Viet World Kitchen

Vietnamese Coconut Waffles

When I go to the Grand Century Mall, the sweet, coconut-ty fragrance of baking waffles often beckons me to the bakery at the front of the shopping center, located at Story and McLaughlin, the heart of the Vietnamese-American community in San Jose, California. A young woman usually stands by the electric Belgian waffle iron and quietly pours the batter in, waits for them to cook and then gracefully lifts them out of the iron. They briefly cool and then are sold to some lucky patron eagerly standing by. 

Unlike American waffles, Vietnamese waffles are not eaten with syrup. (Where would you find maple syrup in Vietnam?(!)) Rather, they're enjoyed out of hand like a large, lightly sweet cookie that's crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.  You could say that Vietnamese waffles are more like thick versions of Italian pizzelle cookies, which thin and crisp. However, pizzelle-like cookies are also made in Vietnam, so maybe it's better to just give these waffles their own separate category.

Note that in the U.S., electric waffle irons are used whereas in Vietnam, street vendors employ hand-held cast iron molds  that cook over a charcoal brazier. The vendors sit on a small stool on the sidewalk and make up their treat.

I never thought of making Vietnamese waffles at home  until Jason emailed asking for a recipe. This led to a small binge (are there such things as 'small' binges?) of waffle making and eating in the past few days. I fed them to unsuspecting dinner guests for dessert and my husband and I snacked on them too. There were lots leftover -- it's hard for me to throw away food, even batches that don't work out -- so I froze them for a Vietnamese version of  "L'eggo my Eggo."   (That's a phrase from old Eggo waffle commercials!)

Through several trials, I discovered that whipping up the egg white, which is easiest and fastest with a hand-held electric mixer, yields a thick batter and lighter texture. For a leavening, either baking soda and cream of tartar or baking powder may be used. Some people argue that the soda and cream of tartar yield a crispier texture, but I'm on the fence on that one. The reheat perfectly and actually crisp even more.

Makes 3 or 4, depending on size of waffle iron

1 scant cup bleached, all-purpose flour
7 to 8 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
Scant ½ teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar, or 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, separated
1 cup coconut milk, Chaokoh or Mae Ploy brand preferred
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla or pandan (la dua) extract

1. Heat the waffle iron and have an electric mixer handy. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cornstarch, salt, soda and cream of tartar (or baking powder). Use the whisk to combine the egg yolk, coconut milk, butter, and extract of choice.

2. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to gently stir. Switch to a folding motion toward the end to incorporate all the flour. If the resulting batter looks lumpy, that's okay. Expect the batter to be thick. Avoid over-stirring, lest the batter becomes over worked and yields a chewy, tough waffle. Set aside momentarily

3. Use the electric mixer to beat the egg white for about 1 minute, or until it holds a 1 ½-inch peak. (See photo.) It will look solid white. Use the rubber spatula to gently fold in the egg white.

4. Spread a decent amount of batter onto the waffle iron, stopping short of the far outer edges since the batter will spread once the top is lowered. (I often don't fill up all the holes and let gravity distribute the waffle.) Cook the waffle until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Darker waffles will be crisper (and stay crisper) than lighter ones. Aim for medium-brown, not light tan.

5. To remove the waffle, I use a pair of bamboo chopsticks to pry and lift the waffle from the iron. Place the waffle (which will be slightly soft) onto a cooling rack, where it will crisp up. Break up the waffle and enjoy warm. They'll soften as they sit but may be reheated to a crisp in the toaster oven.

Note: These waffles may be cooked beforehand, store in a plastic zip-top bag, and reheated in at 350F toaster oven until warm and crisp. They freeze well too.

Related links:

• Images of a waffle vendor in Vietnam (Vietstuff blog)
• Pizzelle molds and recipe  (Fantes.com)

Fast Food in Vietnam

I often describe Vietnamese food as the "have it your way"  cuisine because you're free to tweak things according to personal taste. (Think of how you eat pho noodle soup, for example.) But seems like that concept (the signature tag line of Burger King)  is materializing in Vietnam in  scary/corporate/homogeneous ways these days.

