Vietnamese Food

[guppymo]

Guppymo, what is the Vietnamese name for the beef salad? I'd like to look it up so I can get an idea of the proportions for the dressing.

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Sarensho,

It's called "Bo bop thau"

[sanrensho]

It's called "Bo bop thau"

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Thank you! Please keep the great posts coming.

[Nathan P.]

Your food always looks so good guppymo, This is my newest obsession in Vietnamese food. I've been told the name but have already forgotten; banh something I think. I'm getting them from the steam table at a restuarant/banh mi place. They are a fritter with sweet potato (i think) and a bit of onion and then a shrimp on top. Slightly sweet and delicous even after sitting under heat lamps and being reheated in the oven.

Any idea on how to make this? Seems more like a street food dish than a home cooked dish.

[Mistinguett]

Guppymo, I would much appreciate a recipe for Canh chua ca. Of course I could google it but I'd rather have your input. Everything you make looks so amazing, I can almost taste it!

[fodgycakes]

Guppymo, I would much appreciate a recipe for Canh chua ca. Of course I could google it but I'd rather have your input. Everything you make looks so amazing, I can almost taste it!

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Canh chua ca is one of my favorites. It's one of my most requested foods of my mother when I visit home.

I have a pictorial on the making of this soup here, along with some other Vietnamese seafood dishes. The instructions for canh chua are around the middle.

Mine is not as pretty but tastes the way I like it. (:

[SuzySushi]

Canh chua ca is one of my favorites.  It's one of my most requested foods of my mother when I visit home.

I have a pictorial on the making of this soup here, along with some other Vietnamese seafood dishes. The instructions for canh chua are around the middle.

Mine is not as pretty but tastes the way I like it. (:

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Wonderful blog entry, Michelle! I must admit I've never seen sweet custard topped with shrimp and can't wrap my mind around how that would taste. Guess I'm just going to have to try it for myself!

[fodgycakes]

Thank you, Suzy! I actually would not particularly recommend the shrimp custard tart unless you are just curious. It worked well enough as my attempt to make a dessert that had seafood because I thought it would be a fun challenge, but it's not something I would crave.

[Mistinguett]

Michelle, bookmarked your blog. Wonderful, thank you!

[guppymo]

Mistinguett,

Did you have a chance to make "canh chua ca" from Fodgycakes' recipe ? Sorry, I was away and did not get back to you soon. By the way I would love to poke and eat the fish eyes from the picture that Fodgycakes posted.

[guppymo]

Your food always looks so good guppymo,  This is my newest obsession in Vietnamese food.  I've been told the name but have already forgotten; banh something I think.  I'm getting them from the steam table at a restuarant/banh mi place.  They are a fritter with sweet potato (i think) and a bit of onion and then a shrimp on top.  Slightly sweet and delicous even after sitting under heat lamps and being reheated in the oven.

Any idea on how to make this?  Seems more like a street food dish than a home cooked dish.

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Nathan,

That looks like "tôm phết bột" or "Bánh tôm" or shrimp "tempura", you can buy those batter flour in a package in a Vietnamese or big Asian market in any town with good Asian population.

Sorry, I never made it before but I think there's recipe imprinted on the back of the flour package.

[fodgycakes]

Mistinguett,

Did you have a chance to make "canh chua ca" from Fodgycakes' recipe ? Sorry, I was away and did not get back to you soon. By the way I would love to poke and eat the fish eyes from the picture that Fodgycakes posted.

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The eyes and cheeks are my favorites! I hope you didn't mind me stepping in since you hadn't yet.. this thread is probably my favorite thread on eGullet! How is your canh chua recipe compared to mine? I'm always tweaking and looking for variations. My mom always tells me to add certain things until it "tastes right" so sometimes I wonder if I'm missing something.. I guess I'm not if things do taste right to me but I suppose I always like to know if I can make it even better.

[guppymo]

Fodgycakes,

No, please step right in, in fact it's always better to have others contribute to the food topic that we both love. So please share more here

To get back to canh chua topic, I use the same ingredients that you listed in your blog, but I like my canh chua to be a little hot to add some zest so I also use red chili powder. Basically I would marninate the fish with chili powder, black pepper, salt, fish sauce, tamarind soup base, a little oil - then I would fry the fish quickly on both side, then add chicken stock, water in to make the broth...the rest is similar to yours.

The taro stem is called "bạc hà" in Vietnamese

Wild paddy herb is called "ngò ôm" or "rau ôm"

One more herb I like to add is the saw-tooth cilantro or culantro, it is called "ngò gai" in Vietnamese, this is optional, I would add if there's some in my refrigerator.

The fish I usually cook this with is cat-fish, that's how in Vietnam and in the countryside people would cook, but occasionally I cooke with sting-ray so I guess anybody can use any kind of fish that is suitable to his/her taste.

Thanks.

[fodgycakes]

Thanks for the information on the various plants.. I was living in Williamsburg, VA for awhile and didn't have access to those things so hopefully now that I'm in a bigger city I can have a more well-rounded canh chua. I like mine spicy too, I like to immerse a Thai bird chile or a slice of jalapeno in my individual bowl so that others can have it spicy to their taste.

