We’ve been busy bees. Not so much with cooking, but working on the yard and gardening.  We were fortunate to find our dream home with a nice chunk of land last year, and while most of our focus has been inside the house, this spring we  felt the urge to make use of our land and make it fruitful.  While the goal is not to be self sufficient, we hope to grow edibles that would bring us many meals and years of enjoyment to come. We’ve never had a garden before, but we’re diving head first into it. Our plan is to have a vegetable garden mainly for heirloom tomatoes and an Asian garden as well as a Vietnamese herb garden. Scattered around the gardens we planted some tropical fruit trees as well as California natives. Want to see what it looks like? Above are tía tô (Vietnamese perilla) seedlings started from seeds from Mom’s garden back in Michigan.

Rau răm (Vietnamese coriander top left) was rooted from supermarket clippings.  Super market clippings are a great way to start your Vietnamese herb garden on the cheap.  Kinh giới (Vietnamese balm- top right) was also rooted from grocery clippings.  Most herbs will root, choose the larger stem ones that are more mature and stick them in a cup of water near a window sill and transplant them to peat pots filled with starting mix when several roots to support the seedling.

This is the first time we’re growing blueberries  and the nickle and dime sized fruits on the O’neals are almost ripe while the smaller but more abundant Misty and Sunshine varieties are still plumping up.

If you live in Southern California, stop by the markets in Little Saigon and they’ll sell small seedlings of ngò ôm (rice paddy herb) wrapped in plastic grocery bags. No it’s not for your carrying convenience, but how it’s grown. As the name implies, this herb grows in the rice paddies of Vietnam and love the hot and humid condition. Unless you have a greenhouse at home, you can similate a rice paddy by growing it in a large clear water dispenser container with it’s top cut off. It keeps the humidity in and also allows air to circulate.

This is also our first time ever planting tomatoes. We purchased heirloom Paul Robeson, Carmello, Black Plum, and Isis Candy seedlings from Laurel’s Heirloom Tomatoes in the Los Angeles South Bay area.  It’s been about a month since we transplanted them into our raised bed and they’re growing vigorously, seemingly a few inches each day!

Finally, the fruit trees. One day we hope to have our very own orchard in the backyard, but for now we’re happy with our baby fuyu persimmon (top left), longan, cherimoya, and meyer lemon as well as lychee and black miss fig tree (not pictured) haven’t died yet.

Thanks for stopping by on our garden tour! All this is possible because of Dad, who’s been staying with us has been digging, planting, performing countless other garden tasks this month. Now that the seeds are sowed we’re praying we don’t kill off all the fruit trees and vegetables. We’ll keep you updated!

This was supposed to be a happier post. We didn’t plan on introducing our latest Vietnamese food themed word art design “I Love Vietnamese food” this way, but somehow, we think he’ll approve and would loved to have proudly worn this.  We also have signed poster prints available for framing.  Visit our store and reserve your shirt as only limited quantities will be printed. A portion of each sale will be donated to Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

On a similar note, we’re happy to announce that a donation was given to SenHoa due to the success of the “Heo Yeah” T shirts.  This would not have been possible without the inspiration from Karena Higgins who designed the pig for Filipino foods on Pig Parts and Beer, a blog created by Karena and Haydee Vicedo, where they share a great passion for Filipino cuisine. Please check out the great stuff they’re doing.

I’m Kim, and I’m a macaron addict. I’ve been obsessed with macarons for the past few months, researching and studying different techniques and recipes on how to make macarons. Macarons are French meringue confections that resemble a cookie sandwiches and they are all the rage these days. When I first laid my eyes on one, I couldn’t resist these adorably cute and colorful deserts. I was in love. I would come home after a long day of work and make a batch of macarons, and as they bake, press my nose against the oven door searching for any signs of “feet”. In this short time, I baked dozens of batches and experienced all the failures you can possibly imagine:  feetless, cracked, hollow, burnt, discolored, you name it— it happened to me. The successful batches were few and far between and I was elated and danced for joy when it did.  Crestfallen, intimidated, frustrated, and beatened down, I was ready to quit, but Hong refused to let me, saying, “there’s no quitters in this house.” So I persevered. After more research and practice, I finally got the hang of the intracacies and nuances to get consistent results. I found my macaron mojo. But just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I would make batches of macarons every weekend to make sure I still had it. I can definitely say I enjoy making macarons more then eating them. In fact, Hong does all my taste testing.