When I was in Ho Chi Minh City last January, I was struck by the number of brightly lit KFC, Pizza Hut and Lotteria (a hamburger joint owned by Koreans). Those fast food restaurants did good business and many of the customers were locals. A status symbol of the elite? Yes. But turns out those places offer cleanliness, good service, and well-priced food -- which hip, young Viet urbanites appreciate. There's also free wi-fi, air conditioning, and TV. That's the same business formula that keeps U.S. fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King in the black.

In the U.S., people say that fast food is cheap and affordable, but I can make better tasting, healthier food at home without all the processed ingredients and mysterious junk. In Vietnam, you can get 'fast food' from street vendors for next to nothing. But people across cultures love formulated special sauces. Predictability is comforting. Colonel Sanders and the Golden Arches (coming soon to Vietnam) are welcoming symbols of civilized modernity. 

What does the onslaught of fast food restaurants say for Vietnam? Does the growing presence of fast food joints in the cities reflect a brighter future? (Has Vietnam 'arrived'?) Or do the restaurants signal a global  food culture that will eventually swallow up the country's distinctive cuisine to create a "have it fewer ways"  kind of food scene? Is all this bunk since people have been eating 'fast food' for decades in the form of instant noodles?

Get a glimpse of Saigon's fast food scene from this article from VietnamNet, and let me know your thoughts.

For more, peruse:

• Noodle Pie's posting on dining at a Saigon Lotteria
• Burger King's global map

Vancouver Night Market

Last week, Rory and I headed to Vancouver, British Columbia for a number of book-related events. The business end of things went well but what was even more fun was all the amazing food we got to sample!

Vancouver is a marvelous eating town, especially if you're into Chinese food. Many Hong Kong Chinese took up residence in "Van" after the 1997 handover. As a result, there are tons of high-quality restaurants from casual to high-end. One of the highlights of a summer is the Chinatown Night Market in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver that's now one of five (5) Chinese enclaves in the area. As the evening progressed, it became a shoulder to shoulder crowd at the  flea-market-cum-food-and-music fare.

The Richmond market is modeled on ones in Hong Kong, where you'd go for practically all your needs. When I was a student in Hong Kong in the early 1990s, going to the night market meant several things -- cheap grub often eaten with skewers and padded bra vendors. Those are the things I remembered. S

ure enough, there was an area full of food vendors. Rory spied some good potstickers and yes, we ate them with bamboo skewers, which are basically skinny chopsticks, no? What was surprising was that the high quality of the dumplings. The skin was chewy and not too thick. The filling was flavorful and fresh tasting. Even the chili oil accompaniment was excellent.

Most foods at these kinds of public events are tasteless and greasy. However, the range of food was limited to lots of grilled bits.  "This isn't really like Hong Kong," Rory said as he reminisced about eating a dish of stir-fried clams in black bean sauce at a stall long ago.  Of course not. We're in clean Canada and Vancouver is diverse, evidenced by the Vietnamese sweet soup lady who was doing her best to get business. Nearby, the young Asian-Canadian singer belted out love songs.

Not far away where the dry goods were being hawked, I found authenticity in a couple of charming, Asian-style kitchen aprons with grammatically incorrect messages printed on them. And, yep, a few padded bra vendors had set up too.

Food For Thought -- Canadian Radio Interview

Last week I spent several glorious days being introduced to Vancouver, British Columbia. It's an extremely exciting city filled with terrific food and friendly people. My friend Nathan Fong, a food writer, stylist, and radio and TV-show host, took me on a tour of his hometown.

The first stop was Vancouver's Chinatown, which is filled with sweet old buildings. We poked around a Vietnamese-Chinese grocery store with one of Nathan's best friends -- Don Genova, a food journalist and host of Food For Thought, a weekly radio program that airs on CBC Radio One in Vancouver (690AM).

