Bông Cải Xanh Trứng Cháy

Vietnamese Broccoli Frittata

1/2 cup chopped broccoli
4 eggs
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1/2 clove garlic, minced
1/2 T vegetable oil
salt, sugar, pepper to taste

Heat oil in a medium pan until bubbling hot but not smoky, add garlic, stir until fragrant, add broccoli and green onion, stir fry for 3 minutes or until nicely cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle sugar to the pan and let it melt so it will form a crunchy crust later. Beat eggs evenly in a bowl with some salt and pepper, pour into the broccoli and cook on each side until golden brown. Serve with steamed rice.

Rau Muống Chiên Xù

Water Spinach Tempura with Peanut Sauce


2-3 cups water spinach, cut into 3-inches length
Tempura mix
Oil to fry
1 green onion, cut into 2-inches length
1/4 onion, cut into strips
Carrot strips to garnish

Water Spinach: Just leave some young leaves, cut and wash thoroughly.
Mix tempura batter as directed in the box, dip water spinach in, turn to cover evenly. Deep fry over high heat, remove when it turns lighly yellow. Drain on paper towel. Stir-fry onion and scallion to garnish the dish. Serve with peanut Sauce.

Peanut Sauce
3 T creamy peanut butter
1 T coconut milk
1/2 T lime juce
1/2 T soy sauce or to taste
1/2 T sugar
1/4 T siracha hot sauce
1/2 clove garlic, minced

Mix all in a small bowl, add water if needed.

Cá Nục Kho Thơm

Mackarel braised in Pineapple Coconut Juice

3 Mackarels, clean and cut in half
1/4 Pineapple, sliced
1 can coconut juice
2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
1/2 cup fish sauce
Vegetable oil

Pan fry mackarel with oil until skin turn golden. Transfer over pressure cooker, add coconut juice, fish sauce, garlic, pineapple, some oil in. Cover, lock lid and cook over medium high heat for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to simmer for 50 minutes. Turn off heat. Let it cook in steam for 10 more minutes. Release steam, open lid. Fish are ready to serve. The bones can be eaten (very soft) too.

Canh Khoai Sọ Rau Nhút

Water Mimosa and Taro Corm Soup

4-5 taro corms (small), peeled
2 cups water mimosa, cut into 3-inches length
4-5 shirmps, shelled, deveined and minced

Water mimosa: remove the white foam and root around the stem, cut into 3-inches length and wash thoroughly.
Put taro corms in a pot, cover with water, bring to boil and cook taro corm until soft. Add shrimp, bring back to boil, skim off foam, add water mimosa. Season with salt, sugar and pepper. Serve hot with rice.

Lẩu Mắm

Mixed Vegetables and Fermented Fish Flavored Hot Pot


1 jar fermented Gourami (mắm sặc)
2 lbs pork neck bone
2/3 lb pork belly, sliced
1/2 lb small shrimp (shell-in)
2 Japanese Eggplants, cubed
15 small okras
2 cups string bean, cut into 3-inches length
2 cans coconut juice
3 stalks fresh lemongrass
1/2 T chopped lemongrass
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 shallots, minced
Vegetable oil, salt, rock sugar

Put pork bones in a pot, cover with water (about 3 quarts), bring to a boil over medium high heat, skim off foam, add some salt and lower heat, simmer for 2-3 hrs. Discard bones.

In a small pot, put fermented gourami (use a whole jar if it's a ready to use paste, 1/2-2/3 jar if it's not a ready to use paste), stalks of lemongrass (crush with side of your cleaver) and 2 cans coconut juice in, simmer over medium low heat until all become a muddy soup. Strain broth to discard bones (If using ready to use paste, just stir in and bring to a boil).

Put some oil in a skillet, add minced garlic, shallot and minced lemongrass in, stir until fragrent, add pork belly in, stir-fry, season with some fish sauce, sugar and pepper.