I still have much to learn but so far, I still have my macaron mojo and thought it would be fun  to teach some friends. Foodbuzz 24X24 gave me the opportunity to host a macaron party this weekend where I taught complete beginners how to make macarons.  It was a lot of pressure, but also a lot of fun. I taught them my favorite recipe from Stella at the Bravetart and used Annapet’s templates for piping at The Daily Palette.  They both provide great inspiration and taught me so much.

I set up different stations of the macaron process for our students.  At the “Mixing station”, we had 3 mixers lined up for a wopping 1400 Watts of mixing power.  At the “Flavor Station”, students had an array of flavors and colors to choose from. We had raspberry, pistaccio, amaretto, coffee, rose, lemon, ube, pandan, orange, pear, grape, and even durian to choose from. At the “Macronage station”, we went over how to fold the dry ingredients with the meringue. At the “Piping station”, we had baking pans lined with Silpats with template to pipe out uniform macarons.  Look at the concentration on those faces!

Every macaron baker knows that getting proper feet can be the most challenging part of the process. Our bakers couldn’t stay away from the “Feet station” where they waited with baited breath as feet magically appeared on their macarons.  I got lucky and everyone of our students had successful feet.  Everyone was dancing the Happy Feet dance! But of course feet is not the only thing that makes a perfect macaron, our students all had a great base and a cakey interior inside the crispy shell.

At the filling station, we had a variety of fillers from chocolate ganache, blood orange curd, Meyer lemon curd, mango curd, ube, and nutella. It was fun seeing all the different combination of flavors they came up with.

We ended up making coffee macarons with chocolate ganache, durian macarons, orange macarons with blood orange curd, rose macarons with chocolate ganache, pistachio macarons, lemon macarons with Meyer lemon curd, and ube macarons. I was so proud that all the students had successful batches. It took me countless batches to get it right and it only took them one try!

Since we we spent a good 3 hours baking, we provided some snacks.  We had French themed foods,  including escargots and a charcuterie plate of head cheese, home made pate, beer mustard,  French bread, and cornichons.

My first macaron class was an overwhelming success! Everyone made beautiful and delicious macarons that was shared by all.  Thank you again Foodbuzz for making this event possible. I hope this post encourages you to give macarons a shot, whether you’re a complete beginner or a frustated baker, don’t give up!

Still undecided what to make for Valentines? We all know the fastest way to someone’s heart is through the stomach (I made Hong a bowl of Mi Quang and now look at us). So if you’re still searching, try something exotic but oh so simple: lamb meatballs.   Last year on our vacation eating trip to NYC, one of our favorite restaurants was The Meatball Shop. It was casual, comforting (especially against the blistering February chill), and delicious. But let’s face it, everyone loves meatballs.  It’s hearty, still healthy, and cute!

The Meatball Shop was the brainchild of childhood friends chef Dan Holzman and partner Micheal Chernow. We met the affable chef Holzman here in LA at the 2011 Los Angeles Food and Wine Festival and got a chance to tell him how much we enjoyed his meatballs and his restaurant.  Like a choose your own adventure, diners can customize the meatball, its sauce, and accompaniments.

Our favorite was the lamb meatballs.  Lamb is a sexy cut of meat and this is one of the easiest ways to prepare it. The raisins and walnuts in this recipe gives this ball a subtly sweet and earthiness that really works well with the lamb.

Lamb Meatballs

Yield: 2 dozen 1.5 inch balls

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Meatballs

2 tbs olive oil

2 lbs ground lamb
3 large eggs
1 cup dark raisins, chopped
1/2 cup walnut halves, chopped
1/2 fresh mint, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 ts salt
1 ts fresh ground pepper

Classic Tomato Sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1 ts chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 ts dried
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 ts salt or to taste
2 tbs tomato paste
2 28oz cans whole plum tomatoes, chopped w/ their liquid

Directions:

Meatballs

Preheat oven to 450. Drizzle olive oil into a baking dish and spread evenly. Set aside.

