Looking for Cheap Vietnamese Cuisine? Davang Delivers

Noodles with coconut milk, cucumbers, lettuce, water sprouts and pork

A few weeks ago my husband and I were at a loss for dinner choices. So, I plugged in vietnamese and Phoenix in the old Google to see what we got. Davang Coffee Shop looked promising although I wondered about the coffee shop thing. It turns out you can be treated to a quite filling and delicious dinner for under $20 and that was for both of us.


Thai Tea
I was delighted that they sold my Thai tea. I know it’s not totally authentic, but it felt cool to see the same brand that I pick up at the Chinese Cultural Center. They also sell boba tea, which I am known to indulge in on occasion.

Toppings for soup: Basil, water sprouts and chilis
My husband ordered a meatball soup which was tasty, but he did add lots of hot sauce and the chilis. I don’t think their items are particularly spicy, so if you are used to Thai cuisine than just add any of the sauces they have on the table. They also offered sauces for dipping the spring rolls.

Spring rolls with shrimp and pork
Okay, these spring rolls were very tasty and pretty healthy but the texture had us giggling. They are very… tacitly similar to male genitalia. Maybe I’m very middle school in this area, but it made for some good fun while waiting for our main courses, which wasn’t that long of a wait mind you. I was amazed by how perfectly the shrimp was cooked and the lettuce and mint were perfectly crisp. Of course they were just gorgeous to look at.

Sticky noodles with coconut milk
My dish was a little to milky for me. I know that sounds crazy, so why did I order the one with coconut milk? Well, I love coconut milk and I love peanuts and cucumbers so I thought this was a good choice. I did, however, finding myself adding a lot of hot sauce to get more than just the creaminess of the coconut milk. Even after mixing it up it still seemed over powered by the milk. I just pushed as much of that aside as possible and voila, it’s all good. I probably wouldn’t get this again but would be thrilled, I’m sure, with any of the other noodle dishes. Really, anything here is going to be good and the staff are friendly and efficient.
Davang gave us good food, a good time and all for under $20 so this is a real find! It is located at 4538 North 19th Avenue in Phoenix and is the west side of the street in a strip mall. When you’re hungry and poor, this place is sure to bring a smile.

TnT’s Excellent Vietnam Food-Venture

Adventure comes in many forms. We trek, we kayak, we scuba dive. We go spelunking one week and swim with whalesharks another. We climb mountains (or at least try) and cross deserts on camels (even if we sometimes fall off). We hang out with exotic tribes, overnight in lost monasteries, and explore the world’s most exotic destinations. To us, the true meaning of adventure means discovering what’s out there.

So when we got to Saigon and found large numbers of travelers living off of egg fried rice, I nearly had an aneurysm . How can people come to Vietnam and only eat fried rice? It’s a sin, a tragedy, a crime against food-humanity. After much soul-searching (and five months in the Philippines), our mission was clear: to explore the phenomenal food of Vietnam and introduce it to our readers.

During our time in Vietnam, we will alternate between typical TnT blog postings and Food-Venture postings which will document our daily food discoveries along the way. Enjoy, and start planning you trip to the closest Vietnamese restaurant.

Phong Vinh Vietnamese Restaurant

I’m always on the look out for delicious Vietnamese food and its very hard to stray from my usual which is Tra Vinh. However, when learning that the owner of Phong Vinh is related to the owners of Tra Vinh I thought I’d better give it a try. The menu is very extensive, but there are heaps of pictures to help your decision.
Goi Cuon Tom Thit (Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls with Pork and Prawns)

$5 approx.
These came out a minute after ordering and that’s my kind of vietnamese restaurant.
Goi Cuon Chao Tom (Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls with Prawn wrapped Sugarcane)


$5 approx.
These came shortly after.
Che Thai (Iced Thai Drink)


$4.50
Iced Thai drink packed with longan, sea coconut, mixed jellies and coconut milk. Topped with shaved ice and Durian. Note: If you don’t like durian please advise the waitstaff not to put it on top. Even if you try to scoop it off afterwards, the smell still lingers. It was still delicious and thirst quenching though.
Banh Ouc Chao Tom (Rolled Rice Flour Noodles with Sugarcane Prawns)

$10
Usually when I go to a new vietnamese restaurant I always try the Pho to test the authenticity. However, I rarely come across this childhood favourite on a menu. A tasty prawn paste, similar to the texture of thai fish cakes, carefully wrapped around a stalk of sugarcane and is then grilled or deep fried. The patty remains moist and sweet this way. It is served with a generous serving of noodles and nuoc cham. I had to order another serve of the nuoc cham as it was so yummy.
Nuoc Cham is a dipping sauce also known as ‘fish sauce’ commonly served with Vietnamese dishes.
Com Tam (Broken Rice with Pork Chop, Pate and Egg)

$12 approx.
This is to date, is the biggest serving of Com Tam, I’ve seen in Perth. It was tasty too. Somewhere under the mountain of delicious bi is a crispy fried egg and marinated pork chop.
Bi is shredded pork skin and may sound unappetising, but it’s crunchy, textual, nutty and goes great in rolls, rice dishes and noodle dishes – I could eat it by itself!
Bo Kho Noodles (Stewed Beef Noodle Soup)

$12 approx.
Ex-Fatty’s friend had the Bo Kho Noodle soup with combination noodles at no extra charge. There was a mixture of egg noodles and rice noodles. She couldn’t finish it.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable meal. The portion sizes were huge, food was great and the staff did not mind us hanging around for a chat afterwards.

sugar - preserved fruit of Tet holiday in Vietnam

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.

