This is a special guest post told by my dad, Tung.  He’s been hanging out with us for the past month helping around the garden and loves to tell stories and repeats them almost endlessly.  We asked if he had any stories  to share on the blog and if there was any food memories and this is what he told us:

Every April, I can’t help but reminisce about the indelible memories I call “Black April,”  April 30, 1975. It signified the end of the prolonged Vietnam war ending years of sacrifice and bloodshed of both Vietnamese and Americans.   When the war ended, my life and the life my family knew changed forever.  Because I was a high school teach and a former soldier in the South Vietnamese Army, I was placed in re-education camps at Tay Ninh, Phu Quoc, and Long Khanh and survived 3 years of forced hard labor.  Many of my friends did not survive but I was more fortunate and 3 years was relatively short compared with some who were imprisoned 10 or 20 years.  I did everything possible to survive, even resorting to eating anything I could forage or catch such as grasshoppers, lizards, and even snake.

Serving in the South Vietnamese Army 1968.

Meanwhile, my wife along with our oldest daughter and Hong had fend for themselves, waiting for me to come home. Finally in October 1978, I was released but I realized that Vietnam was no longer the Vietnam I knew and that my children would not have a future there.  I decided to escape Vietnam with my family at all cost.  Even though I knew escaping could lead to our family’s death or separation, I was willing to “tìm caí sống trong caí chết,” to find freedom at all cost, dead or alive.

We were not the only family as hundreds of thousands of families faced a similar decision. Despite the risks of being lost at sea, drowning, or pirate attacks, the cost of freedom was high. Our family could only afford to send 3 people, despite having 6 in our family (my third daughter was born after I was released and my wife was 5 months pregnant.)  My wife and I were willing to split up family with the hopes of re-uniting together again in the future.  How long we’ll be apart or by what means we would be united, we didn’t know, but we were willing to take that risk.

A similar 30 ft fishing to the one I was on, holding an astounding 120 people.

Dressed as peasants and with only the shoes and cloths on our back, I took my oldest children Tam and Hong on a days journey west to Rach Giá, a fishing village on the western coast of Vietnam.  We stayed in a hut by the river for 2 days and on the third night,  march 16th 1980, under the cover of darkness, we  huddled in a small canoe and they pulled a fishing net over our bodies to hide us.   The canoe took us 1 mile to our rendez-vous point, but it seemed like an eternity as we feared for our lives at being caught.  We reached a larger fishing boat in the open waters of in the Gulf of Thailand and despite being only a 30 ft fishing boat, we were among 120 other families crammed together in every nook and cranny of the rickety boat.  It didn’t matter that were packed like sardines, elbow to elbow, we were all silent, scared to death, praying not to get caught and to reach our destination alive.  For three days and two nights we didn’t budge from our spot on the boat and didn’t have a single bite to eat or drink. We were truly at God’s mercy.  My oldest daughter, Tam cried of thirst, but no one had any water to give except drops of rain water I could catch in my palms.  At dusk on the third night, we arrived  in a small fishing village of Klong Yai, at the border of Thailand and Cambodia.  Strangers in a strange land, no one disturbed us and we just slept on the  boat until the following morning. The next day, the Thai police arrived and took everyone up the coast about 80 miles to Laem Sing Refugee Camp along the eastern boarder of Thailand, which became our new home.

Rach Gia, Vietnam to Klong Yai, Thailand about 250 miles by land.

Laem Sing Refugee Camp was a camp only by name. There were no housing or barracks, it was a barren peninsula where thousands of Vietnamese stayed for refuge from 1976 to 1981. Essentially a shanty town built of make shift shelters of tin scraps and wood,  life there was extremely difficult.  We were lucky as we found shelter underneath a crematorium, away from the elements.    There was a food ration every day of rice and fish and water, but aside from that everyone  had to fend for themselves.  Sometimes there might be small pieces of chicken or a single egg to share among the three of us.

Image of a typical refugee camp courtesy of refugeecamps.net

We were grateful for the Thai people and at least we had food and shelter but most importantly we were alive and safe.  Back in Vietnam, my wife only knew that we made it safely to Thailand by telegram message I sent when we arrived.   My initial days and weeks at the camp was just focused on taking care of my children and surviving in the camp. I didn’t have time to worry about the future and when or how our family will be united again.   The goal was to make it to America and then sponsor my wife, third daughter, and our unborn child in the future. Five, ten, or fifteen years in the future, I had no idea but that was my goal.

