I've been making my wife traditional Vietnamese dinners and here are some photos (1 Viewer)

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Fabz.
Enjoy the viewing

I type with a bloated belly full of broth.
'Twas the wife's birthday, and she asked for soup.

What looks like a simple meal was anything but. My first attempt turned out thankfully satisfactory, given the high stakes of the evening to impress. A little wine on the side to smooth over any potential disappointment was a needed foresight.

Phở Gà - Phở is a popular noodle soup dish found at any Vietnamese restaurant 'round town over here. Some places do better than others. Quality and flavor of the broth is key. Normally it is a beef soup (thin sliced brisket or flank steak), but common alternatives include shrimps, beef meatballs, fishballs, or in tonight's version chicken. In making the broth from scratch, this was a half day ordeal. Parboiled chicken legs, roasted and toasted spices (coriander seeds, cinnamon, star anise) in a cheesecloth bag, onion, ginger, simmered for hours. Shredded off the chicken meat after removing and discarding the skin, the bones returned to the soup for a final simmer. Strained of solids, the broth remaining is fairly clear-ish in color and fragrantly inviting. Rice noodles are added with the meats, with various herbs leaves, onions, blanched bean sprouts, limes on the side for personal preference. Spicy chili sauce and sweet hoisin sauce on side for personal taste.

Chúc mừng năm mới!
Happy (Lunar) New Year! Also called Tết Nguyên Đán.

New Year happened midweek, so our usual family party wasn't done here until last night Saturday. We did up Viet flavored chicken legs, pork chops, and a store bought sausage called lạp xưởng which I think is actually Cantonese but popular nevertheless. It featured in the fried rice, as well as plain on its own. Various pickled veggies, greens, white rice available, a cold shrimp salad, fruits, and Western air fryer snacks. Everyone left happy. Kids get money in their envelopes.

Cold, stormy, windy weekend over here.

Cà Ri Gà- a creamy coconut chicken curry, featuring a lemongrass fried Tofu. Seems the Indian palate and spices spread through trade routes all through Southeast Asia. Served with various side bites included raw onions, steamed okra with chili flakes; pickled sweet cabbage; pickled carrot and daikon; our zesty papaya fruit salad with shrimp; coriander leaves, green onions, red chilis, fried shallots...

Seems it's been a couple of months.

I'll do posts to separate.

A couple of weeks ago we ended up with a quite firm and unripe mango, which disappointed us because we were in the mood for soft and sweet eat right away.

I've enjoyed pickling recently, so found how to make Xoai chua ngot--pickled unripe mango.



She mentioned as a kid they commonly had (I paraphrase her) "some sort of seasoning... [not helpful for me]" and to "try to look it up and make it for me." So, it turns out to be a chili salt made from a lot of salt, some sugar, and crushing the tiny red chilis into a pulp together. It's called Muối Ớt

So spent most of the afternoon and evening going full blast. Here's the sample plate.



Cà tím xào -- braised eggplant. Big buggers thickly sliced, lightly grilled with garlic, then braised with various other ingredients.



Gỏi tai heo -- sliced pig ear. This was a long adventure of blanching whole pig ears, rinsing, cooling, then taking a knife to scrape and clean the crud off... then using tweezers to pull out any remaining hairs. Then boiling them with ginger and onion. Then cooling again. Then slicing. Then tossing with sesame oil, some pepper, and chopped cilantro. I think I featured pig ear before somewhere in an above post; this one was made from scratch and tried my hand at a version that's aromatic rather than spicy. I saw various other recipes, including adding other stuff for preference like other leaves or vegetables.

Been a while, my apologies! I hope your gastro journeys have been well.

This should be approachable... apparently a common snack my wife had frequently growing up. Her mom would put peas 🫛🫛 in it, though, which I don't believe you'd find in Vietnam itself. We all have our memories of our mom "stretching" the dinner with other available, cheap options though, right?

Bánh patê sô -- a puff pastry, the filling is a robust mix of spices, ground pork but centered on the pâté itself which is commonly found here in Asian grocers and restaurants.

Finished product, plus some behind-the-scenes photos of the process.

And an open-face version, which apparently isn't the right thing to do. My bad.

Hello to my one or two potential followers who still bother to check up on my cooking.
Any feedback or ridicule is welcome, I assure you.

Tonight I went on a whim to make one of my wife's favorite dishes growing up. A sort of pork meatloaf with a yolk topping. It got a rave review from her, which is a big plus for me.

Chả trứng -- I've had mixed-feelings about this for years. It's very eggy (mostly egg white in the loaf, straight yolk topping with annotto oil), light fluffy, but my problem is simply I cannot eat much egg. Interesting flavor though, especially the black fungus and mung bean noodle in the filling. The whole thing is steamed, rather than baked, keeping everything moist.

Been to busy lately with the newborn. She's now about 2 months! Check out the story if you haven't already: PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Anyhow, doing any real cooking just hasn't been hapening not to mention doing shopping at the Viet supermarket hasn't been practical over the last few months either. But, the wife in her insistence wanted a "non-American" dinner. So whipped up some braised chicken wings (fish sauce, annatto oil, soy, onions, tomato) and a scallion oil & oyster sauce sautéed long spinach. Hope this kick starts back on track, as there's been plenty of recipes I've been eager to give a go. Bonus: new cloth napkins and plates.

Made a steamed meatloaf with sliced liver, pork, black fungus, egg, fish sauce, black and white pepper, etc. I used too much seasoning for my taste, but the wife gave it a surprise thumbs up. The liver didnt overwhelm like I was concerned about, it balanced well. In hindsight, It'd go a lot better with plain rice, rather than the sesame oil pan veg noodle pictured. Also featured is a tumeric and annatto trout.