Combined all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand until thoroughly incorporated.

Pack the meat firmly and roll the mixture into round 1 1/2 inch balls. Place the balls onto the baking dish and line snugly in even rolls vertically and horizontally in a grid, touching one another.

Roast for 20 minutes, or until the meatballs are firm and cooked through. The temperature should be 165 if you want to check with meat thermometer.

Allow the meatballs to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Classic Tomato Sauce

Heat the oil over the medium heat and add onions, bay leaf, garlic and salt, stirring until soft and translucent about 10 mins. Add tomato paste and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and stir constantly until sauce begins to boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring every 5 minutes to prevent burning. Season to salt. Remove bay leaf before serving.

From The Meatball Shop CookbookThe Meatball Shop

Recently Dan Holzman and Michael Chernow published their first cookbook, proclaiming their love of meatballs and sharing all they learned and created. We’ve made beef, lamb and pork meatballs from the book and they all turn out great.  It’s a beautifully photographed book with easy to follow recipes, from balls, to sauces, to sides. The generous folks at The Meatball Shop are giving away one book to a lucky reader!

buy it!

You can purchase The Meatball Shop from Amazon

win it!

Leave a comment telling us what is your favorite type of meatball!  The mandatory entries must be done otherwise the bonus entries will not count.

bonus entries!

1. Subscribe to our blog and leave a blog comment saying you’ve subscribed (1 entry)

2. “Like” The Ravenous Couple on Facebook and leave a blog comment with your first name and last initial (1 entry)

3. “Like” The Meatball Shop on Facebook and leave a blog comment here with your first name and last initial. (1 entry)

4. Follow both The Ravenous Couple and The Meatball Shop on Twitter and leave a blog comment after tweeting (1 entry) :
Win a copy of The Meatball Shop cookbook from @ravenouscouple and @MEATBALLERS! http://www.theravenouscouple.com/?p=2510

US entries only. Contests ends on midnight Saturday 2/18. A winner will be chosen at random.  Congrats to Hao, L!

We had a fun opportunity and pleasure of hosting a ‘baby sprinkle’ for my dear sister and brother in law as they await the arrival of their second baby. Baby Sprinkles are smaller than Baby Showers and celebrate the birth of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on of babies.  We wanted to welcome the newest member of the family and ‘sprinkle’ my sister and brother in law with love, fun, laughter, and of course good food!   I’m so thankful to be selected for Foodbuzz 24×24 which sponsored the event and wanted to share with you all the fun, festivities, and of course menu of our baby sprinkle.  Since  the gender of the baby is to be a surprise, we decided to go with a green and yellow rubber ducky party theme.  I made this simple, yet elegant diaper cake as the main centerpiece.

We are lucky ducks living in Los Angeles with 75 degree weather in January so we had the party in our backyard.  Rubber ducks floating in a pond of water and blue crystals served as table centerpieces. Now to the fun part…the menu!  Here are some of the courses from the menu.  Our main course was sous vide flank steak tacos topped with salsa, guacamole, grilled green onions, jalepenos, and starfruit.

As a refreshing side dish, we had green papaya salad with Vietnamese beef jerky and a soy vinaigrette.

For refreshments, we had fresh rosemary and meyer lemonade with all the ingredients from our own garden.  We even made these adorable duck inserts for the straws.

For our dessert spread, we had a green and yellow desert station with assorted green and yellow candy. I also made these onesies bunting to decorate the table.

Our talented cousin made these adorable, delicious, and moist lemon cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream frosting. She also made the duck toppers with white chocolate—simply amazing!

I’ve been on a macaron tear lately and made a variety of yellow and green macarons. From left to right, they are pear macarons with meyer lemon curd, meyer lemon macarons with meyer lemon curd, and finally pistachio macarons with a meyer lemon zested chocolate ganache. We painted the top of the macarons to add a lil’ pizazz!

What’s a party without some pops? We bought rice krispie treats and served them in pop form. The cake was a chocolate banana cake from Portos Bakery because every celebration needs a cake.