There were at least 5,000 refugees at the camp by my count and more were coming each week. Each time new refugees came, there was much excitement and people would run to greet them in the hopes of finding a familiar face,  a family member or friend who might have escaped safely. I had a young cousin who would always go and occasionally tease me, saying my wife had arrived. But I knew he was teasing and never participated in this ritual because I knew we did not have the means for her to escape. About one month later, on a lazy afternoon of April 30th, he  came running and screaming, “Chị Phú đến! Chị Phú đến!”  This time it was different. He was screaming emphatically and caught in the emotion and excitement  I ran to to the entrance of the camp, scanning the crowd of about 100 new refugees and saw her. My pregnant wife and youngest daughter, Ngoc. I ran to embrace them. We were a family again.

A few days after being reunited, our family registration photo take United Nations High Council on Refugee (UNHCR)

Unbeknownst to me, my mother in law also had secured enough loans to send my 5 month pregnant wife and youngest daughter about a month after I left, on 4/15/80. She went from Can Tho on the eastern border of Vietnam and arrived safely in Sattahip Naval base where she stayed until she was also transferred to Laem Sing Refugee camp.

That is why I will always remember April 30th. It was the day my country fell, but it was also the day my family was reunited. I will always be grateful to God and everyone that brought us safely from Vietnam and eventually to America.  We spent another 6 months at Laem Sing, during which my youngest daughter, Freedom was born before being sponsored to America.  However life during the last 6 months could not have been better.  We were all together and was able to get more food and my wife began to cook meals for the family again.  One of the first family meals together was a simple dish she cooked called miến gà, a  chicken glass noodle soup.  Even though I ate this dish hundreds of times in the past, this time with our family re-united and free, I felt immensely blessed and grateful.  Thinking what could have been and the remote odds of seeing my family together so soon,  I ate  this simple dish with such happiness. It was the most satisfying and unforgettable meal I’ve ever experienced.

So when my dad retold this story to us this past week, 33 years later, Kim was able to recreated this dish for my dad to celebrate the anniversary of April 30th. For more information about the Vietnamese Boat People experience,  check out Boat People: Personal Stories From the Vietnamese Exodus 1975-1996  by Carina Hoang and and the UC Irvine Vietnamese American Oral History Project and in DVD or Netflix, Journey from the Fall.

Miến Gà

Yield: 4 -6

Ingredients:

1 free range chicken
5 quarts water
1/4 lb chicken gizzards, trimmed
1/4 lb chicken hearts
1 large yellow onion, charred
1 large knob of ginger, charred
1 can of sliced bamboo shoots, drained and rinsed (optional)
1/2 cup of sliced shiitake mushrooms (optional)
1 package of glass(bean thread) noodles
chopped scallions
fried shallots
black pepper
rau răm

Directions:

Char the onion and ginger over flame of your stove or broiler. In large stock pot, make the chicken stock by adding charred onion and ginger, chicken, gizzards, and hearts to the water and bringing to boil. Reduce to simmer until chicken is tender and cooked, roughly 30-40 minutes. Check by piercing the chicken at the thickest point with knife and see if any blood oozes out.

Remove the chicken and wrap in plastic wrap and allow to cool. Season the stock to your personal taste with salt/fish sauce, and pinch of sugar. Add the shiitake or bamboo shoots at this point if you like.

Soak the bean thread noodles in hot water for about 15 minutes. Shred the chicken by hand, leaving drumsticks and wings intact. Prepare each bowl with bean thread noodles and shredded chicken and bring the broth back to boil. Ladle broth into bowls and top generously with chopped scallions, fried shallots and ground black pepper. Serve immediately with side of rau răm.

From the fertile mountainous hillsides of Da Lat to the beautiful city by the bay,  Nha Trang, Kim’s uncle Anh Dung would boast that there’s no country in Asia that has such a diverse geography like Vietnam. He insisted we visited Nha Trang and even payed for our transportation despite our protests.  Located in the south central Vietnam coast, Nha Trang has a mild climate year round and is one of the major tourist destinations in Vietnam. Known for it’s white sandy beaches and crystal blue waters, it’s a major destination for rest and relaxation among locals and foreigners alike.

But escaping to Nha Trang doesn’t mean there’s a lack of great food. We escaped the noise and congestion of Saigon to take in the sands, mud baths, and of course the special delicacies of Nha Trang.