Don wanted an introduction to the essential ingredients for Vietnamese cooking.  We walked up and down each aisle in the market for a good 45 minutes. The market has a banh mi sandwich counter at the back and whipped up 3 fresh ones for us to sustain ourselves. Talking about food makes you hungry!

Don recorded our conversation for a radio documentary, which he recently aired this week. It's always strange to listen to yourself on the radio (stranger yet to watch yourself on TV) , but Don did an excellent job of editing. I tend to talk a lot when it comes to Vietnamese food and cooking.

To check my claim that Vietnamese food is easy to make at home, he went home and prepared two easy recipes  from my book, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen -- the cucumber and shrimp salad (goi dua chuot) and grilled chicken (ga nuong) -- and deemed them delicious and fantastically simple.

To listen to my talk with Don and to obtain the recipes he tested, visit his website Food For Thought.

Vietnamese-American Chefs on Bravo's "Top Chef"

Two Vietnamese-Americans -- Sara Nguyen and Hung Huynh -- participated in season 3 of Top Chef competition on Bravo. Sara was eliminated, but Hung remains in the game.

Of note, Sara prepared a Vietnamese BBQ with Pine Nuts, Radish & Cucumber Salad with kecap manis, a sweet soy sauce used in Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean cooking. Kinda beef jerky like, though she used beef ribeye, and not flank.

A Culinary Institute of America graduate with impressive knife skills to boot, Hung is a sous chef at Guy Savoy in Las Vegas, a very upscale restaurant that's considered one of the best and most expensive French restaurants in America.  His food on the show doesn't touch on his Vietnamese roots, but who says he has to? He's got a culinary school degree and sticks close to it.

The show airs on Wednesday nights on Bravo (check local listings for time) so check out the Viet brother.

Related info:

Season 3 overview

Chopping Block -- vote for who should be eliminated

Indochine Brunch on Food Network

The Food Network is many things to many people. I grew up on Saturday morning PBS cooking shows by Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, Martin Yan, the Frugal Gourmet and sometimes even the Galloping Gourmet. Those were educational programs that got me reading, chopping, and cooking.

Today's Food Network programs are more entertainment focused, and less educational. We want things faster nowadays, don't we? Learning is boring. That's why Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade cooking show appeals such a wide audience. It's easy, and there's usually a cocktail involved -- so it's even more fun.

Earlier this month, Sandra Lee featured a show called "Indochine Brunch". Simon Bao (see his hilarious comments) pointed me to it and you should check out the show (when it re-airs) and the recipes themselves:

Semi-Homemade Indochine Brunch

What is Indochine?

Well, that's the issue that Sandra Lee's show brings up. (If you're not familiar with Lee, she's neither Chinese nor Korean.) Typically, Indochine refers to the French colonial experience in Southeast Asia, which used to be called French Indochina. Remember the 1992 film Indochine starring Catherine Deneuve? Everything seems rosy when a certain French tone is applied, no?

But Lee's menu of  dumpling with special sauce, broccoli rabe with black bean sauce, Szechwan crispy beef, mango chile sorbet, and an Indochine cocktail has little to do with French Indochina. Where's the France and Southeast Asia? Without going into more detail, let's just note that broccoli rabe is an Italian green vegetable that most likely was substituted for gailan (Chinese broccoli). Regular broccoli would have been just fine.

"Indochine Brunch" mixes up history, culture, and cuisines. Many people mistakenly think that Vietnamese cooking is heavily influenced by French culinary concepts and I work hard to dispel that notion. Yes, a little French, but also a little Chinese, Indian, and Southeast Asian (Khmer, Cham, Thai, etc.).

But Lee's "Indochine Brunch" has nothing specifically to do with Southeast Asian or Vietnamese food or cooking -- unless you count the use of Vietnamese chile garlic sauce in the Szechuan beef stir-fry -- but rather is a mishmash representation of Asian food and cooking. As the episode description points out, this is an 'Asian-inspired' brunch.