Finally, as party favors for the guests, we had an instant photobooth for guests to play around in the tub with rubber duckies!   My cute little niece is having merry time!

Can’t wait to meet our new addition to the fam bam.  Congrats again to my sister and brother in law and thank you to Foodbuzz for selecting us for 24×24  this month!

Does your pantry look like this? Ours was a recurring nightmare. No matter how many times we tried to clean the pantry, it would rear its messy, disorganized face again like a bad garden weed. Our pantry troubles began in our small apartment and followed us into our new home. We had bags of noodles, spices, flour, all intermingled. Some were in the original packaging while others wrapped in plastic grocery bags. We used our memory to remember what we had, instead of any organized method of inventory. Commonly we’ll buy new bags of spices because we couldn’t find the old bag. At last count, we had four bags of sesame seeds-two of them were partially used.

Before the Lunar New Year, Tết, it’s traditional to clean and organize your house. This new year, we resolved to clean and organize our pantry. We had to find something that would be versatile, easy to use, long lasting, and space saving. So the first time we tried Oxo Pop containers, we knew we had to get more. Check out how we solved our pantry nightmares:

In the past, inevitably, our pantry would go from order to disorder very quickly after a reorganization, but now, three weeks with the Oxo pop containers, everything has it’s place our pantry hasn’t disintergrated into a disorganized morass like before. We love it! Our pantry nightmares has been Oxo-fied!

The nice folks at Oxo have been generous to let us try out the Oxo pop along with their other organization tools and they’re giving away a set of Oxo Pop containers and other organizing products worth $100 total to one lucky reader!

To Win

Show us what you plan to Oxo-fy! Post a photo of your pantry on our Facebook page wall and the photo with the most likes will win! So get all your friends to vote on your photo. Contest ends Friday 1/27 at midnight pacific time.  Good luck!

Spicy, fiery red, and murky, the appearance of bún bò Huế is almost the antithesis of it’s better known Vietnamese soup counterpart, phở bò, which is valued for it’s clarity and pure clean flavors. Although both have beef as it’s main ingredient, it would be a gross injustice to call a spicy version of pho.  It’s an entirely different animal altogether with flavors stewed from the marrows of both beef and pork bones along with stalks of bruised lemongrass. The clear broth is then infused with a spicy and wonderous medley of red annato oil,  crushed chile peppers, more lemongrass, along with a generous dollop of pungent minced fish paste.  If you’re not already salivating by now, you should be.  Ladled over thick rice noodles, common toppings include sliced beef shank, ham hock, cooked pork blood, pork patties called chả Huế,  and finally plenty of fresh herbs.  Hungry yet?

If you’re from Huế , you’ll just call it bún bò, but anywhere else in the world, you’ll call it bún bò Huế.  We just call it pure goodness.   You can make this goodness in your own home and it’s not that hard to do.   The  two main steps are making the broth and seasoning spice. Although the entire process might take about 4-6 hours (sometimes we simmer the broth overnight), the amount of time active cooking is minimal as you’ll see in the video.

Since we always make a huge pot (32 qt) of bún bò Huế, friday or saturday evenings are favorite times undertake this ritual so we can invite friends and family to enjoy over the weekend. Also, a little work goes a long way. The spice mix used to flavor the broth can be kept refrigerated for months to satisfy a bún bò Huế craving any time. To save time, we use a pre-package mix and supplement it with our own spices. Use this recipe as a guide, if you’re using a much smaller pot adjust your ingredients accordingly for smaller portions.