It’s no surprise that our first bite in Nha Trang involved seafood–more specifically fish and jelly fish (sứa) in a dish aptly named called would bún cá sứa.  The locals directed us to a street side restaurant opening to the sidewalk,  aptly named  Bún Cá Sứa since it’s the only thing they serve.  We love that about Vietnamese restaurants–no frills and to the point —no menu needed. Like many vermicelli noodle soups, bún cá sứa is often eaten for breakfast but can be eaten at any meal. It’s a delicate broth made from large steaks of meaty white local fish and fish bones accented by tangy tomatoes and red annatto seed oil.

The jelly fish is actually more complementary and added like a condiment along with chunks of meaty white fish, and a variety of chả cá (fried fish patties). Just barely cooked, fresh jelly fish is firm and not at all slimy like one might think, and is rather tasteless but adds a textural punch to the dish.

Add the requisite fresh thinly sliced veggies and dip the fish cakes and jellyfish in the red chile fish sauce and you have a delicious noodle soup for any time of day.  Bún Cá Sứa 87  Yersin, Nha

Another must eat specialty this south central province of Khanh Hoa, and not just Nha Trang, is grilled pork skewers, nem nướng.  Our destination is also aptly named Quán nem nướng Ninh Hòa Nha Trang. Here the pork is boldly seasoned with garlic, sugar, and black pepper is pounded into a paste and wrapped on bamboo chopsticks and grilled to perfection.  It’s served with a platter of fresh herbs and pickled vegetables and everything comes together by wrapping it all in rice paper and dipping it into a special sauce.

Instead of the ubiquitous nuoc mam cham or a peanut sauce, the people of this region created a sweet and savory orange colored syrupy sauce with bits of pork and shrimp..and perhaps annatto or tomato.  Popularized in Southern California by Brodard’s restaurant, the orange secret sauce is quite common in this region. We’ve yet to crack the recipe as the locals were quite guarded when asked.

The restaurant also serves a variety of grilled meats as well as a delicious nem chua, a fermented pork that’s wrapped in banana leaves,stacked high on the restaurant counter.  The best part is that all the grilling doesn’t happen behind the seens in the kitchen, but right on the side walk, luring you in with the intoxicating aroma of charred grilled nem nướng.     Quán nem nướng Ninh Hòa Nha Trang 69 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Nha Trang. 

We’re fortunate to enjoy a winter harvest with the mild southern California weather. Our garden is full of winter vegetables such as bok choy and edible chrysanthemum, but the harvest we look forward most is our Meyer lemons.  Our baby Meyer lemon tree only yielded 6  lemons last winter, but with more nurturing throughout the year, our tree more than tripled it’s bounty this winter. Thought to have been crossed from a Eureka lemon and a mandarin orange, we love Meyer lemons because it’s sweeter and more fragrant then a regular lemon, without the mouth puckering sourness.  While juicing them for lemonade is perfectly acceptable, we’re always trying to find other ways to maximize our harvest and the unique flavors of Meyer lemons. That’s where the lemon ice box pie comes in. Sarah‘s version of this classic southern pie at Hollywood’s new The Hart and the Hunter restaurant won us over with it’s silky smooth and tart bright flavors. Plus, the chilled texture of the pie was a pleasure to eat. We immediately went home to harvest our Meyer lemon tree and attempted to recreate the pie.

A lemon ice box pie differs from a classic lemon meringue pie in two key ways. First, you’re not cooking the lemon custard ahead of time and second, it’s a frozen pie, which sets the lemon filling and also a great way to enjoy the bright citrus flavors. There are many recipes on the internet, many using cream cheese and whipped cream topping. Our recipe is adapted from Food and Wine magazine and based on what we ate from Sarah’s creation.  We didn’t grow up in the South eating grandma’s lemon ice box pie, but if you did and care to share, please do!
This is the perfect make ahead dessert as it requires freezing at least overnight. It also stores well, at least a week if well wrapped, perfect for a daily slice of heaven or unexpected guests.

Lemon Ice Box Pie

Ingredients:

2 packets (14 crackers) graham crackers
6 tbs melted butter
1/2 cup sugar, divided in 1/4 portions
4 eggs, yolks and whites separated
2 cups fresh Meyer lemon juice (or any fresh lemon)
2 tbs lemon zest
2 cans condensed milk
9 inch spring form pan

Directions:

Preheat oven at 350. Process the graham crackers and 1/4 cup of sugar in a food processor until fine and add the melted butter and pulse until butter is incorporated. Pour into spring form pan and spread out the mixture evenly and 1/2 way up the sides to form the crust. Press a measuring cup against the side of the pan to even out the crust. Set aside.