The most famous variety of “Mứt” is made from rose petals or peach blossoms. The raw materials are cleaned and peeled, then soaked in sugar and cooked until dry. Other types of “Mứt” have the sticky consistency of jam. Some varieties, like “cu lac” (peanut jam) are covered with a thick layer of sugar, but most have thin layer of sugar.

The colors are often quite intense and people serve different types of “Mứt” together, arranged in a colorful display.

In Hanoi, Hang Dieu or Hang Duong Streets in Old Quarter are famous for shops that sell “Mứt”. Preserved fruits are masterpieces in these shops. They make all kinds of preserved fruit such as ginger, waxy pumpkin, apple, orange, lemon and carrot in various shapes and colours. 

To welcome Tet is to welcome the spring. However, in January, which is spring time, the weather in Vietnam is still cold. It is a good idea to warm up with a cup of hot tea and a slice of preserved ginger with golden yellow colour and a special flavour...

Chicken noodle soup recipe

My friend Simon says that there's a lot of confusing and misleading online chatter about chicken phở these days. If you've had the original beef phở then you're bound to want to explore the chicken version, which is slightly lighter in flavor, but delicious still.

Making noodle soup is an art form that take a bit of time, but most of the time is passive cooking. I encourage you to try making your own bowl so that you may savor and appreciate a well-crafted bowl.Try it out and contribute comments so that we can build a nice body of content on this wonderful Vietnamese chicken noodle soup!



 Chicken Pho Recipe (Phở Gà )

While beef phở may be the version that most people know and like, chicken phở is also excellent. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in phở gà (pronounced "Fuh Gah")within the Vietnamese American community, and a handful of restaurants are specializing in the delicate noodle soup. Some of them use free-range gà chạy or gà đi bộ (literally “jogging chicken” or “walking chicken”), yielding bowls full of meat that has a flavor and texture reminiscent of traditionally raised chickens in Vietnam.

If you want to create great chicken phở yourself, take a cue from the pros and start with quality birds. If you have never made phở, this recipe is ideal for learning the basics. It calls for fewer ingredients than other phở recipes, so you can focus on charring the onion and ginger to accentuate their sweetness, making a clear broth, and assembling steamy hot, delicious bowls. While some cooks flavor chicken phở broth with the same spices they use for beef phở, my family prefers using coriander seeds and cilantro to distinguish the two. To compare chicken with beef phở, see my beef pho noodle soup recipe.

Tea with longan and lotus seed

 Tea with longan and lotus seed is considered as the Vietnamese quintessence...

 With longan and lotus seeds, the Vietnamese can create a kind of special-flavor tea. It is considered the quintessence of the heaven and earth. The tea is aromatically fragrant with an original flavor.

Containing longan fruit pieces and lotus seeds, this kind of tea is fragrant with a full-bodied taste. The original and naturally flavored beverage is rich in glucose, sucrose, proteins, and other minerals. Longan flesh is sweet and contains niacin, which aids metabolism and keeps the skin, nervous, and digestive systems healthy. Lotus seeds can treat nervous depression and sleeplessness.

Longan and lotus tea is a nourishing drink with natural sweetness. When both of the ingredients combined, it is effective in fighting against anemia and fatigue, and boosting energy levels. Or in other words, they are good in building blood and regenerating Qi. It has a pleasant taste and high nutritional value, and is recognized as valuable medicinal herb.

The flavoured tea is tasty and refreshing; and can easily satisfy your thirst as well as refresh your minds. The rich composition of natural nutrient factors entails the tea with healthy characters, which makes you keep up your spirits among the clean, free and happy mood. If you would like to make a cup of the flavoured tea yourself, you are able to try the simple direction as follows:

Ingredients:

12 lotus seeds, washed and cooked

10 longan fruit pieces, pitted

5 cups of water

Method:

1. Boil and simmer ingredients in 5 cups of water for 45 minutes until the liquid is fragrant and tasty.

2. Serve warm.

When you are in Vietnam, this kind of tea should be a must try of Vietnamese local product. The taste is excellent and it is a health drink. It could help ease sleep problem if you drink a cup of longan and lotus tea before going to bed.

“Cơm Việt” – a different taste!

If you have ever tried “Cơm Việt” (Vietnamese plain boiled rice), you will find the difference from the boiled rice in other countries!

In an ordinary meal of Vietnamese people, together with a variety of different dishes, Com or plain boiled rice is an indespensable one, the most popular food at the main meals of the day (lunch and dinner).

Different cooking method makes “Cơm Việt” different!

In Vietnam, Com is made from different kinds of rice, typically fragrant rice is used, such as Tam Thom and Nang Huong. The main ingredients of Vietnamese plain boiled rice are commonly as follows:

- 1 cup of rice.

- 2 cups of boiling water.

- 1 teaspoonful of salt.

So, how can you make the boiled rice really delicious? If you have chance to see how Vietnamese people make a good pot of boiled rice, you will notice that its process is not so difficult. Firstly, pick the rice over, taking out all the bits of brown husk; fill the outside of the double boiler with hot water, ans put in the rice, salt and water, and cook forty minutes, but do not stir it. Then take off the cover from the boiler, and very gently, without stirring, turn over the rice with a fork; put the disk in the oven without the cover, and let it stand and dry for ten minutes. Then turn it from the boiler into a hot dish, and cover.

Other rice–made foods...

