. Whenever I cook for just me and my bf, I cook for at least 8 people! =)
Andrea Nguyen says
@Dave: I think of it as the marginal price difference between a pair of shorts and pants. They usually cost the same as there's about the same labor involved. The differentiation boils down to the extra fabric that covers the rest of your leg. There's no real dif in your brain between 3 and 30!
@Tuyet N.: We all end up taking on some of the good and bad about our parents. Btw, my mom's name is Tuyet Thi Nguyen (Nguyen Thi Tuyet)!
Health Insurance says
Wow, this looks delicious yummy.
MissPride says
Don't you mean "with minimal messiness"...?
Your mom sounds adorable, and our moms apparently have similar tastes - there was always a box of Thrifty pineapple and coconut ice cream in my freezer when I was a child. ^^
Diane says
I'm in awe...
And here I was congratulating myself for having bought bulk produce "past it bananas" from Berkeley Bowl last weekend - about 10 bananas for thirty-nine cents! No way I could use them all any time soon, but they were peeled, frozen, and stand ready for banana-bread-making in the future. Man, now I realize I am strictly bush league compared to your ma.
Krystin says
Your stories about your mom make me chuckle because my Vietnamese mom is the same! She is always "experimenting" in the kitchen. Her favorite thing to do is to re-purpose containers to store food.
Tuyet N. says
My full name is Tuyet Ngoc Nguyen =)! I'm glad to share the same name as your mother. My mother's middle name is also Thi. As for the good and the bad in our mothers, now that I'm older (age 24), I see the bad as good things. I'm now a pro at preparing dinner for large crowds with ease!
Bethany says
My Laotian grandmother always cooks for 10, just in case someone visits unannounced. Although, only my cousin, who owns a restaurant, would ever buy over 100 lbs of produce! Sounds like an awesome way to grow up though.
Andrea Nguyen says
Miss Pride -- Thanks for watching my back for the edits. I need them!
Tuyet and Bethany: I think lots of Asian women have an inkling to open up a small food concession. They practice on their family and friends! I guess now we do the same too.
Brett Sutcliffe says
Wow..I will sure translate this recipe for my mum. She must love this recipe.
Karen Tran says
My parent's favorite ice cream was Thrifty’s pineapple and coconut ice cream too! Is that a Vietnamese parent thing?
My mom used to put me to work shredding bags and bags of veggies for goi (salad) and 100 pounds of filling for egg rolls! I miss those "industrial" cooking days!
I love your stories Andrea!
Healthy Foods Blog says
That is lovely as your mom! Also, your previous chocolate cake recipe is delightful too! Thanks for sharing those outstanding procedures. Happy Mothers Day to your mom and to all the great moms out there!
- Tera
Risk and Compliance says
I have to be honest. I have no idea with this one. I never seen this ice cream in VIT restaurant. However they look really really good. Especial keep them in the shell looking plate.
Jasmine Huynh says
Andrea, do you have any recipe for the scallop in cream sauce. When I lived in Saigon, i fell in love with this dish, serve at Ngoc Suong Seafood restaurant. When I moved here, i've been looking for recipe for this one for a long time but they usually poach it with white wine rather than baking it in cream. It would be great if you could share the recipe, because your recipe WORK EVERY TIME.
I have your "Into Vietnamese Kitchen" book, for 4 months and almost try every thing in it. My boyfriend, A completely white American, he love the food just as i do. Even my boyfriend mom, she's not a type of person like to try new food, but she fell in love with your "Banh Khoai Mi" I made for her last Mothers' day. Thank you and thank you for writing such a wonderful book.
Andrea Nguyen says
Jasmine: Thanks for your kind words about "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen"! I'm smiling as I type.
I'll post a recipe up for the scallops in cream sauce soon. Stay tuned....
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marlon says
Wow, this looks delicious yummy.