In mixing bowl, whisk the condensed milk, lemon juice, zest, eggs until well incorporated. Poor mixture into the pan. Whip the meringue by combining remaining 1/4 sugar and egg whites until stiff peaks and spoon on top of the pie, spreading evenly to seal the pie. Bake for about 25 minutes or until top of meringue is golden brown, remove and allow to cool. Cover well with plastic wrap and place in the freezer overnight. To serve, do not defrost. Remove from freezer and run a knife around the edge pie to release the meringue and then release the spring form pan. Run knife in hot water, slice and serve.

Optional: torch the sides of the meringue of each slice before serving. The cake will last a week in the freezer if well wrapped.

During our recent trip to Vietnam, we had fish sauce wings or cánh gà chiên nước mắm at roadside eateries in Vietnam and love the sticky, shellac like layer of fish sauce studded with garlic on a crispy fried chicken wing. It’s the perfect balanced combination of sweet and salty that Vietnamese foods are known for, and in essence, a process of caramelization not unlike gà kho or thit kho that results in a perfect finger licking lacquer of fish sauce, sugar, and garlic.

Here in the US, it’s unfortunate not that many Vietnamese restaurants serve it or else Vietnamese fried chicken wings might be just as popular as Korean fried chicken wings. However, chef Andy Ricker and cook Ich Truong of Pok Pok in Portland, have single handedly made fish sauce wings into a huge cult hit. Using Ich’s family recipe, the dish was name Food and Wine’s top 10 restaurant dishes of 2007. We recently made it for the superbowl without changing much, except for increasing the amount of garlic—by a lot.  Make sure you use high quality fish sauce for this recipe, such as Red Boat which does not have any additives. The fish sauce and sugar marinade can really handle  a lot more than the recipe calls for so we recommend being aggressive on the garlic. Plus,  you can always save any extra fried garlic for another dish or another batch of wings.

Fish Sauce Wings Pok Pok Wings

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Vietnamese fish sauce
1/2 cup superfine sugar (or just regular white sugar)
4 garlic cloves, 2 crushed and 2 minced (we used about 4 heads of garlic, divided
3 pounds chicken wings split at the drumettes (We used drummets and wings and find it's easier to fry.)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for frying
1 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon chopped mint

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk the fish sauce, sugar and crushed garlic. Add the wings and toss to coat. Refrigerate for 3 hours, tossing the wings occasionally.

Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a small skillet. Add the minced garlic; cook over moderate heat until golden, 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

In a large pot, heat 2 inches of oil to 350°. Pat the wings dry on paper towels; reserve the marinade. Put the cornstarch in a shallow bowl, add the wings and turn to coat lightly. Dust off any extra. Fry the wings in batches until golden and cooked through. Drain on cooling rack and transfer to a bowl.

In a small saucepan, simmer the marinade over moderately high heat until syrupy (see photo above). Strain over the wings and toss. Top with the cilantro, mint and fried garlic and serve.

Recipe from Food and Wine Magazine. You can fry wings in advance and when ready to serve, caramelize the marinade in a large wok or frying pan and then reheat the wings by tossing it in the sauce when thickened.

Vietnamese hams, or chả is ubiquitous part of Vietnamese cuisine. But like many Vietnamese dishes, the people of each region add special touches to a dish and call it their own. And it’s no different with chả Huế, a relative unknowned compared with chả lụa. This ham originates from Huế, the ancestral capital of Vietnam and is often eaten as a snack and as a meat topping to the classic bún bò Huế soup. In fact, we’re always a tad disappointed when we don’t get a nugget of chả Huế in our soup. Why so? Well, to the generically mild pork paste giò sống, a generous amount of minced garlic and cracked pepper corns are added, transforming a typically mild chả into one with a delicious kick.

You can make your own pork paste or buy them premade in the frozen or refrigerated section of your Vietnamese market.  Individually wrapped and steamed in banana leaves, these make for great gifts when visiting friends or relatives, especially with the Lunar new year, Tet, right around the corner.  Here’s a short video on how to roll chả Huế.

Chả Huế

Yield: 10

Ingredients:

1 lb raw pork paste (giò sống)
1 tbs of coarsely cracked white or black peppercorns
1 head of garlic finely minced
1/2 tbs sugar
1/2 ts fish sauce
~10-12 sheets of 4 x 6 inch banana leaves and thin 6x 1/4 inch banana leaf strips to tie

Directions:

Prepare your steamer. Combine all the ingredients into a mixing bowl until well incorporated. You can pinch off 1/2 ts and microwave it for about 30s and season to taste. Add more garlic and/or peppercorns if you like it more spicy.