Beside the above-mentioned recipe of “Cơm Việt”, the Vietnamese people created many other rice-made foods, such as: rice ball, fried rice, rice gruel, steamed glutinous rice. Among them, making a rice ball (“Cơm nắm” in Vietnamese) is so interesting! “Cơm nắm” is a Vietnamese rice dish pressed into cylinder or sphere shape, which is sold in small alleys in Hanoi by vendors. This dish is very familiar with Vietnamese people. “Cơm nắm” has become a cheap but delicious rustic gift. When being fed up with nutritious food like vermicelli or “phở”, people often look for a frugal dish like “Cơm nắm” served with roasted sesame and ground nut.

Do you think it is easy to make a rice ball? A lot of people may say “Yes”, and you can obey the following simple process to make perfect a rice ball. To begin with, you boil the rice in a rice cooker. Please bear in mind that you have to make rice balls while the rice is hot or else it will not stick together. Next, you wet your hands and put a pinch of salt on your palms. Then, you put rice on your hand and wad up the rice and shape like cylinder or sphere. “Cơm nắm” is served with not o­nly sesame but also other things, such as stewed fish, simmered pork or salted shredded meat. However, salted roasted sesame (and ground nut) is still the first choice. The dish is so delicious that you surely would like to taste more than once... The rice is white clear, soft and used to be wrapped in a green banana leaf, which is so attractive. However, its cover is replaced with a plastic bag or paper. The salted sesame is roasted light brown and grated, which has an appealing fragrance. “Cơm nắm” is cut into slices and served with this sesame or/and ground nut. The sweetness of rice combining with the buttery taste of sesame is so unique that can not be found anywhere in the world

Vietnamese Pancake

Bánh Xèo are Vietnamese crêpe-type pancakes made out of rice flour and coconut milk(optional), and are pan-fried and stuffed with slivers of fatty pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts. Served wrapped with lettuce leaves and stuffed with mint (optional) and other herbs, and dipped in nuoc mam.

Ingredients:
For batter
1 PackageVietnamese pancake ready mix
31/2 cup water
1cup coconut milk
½ cup chopped green onion
For filling:
500gram raw shrimp peel or leave whole
500gram pork thinly sliced
500gram bean sprouts
7oz peeled split mung beans , soaked in warm water ,steamed or microwaved
For cooking:
Cooking oil or pork fat
1 Pancake pan


Accompaniments:
1 head of butter or grean leaf lettuce
vietnamese herbs : basil, Spearmint, fish mint, Vietnamese Perilla …
vietnamese greens: there are over 24 kinds of greens to be served with banh xeo : mustard leaves, Wild Betal Leaf, mango leaf, fig leaf, …
1 cup of mixed fish sauce
pickled daikon and carrot.

Method

The batter:
To make the pancake batter, in a large mixing bowl whisk together the flour, turmeric, coconut milk, water, 2 tablespoons oil, and chopped green onion until well combined. Allow the batter to rest for 30 minutes.
The filling:
Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a wok or skillet over high heat and stir-fry the pork for 3 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook until opaque, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the bean sprouts and cook until just translucent but still firm, about 1 minute. Transfer to a platter and set aside.
Greens and herbs:
Arrange the salad ingredients in separate piles on a platter and set aside.
Frying pancake:
Heat 1 teaspoon oil in an 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. While tilting the pan add 1/4 cup of the batter, swirling the pan at the same time to evenly distribute the batter.
Once the crepe starts to bubble gently in the center and loosen itself at the edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Scatter a handful of bean sprouts( mushrooms…), 2-3 pieces of pork and 2 shrimps on the lower half of the pancake. Reduce the heat to low and cover the pan.
Cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until the pancake golden browns and turns crispy. Fold the pancake in half and slide onto a platter. Continue making banh xeo as you serve them. Serve with table salad and herbs, and mixed fish sauce on the sides.
*Bean sprouts: can be alternated with turnip, mushroom….
* Pork and shrimp: can be alternated with duck meat, clams meat,…
* There are may kinds of herbs and greens served with banh xeo ,which only found in the countryside of Vietnam , so if you want to enjoy the real banh xeo come to vietnam .i will treat you then

Hai Phong shrimp noodle soup

Shrimp noodle or shrimp rice pancake are famous dishes of Hai Phong. Today, welcome mothers to test with delicious shrimp noodle dish (Bun tom Hai Phong)!

Ingredients:

• 300g shrimps; 
• 1-2 tomatoes; 
• 200g lean and fat meat mixed; 
• celeries; 
• 2 job’s ears; 
• some field mushrooms; 
• dills; 
• 5 dry onions; 
• 2 bowls of pre-stewing bone soup; 
• 500g noodles

Method: 

- Wash celeries, cut up them into pieces about 4cm long, dip through hot water, and separate them.
- Take the head and shell the shrimps, and put them in separate. Pull out the black thread at the shrimp’s back.
- Slice the meat into thin pieces large in width.
- Soak job’s ears and field mushrooms until rising, wash and slice into pieces about 1cm thick.
- Slice tomatos or cut into segments depend on your favourite
- Dip rice noodle through hot water and separate it.
- Peel and slice the onions
- Leave shelled shrimps alone or split into two parts, mix them with a little spices
- Roast the head and shell of the shrimps
- Then grim them in about 5-8 minutes
- Add them into a bowl of water then filter them slowly.
- The filtered liquid will be very sweet-smelling. Throw the residues
- Fry 1/3 of dry onions, add shrimps and stir them in 3-4 minutes to a turn then take into a bowl
- Continue to add other 1/3 of onions , add meat and fry them in about 2-3 minutes for less fat, add more spice for strong flavour.

