Viet World Kitchen

Rat Cuisine in Vietnam

I never know what to make of a story that capitalizes on what may be viewed as weird/extreme eating by 'exotic' cultures. We're officially in the Year of the Rat and on Wednesday, February 6, the Wall Street Journal had an article on how there's been a resurgence in rat-based dining in Vietnam.

The title of James Hookway's piece is "For Vietnamese, The Year of the Rat Starts with Lunch:  Rodent-Eating Takes Off, In Response to Bird Flu;Cats, Snakes on Menu, Too." That's quite a headline, and if you weren't a careful reader, you may think, "Those bizarre, crazy Vietnamese people. They'll eat anything!"

But read further down, past the first paragraph to get the culinary details and rationale for the resurgence of rat cuisine. Hookway's story is quite informative.

That's quite a difference from the LA Times February 6 piece on  new dining trends in Orange County's Little Saigon!

For more to ponder, see:

• Half-hatched duck egg posting
• Year of the Rat posting which contains some comments on rat cuisine

Simple Ways to Celebrate Tet

There's always a certain fervor around Tet. For example, My husband and I don't decorate for any holiday but Lunar New Year. Part of it is that we've no time during Christmas and don't find the decor for other holidays (e.g, Easter, Thanksgiving) to be as festive as the somewhat odd stuff that comes with Lunar New Year territory. All the glitter, gold and crimson speaks to us and makes us cheery. By the time Lunar New Year comes around, we actually feel ready (like we've recovered from the past year) to start over again with hope. As tacky as the stuff looks, I'm drawn to buy a lantern and good luck signs to put up at home.

Though we've accumulated a supply of lanterns and dragons and the like over the years, Tet wouldn't be Tet without going to cho Tet (Tet market). Shopping at a Tet market in Vietnam is much more festive than in the States. Here, it means visiting Viet grocery stores or Vietnamese communities to check out their gold-red packaged goods. I always pick up some candied sweetmeats to supplement what I make at home. Of, course we also look for blossoms and flowers for the house. 

Then, you're suppose to have something new to wear too. (The young girl in the photo was probably wearing her spanking new ao dai for Tet!) To that end, I buy a new outfit, or a little ditty to freshen up my wardrobe.  For all the fun shopping and decorating, did I mention the house cleaning and cooking? Yes, you're suppose to do that as well, albeit many people buy specialty Tet foods nowadays.

But let's face it, this year is starting off kinda strange, with the presidential election going on (Super Tuesday is next Tuesday!) and worries about the economy. People seem to be more stressed out too.

Have no fear. When money and time are in limited supply, you can still celebrate Tet. At heart, it's a humble holiday about being with family, friends and resting up. Here are some inexpensive, simple things that you can do to get into the spirit:

• Make a traditional couplet in Vietnamese and post it on your front door.  No need to do something fancy like the young man in the photo, who was at a San Jose Tet festival. Just download this Word file and use it for your couplet.  Change the font to doll things up. The terms capture the essentials for celebrating Vietnamese Lunar New Year:

Neu Cao - New year tree/bamboo
Phao no - Exploding firecrackers
Banh chung xanh - Sticky rice cake filled with pork and mung bean
Thit mo - Luxurious fatty meats
Dua hanh - Pickled shallots
Cau Doi Do - Red couplet hanging side by side

(Note that half the things listed are specific foods! This is a traditional couplet that leans heavily on northern Vietnamese foodways with the preference for banh chung, and pickled shallots, which are both beloved by people of northern descent.)

• Buy a bunch of tangerines or oranges and display them on a nice platter in a prominent spot in your home. They're precious seasonal fruits that are good luck symbols. Pomelos are wonderful this time of the year too.
• On the first day of the new year (February 7 this year), practice Xong Dat, a Vietnamese New Year tradition. The first person to enter your home on the first day of the New Year is suppose to share his/her good/bad fortune with you for the next cycle. I always rig it -- like my parents do. (Some people hire or ask certain auspicious people to drop by!)  The deal is this . . . I make my hubby go out of the house through the back door and then reenter through the front door by first knocking on the front door. I feign surprise and open the door. He wishes and blesses our home with a few good luck sentences. After that, it's a done deal and we're set for the year.
• Say "Happy New Year" to people:
  • In Vietnamese: Chuc Mung Nam Moi ("Chook moon nahm moy!")
  • In Cantonese: Gung Hay Fat Choy! ("Goong Hey Faht Choi!)"
  • In Mandarin: Gong Xi Fa Cai! ("Goon Shee Fah Ssai!")
• Read a recipe for Tet Eve (Dem Giao Thua)  that doesn't require any cooking, just a tiny bit of reflection. The recipe was sent to me by my friend erin Khue Ninh, an Asian American literature professor.
  