Place about 1 heaping tbs of mixture onto one end of the banana leaf. Fold over the side edges and roll the pork mixture. Seal with the banana strip by giving it several twists and tuck the loose ends under. See video above.

Steam for 10 minutes, or until thoroughly cooked. Enjoyed immediately or at room temperature.

Japanese Cooking Classes

If you know of a Japanese food lover in the greater Los Angeles or Orange County area, you’ll love the cooking classes at Japanese Food Story. In a cozy private kitchen loft in Downtown LA several times a month by Yoko Issasi, hosts a variety of classes emphasizing the rich culture and traditions of Japanese cuisine. Classes range from traditional home style Japanese food, holiday foods, sushi ettiquette, ramen broth and noodle making, and more. Perfect for a gift to yourself, a loved one, or even group and corporate events. Find out class schedule and information at http://japanesefoodstory.com

Redboat Fish Sauce

In the world of fish sauce, Red Boat fish sauce is equivalent to the Dom Perignon to the hundrends of brands fish sauces available. Anchovies in the highly regarded Phu Quoc islands of Vietnam is salted and aged in tropical wood barrels for over a year to extract fish sauce that’s golden, red, with a deep rich taste like none other. There is no added water, sugar, persatives or MSG like some brands. What you get is pure and wonderful umami and it’s all we use. Find the nearest retailer here.

Ayara Thai Sauces

Living near Thai town in Los Angeles, we’re lucky to enjoy authentic Thai flavors at our convenience. Sometimes though, it’s not possible and that’s where Ayara Thai Sauces come to the rescue. Ayara Thai is family run restaurant of Anna and Andy Asapahu that has bottled their family recipes for everyone to use. We love all the sauces but particularly love the pad thai sauce for a quick and authentic weekday stir fry. All their sauces use natural ingredients with no perservatives or MSG. We’ve eaten there and it’s essentially the same sauces they use in their restaurant, bottled and directly available to you. Find out how to get yours here.

Spring Roll Dipping Tray and brown rice Noodles and rice paper

Spring rolls are so quick, easy, and deliciously healthy. It’s our go to snack or appetizer in a multi-course meal such as ca nuong or nem nuong cuon. A rice paper dipping tray such as New Star International fits the bill perfectly, allowing us to store and dip the rice paper in a handsome and nonobtrusive way. No more big hot bowl of water and plate of rice paper taking up valuable table space. Purchase the New Star International Rice Paper / Egg Roll Water Bowl

While regular rice paper is fine and good, if you’re looking for a boost in flavor and nutritional value, check out Star Anise Food’s line of all natural brown rice paper and noodles. You can substitute this for any recipe call for rice paper or rice noodles. Find out where you can get Star Anise products here.

Cook Books: My Vietnam and Asian Dumplings

Now that you’re armed with some Asian pantry staples, what can you do with them? Here are two fabulous books that will make any Asian food lover jump for joy. For classic Vietnamese recipes showcasing the diversity of cuisines from the Mekong to Hanoi, check out Australian chef Luke Nguyen’s My Vietnam: Stories and Recipes.  The stories and photos are simply stunning and contains both rare home style dishes as well as well known dishes.

Another great book from veteran cookbook author Andrea Nguyen, Asian Dumplings is the ultimate guide to dumpling delicacies of all varieties that are either wrapped, folded, pleated, and otherwise twisted.  Thorough and well organized, the recipes will have you mastering new dishes and techniques that span across the entire Asian continent.

Mans Pans Wok Steamer

A gift guide for food lovers wouldn’t be complete without some cookware. We often keep frozen dumplings on hand for weekday dinners and so whether we steam or fry, the Manpans wok steamer is the perfect one stop shop. It’s PTFE free, PFOA free, toxin free and made in the good ol’ USA.  We love the cool touch handle and it’s nonstick qualities.  It’s a great versatile pan in any kitchen.

Socola Artisan Truffles

For that special someone, Socola chocolate truffles make a decadent gift. Award winning truffles from sisters, Wendy and Susan Lieu, are uniquely flavored by their heritage (think Vietnamese esspresso truffles and Sriracha truffles) as well as travels. A special holiday is also available in flavors of champagne, hazelnut praline, fresh mint, and pecan toffee. Yes, please.  Order online from their website here.