- After cook the meat, take them into the recent bowl
- Use the pot that fry meat before, add field mushrooms and fry with a little sauce in about 3 minutes, then take into a bowl, then separate it.
- Add the last 1/3 of onions to a pot and fry them, add tomatos then stir until they’re flaccid, after that add the bowl of bone soup and the bowl of filtered shrimp soup and boil it, then taste for pleasant.
- Pay attention to taste this soup so that it’s more a little bit tasteless than your normal taste because shrimps and meats were salt.
- Now you just need to add noodle to bowls, put celerys, shrimps, meats, job’s ears and dills then souse soup on them.
- A bowl of hot and delicious rice noodle with the strong soup of shrimp flavour and crisp celeries will certainly satify members of your family on the weekend! In addition, you can also use rice pancake instead of noodle.

It’s so great!

Bánh Mì for You and Me

At first bite, the grilled pork Vietnamese sandwich (bánh mì) from L.A.'s Nom Nom Truck – the top scorer in the first two weeks of Food Network's The Great Food Truck Race – tastes simple, ordinary, unexceptional. But don't let the first bite fool you. The exceptional quality of Nom Nom's grilled pork sandwich does not spring from any unexpected "wow factor," or from a sudden rush of unusual flavors; the exceptional quality of Nom Nom's bánh mì emerges from the straightforward, harmonious blend of fresh, high-quality local ingredients.
You'll first be struck by the freshness of the twelve-inch baguette, which tastes as if it had been removed from the oven just minutes prior to placing your order. One bite of this bread, and you begin to realize why the French are so obsessed with it. Next you'll be struck by the freshness of the vegetables and herbs, with the cilantro so crisp and aromatic that you seem to taste it not with your tongue, but with your nose. The thin slices of carrot, cucumber, and daikon add a refreshing crunch to each bite, with the jalapeño flying in low for a bright, spicy burst. The honey grilled pork adds some needed weight to the sandwich, which might otherwise float out of your hands and into the ether. You may want more pork at first, but by the end you'll appreciate the proportions, which leave you feeling nourished and full, but never heavy.
Each element of Nom Nom's grilled pork sandwich achieves a life of its own without alienating the other ingredients – standing out while also complimenting and even augmenting the power of the other elements, like a Hall-of-Fame-caliber player in a well-managed ball club. When a sandwich truck has this kind of commitment to fresh, clean, local ingredients, simple becomes more than just simple; it becomes extraordinary. 

This Vietnam

What I have in my hand is Vietnam.
This Vietnam is visually spectacular, still a landscape of layers and colours but perhaps slightly easier to deconstruct, examine and truly know. Those who have not visited may recognise its features. This Vietnam, too, has green as its primary colour, emanating from the tangled jungle of herbs and vegetables at Hanoi's market tables. Mustard leaves and mint are the rice fields and banana trees of this Vietnam.
This Vietnam has also been constructed with material crafted from nature by human hands; slats of carrot, pineapple, cucumber and young banana sawn in kitchens by knives. Laying in a pile like bamboo, bricks and timber, there is anticipation of large scale development in the air, hasty and perhaps without a clear view to the implications. This Vietnam is using energy sparingly, too, a thin conduit of chili transferring just enough heat to keep the metabolism chugging along.
This Vietnam is populated with flesh; beef giving iron and muscle, a force working to bind all of the other elements together in palatable coexistence, something with legs. Essential in my opinion.
And the success of this Vietnam is at the mercy of the hand that rolls the rice-paper and the degree to which that paper is transparent. Clumsy mismanagement of this Vietnam at such a stage may result in a rather ugly mess, all of the ingredients sinking in a murky quagmire of soy sauce and wasabi.

Two Little Jasmine Flowers

Not all flowers get cut and arranged in vases in Hanoi.
They occasionally crop up in the most unlikely places; in the middle of a choking moment of gridlock at an intersection, a flower vendor will be pushing for her piece of tarmac just like the rest of us but her flowers, pristine and bright in the dusty haze, will grab my attention. Or on the road to the airport, between the rectangular box landscape of the many industrial estates and Vietnam's famous green ricefields, a small plot of land with colour unimaginable will zip by.
Outside food markets, flowers are more clearly in evidence. Here, shopping for flowers is much like shopping for food. While in recent times there has been more attention to flowers as adornments for the home, their ritual function makes them more like a necessity. Small bunches of flowers are bought in odd numbers for placement in vases on ceremonial family or business altars on death anniversaries and auspicious days in the lunar calendar, both of which seem to occur on a more regular basis than one might expect. In fact, believe it or not, flowers go up and down in price according to the movement of the moon.
Food-lovers would know that flowers can be featured on a plate. The little yellow flowers of choy sum go into woks and the short-season hoa thiên lý (sky flowers) are sauteed with beef or offal. In Hanoi too, flowers are sometimes eaten.
But the most subtle floral experience I've had in Hanoi occurred at the chè stand.
I was taken by two little jasmine flowers.