Add fermented fish broth to the soup pot (not all of it), bring back to boil. Taste and adjust by adding more fermented fish broth or adding rock sugar. Add shrimp, pork belly, okra, string bean and eggplant. Serve with cooked rice vermicelli (medium size) and mixed raw vegetables.
Raw Vegetables

Water Spinach (rau muống bào)
Banana Blossom (bắp chuối)
Water lily Stem (ngó súng)
Water Mimosa (rau nhút)

Bitter Leaf (rau đắng)
Beansprout (giá)
Chive (hẹ)
Herbs: Basil (húng quế), mint (húng nhũi), fish mint (dấp cá) ....

Cá Bông Lau Kho Tộ

Catfish Simmered in Claypot


4 slices catfish (small)
1 small piece pork belly, sliced
1 T fish sauce
1/2 T sugar
1 t pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
1 T vegetable oil
2/3 T caramel sauce
2 green onions, chopped
1 dried hot chilli, chopped

Put fish, pork belly, fish sauce, sugar, pepper, garlic, shallot, oil, caramel sauce into clay pot. Let it marinade for 1 hour. Simmer with low heat until liquid is reduced 2/3. Garnish with chopped green onion and dried hot chilli.

Canh Chua Cá Bông Lau

Catfish with Vegetables Sour Soup


Live Catfish (2 lbs): They will clean and slice your fish at Asian market. Use head, tail piece and 1 slice from the belly. The rest save up for "clay pot" dish.
1 medium taro stem, sliced
1/2 cup pineapple (fresh or canned, sliced or cubed)
1/2-1 tomato
1 cup beansprount
6 small okras
Tamarind powder
1 T chopped rice paddy herb
1/2 T crisp-fried garlic oil

Put fish head and cover with few cups water. Bring to boil over medium high heat, add fish tail and slice in to cook for 5-7 minutes, remove fish. Add pineapple and tamarind powder in, season with sugar, fish sauce or some salt. Add okra to cook for 2 minutes, then add taro stem, tomato and beansprout. Top with 1/2 T crisp-fry garlic oil and rice paddy herb, few slices of hot chilli if you wish. Serve hot with rice.

Thịt Heo Ram

Caramelized Pork in Shallot Sauce

Mực Xào Cần Cà

Sauteed Cuttlefish with Cucumber, tomato and Chinese Celery

Sườn Ram Tôm

Caramel Spare Rib with Shrimp


1 lb lean sparerib, cut into 2-inches pieces
12 medium shrimps, shelled and deveined
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 onion, cubed
1 green onion, cut into 1-inch length
1 T vegetable oil
1 T white wine
2 T sugar
Fish sauce, salt, pepper to taste

Put spareribs + garlic + shallot + 1 T fish sauce + 1/4 t salt + 1/2 T sugar + fresh ground black pepper, mix well, cover and refrigerate overnight or 4 hrs.

Heat oil in a heavy bottom skillet. Add the ribs and cook until brown, about 15-20 minutes. In a small pan, make caramel sauce from 1 T sugar. Add caramelized sugar and stir for 5 minutes. Add 1 T white wine and let it simmer for 5-7 more minutes. Add shrimps and onion, stir for few more minutes until shrimps are cooked (3 minutes. Season with 1/2 T sugar and some fish sauce to taste. Sprinkle with black pepper and green onion then serve with steamed rice.

Đậu Hũ Hấp Tôm Khô

Steamed Tofu with Shallot Shrimp Oil


1/2 block House soft tofu
1/2 T shallot oil
1 T dried fine shrimp
1/2 T scallion oil
2/3 T light soy sauce
1/2 T sugar

Soak dried shrimps in water until soft, pound, and stir-fry with some oil and sugar.
Put soy sauce and sugar in a small sauce pan and bring to boil until sugar dissolved.
Cut tofu in half and lay flat in a bowl. Steam tofu until hot (for 5 minutes), or just microwave it until hot (1-2 minutes)
Pour sweet soy sauce into bowl, top tofu with shallot oil, fried dried shrimp, and scallion oil. Serve.