How long do you marinate the fish? I haven't done that before but that sounds like a good step to impart a little more flavor to it. I usually just have a little bowl of straight fish sauce and chile peppers on the side to dip it in.

[guppymo]

I usually marinate the fish for only a few minutes, you know I cook right after getting out of work and my hunger never can stand waiting for things to be marinanated lengthily

Good luck with finding exotic ingridients in the new place.

[guppymo]

This is a simple way to make salad, tasty enough to be eaten with rice. Da Lat is a city located in the highland area of Vietnam, it's famous for growing fresh veggie and beautiful flowers.

Salad dressing recipe:

-Fry minced garlic with oi, then turn off heat.

- Add some vinegar, sugar, soya sauce, juice of half lime (everything to taste)

Wait to the dressing to cool down then add fresh lettuce, red onion (lightly marinate with vinegar + sugar to bring out the texture and to make it firm and crisp)

Arrange onto a plate and add some slices of tomato and boiled eggs.

[BonVivant]

no 'Canh Chua' is complete without those spongy stems! and the aromatic weed like herb [as Gup says 'ngo om'?] cannot be left out either. the best Canh Chua i had was in Chau Doc. apparently the Khmer claim they invented many south VN dishes, including this sour soup.

[fodgycakes]

guppymo, or others, I've got another Vietnamese cooking question.. anyone have a good recipe for bo la lot? I had so much good Vietnamese food when I was in San Diego a couple weeks ago and that was one of my favorite dishes, but it's something my own family has never made. It seems pretty simple, mixing some ground beef with perhaps some garlic, lemongrass, sugar, salt, maybe some other spices? What leaves should be used to wrap up the beef, it seems similar to the grape leaves used to wrap Greek dolmas.

Mam nem is so delicious.

[SuzySushi]

La lot leaves are a unique herb. You might be able to find them at a Vietnamese market, but if you can't, reasonable substitutes include fresh shiso leaves (from a Japanese or Korean market) or grape leaves (rinse first to get off most of the salt). Here's a link to a page on Vietnamese herbs.

[guppymo]

guppymo, or others, I've got another Vietnamese cooking question.. anyone have a good recipe for bo la lot? I had so much good Vietnamese food when I was in San Diego a couple weeks ago and that was one of my favorite dishes, but it's something my own family has never made. It seems pretty simple, mixing some ground beef with perhaps some garlic, lemongrass, sugar, salt, maybe some other spices? What leaves should be used to wrap up the beef, it seems similar to the grape leaves used to wrap Greek dolmas.

Mam nem is so delicious.

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Fodgycakes,

You can try the following simple recipe

Those leaves are called wild-betel or wild pepper leaves, if you can't find those you can follow SuzySushi and substitute shiso leaves (tia to).

Good luck.

[Mistinguett]

Mistinguett,

Did you have a chance to make "canh chua ca" from Fodgycakes' recipe ? Sorry, I was away and did not get back to you soon. By the way I would love to poke and eat the fish eyes from the picture that Fodgycakes posted.

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Unfortunately no, I had some hectic last couple of weeks, but it's still a project. Meanwhile a had a salmon hot and sour soup from my favourite joint in the city.

The eyes and cheeks are my favorites!

What you said, plus the brains

[C. sapidus]

First, I want to thank guppymo for starting this thread and sharing so much delicious Vietnamese food. We love Vietnamese food and make it at home from time to time. If others are cooking Vietnamese food, this would be a great place to compare notes -- like on Chinese Eats at Home (link) and Thai Cooking at Home (link).

With that in mind, we grilled five-spice chicken today. We cook this frequently, but this batch was the best so far. Apparently, the secret is to marinate the chicken overnight and grill over a medium to low-medium flame. The lower heat crisped the chicken skin while preserved the haunting aroma of freshly-toasted and ground star anise. The ginger, garlic, and five-spice flavors permeated down to the bone, and the meat was tender and juicy. Gosh, I hope this is repeatable.

Vietnamese five-spice chicken (ga ngu vi huong)

Edited to add links.

Edited December 25, 2006 by C. sapidus (log)

[Shalmanese]

Wow, that looks amazing. Do you have the recipe?

[C. sapidus]

Wow, that looks amazing. Do you have the recipe?

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Thanks! The recipe is from Mai Pham's Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table, reproduced here (link).

[C. sapidus]

Napa cabbage and shrimp soup (canh cai kim chi nau tom), from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. This simple soup packed a lot of flavor. The soup base was sauteed onions and dried shrimp, seasoned with salt, fish sauce, and white pepper, and garnished with scallions. Rice was a nice addition, and the boys loved the soup. Very WW-friendly, too.

Served with Tai Bai chicken (Tai Bai ji) and jasmine rice.

[KatieLoeb]

Bruce:

Can you share the shrimp soup recipe? The fact that it's WW friendly is quite appealing, and I find that soups really fill me up.

Thanks!