I can only fathom that the 'Indochine Brunch' title was selected because it sounds sexy. The Food Network has used 'Indochine' to describe a banh mi like-sandwich made with a ground pork patty. Grilled pork burgers Indochine actually uses fish sauce and other seasonings to give it some Vietnamese and Southeast Asian flair. Why not call it a Vietnamese grilled pork burger or grilled pork banh mi?

Asia is huge and the cuisines are varied. We don't all look and cook the same. To lump Asian cuisines together is bad enough. In fact, I thought we'd gone beyond that a few years ago. But to supplant Asian food under a European umbrella sets us back a good 50 years.

Fried Squid

The sunshine and soft breezes of summer beckoned Rory and me to drive to Carmel for lunch the other day. Carmel-by-the-Sea (the official name) is a picture-nearly-perfect town on the Monterey Bay. It's a major tourist attraction that attracts bus-loads of visitors. People come from all over the world to marvel at the dramatic seaside, pricey custom homes and lush landscaping. It's California and Europe blended together in one very wealthy enclave. Clint Eastwood was mayor for years.

Admittedly, we find the clean beauty of Carmel to be bit boring, but once or twice a year, we romantically look at each other and say, "Let's go to Carmel." We succumb to the charm that coats the little town like fondant on a wedding cake. We splurge on a luxuriously long meal. We eat lots of fried food, drink a bottle of wine and then sober up by walking around the town before we drive home.  (Watch the 90-minute parking if you go and move your car!)

This time around, among the things we ordered at an Italian restaurant was fried squid coated in semolina. The Monterey Bay, where Carmel is located, is known for its supply of fresh squid but it wasn't squid season. I should have known better. The squid was beautifully fried to a chewy, soft crisp but was tasteless. The vaguely tart-sweet tomato sauce was too heavy of an accompaniment to the delicate squid. We were dissatisfied. No Tabasco in sight. The lemon didn't do much to create the exciting highs and lows of Vietnamese fried squid.

Once home, I felt compelled to right the culinary wrong by frying up some squid myself. A while back, Candy in Indiana sent me her muc chien (pronounced "mook chee-an") recipe that she swears by, and I'd been meaning to try it out. She often makes this dish to wow her friends, a number of whom are Vietnamese-Americans. Candy sent a snapshot of her tasty creation that's on the right here.

Since it wasn't squid season locally, I thawed a package of frozen squid that I'd purchased at an Asian market as an experiment.  The squid came from Vietnam and was pricier (around $2.50) than other brands -- a good sign that reflects quality. Small squid tubes and tentacles too. Once thawed, there was a nice fresh briny fragrance that's often lacking in other frozen squid. (My husband discarded the blue label before I could snap a photo of it for you. Sorry.) The 14-ounce package had about 18 squid with their tentacles on a small Styrofoam tray in Cryovac; once thawed an drained, there was just 9 1/2 ounces.

Candy's recipe, which is based on one presented in Nicole Routhier's Foods of Vietnam (Stuart, Tabori and Chang, 1989), worked exceptionally well. The crisp squid (coated by cornstarch) had nice hints of fresh dill, garlic, and savoriness from nuoc mam. The nuoc cham dipping sauce, wiht its chiles, garlic, and lime, was the perfect match.

Squid frying tips

Keep the following in mind for this recipe:

• Hidden moisture is the culprit behind squid popping hot oil during frying. Do your best to remove excess moisture from the raw squid.
• If you're new to deep frying, get organized and the clean up won't be bad. Line the floor around the stove with newspaper to make things easier. Strain the oil through a paper towel-lined mesh strainer so you can reuse the oil.
• You fry twice here and frankly, you can fry trice (three times) if the squid isn't as crisp as you like.
• Have a buddy help out because this is fast frying. You can pause for a bit (I didn't try this but my guess is about 15 minutes) between the first and second frying.
• Have some ventilation going (the kitchen exhaust fan or a fan) to circulate the air, which will become filled with the smell of deep fried squid.
• If the tentacles get tangled, untangle them before coating. The crispy tentacles are my personal favorite when eating fried squid.