Bun Bo Hue Recipe

Yield: Serves at least 15 large bowls

Ingredients:

broth:
32 qt pot
6 lb pork bones
6 lb beef bones
3 lb beef shank
14 qt water
1-2 lbs sliced ham hocks
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbs fine shrimp paste

10-12 stalks of lemongrass, using only the white and green ends, bruise and tie together in bunches
1/4 whole pineapple (fresh if possible)
1 yellow onion, peeled

spice mix:
3/4 cup oil (grapeseed or olive oil)
3 tbs annatto seeds
1 packet of bún bò Huế seasoning
2 tbs minced garlic
2 tbs minced shallot
1/4 cup minced lemongrass
2-3 tbs chile pepper flakes (adjust according to your taste)
3 tbs fine shrimp paste

accompaniments:
bun bo hue noodles, cooked al dente according to directions and drained
precooked pork blood
cha hue or cha lua
sliced cabbage
sliced banana blossom (see this post on how to prepare)
rau ram
bean sprouts
fine shrimp paste

Directions:

clean the bones: In large stock pot, add the pork and beef bones and enough water to cover. Bring to boil and immediately dump out the water and bones in a clean sink, wash the pot and then rinse the bones, placing them back into the pot.

broth: Add bones, water, beef shank, pork hock, lemongrass, pineapple, onion, shrimp paste, salt, and sugar and bring to boil. With a fine mesh strainer occasionally remove any gunk that rises to the top. Then reduce the heat to lowest setting to simmer. The pork hocks should take about 45 min-1 hr to cook--when the skin is tender, remove and set aside. The 3lbs of beef shank takes roughly 3 hrs to cook. To see if the beef shank is cooked, poke a chopstick into the center, it should slide in with minimal pressure. If there is no blood oozing out, then it's done. Remove and place in water bath to avoid discoloration and set aside until ready to slice.

After removing the hocks and shank, continue to simmer the broth under low heat partially covered for at least another 1 hour (roughly minimum of 4 hours total--but you can simmer longer and overnight even) to get all the sweetness from the marrow bones. At this point, you can remove the bones, pineapple, etc. and strain the broth if you like. Otherwise, you can leave the bones in and scoop around it. Season broth to taste with additional shrimp paste and or salt/sugar.

spice mix: Steep the annatto seed in hot oil until it becomes amber red, and remove from heat and strain and discard seeds. In large saute pan on medium, heat the anatto oil, add garlic, minced lemongrass, minced shallots, and seasoning packet. Saute a few minutes until the mixture becomes fragrant. Remove from heat and mix in fine shrimp paste. Allow to cool and transfer to storage container. This lasts for months.

accompaniments: Slice beef shank thinly, cube pork blood, slice the cha. Prepare the noodles, shred the cabbage and banana blossom, rau ram, etc.

putting it all together: Add the spice mix to the broth according to your level of desired spiciness. You can now season the entire large pot with the spice mix according to your taste, or do what we do, season only the amount of broth you're going to serve and adjusting the level of spiciness to your guest's tastes. Ladle over prepared bowls of noodles and enjoy.

Cooks Notes: If you're making this in the evening, after removing the shank and hock, you can leave the pot on the lowest heat setting to simmer the bones over night. But please use caution and never do this if your pot is too small and broth is close to brim!

Just a few notes on the beef shank and the noodles. The shank is a tough cut because of abundant tendon and sinew, but that’s precisely why it’s good. We like the meat of the shank soft but tendon still chewy so we cook our 3 lb tendon roughly 3 hours. It’s not often found in regular markets so get this at your Asian market.  The rice noodles for bún bò Huế is also much thicker, just smaller than your banh canh or udon noodles. It should be cooked al dante, firm and just slightly chewy and not mushy soft.  Recently our favorite pot to cook noodles for soups and pasta is the Bialetti 5 qt pasta pot.   We love the functionality: it’s nonstick interior, heat resistant handles, and lock lid strainer. But it’s also gorgeous and it has a vaunted spot on our stove next to our cherry red le creuset for everyday use such as making canh. We’re happy to say that the nice folks at Bialetti will be giving away a 5 qt pasta pot to a lucky reader in favorite color (also comes in tourquoise and purple!) To enter:

Mandatory Entry

Leave a comment telling us your favorite Vietnamese noodle soup. The mandatory entry must be done otherwise the bonus entries will not count.