Tôm Càng Kho Tàu

Prawn Simmered in Garlic Onion Sauce


1 lb frozen prawn (5-6)
2 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1.5 T shrimp paste in soya bean oil
2 green onion, cut into 2-inches length
1 T vegetable oil
salt, pepper, fish sauce, sugar

Use scissors to cut off part of the prawn head, just pass the nose (hard nub above the eyes), the claws and legs part while prawn still frozen (don't defrost them). Remove prawn shell, sand vein, but leave the tail attached for presentation.

Heat oil and add shallot and garlic, cook until fragrant, place prawns and pan sear both sides until golden. Add shrimp paste with soya bean oil in. Season with fish sauce, salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. Simmer for 3-5 minutes (if prawn was frozen).

Optional: You can add 1/2 cup of coconut juice and simmer.

Canh Ngưu Bàng Giò Heo

Gobo Soup with Pork Hock

2 slices pork hock
5 small shiitake mushrooms
1 gobo root (burdock root)
1 carrot
1 small piece daikon (1/2 size of carrot)
1 scallion, 3 sprigs cilantro

Clean pork hock and put in a small pot cover with water, bring to a boil over medium hight heat, skim off all foams. Lower heat to cook until fork tender (about 35-40 minutes).
Soak shiitake mushrooms in warm water for 1-2 hrs, wash and remove stem.
Scrape the thin brown skin of the gobo root with the back of your knife, cut into 1-inch length. You can scrub some lemon on it after scraping to make the gobo whiter. I prefer the brownish color so I just leave it like that.
Add mushrooms and gobo in the soup to cook for 10-15 minutes.
Peel and slice carrot and daikon. Put into the pot to cook for 10 more minutes.
Season with sea salt.
Top with some shredded scallion and cilantro, sprinkle some fresh ground pepper.

Street Foods in Taiwan

Betel Nut Roll
Trầu Têm

Braised Pork Feet in Spices
Móng Heo Phá Lấu

Sticky Rice Sausage
Dồi Nếp

Boiled Black Horn Nut
Củ Ấu Luộc

Chem Chép Kho Tộ

Green Mussel Claypot

1 cup green mussel meat (remove from 1/2 shell)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 scallions, cut into 1-inch length
5 dried red chilli
1 T vegetable oil
1/2 T fish sauce
1.5 T sugar
salt, pepper

Heat 1 T oil in a clay pot over medium heat, add garlic and stir until fragrant, add mussel, dried red chilli, fish sauce, sugar and stir to marinate well. Heat 1 T sugar in a non-stick pan until sugar turn into caramel color, transfer caramelized sugar into clay pot. Simmer in medium low heat until liquid reduced. Add scallion, some salt (if needed) and fresh ground pepper.

Cà Tím Nướng Mỡ Hành

Grilled Japanese Eggplant With Scallion Oil

2 Japanese Eggplants
1 T scallion oil
2 T sweet and sour fish sauce
salt and pepper

Poke around the eggplants with toothpick and soak in salt water for 30 minutes (this is optional, you can skip this part if you don't have time).
Place in oven to broil under 500 degrees Farenheit until skin is charred and inner flesh soft and tender. About 20 minutes, 10 minutes each sides (remember to turn).
Remove from the oven and let the skin cool off for a few minutes. Use a knife or your fingers to peel off the skin, it should come off easily. Place peeled eggplants on a dish and gently run a fork along to make spaghetti strips out of the eggplants. Sprinkle sea salt and fresh pepper on. Top with scallion oil and sweet and sour fish sauce.

Canh Đậu Hũ Hẹ Nấu Tôm

Tofu and Chive Soup with Shrimp

1/2 block soft tofu, cut into bite cubes
1 cup chive, cut into 2-inches length
5-6 shrimps, shelled, deveined and minced
fish sauce, salt, sugar and pepper

Bring some water to boil over medium high heat, add minced shrimp (break into small pieces), bring back to boil, skim off foam. Add tofu, bring back to boil. Add chive and season with fish sauce, a pinch of sugar, salt and fresh ground pepper.

Cá Hồi Chiên Giòn Sốt Cay

Crispy Salmon in Spicy Sauce

Crispy Salmon
1.5 lbs salmon fillet, cut into bite cubes, salt and pepper
oil to fry
Heat oil until hot, deep fry salmon until cooked (inner flesh turns white) about 2-3 minutes.