Muc Chien

Serves 4 as a snack

14 to 16 fresh, uncleaned squid with bodies about 4 or 5-inches long, or 8 to 10 ounces cleaned squid, with tentacles preferred (fresh or thawed)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, feathery tops only
2 large cloves garlic, finely minced
2 teaspoons fish sauce
¼ generous teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
½ cup cornstarch or tapioca starch
Canola or corn oil for deep frying
1 recipe Nuoc Cham dipping sauce made with garlic and chiles, and/or 3 or 4 lime wedges

1. If using fresh, uncleaned squid, clean the squid and peel off the skin. Discard the head but reserve the tentacles, and make sure the guts are emptied by scraping on the squid tube with the spine of a knife.

If using pre-cleaned or thawed squid, check each one for any remaining quills in the squid tube. Regardless, put the cleaned squid in a colander, rinse under lots of running water (use some salt if the squid needs a bit of the briny sea), and drain.

Pat gently with paper towel to remove excess moisture. The squid should stick to the paper towel. Removing moisture lessens the drama during deep frying.

2. Cut the squid into rings. (If the squid tubes are small (about the size and length of your thumb or smaller, cut tube in half lengthwise.) If the cut squid still seems moist, repeat patting with paper towels. The less moisture there is, the better.

3. Put the squid (rings and tentacles) in a bowl or on a plate along with the dill, garlic, fish sauce and black pepper. Use your fingers to combine well. Set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.

4. Put the cornstarch on a dinner plate or shallow bowl and place near the stove. Have a plate lined with paper towel for draining the squid. Pour the oil into a wok or 5-quart Dutch oven to a depth of 2 inches and heat to 365 F. To reduce messy clean-up, I cover the floor space immediately around the stove with a few sheets of newspaper.

5. Add the squid to the cornstarch (or tapioca starch) and toss with your fingers to coat well. (Do this in batches if it seems unwieldy.) Pick up the squid and shake off excess cornstarch. Sometime it helps to put the squid into a mesh strainer and shake it around. Place on a clean dry plate or, if the oil is ready, gently drop the squid into the hot oil. Fry about 1/3 to ½ at a time.

Fry for about 45 seconds to seal the coating on the squid and turn it pale yellow. Use a skimmer to transfer to a paper-towel lined plate to drain. (Expect the oil to cloud up during frying.)

6. Then, increase the heat on the oil to about 375 F and refry. Again, do this in batches. Fry for 30 to 45 seconds until golden and crisp. Transfer to the paper-towel lined plate to drain. Serve hot with the Nuoc Cham and/or wedges of lime.

Multiethnic, Multiracial Asian Markets

When it comes to ethnic supermarkets these days, it's not enough to be just Vietnamese or even Pan-Asian. In the western United States, 99 Ranch has been the standard bearer of Asian supermarket chains -- offering an inventory to meet the needs of every Asian cuisine. In the past few years, Mexican tortillas have been added to the shelves too. Hey, many of the people working the butcher and seafood counters are Latinos. Over time, I've seen more Indian and African patrons at not just 99 Ranch but many other Asian markets in the San Jose/Santa Clara area where I do most of my grocery shopping.

Such trends aren't isolated to California. On business trips to Atlanta and Chicago, I've come across humongous markets catering to practically anyone who's interested in good, fresh food. The markets just happen to be owned by Asian people. Here are some highlights . . .

Atlanta, Georgia

On Buford Highway, the hub of Atlanta's Asian community, there are two large markets. The big one is called Buford Highway Farmers' Market and is owned by Korean-Americans. (Atlanta has one of the largest Korean comm unities in America.) On a Saturday afternoon, the place rocks with activity. The produce section is mobbed as people shop for Korean radish, fresh turmeric, and Mexican quelites -- hard to find ingredients in your average store. Caribbean, L atino, and Asian shoppers check out the fresh banana leaves and the fresh aloe vera.

At the seafood counters, there's sushi in one area, whole fish in another, and live crab a few feet away. The meat and poultry section is vast with fresh and frozen items to explore. The aisle are clearly marked by nationality. You can buy a pinata as well as frozen gyoza.