Vietnamese themed food T-shirts and posters

Finally, we’ll be remiss to not to toot our own horn and remind you of our Vietnamese themed food gifts. From posters to shirts, display your love for Vietnamese food proudly either with a  stunning poster or unique t-shirt. We offer free priority shipping on orders over $60. Check them out in our store and thank you for supporting this blog.  Have a happy and safe holidays everyone!

While the aroma of street foods at the Đà Lạt night market may entice you to spend your entire evening there, don’t.  Save your appetite as we’ve got some must visit restaurants to try in Đà Lạt.  We use the term restaurant loosely–restaurants in Vietnam are not the typical Western style restaurants–often they’re the bottom floor of someone’s home where the owners lives directly above on the upper levels of the home.

The first spot, Bánh Xèo Bà Chi specializes in central style banh xeo. Unlike it’s southern counter part, central banh xeo are  much smaller, almost deep fried, and as a result, much more crispy.  To get here, you have to go through a small alley way and enter through the kitchen.

Yes, you walk right past the grand daughter cooking banh xeo to order and the matriarch, Bà Chi herself, deep frying chả giò to a prefect crisp and golden consistency.  This family restaurant has been in business for years and well known among locals.

Walk thruough to the living room and grab a table.  Order several platefuls of banh xeo (only $1 each!) and plate of  chả giò (both come with all the vegatble and herb fixings) and you’ll be all the more happy for it.   Visit Bánh Xèo Bà Chi at 43B,  3 tháng 2 hẻm thủy tiên.

Across town near the old French quarter is Phúc Nguyên, a restaurant specializing in goat 7 ways de 7 món. Similar to the famous beef 7 ways, de 7 món is a very popular and festive meal in Vietnam for special occasions.  The best goats in Vietnam are found in the mountainous region of Ninh Binh in Northern Vietnam and but also in Đà Lạt with it’s hilly mountain sides. You can order specific items from the 7 courses of goat and not obligated to order all 7 courses, but if you did, it won’t set you back much at all as most dishes are around $5. Steamed de hấp and grilled de nướng (above) is was fantastic without any significant gaminess.

The best way to enjoy these meats is top with some citrus-y herbs on bánh đa rice cracker with touch of of pungent sauce of shrimp paste, pickled garlic, slivers of lemongrass, chile and lime. Or you can wrap these meats in rice paper as well.

The goat hot pot, lẩu de, is a gamey and dark broth of  made goat knuckles and long bones, with chunks of  fall of the bone meat and tendon .  It comes with the requisite plateful of herbs vegetables and varietal of noodles and eggs to lighten the dish.

The owner is actually an Indian immigrant to Vietnam decades ago and specializes in curried goat cà ri de and sauteed turmeric  de xào lăn.  Both are stand outs, rich in flavor standing up to the goat meat.

Make sure you go early in the evening as this place tends to get packed with large groups of families and friends ready to celebrate and enjoy a great evening of food and camraderie.   Phúc Nguyên 32Trần Hưng Đạo. 

We spent 3 days here breathing in the cool crisp summer air, a welcomed departure from the smog polluted air of Saigon. It was the first night since arriving in Vietnam that we weren’t awaken by the incessant horns of motorbikes and taxis, which was equally refreshing. Originally built as a resort town during the French colonization, Đà Lạt is a small urban town of 200,000 compared with the 10 million of Saigon, and still remains a popular vacation and honeymoon destination for the Vietnamese.

Aside from the beautiful scenery. We made several trips the central market of  Đà Lạt, a vital hub of the city and  a street photographer’s dream. Inside the market are many dry goods stalls tightly packed together,  but surrounding the market on all sides is abuzz with activity and interesting food scenes.  The narrow side roads around the market doubles as a market stall for vendors and route of transportation for bicycles, motorbikes, cars, and pedestrian shoppers alike.  Watch your step as you might just run into a fresh load of durian freshly plucked from the trees and brought to market by motorbike.

You will find vendors of all ages, from stout wrinkled grandmotherly types to lithe teens flexing huge bundles of hot from the oven banh mi on their hips as easily as if they were carrying their newborn. Since there’s traffic on all four side streets around the market, the more mobile vendors will constantly move their wares, either carrying this load of banh mi like this girl or hitching it to a bamboo stick.

You can find everything from fresh durian, rambutan, and pomelo  to fresh fish and meats. Unlike here in the States, Vietnamese shop for the day not the week.  There are many families that don’t even have refrigeration to stock up so daily trips to the market for produce is common place.