Tet Sticky Rice Cakes: Banh Chung & Banh Tet

If you're unfamiliar with Tet sticky rice cakes (banh chung and banh tet), the must-have food for Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration, chances are you may be asking, "Is it an adobe brick or doorstop wrapped in banana leaf?" At Viet delis, bakeries and grocery stores, you'll find them this week and next displayed on tables. The weighty cakes will be wrapped in plastic with red or gold ribbon tied around them to make them look extra festive for this most important holiday.

Banh chung are the square ones, and banh tet are the cylindrical ones. They are the same, but the major difference lies in their shape. Northern Viet people are partial to the square banh chung whereas central and southern people prefer the round banh tet. Banh chung is the name that most people use. My family prepared and ate banh chung because my mother hails from a town named Hai Duong, which is right outside of Hanoi (in the northern region).

Other than the shape variation, banh chung are traditionally wrapped in the large green leaves called la dong (Phrynium placentarium, which is related to arrowroot). Banh tet are wrapped in banana leaves. Banana leaves impart a wonderful tea-like aroma and flavor to the rice and since la dong aren't available abroad, Viet people living overseas use banana leaves to wrap banh chung and banh tet. Regardless, the cakes are boiled for 6 to 8 hours, depending on size.

Getting the cakes to look like nice squares and cylinders requires finesse. To appreciate the wrapping process and get a few tips, check these out:

• Video on how to wrap banh chung the old-fashioned way -- without a mold, using la dong (rush/arrowroot leaves) tied with strips of reed and cooked over coals. Note how they've lightly tinted the rice pale green with food coloring, something that's definitely not old-school but a modern, widespread practice in Vietnam.
• Photos for how to wrap banh chung using a wood mold (Word file). The mold is my preferred method because it's much easier to get the square shape, a hallmark of the sticky rice cakes. The photos correspond to my detailed recipe for banh chung in  Into the Vietnamese Kitchen (Ten Speed Press, 2006).

What's inside the wrapping? The leaves encase sticky rice, in the center of which there's buttery mung bean and opalescent bits of pork and pork fat. The filling is simply seasoned with salt, pepper, and a touch of fish sauce. It's filling food that can be made in advance and sit around for days, which makes it great for Tet, when you're suppose to have fun, not slave in the kitchen. The leaves impart a wonderful tea-like quality to the rice. When you eat a fresh hot, one, the rice is soft and chewy sweet. The beans are plush and rich and the pork contributes a wonderful savoriness.

How to eat Tet sticky rice cakes and what to serve them with? Square banh chung are cut into wedges (use unflavored dental floss) so each portion has a fair share of rice, mung bean and pork. Round banh tet are cut into thick slices. It's often the case that the cake is eaten with some sugar, which sounds weird but is a great combination of flavors. Banh chung and banh tet may also be fried to a delicious chewy crispness too. The photo above is of a market vendor on Phu Quoc island frying banh tet; here's a fair amount of food coloring in her rice.

Viet people typically serve the cakes with tangy, sweet pungent pickled shallots, garlicky pickled daikon, and various kinds of Vietnamese charcuterie -- silky sausages and head cheese. Pigs were often slaughtered for Tet so people use some of the meat and offal for charcuterie, which keeps around. There's often a long-simmered dish too in which pork or beef is cooked in caramel sauce.

If you don't make them buy them, like many Vietnamese living abroad do these days. Check Viet markets and delis, or Chinese markets where there's a large Viet clientele. The cakes sit out at room temperature. Poke them to make sure they're fresh.

Jump to the main Viet World Kitchen website for more on Tet eats . . .

What do you serve for Tet?

Chuck asked: Does anyone have a good source for buying and ordering banh chung/banh tet in the Bay Area?

Finding a Tet Festival

Where there's a community of Vietnamese people, there's bound to be a Tet festival and food! Strategies for locating an event near you include:

• If you've got a sizable Viet community, check your local newspaper listings.
• Do an internet search for "Tet X year your city, region, state, etc.]"  For example "Tet 2008 Sacramento"
• Check with university and college students belonging to the local chapter of the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA). Those organizations may have an event or two.
  
• Ask a Vietnamese person. For example, the person who does your nails! Or, people at a local Vietnamese restaurant.
• Attend a Chinese new year festival to get the feel for the lunar new year!