Bonus Entries

1. Subscribe to our blog and leave a blog comment here saying you’ve subscribed (1 entry)

2. “Like” The Ravenous Couple on Facebook and leave a blog comment here with your first name and last initial (1 entry)

3. “Like” Bialetti on Facebook and leave a blog comment here with your first name and last initial. (1 entry)

4. Follow The Ravenous Couple on Twitter and leave a blog comment here after tweeting (1 entry) : I just entered to win a #bialetti pasta pot from @ravenouscouple! Enter here: http://www.theravenouscouple.com/?p=1589

5. In addition to following us on Twitter, you can tweet every day with above comment from #4.  Leave a link to your tweet in a blog comment here (1 entry per day)

US addresses only. Contest ends Sunday 1/1 at midnight! Winners will be selected randomly and notified by email. Thank you everyone for entering, the winner is Tudo!

Disclosure: We were provided the pot to test, but the opinions are our own.

Before starting each meal, the Vietnamese will say “moi”  (adding kinh makes it more respectful) to each other, inviting friends and family to enjoy the meal.  So enjoy our bún bò Huế recipe, and..

This is our contribution to the final Delicious Vietnam, hosted by Anh of Food Lovers Journey. It’s been a great two year run, check out all the previous posts for a great collection of Vietnamese recipes from around the globe!

Due to popular demand and inspired by the Filipino version created by Pig Parts and Beer, we’ve printed Heo Yeah’s T’s just in time for the holidays and they’re ready to ship to your pork lovin’ friends and family. Shirts are printed on 100% cotton fashion fit t’s  and come in S-XL but in very limited quantities so don’t miss out (1/3 have already been reserved by pre-order!) Also, buy with confidence using paypal.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Senhoa, a nonprofit dedicated to helping victims of human trafficking in Southeast Asia.

Visit the Ravenous Couple Store today and get one for yourself and some for your friends and family. Thanks for the support!

Goodbye honeymoon bliss, hello stark reality. Following 12 days of carefree honeymooning Spain where everyday was an culinary adventure, the first thing we craved after a grueling trans-Atlantic and cross country flight back to Los Angeles was something homey,  simple, and soupy.  We expected a warmer welcome, but was greeted with cold, heavy rain, and even hail upon our return.   To top it off, we were both feeling a bit under the weather so a therapeutic and comforting bowl of cháo (rice porridge or congee) was the first thing we made as soon as the jetlag wore off.

There are many different versions of cháo, but the most common are cháo gà (chicken), cháo lòng (pig offal/innards), and cháo cá (fish). Just as there are many varieties, there are just as many ways to make cháo. Some make a plan plain thick bland porridge and then add different types of broth and toppings. We present a very traditional southern way of making cháo cá, made famous in the Mekong delta region, known for its abudance of fish and sea life and floating markets.

You can use any type of firm white flesh fish, however the traditional fish used in the Mekong is cá lóc, the snakehead fish.  We prefer using a whole fish (we used stripe bass. Also if you have frozen shrimp shells saved, use those too) to make stock, however fish filets are acceptable as well.   The easy way would be to cut the fish into bite size pieces and add that to the porridge to cook, however the traditional way of making fish stock and sauteeing the flesh in garlic makes for a deeper and more soulful flavor and totally worth the extra effort.

This is our entry to Delicious Vietnam a blogging event to celebrate Vietnamese cuisine. This month’s event is hosted by the lovely couple, Ginger and Scotch at the eponymous blog Ginger and Scotch. Visit their blog for the complete round up!

Chao Ca Vietnamese Fish Porridge

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup jasmine long grain rice, rinsed and drained
1.5 liters or 6 cups of water
1.5 lb whole firm white fish such as snapper, stripe bass, cod, gutted and cleaned
1.5 ts kosher salt
2 large knob of peeled ginger divided: 1 sliced in chunks and crushed, the remainder thinly julienned
3 shallots (2 whole and 1 sliced thin)
3 cloves of minced garlic
1 medium onion peeled and quartered
2 tbs olive oil
quality fish sauce (such as Red Boat)

1/2 cup chopped green onion and cilatro
fried shallots
fresh cracked pepper
bean sprouts (optional)

Directions:

Wash rice, drain in strainer or small holed collander, and set aside to dry.

In stock pot, bring to boil the whole fish, crushed ginger, whole shallots, onions along with 1.5 ts of salt. Boil about 5-8 minutes, or until the flesh is cooked. Carefully remove the fish and allow to cool. Reduce heat to medium low.

