Foot and Fire

On Earth, We're Briefly Gorgeous  by Ocean Vuong Paperback, 196 pages This is the first novel of the contemporary American Poet Ocean Vuong which tells of a story of writer Little Dog through letters addressed to her mother who is illiterate. This may be a novel but it's fifty percent autobiographical. Some nonfictional portions are the fact that Vuong's mother worked as a manicurist and he also became a writer and that they are Vietnamese immigrants and lived in Hartford, Connecticut. He's also a queer.    The story is told in an epistolary form but in a non-linear manner. It is about struggles of being a child of Vietnam war who immigrated to the US with his grandmother and mother, who grows up to be a queer, who had a relationship with an all-American boy who is an addict.       The story may be about the coming-of-age of a Vietnamese immigrant in the US seeking to fit and thrive and survive in the land of milk and honey but in the end, it i...

Summer Roll is a favorite! The rice paper is found in the International section of any supermarket. Here is how to prepare your own: Sauce: Combine Hoisin sauce, chopped cashew nuts and a little soy sauce and water.  Bring to boil until desire consistency. Rolls: In a chopping board, lay a piece of rice paper, moisten with water. Place desired vegetables and cooked fish, meats or prawns. Fold and roll as you would a regular spring roll!  Option: You may serve with dip or include in the roll, the sauce. *** *** Lettuce *** Carrots and cucumber ***

I used the Pho Ga to make soup base for noodle soup. "Pho" means soup, "Ga" means Chicken.  The Kanokwan is a Pad Thai Paste, I already used it up. It is not good. It has no peanut in it and it is very much loaded with sugar. The Tom Yum soup base (another Thai specialty) is still lying in the cabinet for some days of kitchen experiment.  Thank you to my Saigon-based friend Anna Wang for the generous gift. We enrolled together in a cooking class in Ho Chi Minh City and we passed the cooking test together!

By GERLIE M. UY I tried one Chao Long (P45 for regular and P50 for with egg) and I wished to have tried other stalls selling the same to see to it I have had the representative Chao Long, a Vietnamese dish popular in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. The taste is lightly sweet and it has no chili in it despite the red color. I cannot also get the taste of real meat stock in the soup....  But incidentally, I love the french bread which sells for ten pesos and can be ordered with meat sandwich at an extra cost.   This is the beef stew.  Chao Long with the condiments... Trying out Chao long with my travel buddy Cooky... eating the take home chao long... just passed by here and had my photo taken... We ate here and the signboard of the menu is below...

The Gifter from Saigon and the Pacman look-alike chef! By GERLIE M. UY <p><p><br><br><br>ThT</p></p> Thank you Anna Wang for the pasalubong ingredients. Unfortunately, I don't know how to put our gasul tank back today and I still have to wait for rescue to arrive. Hilarious! Just when I am excited to concoct something out of your gifts considering it's raining cats and dogs here... Ms. Bernadette hold over the whole of the rice paper pack (And she laughs at me for being rice-noodles and rice-paper crazy the last time at the airport! hmmp). Here are what I got, and I am excited to experiment... super duper... Banh xeo for the pancake.. rice noodles for th...

The caramel pork in clay pot -- Carlene's dinner later. <p><p><p> </p></p></p> Another favorite of the Vietnamese aside from the fish sauce is the caramel in their fave meats. Since I am not a pork person, I asked the chef for the alternative and he suggested chicken and warned that beef will not be suitable for the recipe as beef gets dry... Well, I am going to try it on chicken and fish meat for sure. here's the recipe to this popular claypot dish. 100g boneless pork legs, sliced (chicken breased or legs ma...

This is one of the dishes we cooked up at the Saigon Culinary Art Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Lotus stem is tasteless, aroma-less but super crunchy; perfect for salad. Since this recipe called for pork and shrimps, I omitted these two. In the following recipe, I shall include pork and shrimp for your perusal. Marinade 1 T lemon juice 2 T sugar 2 T white vinegar 2 T fish sauce (patis or nuoc mam cham) A pinch of salt and pepper 180g Lotus stem (cucumber, carrots, green papaya, cabbage or turnip may be used)  100 g pork tenderloin 100 g shrimp 10g celery 20 g carrots Garnishing 1 big chili 1 chili flower 5g knot weed (may use sweet basil) 5-7 g mint leaves 1/2 T fried peanuts 1/2 T fried shallots (may use onions) Preparation MARINADE: Mix all marinade ingredients except fish sauce, stirring until the sugar and salt dissolve completely. VEGETABLES: Cut in julienne the lotus stem, carrot and big chili. Cut celery in 1-2 cm length. PORK: Prepare pork by boiling it over medium h...

Cabbage and Radish in Vietnamese Dressing By GERLIE M. UY <p><p><br><br><br><br>VVVV</p></p> If hunger is the mother of kitchen inventions, then variety is the twin of kitchen creativity!!!  This is proven by another way of serving the ever favorite radish salad: cut rounded and thinly and served with tomatoes and onions in vinegar and salt dressing. It was quite a surprise when I served the shredded radish with shredded cabbage and as dressing used the Fish Sauce and Calamansi sauce or the NOUC MAM CHAM or NOUC CHAM the sauce I have featured here earlier fo...

By GERLIE M. UY Fillings 1 can corned tuna (spicy or regular) 100 grams vermicilli  Cucumber, cut into 2-in long stick Lettuce, cut leaves into strips Carrots, cut into strips Rice Paper Warm water in a big round pan see sauce in earlier blog http://beforesixdiet.blogspot.com/2010/12/vietnamese-summer-roll-with-two-dips.html     The delicate rice paper wrapped the veges and tuna  Up close and personal with the summer roll (salad type).  Another closer look at the summer roll. Stripped cucumber, carrots and lettuce with dried basil leaves The canned corned tuna. The tuna with calamansi is a good alternative. Vermicilli is soaked in a boiling hot water for 30 seconds or until done and then drained.  The Rice paper.  The rice paper positioned on the chopping board. The wet rice paper on the chopping board,  ready to be filled in with veges and tuna. (see photo above)

By GERLIE M. UY Summer rolls halved for presentation and served here with the two dips 250 g Vermicelli, rice or mung beans hot water 25 Rice papers Cold or warm water 100 g. boiled or steamed beef/pork/chicken cut into strips           (for my recipe, I used boiled beef) Also, shrimp, crab or fleshy fish may be used 1 medium turnip or singkamas, cut into strips of desired thickness 1 medium to large carrot, cut into strips of desired thickness and blanched, if preferred 1 young cucumber, peeled or unpeeled, cut into cut into strips of desired thickness 1 head of lettuce of any kind, cut into 1/2 inch-wide strips Place Vermicelli in a big bowl, put hot water all noodles are covered. Wait until the noodle is cooked. Add more water if necessary and just drain if the noodles are already are tender but not overcooked. Set aside the drained noodles. Half-fill a big bowl with warm water (some suggests cold water but I tried the warm on this one; no...