Above the market on the second level are many food stalls, but by late afternoon as the market closes, the front entrance to the market comes alive with street food vendors of all varieties. Since the temperature tends to be cool in the evenings, hot chicken congee with appropriate offals as well as hearty beef stews, bo kho are on the menu to warm the soul. Grilled meat on sticks and betel wrapped beef skewers tinge the cool fresh air with it’s smoky salivating aroma.  It’s a fantastic way to spend an afternoon immersed in the sights, sounds, and smells of Đà Lạt with the locals.

We previously wrote about the meaning of Tet trung thu festival and the ubiquitous and delicious mooncakes but never thought of making them ourselves.  We thought it was too complicated to make at home, but fortunately we were proven wrong.  Many moons ago, when Cathy of Gastronomy blog came back from Vietnam with authentic wooden modes for banh trung thu, we got together with friends for an afternoon of baking moon cakes in the middle of spring  lead by our fearless leader, Diep of Good Girl Dinette.  It didn’t matter if Tet trung thu always falls in September/October of each year, we all wanted to learn.  Flour was tossed, eggs beaten and moon cakes we knocked out, literally.  There’s always a pent up craving for moon cakes each year  as they’re only made during the weeks leading up to the  midautumn moon festival.  Mooncake stands will pop up at street corners of Vietnam to satisfy the masses.  Typically baked, this wheat dough pastry resemble a hockey puck, albiet one that’s much more pleasing to the mouth. They  are often filled with lotus seed or bean paste with or without various nuts, dried candied fruits (mứt), salty yolks, and other savories such as sausage, chicken or pork.

Baking mooncakes at home isn’t terribly hard, you just need a bit of preparation and special mooncake modes which is often the hardest part to find. Traditional modes are carved from a single block of wood and we’ve only seen them in Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Plastic modes however can occasionally be found in Asian markets, particularly in large Chinatowns so keep an eye out for them the next time you go.

It’s a great activity to have family and friends over, catching up on lost times and pounding out mooncakes. Plus, it’s tons of fun trying to see who makes the best impressions using the mode as it does take a combination of confidence and skill to strike the mode the right spots to knock out the perfect mooncake. Here’s a quick video on how it’s done:

Indeed, baking mooncakes is cherished family tradition every autumn with Diep and her family, not unlike a Vietnamese version of Thanksgiving. If baked mooncakes aren’t your thing, either due to taste of gluten allergy, try rice flour based  ice or snow skin  mooncakes with it’s mochi like chew. If you’re up to the challenge, try Diep’s recipe below and have a great Tet trung thu on September 30th!

Banh Trung Thu with Roasted Sweet Potato

Ingredients:

filling

5 lbs sweet potatoes
1.5 stick butter, at room temperature
400 grams granulated sugar
1 tbsp freshly ground cinnamon
1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
1 tsp kosher salt

dough

600 grams brown sugar
2 c water
130 grams oil
1850 grams ap flour
12 egg yolks
3 tbsp freshly grated ginger

Directions:

Sweet Potato Filling

1. roast sweet potatoes until they are tender and can be easily pierced
with knife.
2. peel and discard skins and mash potatoes.
3. mix together butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt. add to
mashed sweet potatoes. let cool.

Dough

1. combine brown sugar and water in a pot and cook over medium heat
until sugar dissolves. cool and transfer to standing mixer with whisk
attachment.
2. add oil and ginger, and egg yolks.
3. slowly add flour. At some point, the dough will be too stiff for the whisk
attachment. replace with a paddle attachment and continue to add the
rest of the flour.
4. transfer dough to a worktable, for rolling.

Assembly

1. form filling into balls. the size will depend on the size of your
mooncake mold.
2. take a bit of dough and roll out until it forms a sheet about 1/8 inch
thick.
3. Enrobe the filling with the dough. pinch the seams to seal. Place on
silpat-lined baking sheets.

Baking

1. pre-heat oven to 350.
2. spray mooncakes with some water, then apply an eggwash for a glossy
sheen afterwards
3. bake for 15 mins.
4. spray mooncakes again. Turn down oven to 300 and bake until crust is
golden.

Diep from Good Girl Dinette

From Tebetian highlands to the lowlands of southwest Vietnam, the Mekong river and it’s thousands of tributaries meanders it’s way across 39,000 square km in Vietnam known as the Mekong Delta or miền tây (western region) , encompassing the lands immediately west of Saigon to the very southern tip, Cà Mau.

Dubbed as a biologic treasure trove, the waters of Mekong river is a way of life for over 17 million inhabitants. It’s waters and rich soil help to produce half of the countries rice crop each year as well as an abundance of fruits. It’s also home to large aquacultural industry raising catfish, basa, and shrimp.