At the Vietnamese-owned Atlanta Farmer's Market, the scene is a bit more quiet but multi-cultural, multi-racial, nonetheless. What unites the shoppers, who are predominantly Vietnamese, Latino, and African American is pork.

Never have I seen a wall of pork like the one that the butcheress was cutting up. We don't have that in California. I chatted with the security guard, who said to me, "I'm a black man, an ex-Marine. Now I'm working in a grocery store with your people. Isn't that great? It's America!"

Niles, Illinois

Similar scenes can be found in countless other markets in the U.S. New York-based H-Mart, a Korean-owned, chain from the East Coast, has a marvelous store in Niles, Illinois, which is outside of Chicago.  (Many thanks to Richard for the tip!) The store is clean, brightly lit, and full of fresh produce and meat. The Korean kimchi selection knocked me out (in a very good way, that is), but there was a great selection of fish sauce for Thai and Vietnamese cooking, kecap manis for Indonesian and Malaysian cooking, as well as Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. The market is as big as the Home Depot next door.
 
Nashua, New Hampshire

Ive always thought of New Hampshire in terms of the presidential primaries, not Asian food. Well, that changed this week. On August 8, the Nashua Telegraph reported that its local Saigon Asian Market is doing quite a brisk business. At the ten-month old, 8,000-square foot  store, the Vietnamese-Chinese owners have stocked the shelves with ingredients for Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Filipino, Mexican, African, Jamaican, and traditional American fare. People are loving it.

For details, read "Market sells food from wide range of countries" by Patrick Meighan of the Nashua Telegraph.

Addresses

• Buford Highway Farmers' Market, 5600 Buford Highway, NE, Doraville, GA 30040
• Atlanta Farmers' Market (formerly Hong Kong Supermarket), 4166 Buford Hwy, Atlanta, GA 30345
• Saigon Asian Market, 33 Pine St, Nashua, New Hampshire

Related Information

• How to find Asian markets and ingredients

Pat's Asian Grandma Cookbook: Call for Recipes

My friend Pat Tanumihardja just signed a contract for a neat project -- The Asian Grandmothers Cook Book.  Based in Seattle, Washington, Pat has written for Saveur magazine and regularly contributes to the Asian Northwest Weekly. She's looking for good recipes to include and asked me to help with outreach.

If you're interested, here are the details from Pat herself:

The Asian Grandmothers Cook Book will be a compilation of recipes from all over Asia -- including India and SE Asia -- that have been passed down from generation to generation. I envision it as a way to preserve traditional recipes for future generations of Asian Americans. It will be published by Sasquatch Books (sasquatchbooks.com) and is scheduled for release spring 2009. I'm looking for recipes that fit into any of the following categories, whether you got them from a grandma, aunt or mom:

• Soups
• Appetizers/side dishes/snacks
• Main dishes
• One "wok" meals
• Healing/Comfort food
• Celebrations
• Serving Accompaniments
• Sweets and Drinks

I'd also love to hear the stories behind why these recipes are special and/or favorites and the grandmas, aunts and moms who passed down these recipes. Please contact me at pat@ediblewords.com if you have questions and/or would like to contribute some recipes!

How to Find Asian Markets & Ingredients

You're ready to cook Vietnamese food but where are the ingredients? They're not particularly hard to find, especially because Asian cooking is increasingly popular and there are Asian communities all over. Once you've found the foodstuffs, the equipment is usually in the market too or at a nearby shop.

If you're new to Asian markets, you'll have to stretch a bit. While many of the ingredients may be locally available, Viet cuisine has yet to become mainstreamed. Certain staples, such as high-quality fish sauce and rice noodles, will require a trip to a Chinese or Southeast Asian market.

Cooking is a fun social and human activity. Part of the experience is shopping for ingredients, which may entail going to unfamiliar neighborhoods and bridging language and cultural barriers. If you smile, are polite, and show interest, people will gladly help. During the last thirty plus years, Vietnamese people have splendidly preserved and developed their culinary traditions far away from their ancestral home. There's no reason why you can't do it too. The payoff is delicious.

