Many people assume that Vietnamese food is highly influenced by French traditions. While that is true to a certain extent, the Chinese also influenced Viet foodways big time. Vietnam was governed by China on and off for nearly 1,000 years! Plus, there are legions of Vietnamese-Chinese people who’ve helped to shape Vietnamese food for generations. (Interactions via trade routes and with Vietnam’s neighbors factor into the mix too.)
My friends, Sophie and Eric Banh (below), the brother-and-sister team behind Monsoon and Ba Bar restaurants in Seattle could be the poster children for how Vietnamese food has blended with Chinese traditions. The Banhs grew up in Cho Lon in Saigon and speak Vietnamese and Chinese (as well as English!). They immigrated to Canada and found their way to relatively warmer climes in Washington State. Their flagship restaurants, Monsoon Capitol Hill and Monsoon East, help to define modern Vietnamese food in the Pacific Northwest.
Sophie and Eric have a loyal, dedicated staff that’s been with them for years – a rarity in the restaurant industry. Casually upscale Monsoon offers warm hospitality and good food whereas rock ‘em sock ‘em Ba Bar is for the early morning and late night crowds who want street food and drink.
They cook from memory, Eric said last September when I came up to do Asian Tofu events in Seattle, one of which was at Monsoon Capitol Hill. The Banhs prepare food based on ideas gleaned from their parents and grandmother. I’d eaten plenty of Eric and Sophie’s food in Seattle but I’d never cooked their food.
The March issue of Sunset gave me an excuse. The magazine featured the Banhs in a story on Vietnamese comfort food. It’s asparagus season and their asparagus shrimp stir-fry interested me.
I’ve stir-fried asparagus before with oyster sauce (there’s a recipe in Into the Vietnamese Kitchen) but the recipe that Sophie and Eric had in Sunset reflected their Chinese-Vietnamese-American, chef/restaurateur roots. As I made the dish I parsed it this way:
- Fresh asparagus – We only had canned asparagus in Vietnam so in the States, fresh is best. (I use fresh asparagus in my version of Viet crab and asparagus soup and the stir-fry mentioned above.)
- Soy sauce + oyster sauce + fish sauce – Their trifecta of umami seasonings that combines Viet and southern Chinese cooking. I’ve used oyster sauce with fish sauce but the soy sauce added a pleasant caramel quality.
- Frying garlic and shallot till golden – This is a lovely Viet approach, particularly that of southern region where caramelized shallot and garlicky goodness is extra appreciated.
- Adding the seasoning sauce twice – A great restaurant method for layering flavor.
- No cornstarch-thickened sauce – There's no velvety or gloppy sauce, a Viet-Chinese approach to stir-frying.
The earthy dish that came out of my wok was splendid with lots of rice. It’s earthy, a brilliant little stir-fry to celebrate spring’s bounty of fresh asparagus.
Related posts:
- Shrimp Buying Guide and Prep Tips
- Easy Asparagus with Soy and Sesame
- Fresh asparagus buying and storage tips
- Shaoxing rice wine buying guide
- Asparagus and shrimp soup
Instructions
Asparagus and Shrimp Stir-Fry
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ pounds asparagus, trimmed and cut on diagonal into 2-inch pieces
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons fish sauce preferably Three Crabs brand*
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- Scant 1 teaspoon vegetarian "oyster" sauce or regular oyster sauce
- ½ teaspoon plus 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 8 to 10 ounces peeled, deveined large shrimp
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon Shaoxing cooking wine
- ¼ teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
Instructions
- If you haven’t washed the asparagus, do so, then set aside to drain. For the seasoning sauce, in a small bowl stir together the sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and ½ teaspoon of oil. Set near the stove.
- Heat a large wok or skillet over high heat. Swirl in 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the garlic and stir-fry for about 15 seconds, until the garlic begins to brown a bit. Add the shrimp, cook about 30 seconds, then add 1 tablespoon of the seasoning sauce. Combine, stir, and cook for about 2 minutes, till the shrimp are nearly cooked through. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Rinse or wipe the pan clean. Replace it on high heat, then add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Add the shallot, cook for nearly 1 minute, until a little browned. Dump in the asparagus, then pour in remaining seasoning sauce. Stir-fry the asparagus to a tender, slightly crunchy state, 3 to 5 minutes. Add back the shrimp mixture and cook to reheat. Off heat, stir in the rice wine. Transfer to a plate, garnish with pepper, then eat immediately.
Abbe@This is How I Cook says
Thank you so much. Now I know what I'll be making for dinner tonight!
Andrea Nguyen says
Terrific! I was looking at the photo and suggest you back off letting the shallot brown too much, or it may verge on tasting burnt. Enjoy!
Tami says
I love their food. Been going to Ba Bar a lot lately.
Maggie says
Sorry, Andrea, I'm not sure if you meant that the gloopy sauce is a Chinese influence? I think that in classic Chinese cuisine, the starch is a way of protecting the thinly sliced meat from the searing heat of the wok. The thick, shiny sauces we associate with much Chinese restaurant fare may have evolved in response to the Western taste for a thick gravy, though I could be wrong. I always preferred Chinese food when I lived in France. The stir fried dishes were more like this one; lighter, with no slimy sauces - due to the Vietnamese influence, perhaps?
finance essay says
An easy to do it your own recipe.
michlhw says
this dish is fantastic! love that i had all the ingredients in the kitchen.. a simple dish i know i can whip up easily whenever asparagus is in season! and spot on with the trifecta of sauces.. loved it immensely.
michlhw says
the only thing i did differently was to fry the asparagus with some of the sauce first, when close to done i transferred it into a bowl, then cooked the shrimp in the same wok with a little more oil and the rest of the sauce. when it lost its translucency on both sides i poured the asparagus back to mix.. that way the shrimp would never get overdone, cold, or rubbery
Ebony says
is there an alternate to the Shaoxing cooking wine? I'm afraid I can't find it anywhere 🙁
Terese says
Would this work if you substitute beef for the shrimp? If so, would you marinate the beef first?
sundevilpeg says
You can use dry sherry. It has a very similar flavor profile.
Diana says
I just made this tonight. I didn't have a shallot so I used 1/2 of a small onion. I also added some sliced mushrooms. It came out great! I love fish sauce on shrimp!
Andrea Nguyen says
It's the perfect season for this dish!!!! Great tweaks!
Ellen says
I made this without the shrimp tonight as a side dish. I didn’t have any oyster sauce but it was fantastic!
Patricia Beckerman says
This dish was absolutely delicious! Will be making it again and again. The combination of sauces was perfect. I sometimes don't like the taste of fish sauce in Thai recipes, but with the oyster sauce in the mix it was amazing. Looking forward to your other recipes.
Andrea Nguyen says
Just a little bit of fish sauce boosts flavor. I'm into blending it, not guzzling it.
ab kitchen says
I generally love a lot of salt in my food, this was really salty as prepared. I will need to think about how to modify, perhaps increasing the amount of wine, or adding white wine vinegar, halving the soy sauce. I make a similar sauce to the above with different proportions but over a larger quantity of protein and that dish is well balanced. I had to throw this out. I'll definitely try again with some tweaks.
Andrea Nguyen says
Cut the fish sauce to say 1 tablespoon. There are multiple sources of saltiness so you can mix the seasoning sauce up and taste it as you add more. That said, the impact of the seasonings depends on your yield with the asparagus after trimming.