A Touch of Japan

I like the entrepreneurial spirit of the Vietnamese.
They are a 'get-up-and-go' kind of people; blindly optimistic, vague and blundering at times, yes, but the energy is generally positive. Get rich quick schemes are rife, business ideas go from mere utterance to reality in a matter of weeks. "What can we do to make more money?" is pondered by affluent and impoverished alike. Things happen here. And when they stop happening, they get hit with a hammer until they start happening again.
This rush forward is no more in evidence than in the retail and restaurant sector. With so much cheap labour available it's not impossible to get a shop or eatery fitted out and operational in no time. Carpenters and handymen can be picked up on the side of the road in the manner of a hitch-hiker, their saws and rudimentary tool kits the thumb to indicate they're looking for a ride to a day's work. Building laws are somewhat lax so the quality of the workmanship is hardly if ever inspected and even if it is, compliance can be obtained by the contents of a white envelope, appropriately thick. Of course, the fixtures may come down and the pipes might spring a leak but...hammer, sticky-tape, and a shonky repair job will have everything operational again within minutes.
Whack up a sign, hire a few young kids from the countryside, tell all your friends you've opened up a shop, light a few incense sticks and open up the doors for business.
Okay, so I might have over-simplified that slightly but there is a naivety that is at times admirable and refreshing. And at other times, it is just plain silly. I've witnessed 17 year-old girls open up a shoe shop in a crack in the wall that can't be seen by passers-by. On a larger scale, I've seen huge colonial villas in prime locations gutted, renovated, lavishly adorned in silk, lacquer, porcelain and bamboo and converted into restaurants. Months later, with no customers but still the full compliment of staff, they close.

On Saturday, I found that someone has established a little touch of Japan in an unlikely - and potentially unpropitious - location, way out of the Old Quarter by the side of a stagnant pond across from which is the Ngoc Ha community house. Other than those who know of the cut-through from Ngọc Hà Street to Đội Cấn Street, this is basically local traffic only and as far as I know the area is no 'little Tokyo'. I'm not sure of the target market and I'm not sure that the proprietor is either.
But in this location, the place has an edge, an open-air izakaya vibe and Hanoi alley chaos to boot.
The house specialty is purported in signage and menu to be bánh xèo, the fantastic rice flour pancake, yellow and crisp with a filling of shrimp, pork and bean sprouts. Here, the pictures and the product presented on the sizzling iron plate tell a different story, a crispy battered outside criss-crossed with mayonnaise, scattered with beni shōga and finely chopped spring onions. Inside, a filling of shredded cabbage and pork is hot and luscious.
In my mouth, it is the multi-syllabled flavour mish-mash of okonomiyaki; a creamy, rich, spicy, crunchy everything all-at-once - much more Japan than Vietnam.

In a clever up-sell just as I was wiping the mayo from my lips, the takoyaki were just being pronged out of their electric tray. I don't know about you but little fried balls of batter containing squid, when offered, are not to be refused.
I'm hoping this funky little take on Japan in the 'burbs of Hanoi is still open the next time I pass by.

Nha Trang Jaunt

The official reason I went to Nha Trang a while ago was to attend a wedding.
And the wedding was fun, a variety show with more highlights than a royal command performance. There was even a red carpet of sorts but that old western adage of never trying to outdo the bride was not being adhered to here. Out of taxis, a parade of glamour from the old world and the new stepped up into the reception centre, áo dài interspersed with revealing black cocktail dresses, glitz and shiny spangles and sequins catching the light, Revlon making a killing on make-up sales.
Inside, the MC facilitated the proceedings, wired up with decibels surely exceeding the limit recommended for prudent ear care. In turn, he delivered us a parade of virgins adorned in white with fluffy fairy wings, their walk up the aisle terminating on stage with thespian-like twirls and waves. A troupe of what looked like Swiss guards in red berets marched up next, brandishing large sticks attached with flowers, out the top of which industrial grade sparklers were shooting fire at their feet. A pre-pubescent ballroom-dancing couple shook their booty about in the next act. Nha Trang's wedding singers belted out a few tunes as did the father of the bride (beer in hand) and an aunt of the bride. Singing a traditional song from the Central Highlands, she nearly brought the house down.
Meantime, the people whose union we were gathered to celebrate were being given the rounds of the table.
Literally.
After pouring red champagne through a science experiment of tubes, flutes and dry ice and cutting not one, not two but five (three are fake) wedding cakes, the couple are being dragged from one table of guests to the next for toasts, smiles and pleasantries. By table number 33, the barely sipped champagne is as hot as tea, the smiles somewhat strained and the pleasantries reduced to "how did you get a berth at my wedding?" After such a marathon, they are craving food, drink and familiar faces.
But by then the guests are leaving. It's all over. And, without wanting to sound ungrateful, so was the official part of my journey to Nha Trang.
The next night I was seeking simplicity, not so much entertainment...and seafood. On the road that hugs the coast north of Nha Trang is a restaurant I've been visiting regularly since 2002. The menu is all things ocean and just across the road is the sea. The fish that night was raw and so fresh I convinced myself its nerve endings were still feigning movement.
Gỏi cá mai translates as raw salad of the tomorrow fish. On its platter, it spoke of promise. I wrapped the fish's little fillets in rice paper with lettuce, herbs and finely julienned pineapple, young banana, red pepper and cucumber. In a tương with chili and crushed peanuts, the completed rolls got their finishing touch.
And I got what I really came to Nha Trang for.

