I spent last week in Seattle and Vancouver doing 5 events in 6 days. Since I crossed the US/Canadian border, you could say I was on an international book tour. Ha. The Banh Mi Handbook is my fourth go with doing book promo events and they are always fun and frankly, get even better. I’m not nervous like I was in 2006 with my first book launch. Plus, I get to visit with good friends in familiar towns.
Even so, it’s a whirlwind trip and I have to be organized, and can’t stay out late at night, drink too much or eat weird food that I may regret. The cooking classes and restaurant events are relatively easy going, though they are productions like a catered party.
The television gigs go by ridiculously fast and I have to be on my toes. Big time celebrity chefs and food television personalities have assistants and stylists who help to prep the food and select appropriate props. I work in a low budget situation, which means I do all my own stuff – outlining the segment, prep the food and scrounge up props from the kitchens of friends.
If I’m lucky, like I was in Vancouver, there’s an assigned publicist from my publisher who escorts me to events. Trish and I both carry my gear. I’m not a baby or a diva. Vancouver food and travel writer Nathan Fong hosted me at his home and let me use his kitchen and dishware. Everything has to be compact and ready to be quickly and efficiently transported from the car into the studio. There are many levels of security so you just want to go through it once.
In Vancouver, I did two TV segments. The first was a mid-day news program so I decided to “cook the cover” of the book. I made the Hanoi grilled chicken banh mi (page 57). It was a 4 ½-minute segment. Hours before taping, I picked up an email from the segment producer asking if there would be smoke and if I could do it all in such a small amount of time. Yes, I’d gotten up early to prep and cook off the chicken.
The pickles were made and in a cutie jar found in the back of Nathan’s cupboard. My plan was to chat and assemble. It was raining outside, a bit dreary like the day I first had that exact chicken in Hanoi. Coincidence or what?!
Trish and I showed up at the studio and I arranged things on set, knowing that the camera man would pan through the items. I’d worked with him before in 2012 when CTV invited me for Asian Tofu. The sports guy did the segment with me and we joked around a little too long at the front end. But when he told me to quicken up, I did and somehow managed to control the pacing, jam a bunch of banh mi tips in, and had the smarts to cut up the banh mi into four pieces – enough for each of the news anchors and one for a final beauty shot, if needed.
I had NO idea beforehand that they’d be joining me on set at the end. Phew. I felt like I slid into home base. I can't embed the video here but you can watch the segment at the CTV website, and grab the recipe, if you don't already have it.
The next morning I woke up at 5am to prep for an 8:20am demo. I am not a morning person. For Global TV, the popular “Saturday Chef” segment was a whopping 7 minutes long. My strategy was to make the Thai Fried Omelet (page 111) as a breakfast banh mi. (Fried egg banh mi is a favorite, fast Vietnamese breakfast.)
The Global TV news studio is completely hi-tech – with green screens and cameras operated by remote. I’d taped there before so I wasn’t shocked by the impersonal nature of things. In fact, the news anchors were very nice and friendly.
The trick to the demo was heating up the wok. What I didn’t anticipate was the uneven bottom of the wok not having enough contact with the flat surface of the electric stove. I preheated the stove and wok and to avoid smoke, moved it off the burner right before we went live. When the news anchors came on set, I slid the wok back and cranked up the heat.
They had totally done their research on the book and asked amazing questions – so much so that the 7 minutes was more like 4 ½ minutes. That’s where the time prompt comes in and I sort of gracefully assemble the sandwich, cut it in half and they bit into it.
Television people are super skinny and I didn’t expect them to finish the banh mi but they did. It was good, as was the fast-and-furious segment. Live TV is never boring. Trish returned me to Nathan’s house where I packed my luggage and went to the airport to fly home.
A great thing happened at the airport. The US customs guy asked the usual questions of why I had been in Canada, what I was doing, and my profession. When I told him that I wrote cookbooks, he revealed that the was chef by training. Then I taught him how to say “banh mi” and he wrote the book title on his hand to make sure he’d buy a copy. It was the best border crossing ever.
When I got home, there was a box full of “Mrs. Hoang Original” aprons from my mom, who goes by my father’s first name as is customary in Vietnamese tradition. She’s 80 years old and made them in a flash for Banh Mi Selfie Contest prizes. My husband Rory loved the dark one and put it on, saying it’s comfortable and stylish. Mom made a couple extra ones for us to keep.
If you’d like one of the aprons and copy of the book, there’s still time to enter the photo contest. The submission deadline is Wednesday, 9/24 at 5pm PT; we’ll start voting on Thursday 9/25.
Details on how to enter are on the official Banh Mi Selfie contest page. Check out the gallery of entries too. They’re really fun.