Life here revolves around the river–owning a boat is just as important as a scooter, if not more, as it means you can ferry your crops to the market to sell to earn a living. The Cái Răng market in Cần Thơ, is one of the largest floating markets in the region. Mainly a wholesale market for fruits and vegetables, this normal way of life has become a must see destination for anyone visiting this area.

Each morning at sunrise, the market is teaming with activity. Hundreds of large wholesale boats from all over delta converge and drop anchor in the market, hanging their crops on bamboo poles to signal what’s in season and for sale.  We’re not sure if there’s any order to it all–bananas on one end or dragon fruit on the other, but the the large boats create lanes, or market aisles if you will, for smaller retail boats (and tourists boats) to weave through. Instead of aisle numbers and shopping carts, check the bamboo poles weave your boat to your vendor, place your order and soon bundles of fruit and vegetables are tossed onto your boat. It’s an extraordinary way of doing business that you’ll ever experience.

If you see household items on the boat such as cloths or pots and pans, or even pets on boat it doesn’t mean it’s for sale. Some families actually call the boats home!

As with markets on land, there’s no shortage of food options to satisfy all the hungry vendors and visitors. You can flag down floating cafes to indulge your cafe sua da morning fix as well as banh mi boats to satisfy your breakfast cravings.

Oh, but you’ll rather have a bowl of hủ tiếu instead? No problem! There’s a boat for that too. Just good luck trying to eat a bowl of noodles in a floating boat.  After you manage that, the noodle lady will navigate around find you and retrieve her bowl and chopsticks. The ingenuity and perseverance of these people are simply amazing.

But the Mekong Delta isn’t known for hủ tiếu or even pho for that matter. It’s known for dishes that uses the abundant seafood and vegetables from the region such as hot pots called lẫu mắm made from salted fish as well as one of our favorite soups, canh chua. We adore canh chua because the contrasting flavors of sour, sweet, and savory and we also love the contrasting textures of all the different vegetables. Literally translated as sour soup, canh chua combines all the wonderful abundance of this region, incorporating seafood (such catfish, snakehead, eel, shrimp among others) along with colorful medley of tamarind, pineapple, tomatoes, okra, elephant ears, bean sprouts and a variety of herbs such as lemony ngo om. Enjoy canh chua with some steamed jasmine rice as part of a traditional Vietnamese meal or alone with some rice vermicelli noodles.

Everytime we make this dish, we’ll always remember the floating fruit vendors and  life on the Mekong.  If you’re visiting, hire a private small private boat to visit the market early around sunrise or slightly after when it’s most busy.

Canh Chua Sour Tamarind Soup with Prawns

Yield: 4 servings

We love using prawns for this dish but you can use your favorite seafood. Any firm white fish steaks would work well.

This recipe requires preparing tamarind pulp. It's best to use wet seedless tamarind typically sold in 14 oz blocks instead of juice or concentrates, although you certainly could if pressed for time. For why and how to prepare the pulp, see this link. by Leela of shesimmers.com

Ingredients:

6 cups of water or fish stock
1/2 lb large prawns, cleaned
1 cup tamarind pulp puree
1/2 sweet pineapple, peeled, sliced into bite-sized pieces
2 tomatos, cut in wedges
2 tbs sugar, plus additional to taste
1 tbs koshar salt, plus additonal to taste
1 tbs fish sauce
1-2 elephant ear stems, peeled and sliced on diagonal 1/2in thick
1 cup okra, sliced diagonal
2 red chilli, sliced (optional)
1/2 cup of bean sprouts
10 springs of rice paddy herb, roughly chopped
fried garlic

Directions:

Combine the tamarind pulp in equal amout (i.e 14 oz block, 14 fl oz water, roughly 1 cup) of hot water in a large bowl and soak for 15 minutes. Work the pulp with your hands until dissolved, squeezing out the puree and then tossing away the membranes. You're left with just the thick brown pulp puree. You can also strain the pulp through a fine sieve instead of using your hands.

In large pot bring water to boil and then add prawns, tamarind pulp puree, tomatoes, pineapple, okra, fish sauce, salt and sugar and bring back to boil.

When prawns are pink and tomatoes are just tender, add bean sprouts and elephant ear stems and season with additional salt or fish salt and sugar to taste. It should be sweet, sour, and savory.

Remove from heat and transfer to serving bowl. Finish with rice patty herb, fried garlic and optional chili.