Crab Tales

I bought some of these crabs once when I was first in Hanoi.
In the honeymoon days.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still entranced with the culinary scene here but when one lands in Vietnam after years of sampling the cuisine in what I suspected may not always have been its most authentic form, I did go a bit ga-ga when confronted with the real deal. The range of herbs was infinitely wider than what I'd experienced in Melbourne, with Vietnam's markets resplendent in so much leafy green that surely its harvest was a leading cause of global warming. All those different rices shaped in perfect geometric cones pointed skywards, predominantly white. But wasn't white rice just white rice? Clearly not, I was to learn.
I don't want to go on much about live animals in market-places as I've covered that ground before. But after the relatively sterile environs of Melbourne's markets where hardly a chicken feather is seen let alone ruffled, I initially found the live produce sections of Vietnam's markets more like a visit to to the farm or the zoo.
On one such early visit to Hanoi's now re-designed Hang Da market, while I couldn't contemplate  witnessing a bird having its throat cut before me nor a fish thwacked dead with a foot-long baseball bat, I thought I could deal with a pair of restrained crabs. In a bag on the way home, they were relatively well-behaved, their legs and more importantly their pincers tied with rope fashioned from plant matter. The awareness of having a living creature, however, with the jerks and stirrings of an unborn baby amongst one's shopping was disconcerting to say the least. It did dawn on me that I had taken on some higher responsibility, one which during the journey from market to home I was having serious misgivings about.
It was as if I was back at primary school in science class, that one when you have to take the egg home for the weekend and bring it back on Monday without a crack in it.
Once at home, the crabs went in the sink and I sought out the experts at the internet cafe for a recipe and a dignified way to kill them. I read phrases like "crabs are fairly strong for their size" and "scrubbing down the crab can be fairly intimidating" and "the crab will threaten you with its claws". I read about lifting flaps, screwdrivers, piercing and draining. I continued scrolling down half-expecting to find reference to safety glasses and protective clothing! The gastronomic part of the plan, crab in tamarind sauce, seemed like a footnote compared to what I would have to carry out beforehand.
Armed with print-outs titled 'how to kill a crab' and a slew of recipes, I returned home to stare down those crustaceans, give them a bit of intimidation of my own. But the whole plan started to go array when I checked the sink.
One was missing.
A crab unable to move because it was in a strait-jacket was unaccounted for. It goes without saying that determining the thought-processes of a crab gone AWOL was not at that stage in my realm of experience. Could it have gone to the toilet, I thought. Perhaps it was making a run for the coast? In reality, I was freaking, already imagining a mad chase not unlike those I'd wagered against my furry arch enemy, Mr Rat. This time it would be an aggressive scuttling exoskeleton, moving sideways out from under something, pincers at the ready. And I would be ready to fling my tea towel over it to subdue it, rueing that I hadn't printed the pages titled 'how to catch a crab'.
That's if I could have located the bastard. In a two-roomed apartment with a small bathroom and kitchen, it was nowhere to be found. Exhausted and having lost my appetite, I carefully placed the other crab on the bottom shelf of the fridge where it would survive for a few days, according to the experts. It would take me that long to recover from the ordeal and I hadn't even raised a weapon in anger to that point. One crab was missing but none had been killed or eaten.
Two nights later, I was reading on the couch, the escapee crab the farthest thing from my mind. A vague twitching or scatching entered my consciousness and persisted even though I attempted to will it away. My initial reaction was rat and I assumed my regular posture for that circumstance; standing on the sofa, slightly unhinged. From the shoe-rack behind the front door, the noise was irregular but frequent.
And then I remembered the crab with some relief. Up between and behind the winter shoe collection, the crab was wedged, only half restrained by the market vendor's rope, which was still attached, allowing me to drag it into the kitchen at a safe distance. I felt like administering a hanging. Instead I recalled something else I'd read in the 'how to kill a crab' pages, something about 15 minutes in the freezer putting the crab in a sleeping state.
I put them in seven years ago. And, crab in tamarind sauce is a dish that I recommend be taken in restaurants.

447 Posts Later

Somehow I've been in Hanoi for nine and a half years.
Somehow I blog and I tweet.
Somehow the market is my museum.
Somehow my table manners have deteriorated.
Somehow I've eaten dog and cat.
Somehow a hair in my soup is now not so abnormal.
Somehow toothpicks are a necessity.
Somehow a lot of chili is not enough.
Somehow phở is my number one comfort food.
Somehow Stickyrice is six.

Main Street Eat

Phố Huế drills traffic from Hanoi's inner south to its heart at Hoàn Kiếm Lake. A one way procession of engines which changes name to Hàng Bài nearer to the lake, it intersects with three main east-west roads, Trần Hưng Đạo, Hai Bà Trưng and Lý Thường Kiệt, ensuring an increasing glut of vehicles as it passes over each.
Along its length, Phố Huế  is all business. At its southern end lies the infamous chợ đen (black market), just off in a side street. Here, one might be able to recover a stolen remote control or power tool, buy cheap blank CDs, DVD players and karoake machines and speakers. The din created by the merchandising and demonstration of this equipment is quite something. For the locals, the noise is water off a duck's back, exciting even. For me...well, I think I've made my feelings about Hanoi's noise known in many a prior post.
The next stretch of the road is a shrine to the motorcycle. On the run into town, businesses on the left are selling every possible accessory for Vietnam's most common people and product mover. Stainless steel exhaust pipes and shimmering mirrors hang on display like arty industrial installations. Whistles, air horns and flashing lights that deafen, blind and distract are sold in great numbers to the city's young male population. Female customers like to dolly-up their bikes with stencils of butterflies or flowers. This summer's craze in motorbike customising is little plastic cartoon figurines being scewed on the back tyre mud-guard.
For rev-heads, it's all very interesting.