Spicy Sauce:
1 T vegetable oil + 1 T fish sauce + 2 T rice vinegar + 2-3 T honey or plum sauce + 2 cloves minced garlic + 1/2 seedless minced red chilli (adjust all the ingredients to your taste). Stir this mixture to a boil over medium heat then reduce heat and simmer until thicken.

Pour over crispy salmon then serve.

Cải Thượng Hải Sốt Nấm

Soy-Glazed Bok Choy and Mushroom


4-5 heads bok choy
4-5 small shiitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t minced ginger
1 T vegetable oil
1 T rice vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1/2 T honey
few drops sesame oil

Soak shiitake mushroom in warm water until soft, wash and slice.
Wash and boil bok choy to cook.
Heat oil in a sauce pan, add garlic and ginger to stir until freagrant, add mushroom and stir-fry, add vinegar, soy sauce, honey, and water if needed. Adjust ingredient to taste. Simmer until thick, add some sesame oil. Pour over cooked bok choy and serve.

Canh Rau Muống Nấu Nghêu

Water Spinach and Clam Soup

1/2 bunch water spinach
10 live manila clams
fish sauce and pepper to taste

Use hand to twist water spinach into 3-inches length (my mom said this will make spinach more tender than cut them with a knife), discard bad leaves and hard end part of the stem. Wash them throroughly.

Put water into a sauce pan, add clams and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Skim off foam. When the clams are cooked (all opened up), remove them. Add water spinach in and bring back to boil. It won't take long to cook this, when the spinach is tender, season the soup with some fish sauce and fresh ground pepper. Add clams back in then serve.

Rau Bí Xào Tỏi

Sauteed Pumpkin Leaves


1 bunch pumpkin leaves
2 T vegetable oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Strip and peel away the fibrous cover from stems and leaf veins. Remove hard ends, cut stems into 3-inches length, put aside. Use gloves or your hands to knead the leaves gently to remove the tiny hair from them. Wash them throroughly.
Heat 2 T oil in a large pan, add garlic, stir until fragrant, add pumpkin leaves. Sauteed until tender, season with salt, fish sauce, pepper.

Thịt Kho Măng

Braised Pork With Bamboo Shoot


1 lb pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch thick
4 boiled bamboo shoots, quartered
2 coconut juice cans
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

Put pork and coconut juice in a pot, add water to cover pork if needed, add garlic and bring to a boil over medium high heat, skim off foams. Reduce heat to simmer for 1 hour, add bamboo shoots and 1/4 cup fish sauce and continue to cook for another hour.

Cá Bống Kho Tiêu

Sand Goby Simmered in Pepper Sauce

1 package frozen ready-to-cook sandy goby
3 T premium grade fish sauce (if using regular one, 2 T should be enough)
2.5 T vegetable oil
2-2.5 T sugar
1 t fresh ground pepper
1 small shallot, minced

Run water to wash and seperate the fish from frozen package, pat dry with paper towel.
Heat 2 T oil in a non-stick pan (big enough for all gobies touch the bottom and some room to turn them) over medium high heat, add shallot and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the fish in (they should be partially frozen), add 2 T fish sauce and 1/2 T sugar in. Lower heat to simmer, use simmer burner if you have one otherwise use the lowest mode (partially cover) until all liquid totally absorbed. Turn off heat and let it cool off.
Heat 2 T sugar in a small skillet to make caramel sauce. Just when the sugar turn light brown, remove and add 1 T water to dissolve the sauce. Warning: Fresh caramelized sugar is very hot, so handle it carefully, adding water might spray the hot caramelized sugar in any direction. You can use the ready made one, but making fresh caramel sauce will give better color. Transfer fish into a claypot, add caramel sauce, 1/2 T oil, 1 T fish sauce, 1 t pepper into the fish. Turn the fish so they can be covered evenly. Bring back to simmer, cover first to let it steam for a few minute, then simmer uncovered until all liquid are gone.
This whole simmering in fish sauce-pepper oil process will give the goby a distintive texture like ... fish version of chicken.

