Posts Tagged Vietnam Cuisines
Tasting typical dishes around the country in Da Lat
Posted by Huyen Tran in Travel Blog on January 28, 2010
Da Lat, the city surrounded by mist and pine trees, is home for immigrants from the Central areas, such as Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam, as well as from the North. Perhaps that’s why tourists can see and taste many typical dishes from different regions in this small city.
Early one morning, strolling among the low hills and wandering through sinuous alleys, I found a small restaurant with the simple name: Banh da cua (drypancake with crab). Hot steam vaporized from the crab soup and pieces of tomato and soya-cake were on a plate of banana flower, rau muong (water spinach), chilly, lemon and fish sauce; the hot bowl of bank da cua seemed to dispel the cold weather of the city. Read the rest of this entry »
Duck Eggs and other strange things
Posted by Thanh Vu in Travel Blog, Vietnam Cuisines, Vietnam Culture on December 23, 2009
Today was a fear factor day. Those of you who have followed my previous blogs know there is always something that makes you say “oh my god, did she really do that”. Just so you aren’t disappointed, I have done it again. It started innocently enough. We were invited to a lovely dinner with Mr. Longs family here in Saigon. We were excited. There was a wee communication barrier as they speak no english and well, we don’t get Vietnamese. Luckly we had 2 family friends join us who spoke a wee bit of english.
Made it interesting and fun. Kristy was a bit nervous about what might be served, but I was brave and confident that whatever was served I was going to auntie up. That was before the duck egg incident. These are not just any old duck eggs….no no no. The ducks are already formed in them, yup yup yup. Then they boil them partially. We were sitting at the table where I watched everyone sucking the guts and eyeballs out of the lobster when the eggs arrived. They looked harmless so when one was placed on my plate it was all good. I waited unsure of what
the gig was. Mrs. Hong chipped off the shell and the horror was revealed. It was a hardboiled baby duck….feet, beak and feathers. There were even veins inside the shell. They cracked the tops and sucked out the liquid then looked at me expectantly. Just so you all know, Kristy didn’t even let them put an egg on her plate. Soooooo, yep, I cracked her open and just started shoving pieces in my mouth and swallowing. I did it….now I don’t feel so good, but I won fear factor. I couldn’t look at Kristy while I did it cause I knew I would lose it and burst into laughter or tears and she couldn’t look at me cause she was gagging. After dinner we all hopped on the motorbikes, (they let Kristy drive one) and headed out to the coffee shop in the field. I think I shared that one with you last year. Totally amazing night. Tomorrow we are going shopping with our new Vietnamese friends should be great, I just hope they don’t bring me one of those left over eggs.
Mut, a flavor of Tet Holiday
Posted by Huyen Tran in Travel Blog, Vietnam Cuisines on December 20, 2009
In Vietnamese New Year party, beside traditional dishes, no family can forget to make a tray of “Mứt Tết”, a cup of tea, betel and areca ready to entertain their visitors.
“Mứt Tết” refers to fruits or vegetables that have been prepared and canned for long term storage. The preparation of preserved fruit traditionally involves the use of pectin as a gelling agent, although sugar or honey may be used as well. There are various types of fruit preserves made in Vietnam, and they can be made from sweet or savory ingredients.
“Mứt” is made from all sorts of fruit, including mandarin oranges, apples, banana, coconuts, persimmons and breadfruit. Vegetables like patatoes, carrots and squash are also turned into “Mứt”, as certain types of blossoms.
O mai- an unique nosh of Vietnam
Posted by Huyen Tran in Vietnam Cuisines, Vietnam Culture on December 20, 2009
Ô mai is salted dry apricot or sugared dry apricot that is a favourite nosh for many people in Hanoi and other provinces.
“Ô mai” is produced for traditional method, since chosing material, the company also send staff to gardens in Hung Yen, Hai Hung, Hoa Binh, Lai Chau in order to gather all crop of kinds of sour fresh fruit like plum, apricot, dracontomelum, star, tamarind, kumquat, pineaple, canari, lemon. That is the secret of Hang Duong experts, they plus sugar, ginger, add chilli, stir liquorice to have smooth yellow food with sweet-smelling.
This product is for instant all year and you can enjoy with a pot of tea and a few friends to chat. This is also valuable present from Ha Noi people giving to their friends.
Hue beef noodle
Posted by Huyen Tran in Travel Blog, Travel Tips, Vietnam Cuisines on December 19, 2009
Hue beef noodle takes its origin from the Royal Hue City of Central Vietnam. The broth is from cooking beef bones for a long period of time as well as a variety of different spices including lemongrass.
How does it taste? Well, having a bowl of Hue beef noodle, you will easily recognize that it is completely different from Pho since the former’s beef broth is much more spicy.
How to make it? Learning how to make a clear broth from bone and meat is quite a difficult task. After being selected from the market, the fresh beef will be shredded, boiled and taken out of the water to obtain a delicious clear broth. A typical version of Hue beef noodle must include pork, roast beef, pig’s blood, Vietnamese salami, Hue’s style salami, shrimp sauce and chopped lettuce.
Vegetarian eating in Vietnam – same, same but different!
