Viet World Kitchen

Spring Asparagus and Shrimp Stir-Fry

Many people assume that Vietnamese food is highly influenced by French traditions. While that is true to a certain extent, the Chinese also influenced Viet foodways big time. Vietnam was a colony of China for nearly 1,000 years! Plus, there are legions of Vietnamese-Chinese people who’ve helped to shape Vietnamese food for generations. (Interactions via trade routes and with Vietnam’s neighbors factor into the mix too.)

My friends, Sophie and Eric Banh (below), the brother-and-sister team behind Monsoon and Ba Bar restaurants in Seattle could be the poster children for how Vietnamese food has blended with Chinese traditions. The Banhs grew up in Cho Lon in Saigon and speak Vietnamese and Chinese (as well as English!). They immigrated to Canada and found their way to relatively warmer climes in Washington State. Their flagship restaurants, Monsoon Capitol Hill and Monsoon East, help to define modern Vietnamese food in the Pacific Northwest.

Favorite Hard-Boiled Egg Recipes & Tips

Growing up in a Vietnamese-Catholic family meant that Easter signaled the end of Lent, going to church and returning home for a big meal of homemade Viet fare. My mom let me dye eggs when I was young so I could experience the American tradition but she never really took to the idea. Eggs were a versatile food to her so why commit yourself to cooking all your eggs by one method?

My siblings thought I was cute for dyeing them but they were too old to get into it much. I am the youngest in a line-up of five. My father was a soft-boiled egg kind of man. To him, boiled eggs were destined to be simmered with fatty pork, caramel sauce, and coconut juice for thit heo kho trung, a southern Viet classic.

Zha Cai Preserved Mustard Tuber: Ya Cai's Sichuan Sister

If you went looking for ya cai preserved mustard for dan dan noodles, you may have instead picked up zha cai mustard tuber. It’s confusing, the names, the Chinese characters, the lack of consistency at Chinese markets. I had a hard time for years figuring out what was what and where to find them. Both are Sichuan seasonings – pickled and preserved vegetables that add big flavor boosts to food. They can be used in the cooking process or as a garnish. 

Zha cai is pronounced “jah tsai” or “zsa tsai” like cross between actress Zsa Zsa Gabor and chef Ming Tsai. It’s crisp and firm in texture, with a very salty flavor. Zha cai is made out of the stem of Brassica juncea, subspecies tatsai. It's bulbous and awkward looking -- similar to super knobby knees. The stem is salted, dried, seasoned with chile and fermented. That's why it resembles a relic.

On the other hand, ya cai has a finer texture and less of a bite. If zha cai were Laverne, ya cai would be Shirley. If that show is too old for you, think of the two as the Thelma and Louise of Sichuan kitchens. 

Vietnamese Street Food Giveaway Winner!

Thanks everyone for enthusiastically entering the giveaway. There were about 160 entries and I have to say, I loved learning about your favorite Vietnamese foods! 

Okay, so the winner was entry number 55 -- Stephan Kieu! Congratulations. 

I feel bad that I only have 1 copy to giveaway. Perhaps I'll have to cook another recipe from the book! Stay tuned... 

Finding Dan Dan Noodles’ BF: Ya Cai Preserved Mustard Greens

Sometimes things are right under your nose and you don’t know it. For the dan dan noodle recipe that I wrote about in the Wall Street Journal last week, I needed a specific seasoning ingredient – Chinese preserved mustard greens, called ya cai (“yaah tsai”). I went to my Chinese market and perused the dried vegetable and canned vegetable section. Nothing. I’d read about the ingredient in cookbooks but none of them told me how to find the stuff – where it may be located or how it’s packaged.

Then, while I was in the refrigerated section looking at tofu (what else) and noodles (for the recipe), I turned around and saw a bunch of boxes filled with index-card size packages of something. Remembering that my friend Victor Fong told me how his family often ate some super salty Chinese pickle with their rice, and that the salty pickle was sold in small packs, I took a look. Lo and behold, there were boxes of ya cai – the good kind made in Yibin in Sichuan province. I’d read in Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop that the ya cai from that city was famous and prized.