Rather than present a list of stores that's bound to change and be incomplete, this posting contains tips to help you find ingredients and equipment.

Strategies for Your Search

Find a Viet enclave nearby and check the local yellow-pages for "Grocers and Markets." According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Vietnamese Americans are the fourth largest Asian ethnic group in America. We are surprisingly in many places. While the biggest Vietnamese-American communities are in California, Texas, and Washington, D.C., there are folks in Atlanta, Boston, New Orleans, New York City, and Seattle too. Even Wichita, Kansas, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, have burgeoning populations. Do an internet search for "Vietnamese community in X city or X state" and see what you find.

Don't limit yourself to Vietnamese markets. Chinese, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian, and Filipino markets also sell ingredients for Vietnamese cooking. The herbs may not be available, but other essentials like fish sauce will be on the shelves. Use cultural and historic intersections as starting points. Where there's a substantial community of Asian people, there are markets that cater to their cooking needs. Chinese-owned Ranch 99 Market is a great pan-Asian chain of grocery stores with locations in California, Washington, Arizona, Hawaii, and Nevada. Mainly on the East Coast and with a super location in Niles, Illinois, H Mart (select English in upper right-hand corner) is a Korean-owned chain of great Asian markets.  Other notable chains include Hong Kong Supermarket and Shun Fat Supermarket.

Pretty reliable online listings of Asian markets in America can be found at:

• Thaifoodandtravel.com: Straight listing with some commentary by Thai cookbook author and cooking teacher Kasma Loha-unchit
• New Asian Cuisine: Interactive US map from Savory productions, an Asian-food marketing company
• ThaiTable.com: Enter a zip code to search
• Merry's Kitchen of Indonesian Cuisine: Simple but robust listing from a food-loving, Jakarta-based florist

Explore Chinatowns. Chinese influences in Vietnamese cooking run deep, and many of the ingredients are the same. A fair number of the grocery stores are owned and run by Chinese-Vietnamese Americans. Chinatown houseware and restaurant supply shops stock steamers, dishware, and other nifty cooking tools.

Ask Viet people who are "in the know." For example:

• The folks who run your favorite Vietnamese restaurant. Where do they buy their ingredients?
• Your Vietnamese manicurist. Where does she or he shop for food and specialty equipment?
• Members of a local university's Vietnamese Student Association. An international organization with numerous chapters in the U.S., VSA sponsors cultural events and food festivals. These students know their community's culinary resources. Check the university website.

Go beyond Asian markets. Peruse non-Asian markets (such as Latino, Middle Eastern, and Caribbean), health food stores, and the international or Asian food section of mainstream supermarkets. You'll be amazed to discover what's stocked on the shelves. Good Mexican butcher counters and carniceria meat markets are treasures.

Shop farmers' markets. In a number of places in the country, Hmong and Vietnamese farmers are trucking loads of fresh Asian produce to weekly markets. Non-Southeast Asian farmers are increasingly growing Asian vegetables and herbs. Check websites such as localharvest.org for local markets and farms.

Use culinary message boards. The virtual community of cooks that can be found at sites like eGullet and chowhound is full of insights.

Only as a last resort should you purchase Asian ingredients and equipment online or through mail order. Because inventories and service fluctuate, check around to see what's currently available and reliable. Among the online and mail order sources worth exploring are:

The Oriental Pantry (Acton, MA)
(978) 264-4576, orientalpantry.com
Offers a broad selection of Asian ingredients. Fish sauce is in "Misc. Other Foods."

Pacific Rim Gourmet (Escondido, CA)
customerservice@pacificrim-gourmet.com, pacificrimgourmet.com
Inventory is organized according to cuisines.

The Wok Shop (San Francisco, CA)
(415) 989-3797, wokshop.com
No food sold here, but the selection of cooking equipment is excellent, including wood moon cakes, which are listed in "Hard to Find Items."