Posted by Huyen Tran in Travel Blog, Vietnam Cuisines on December 19, 2009
Vietnam is not only a rather peculiar country of North Asia with extremely friendly and helpful people but its vegetarian regional menu is also worth discussing. The majority of Vietnamese population is meat-eaters, however, there are those who prefer vegetarian cuisine and pay much attention to the issue of their nutrition and health. Many meals are prepared and sold in the streets. Therefore, you will probably need some extra guidance to thoroughly study the Vietnamese vegetarian menu.
Speaking about vegetarian regional menu, it’s important to pay attention to the basic features of vegetarianism and peculiarities of the meals the entire vegetarian used to eat. Since, it’s a common knowledge that vegetarianism is referred to the practice of not eating meat and its all possible by-products. This means that, vegetarians are the people who exclude from their daily meals beef, poultry and most of dairy products or eggs.
However, there are several types of vegetarians and some of them still eat a number of dairy products. The majority of vegetarians also don’t eat the products derived from animal carcasses including tallow, lard, rennet, gelatin, cochineal, etc. It’s interesting to mention the new tendency present in vegetarianism of not wearing clothes, shoes or accessories made from animals (for example, silk, leather, fur and feather).
Hu Tieu- a taste of My Tho
Posted by Huyen Tran in Travel Blog, Vietnam Cuisines on December 19, 2009
My Tho noodle soup which also called Hu Tieu is a traditional dish, so specific to Southern Vietnam. As a Chinese long-aged dish, this food was reciped to taste My Tho delta people to become well-known nationwide.
Back in the 1960s, a shop in My Tho, 70 km from Ho Chi Minh City started serving this dish. Ever since then, its reputation has grown to become a very well known meal in Vietnam. It is said that the most delicious noodle soup is made with Co Cat rice, from the most famous rice growing area of My Phong village, a suburb of My Tho City.
My Tho seafood noodle soup is different from Chinese noodle soup, Nam Vang soup, as well as Hue beef noodle soup. The intersting thing is its secret recipe. In stead of herbs and lettuce, you will be tried the flavour of soy bean, lemon, chili, and soy sauce.
Grilled Minced Fish or Cha ca La Vong
Posted by Thanh Vu in Vietnam Cuisines, Vietnam Culture on December 17, 2009
The long history…
In ancient days, there was a street selling paints, called the Paints Street. The Doan family, located at house No, 14 of this street, hit upon a new idea that sold fried fish pie served with soft noodles and seasoning. Encouraged by the appreciation of customers, the family specialized in this trade and the shop was called as “Cha ca La Vong store” as a wooden statue of an old fisherman (La Vong) holding a fishing rod and a string of fish stands at the door. As the specialty grew famous with every passing day, the street was renamed by the people as Cha Ca Street (fried fish pie street).
Imagine that you are one of the guests…
While you sit down at the table, the waiter starts laying there some seasonings includes a bowl of well – stirred shrimp paste sauce mixed up with lemon. After dropping the liquor, he will decorate the bowl with a few slices of red fresh pimento, a plate of grilled ground nuts of gold yellow color, various species of mint vegetables onions in small white slices.
Rolled Rice Pancake or Bánh Cuốn
Posted by Thanh Vu in Vietnam Cuisines, Vietnam Culture on December 17, 2009
Among other members of the extended noodle family, bánh cuốn almost ranks first. It is a paper-thin steamed rice flour pancake, much like delicate sheets of fresh rice noodles. The pancakes are plucked off of the linen steamer base, and immediately rolled with minced pork and mushrooms, then piled on a plate, sprinkled with deep fried shallots, snipped with scissors into bite sized sections, and topped with fresh herbs such as cilantro or Vietnamese basil. A plate of bánh cuốn is a light dish traditionally eaten as breakfast in Hanoi but now can also be found as a late night snack.
To eat, dip a section of rolled noodle goodness into the accompanying warm fish sauce broth, brightened with a squeeze of fresh lime. You can also pick the leaves off the herbs and add them to the dipping sauce, grabbing a leaf or two as you dip, or you can follow each bite with a chaser of herbs. Bánh cuốn are often eaten with different sides of pork sausages, including sheets of an orange hued, roasted cinnamon sausage called chả quế.
Bun Vietnam
Posted by Thanh Vu in Vietnam Cuisines, Vietnam Culture on December 17, 2009
The best rice noodles have only two ingredients: rice or rice flour, and water. Rice vermicelli are thin, translucent noodles that are similar to cellophane noodles, with which they are often confused (rice vermicelli are made from rice; cellophane noodles are made from bean starch). There are different varieties of vermicelli depending on their shape: bun roi (stirred vermicelli), bun mam (twisted vermicelli), bun la (vermicelli paper), and bun dem tram (shreded vermicelli).
Rice vermicelli noodles are delicious and easy to prepare.
Before cooking, simply soak rice vermicelli in warm (not hot) water for just two minutes. Then, in order to have a delicious bowl of rice, you should add different kinds of ingredients and vegetables. You can choose one of various ingredients that can be served with vermicelli such as: grilled pork meat, fried rice cakes, snails, fried eggs, lean meat pie, chicken, and crab soup, etc.
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