By the way, the reason I use non-stick pan to simmer it first because I don't have a 100-years old clay pot. In fact, I just bought 1 when I got the fish yesterday. If you have a well-use, already break-in one, you can just use it to simmer the fish from the beginning.

So I spent 6.99 + tax for the clay pot, plus the fish (I forgot how much was the fish), plus the whole morning simmering these 5 little fish (there were 7 of them, 2 gone for taste-test). I probably gonna serve them in my gold rimmed Rosenthal plate :)))

Cháo Huyết

Pork Blood Congee


2-3 cup of thick congee
1 T small fried shrimp
1 T cooked pork skin (optional)
1/2 cup congealed pork blood
2 Chinese crullers, cut into rings
2 T chopped green onion and cilantro
fish sauce, sugar, salt, pepper to taste

I often make this congee from thick congee, you can make it from left over rice or from uncooked rice.

Soak dried shrimp in warm water until soft.
Put thick congee into a pot and add water to thin it. This congee is much thinner than a typical congee, it's more soupy. Add soaked shrimps in and its water, discard the sandy stuff if any that sinks in the bottom. Simmer to cook for 1/2 hour.
Boil congealed pork blood to cook then cut into small bite cubes.
Add pork blood cubes into the pot. Season with fish sauce, salt, sugar and pepper.
Top some crispy Chinese cruller rings, chopped green onion and cilantro, fresh ground pepper and some minced red hot chilli (if desired).

Gà Nướng Gừng

Honey Ginger Roasted Chicken


4 chicken thighs, skin-on and bone-in
1 T vegetable oil
1 T honey
1 T soy sauce
1 t ground ginger
1 small piece fresh ginger, julienned
salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients and marinate chicken for 1-2 hrs.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, place chicken in a roasting pan, reserve the marinade to baste. Start basting frequently after roasting 15-20 minutes so chicken won't burn before cooked. Check the thickest part, if juice runs clear then it's cooked. Let them sit 5 minutes before served. Remove bone, slice then serve.

Bí Nhồi Tôm Hấp

Shrimp-Stuffed Hairy Gourd


1/2 medium hairy gourd, cut into rings
6-8 shrimps, shelled, deveined, and minced
1 T ground pork
1 shallot, minced
2 heads bok choy
1 T oyster sauce
Vegetable oil, salt, pepper

Mix shrimp, pork, shallot, some salt and pepper to taste.
Remove seeds from gourd rings.
Stuff mixture into rings.
Place them in a small pot, add some water and cover to cook until gourd is translucent and tender. Remove. Add bok choy into the pot to cook. Remove.
Add some oil, oyster sauce into the liquid and simmer until thick. Pour on top stuffed gourd rings and bok choy then serve.

Canh Chua Thơm

Pineapple Shrimp Soup


1/2 fresh pineapple, sliced
12-15 small shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T rice paddy herb, chopped
1/2 T crisp-fried garlic oil
Fish sauce, sugar, oil, fresh red hot chilli

Heat some oil and stir-fry garlic until fragrant, add pineapple in and stir-fry, add fish sauce and sugar to season. Add shrimps and stir-fry to partially cooked. Add water and bring to boil. Season the soup with more fish sauce and sugar if needed. Add crisp-fried garlic oil. Top with rice paddy herb and fresh hot chilli.

Cá Chiên Muối Ớt Tây Ninh

Tay Ninh Chilli-Salt Fish Nugget

Rau Củ Luộc

Steamed Vegetable Platter


I actually boil them, not steam, but we've never wasted the stock so I guess that the way of getting back all the nutrients lost from boling.
Use any vegetable you have in the fridge.
There are many types of dipping sauce, I use Egg York Dipping Sauce this time.

Nước Rau Đánh Dấm

Vegetable Consomme
Few cups of stock from boiling vegetables
1 ripe tomato
1 clove garlic, minced
1 green onion, chopped or julienned

Blanch tomato in boiling stock, peel skin, put back in to cook until nicely soft. Smash tomato in hot broth to serve with garlic and green onion added.