But Phố Huế has its food heart, too. Mid its length, the road takes a slight bend where the Chợ Hôm (Hom Market) is situated. A cavernous central space inside houses some of Hanoi's finest fruit vendors while, out through the rear entrance, vegetable and herb stalls, butchers and fish-mongers operate along with many other specialist food purveyors.
This is all very well if one wants to shop. Normally I would be happy to poke around for a bunch or two of Asian greens, sample a rambutan or two, perhaps even put together an impromptu lunch menu from the foodstuffs on offer. This excursion down Phố Huế  has a purpose, however. These scant descriptions of the commodities available on this street are just a means to an end, an angle into what I really want to say.
I want to shout loudly, "Mỳ Vằn Thắn."

From the top of a mountain of deep fried wontons!
Just opposite the market, this dish of fresh egg noodles and wontons is put together by a chain-gang of mighty women. There is a chain of command and clear delineation of labour but it is hardly unspoken. Efficiency, as in many noodle houses in Vietnam, is in accordance with volume. If there's no shouting, there may be a wait on the noodles. Here, prompt service is a hallmark and barking racket is the prevailing atmosphere.
The preparation of the dish is a methodical portioning of both steamed and deep fried wontons, an egg wedge, thinly sliced xá xíu and a semi-circular slither of liver (try saying that quickly!). All is arranged on the silky nest of blanched noodles and greens. The final flourish is the pour of the ladle.

Mỳ Vằn Thắn comes to Hanoi from China, via Saigon. It came to my face from the bowl, via the chopsticks, quick.

Thrice-wrapped Sticky Rice

My breakfast comes wrapped in recycled office paper and a banana leaf. Then, a plastic bag!
I'm eating thrice-wrapped sticky rice, this blog's namesake and a staple of the morning street food scene in Hanoi. The vendor is crouched behind a row of motorbikes parked on the footpath, only really noticeable because of the scrum of customers surrounding her, calling down orders, leaning in to check on portioning. As the street vendor and the customer have what might be called a fractious relationship in Hanoi, there is reproach in many transactions, from one party or the other. The vendor may be trying to maximise profits by ever-so-slightly diminishing the size of the portions, and the customer may notice. Or the customer may try to extract a bigger portion out of the vendor for the same price by accusing her of meanness. Calls for "extra this" or "not so much of that" are adjudicated upon by all present. In short, on the streets of Hanoi, the customer is not backward in coming forward and the vendor will spit venom if too far provoked.
For me it's better than TV.

And what this vendor has in her basket to fill the excessive packaging is a range of fixings to augment sticky rice, which on its own is filler at best. Three variations on a theme are available. Xôi lạc involves steaming the rice with raw peanuts so that it comes attractively dotted with brown when it is lumped on the banana leaf, a generous teaspoon of sesame salt (muối vừng) wedged alongside. I scoop up a wodge of rice in my hand and dab at this wonder-condiment that really takes the rice from bland to very palatable.
Xôi ngô uses corn kernels in a similar fashion, though more generously distributed through the rice. The less sweet white corn is utilised here; it seems to be the most prominent variety grown in Vietnam, with the locals often referring to yellow sweet corn as being Thai corn. This corn appears to maintain its form better, each kernel still plump after cooking and given to chewing in the mouth. Again, it's what goes on top that speaks to the taste buds. Onion crunch gets added here. Hành khô are shallots that have been deep fried and if I'm asking for extra anything, this is it! A tablespoon of vegetable oil (see hand on spoon in green cup above) is liberally drizzled over the rice to loosen it for eating.
Xôi đậu xanh is a conglomeration of split mung beans and rice on top of which some kind of pounded mung bean paste is scattered, again with the dried shallots and oil. An additional topping available for any of these three streetside sticky rice packets is a stringy, salty and fishy dried pork called ruốc thịt lợn. Made in a process involving fish sauce, it is perhaps the most popular choice of the locals. I don't like it but when it's put on by mistake, it's easy enough to pick off and turn my nose up at.
So, three varieties of sticky rice, acquired not without a degree of community intervention, thrice-wrapped and almost totally consumed; I'm in need of a good lie-down.

Vietnam Cuisine, Impressive And Unforgettable!

Foreign visitors consider Vietnamese food quite healthy. It is neither spicy nor oily. Vietnamese eat mainly rice and noodles. Bread is not daily family food. Delicious bowls of noodle soup with vegetables and meat can be purchased everywhere inexpensively for breakfast or even lunch. Each average meal consists of three to five dishes. Tourists can enjoy Vietnamese food everywhere at deluxe restaurants or even at street cafes.

As you travel up or down the country; you will notice sharp differences in both main dishes and snacks eaten by locals. Its one of the joys of traveling in the country; and it’s a good idea to ask your guide to point out interesting things to eat.

Once you are in Vietnam; you immediately fall in love with Vietnamese Food. Vietnam is also a coffee-lover’s dream. It seems like every street cafe sells the thick coffee preferred by locals. We try to introduce here some typical Vietnamese food that no tourist can ignore when they come to Vietnam.

PHO
For Vietnamese; Pho is life; love and all things that matter.
In Vietnam; Pho is mostly a restaurant food. Though some people prepare it at home; most prefer going to noisy soup shops. Here are a few tips:
- Pho comes with a variety of toppings including rare beef; well-done beef and slices of brisket; tendon; tripe and even meatballs. If you’re a novice; try pho Tai Chin; which includes the rare and well-done beef combination.