Meanwhile, in nonstick pan with heat on low, heat the olive oil and thinly sliced shallots along with the rice until its color becomes opaque and just slightly browned. Add the browned rice and shallots to the broth and continue to cook under medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Peel away the flesh of the fish and return the head, bones, and tail to the stock. Break up the flesh in chunks and season with a few dashes of fish sauce and pepper. Heat up another 1 tablespoon olive oil in same nonstick pan used to brown the rice and add minced garlic. When fragrant, quickly saute the fish chunks for a few minutes and season to taste.

By now, the rice should bloom and look like porridge. We enjoy a thick but not too thick porridge. You can add more water to thin it out if you like. Remove the remainder of the fish as well as ginger, onions, and shallots. Return the sauteed fish to the porridge and season to taste with salt or fish sauce.

Serve in soup bowls and garnish with green onions/cilantro, fried shallots, julienned ginger, and fresh cracked pepper. Top with fresh bean sprouts and enjoy!

Update: Preorder your Heo Yeah T’s now! Very limited quantities are available. Visit our new online store and pay securely with paypal!

In Vietnam, my grandma, mom, and aunts butchered and sold pork at the market.  They raised as well as purchased heo (pig) from farms to sell at Cho Nhat Tao in district 10 of Saigon.  My dad tells stories of how he would have to stand guard and shoo away the piggies whenever I had to use the bathroom as they roamed around in the yard.  In fact, one of my uncles started a pig farm when he first came to America in 1975 since that’s all he knew.  Pigs have been a vital part of our family are such a vital part of Vietnamese cuisine, we’ve come up with a design to honor every part of it.

The Vietnamese have been using every part of the pig long before nose to tail eating has become vogue.  Inspired by Pig Parts and Beer who have an amazing Filipino version,  we have listed the most common dishes for each section of the pig for classic Vietnamese dishes. Thịt nạc vai (pork shoulder/butt) are the cuts we like for thit nuong and nem nuong. Thịt ba chỉ (pork belly) is great for thit kho, roasted pork belly heo quay, or just pan fried, the sườn (ribs) are great for sườn xào chua ngọt, the loin and tenderloin is great for making giò sống and chả lụa. The má (cheek), mỏ (snout), tai (ears) and lưỡi (tongue) are all used for headcheese. The ham end can be used to make chà bông (pork floss) and the bắp chân (hock) is a favorite component in bún bò Huế.

As part of the Foodbuzz tastemakers program we were given the opportunity to try Walgreens Photocenter to make photo gifts. They have a huge variety of photo gifts available but we decided to go with some t-shirts. It couldn’t have been easier as there’s a Walgreens a few blocks from our house and it was as simple as uploading the photo and ordering it. We also could have easily done it online as well. Because of Foodbuzz and Walgreen’s generosity, we made one extra t-shirt and giving away a Pork the Vietnamese way t-shirt to a lucky reader!

Simply tell us your best pig or pork related stories in the comments…it could be how you rolled in the mud with a pig at a pig farm or how you impressed your spouse with their favorite pork dish…be creative and anything related to pork but  please keep it rated PG (for pig) and we’ll chose a winner by Monday Oct 24th.

Ready to win one?   Heo yeah!

It was so hard to simply choose one winner, but the winning entry is Roe with comment number #33 “When I was about 4 years old, my mom took me back to Vietnam, just me and her visiting the family. We were staying at my ong noi’s house and he had a pig in the backyard!!! As a 4-year-old from America, my eyes widened and my hands promptly went on my hips. I stomped around the kitchen pointing at the pig yelling, “pigs don’t belong here!! pigs can’t live with us!! he has to go to the farm!!” Well, my relatives and ong noi didn’t speak English and looked at me confused, but I wouldn’t stop. Needless to say, 2 days later, Mr. Pig was out of the house, relocated to my uncles, and I got crowned Ms. Dang Da (sp). from then on, if I wanted something, they knew I’d usually get it, or face the wrath of my stomping little feet and hearty lungs.”

Be on the lookout, we may have these printed in limited quantities for purchase.