Xôi Chiên Phồng

Fried Sticky Rice Ball

2 cups cooked sticky rice
1/2 cup cooked mung bean
2 T vegetable oil
2 T sugar
1/4 t salt
Oil to fry

Mix them all together and knead until smooth (I use clear polyethylene food handling glove and it makes this job so clean). Divide dough into small patties.
Put oil enough to deep fry (cover the balls). When oil is sizzling hot, put balls to deep fry. When the down side seems harden, turn and use your spoon or spatula to press around the ball to make it puff up. Continue to fry until golden brown.
Serve with roasted chicken or duck.

Sticky Rice: Soak sticky rice in water for 4 hrs. Put in electric rice cooker and add water just enough to cover the rice (same level). Let it cook.

Shortcut: If you're not making these balls from left over sticky rice, you can soak rice and mung bean together and put in electric rice cooker to cook them.

Canh Măng Cà Chua

Tomato and Bamboo Shoot Soup

1 tomato, cut into 8
1 small bamboo shoot, cut into 12
5 shrimps, shelled, deveined
2 green onion, cut into 2-inches length
1 clove garlic, minced

Stri-fry tomato with garlic then add bamboo shoot in to cook for few minutes, season with fish sauce and pepper. Add water, bring to boil, add shrimp. Season with sugar fish sauce to taste. Add green onion and serve.

Chả Cá Thái

Tod Mun

3/4 lb fish paste
3/4 cup green bean
1 green onion
1 egg
1 T sugar, fish sauce, pepper
Vegetable oil

Mix egg, sugar, some fish sauce (just enough to season green beans), pepper into fish paste until smooth.

Thinly dice green beans and green onion crosswise (1/8 inch thick).

Mix green bean and green onion into the paste.

Heat some oil in a pan over medium heat. When it's hot enough, scoop mixture with a spoon in. When the down side harden, press down the mixture to make a flat patty. Turn to cook both sides evenly (golden brown).
Serve with cucumber sauce.

Cucumber Sauce: put 1 part sugar + 1/2 part water + 1/2 part vinegar in a small sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolved and the sauce thicken as syrup. Cool off.
Peel 1/2 cucumber and remove seeds, dice into small cubes.
Pour sauce over cucumber and refrigerate until serve. Top with some crushed roasted peanut when served.

Đậu Ngọt Xào Bò

Snap Peas and Beef Stir-fry


2 cups sugar snap peas
1 piece beef filet
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 T oyster sauce
Vegetable oil, soy sauce, fresh ground pepper

Snap the top of the sugar pea's pod off and pull down to remove the strings from both seams. Rinse peas throroughly.

Slice beef.

Heat some oil in a pan over medium high heat, add garlic and stir until fragrant, add beef and stir-fry until it turns color. Add a dash of soy sauce and pepper, stir. Add peas, oyster sauce, stir to cook for 2 minutes (It won't take long to cook snap peas). Season with some soy sauce to taste if desired, sprinkle some fresh ground pepper. Serve.

Canh Bí Đao Nhồi

Stuffed Hairy Gourd Soup

1/2 small hairy gourd
8 shrimps, shelled, deveined, minced
2 sprigs cilantro, 1 green onion
Salt and pepper

Season minced shrimp with salt and pepper.
Peel and cut gourd into 6 rings, scoop out the seeds from the rings, stuff with shrimp paste.
Put the stuffed rings into a small sauce pan, cover enough water, bring to boil over medium high heat. Clean foam that rises. Reduce heat and let it cook until the gourd is soft and translucent. Season with salt and pepper. Add chopped green onion and garnish with some cilantro, serve.

Bún Chả Cá

Fish Cake Noodle Soup


1 lb fish paste
1/4 lb shrimp paste
2 eggs
4 bamboo shoots (small)
3 tomatoes
1/2 pineapple
3 lbs pork neck bones
2 blue crabs or 1 fish head
1 bunch water dropwort (rau cần nước)
1 T red hot chili oil
Garlic, shallot, green onion, cilantro
Vegetable oil, salt, pepper, fish sauce, sugar

Place pork bones, blue crabs (or fish head if you are fish lover) and 3 shallots in large pot, add water, bring to a boil over high heat, skim off foam, lower the heat and let simmer for 2 hours. Add some salt and strain broth.