- Sprinkle some black pepper; then add bean sprouts; fresh chili and a little squeeze of lime to your bowl. Using your fingers; pluck the Asian basil leaves from their sprigs and; if they’re available; shred the saw-leaf herbs and add to the soup. Add little by little; eating as you go. If you put the greens in all at once; the broth will cool too fast and the herbs will overcook and lose their bright flavors.

NEM
One of the best Vietnamese foods! The Vietnamese Version of the egg roll; Cha Gio is a seasoned mixture of eggs; ground pork; and sometimes crab or shrimp rolled tightly in rice paper and deep-fried. It is served accompanied by lettuce; cucumber and Nuoc Mam.

The proper way to eat these delicacies is to roll them in a piece of lettuce with a slice of cucumber and dip it into the Nuoc Mam.

BANH CHUNG
Banh Chung or square rice cake is a Vietnamese traditional dish most commonly found during the “TET” New Year celebration. Every Vietnamese family must have “Banh Chung” among their offerings to be placed on the ancestors` altars.

One or two days before Tet; the family gathers to prepare and cook the rice cakes around the warm fire. “Banh Chung” is made of glutinous rice; pork meat and green bean paste; and is wrapped in a square of “Dong” leaves (rush leaves) giving the rice a green color after boiling for ten hours.

During “Tet” New Year; the rice cakes are served with “gio lua” or lean pork pie; and “hanh muoi” or salted sour onions.

COFFEE
Vietnam is also a leading coffee exporter in the world. You can easy find many coffee houses in the streets of all cites. Please remember that Vietnamese coffee is quite “strong”. If you take as many as four cups of coffee in a day; you may be sleepless at night.

Vietnamese coffee is a very good gift from Vietnam for your family member after a visit to Vietnam. One the most favorite trademark is Trung Nguyen.

MAM (SALTED FISH)
Mam originally comes from the South because it is newly cultivated land and there are plenty of fish. Mam made from trout can be consumed with rice or with boiled pork and fresh vegetables and it’s considered an undeniable food of the Daily life in Mekong Delta. Fish caught from rivers or ponds are carefully salted. It can be reserved in month or even years

COM (GREEN-RICE)
In a clear autumn morning, when the Northeast wind lightly blows; green-rice from Vong village (a famous village in Hanoi) travels with young country girls to the corners of the city. Green rice is said to be the quintessence of the earth and sky, the milk of rice paddies in buds. Vong villagers now pick and choose the right kinds of rice to make green-rice. Traditionally, green-rice is an offering indispensable on engagement day of the couple, from the bridegroom’s family to the bride’s family.

XOI (GLUTINOUS RICE)
Rice is categorized in two: normal rice and sticky rice. The second is indispensable in people’s daily life as well as on holidays. Sticky rice is plentiful in types: banana flavor, coconut-leaf, sesame and coconut, sausage, back-peas, green-peas, maize and mixed sticky rice...are just a few in 3 parts to name. “Nep than”, “Nep cai hoa vang” are best flavors to make rice and wine.

What a wonder it’s on a winter day! Dressed in warm clothes, we drop in a little shop at night and have a bowl of white sticky rice consumed with pork or eggs. On New Year’s days or holidays, sticky rice is what must be on the family altar.

CHA CA LA VONG (LA VONG FISH-PIE)
The inventor of this fish-pie came from Doan family on Hang Son Street, Hanoi. In 19th century, Hanoi people normally baked pork, but he baked fish-unstinking fish to make fish-pie. Hanoi people then soon got infatuate it and his eating-house turned prosperous. Henceforth, the name of the street was changed into Cha Ca (fish-pie) from its former name Hang Son (Paint Street) due to success of his eatery.

To Hanoi people, the taste of Cha Ca remains as it was. To have tasty pie, shopkeepers have to select good fish with solid fresh, less bones and good scent. Processed fish is mixed in fish sauce, pepper, galingale, saffron and rice-ferment. Then put on a fire-tongs and grilled right on the eaters' table. Eaters, while eating, have to fan the fire, turn upside down to make both sides baked. Then they put the fish into a bowl of boiling fat and consumed with rice vermicelli, groundnuts, spices, dried rice-cake, sliced onion leaves, some drops of lemon juice and a little coleopteran.

Hanoi people try fish-pie only in Autumn, when the cold wind is blowing outside, spices are in season and a group of friends slowly drink and enjoy the food in a small restaurant on Cha Ca street, what a wonder it's!

BUN BO HUE (HUE BEEF VERMICELLI)
All over Vietnam, you can find and enjoy beef-vermicelli and it seems tastes from all parts in the country meet and make up special flavor of Hue vermicelli.
Hue people enjoy beef-vermicelli in their own way and the food here is a combined art of something fashionable, something very popular. Hue connoisseurs rarely enjoy the food in well-decorated restaurants, and an eating place frequented by tourists is opposite to city post-office on Ly Thuong Kiet Street. Beef-vermicelli is consumed here day and night, the broth-pot is kept boiling but this is not the most visited one because Hue city folks only have beef-vermicelli in the morning and they have their own choice.

CAKES IN THE CENTRAL PART
Central part, a sunny and rainy area is a bridge that links North and South and rich in wet-rice, maize, sweet potato, corn and manioc. These agriculture crops have enriched their life and the people in the central part have created kinds of cakes made of skillfully prepared would be a shoe in people hard-working life and aptitude in food invention.
There are hundreds kinds of cakes: dumpling, boiled dumpling, coconut-cake, rice-wafer, rice-pie, corn-cake, steamed cake, pan cake, white rice cake…are just few to name. Separate cakes are made of certain ingredients.