So Long Year of the Pig

My friend, Terrence Khuu, a professional chef who was formerly at Le Colonial in San Francisco and the executive chef at Blue Ginger in Milpitas, sent this photo in today. The suckling pig was roasted with a sticky rice stuffing. Terrence prepared it as part of a class he taught this past weekend in Emeryville at Paulding and Company's kitchen facilities.

Months ago, Terrence said he was shy in front of people and I got him to help me with a Viet cooking class for Slow Food. Who would have thought that with a whole pig, a few meat hooks and and some chicken wire, the man would cooking and teaching with gas!

Terrence's main gig is professional catering in the Bay Area. If you're interested, contact him at:

terrence_khuu at yahoo.com

If this is his way of saying goodbye to the Year of the Pig, I wonder how he'll welcome in the Year of the Rat?

Tet Flowers and Blossoms

Every year, Vietnamese people go absolutely crazy over Tet. It's our major holiday -- the only time when the country shuts down and people take it easy. They visit their families, clean their homes, decorate, cook, and square away their debts. It's a time to prepare for renewal and rebirth. I usually become a clean freak.

After the house is in order, I reward myself by driving to the nearby Vietnamese enclave in San Jose, California, to buy flowering branches of blossoms to decorate the house.  (If you're curious, I go to the entrance of the Grand Century mall at the corner of McLaughlin and Story, to be specific.) The blossoms are beautiful symbols of life and resilience. Shopping for the delicate branches is part of my annual ritual. In fact, Tet doesn't seem quite right without a few branches of blossoms in the house.

In Vietnam, delicate yellow apricot blossoms, called hoa mai, (above, right) are highly prized in the southern part of the country. The only ones I'm come across in the States have been on display at Tet festivals. The tree is hard to come by but you can certainly come close with Forsythia (right) branches.

Forsythia are grown in the States and usually start flowering in February. This year, with Tet falling in early February (February 7, to be specific), you may be lucky. Forsythia are native to East Asia (China, Korea and Japan) so you'd be staying within the Asian family of flowers.

Northern Vietnamese people prefer reddish-pink or pink blossoms because those hues are harbingers of good fortune. Intensely colored peach blossoms, called hoa dao,  are favored by northerners. In the U.S., vibrant quince blossoms, which are flowering right now(!!), are a fabulous substitute.  Their intense color always stop me in my tracks. 

Around my neighborhood, there are scraggly quince bushes blooming right now. If it' s on public property, I sometimes break off a little branch or two to take home. Since it's not good to pilfer, try a floral shop.

Stone fruit trees (peach, plum and apricot) should start to bloom around Tet too, and their delicate pink flowers are drop-dead gorgeous. When I shop for Tet blossoms, most of what's sold are the light-pink ones. The branches are long and unwieldy so make sure to gently wrap them in newspaper and then transport them home with care. (Bring newspaper with you because the vendor is not likely to have any.) Because the blossoms are mostly in full bloom (or about to open), they can drop flowers and petals in your car, which can be a pain to clean up.

If you don't have yellow, reddish-pink or pink blossoms, white ones will be just fine too!

How to treat the branches: Regardless of how you obtain your branches and which one you get, when you get home, use a hammer to break apart a bit of each branch at the cut end. Crushing the fibrous end ensures that the branch will absorb water well. They'll last longer. Put them in a heavy vase, lest they tip over a small one, and enjoy them for a couple of weeks.  The branches have a life of their own (they may not stand upright and beautiful on their own) so bunch them together with a rubber band before putting them in the vase. Don't forget to change the water every few days.

Growing these trees: If you're inspired to grow these trees, source them in the next few weeks. Check at Viet markets or shopping areas about a week before Tet. There's usually an itinerant vendor who shows up to offer potted trees and/or cut branches; these vendors have a way with forcing the blooms to give a dramatic showing around Tet every year. Bring cash.

Or, check with specialty nurseries. Every year, you'll have a supply of branches to bring cheer to your home inside and out.

And if the blossoms are unavailable or if you just want to add to the merriment, get a pot or two of  fluffy, golden chrysanthemums.

Got any Tet floral tips? Please share them with the rest of us!

For more information:

• Locations of 2008 Tet Flower markets in Saigon (HCM City's People's Committee)
• Photos of Tet festivities in Saigon (Check out the flowers, parades and throngs of people. You know the year by the animal in the pictures. 2007 was the Year of the Pig.)
• 2008 Schedule of Tet activities in Saigon (Fireworks, flower markets, banh tet festivals, music concerts, it's all happening in Saigon)