Fish Ball: 3/4 lb fish paste + 1/2 T sugar + 2 crushed green onions (just the white heads) + 1 egg white + 1 t fish sauce + pepper. Mix until smooth. Pluck a small piece of the paste and form the mixtures into balls, smooth them with oil. Deep fry.
Fish Cake: 1/4 lb fish paste + 1/4 lb shrimp paste + 1 egg white + 1 t cornstarch + 1 minced garlic + fish sauce, sugar and pepper to taste. Mix until smooth. Line some oil in a small baking pan, add this mixture in (1/2 inch thick) and steam for 10-15 minutes, remove. Beat 2 egg yolks evenly and pour on top of fish cake, bring back to steam for 5-10 more minutes.

Tomato: cut into 8 lengthwise
Bamboo Shoot: cut into 12 lengthwise
Pineapple: Slice 1/2 pineapple into 4 pieces lengthwise, remove core strip on top, slice into 1/2-1/3 inch pieces.

Stir fry bamboo shoot and pineapple with some garlic and season with some fish sauce and pepper. Add into the broth. Add fish balls into the broth. Bring to boil.
Stir fry tomato with some garlic and add into the broth. Add 1 T red hot chili oil.
Season the soup with salt, sugar, fish sauce, pepper to taste.

Put noodle in a bowl, top with a piece of fish cake, some water dropwort, ladle soup on top with tomato, bambooshoot, pineapple, fish balls. Top with chopped green onion and cilantro.
Option: a side dish of water dropwort, sliced shallot (raw), and green onion (white head).

Cà Phê Đen Đá

Vietnamese Iced Coffee (Black)

Cơm Bò Lúc Lắc

Shaking Beef Rice Dish


1 lb beef filet mignon or tenderloin
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion
3 cups cooked rice
1 T ketchup
Vegetable oil, butter, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper

Dice beef into small bite size, marinate with 2/3 minced garlic, 1/2 t sea salt, some thick soy sauce, sugar, pepper and oil.

Red Rice: Heat 1 T oil in a pan over medium high heat, add 1/3 minced garlic in and stir-fry until fragrant. Add cooked rice in and stir, add ketchup, mix evenly, season with soy sauce, sugar and pepper to taste.

Luk Lak Beef: Use a thick bottom pan, heat 1 T oil and some butter over high heat. When it's hot (but not smoking hot), add beef in, you can do 1/2 batch at a time. Make sure all the beef touch the bottom of the pan. Leave for 1-2 minutes until it's lightly burn. Turn or shake to cook all the sides, add onion to cook. Serve with red rice. Option: Some prefer to add 1/2 T oyster sauce in the beef when adding onion to serve with rice dish. Don't add oyster sauce when you serve this beef alone.

Bún Bò Xào

Lemongrass Beef Noodle Salad


1-1.5 lbs beef filet, sliced
1 yellow onion, cut lengthwise 1/3 inch thick
1 T minced lemongrass
1/4 t tumaric powder
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
Vegetable oil, fish sauce, salt, sugar, pepper.
8 red or green lettuce leaves, chopped
1/2 English cucumber, cut into thin strips
1 cup bean sprout
1/2 cup mint or basil
2 T scallion oil
2 T crushed toasted peanut
2 cups sweet and sour fish sauce
1 package rice noodle (small)

Marinate beef with some salt, sugar, pepper, lemongrass, tumaric powder, oil for 15-20 minutes.
Cook rice noodle as directed in the package.
Wash and prepare the vegetables.
Make fish sauce dressing, peanut, scallion oil.

Heat oil and add garlic to stir-fry until fragrant over medium high heat. Season with fish sauce to taste. Depend on how you like your onion cooked, you can add from the beginning or when the beef is partially cooked or you can stir-fry it seperately and mix in later.

Serve with rice noodle, vegetables and sweet and sour fish sauce.