Coconut Shoot Salad

Ben Tre Province is known as the capital of coconut trees in South Vietnam. For many years, the coconut tree has been closely attached to the life of local people. Its fruit, leaves, trunk, coconut shells, and coconut fibre, are used to make food and household products.

The local people use coconut shoots to create some delicious dishes, such as coconut shoots fried with chicken organs, coconut shoots fried with Xeo cake and coconut shoots salad that is considered the most delicious. The salad is comprised of scraped coconut shoots, peeled shrimps, sliced belly meat, pig’s ears, fragrant knotweed, onion and fried peanuts. It is served with sour and sweet sauce and crispy prawn crackers.

Ingredients (Serves 4):
- Coconut shoots: 300g
- Tiger prawns: 200g
- Belly meat: 100g
- Pig’s ears: 100g
- Carrots: 50g
- Onion: 50g
- Red pepper: 1
- Fried dried onion: 20g
- Fried peanuts: 30g
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice; fragrant knotweed; fish sauce; and sugar

Preparation:
- Peel shrimps and steam them.
- Boil and slice the belly meat and pig’s ears.
- Scrape coconut shoots and submerge them into cold water mixed with a little of lemon juice.
- Slice carrots, onion and red pepper into threads.
- Mix fish sauce with sugar, lemon juice and red pepper.
- Mix the prepared ingredients with the sauce. Place the salad on a large plate and cover with fried peanuts, fragrant knotweed and fried dried onion.
- Serve with sour and sweet sauce and crispy prawn crackers.

 

Vietnamese spring roll recipe

Vietnamese spring rolls are known in Vietnam as gỏi cuốn. The term "spring roll" translates in Vietnam as "salad roll", but many locals prefer to call it a "summer roll". Ingredients include thin slices of boiled or fried pork, shrimp, chicken, beef, fresh herbs, lettuce, and fresh garlic chives, all wrapped in moistened rice paper, served cold with dipping sauce known as nước chấm or hoisin sauce.

They are quite simple to make, there are really only two different preparation methods for this dish, which is to fry it or not. If using the non frying method, moistened rice paper is used to wrap up already cooked ingredients.

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Vietnamese spring roll recipe

The first recipe is for a non fried spring roll, there are more recipes to come but this dish is very adaptable.


Ingredients
50g (2 oz) rice vermecilli or rice noodles
8 spring roll rice wrappers
8 large cooked prawns - peeled, de-veined and cut in half
1 1/3 tablespoons chopped fresh Thai basil
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
3 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
2 leaves lettuce, chopped
2 dessert spoons fish sauce
50ml (2 fl oz) water
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic chilli sauce
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon finely chopped peanuts

Preparation method
1. Bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil. Boil rice vermicelli for 3 to 5 minutes and drain. Rinse thoroughly with cold water so they don't stick.
2. Fill a large bowl with warm water. Dip one wrapper into the water for 1 second to soften. Lay wrapper flat. In a row across the centre, place 2 prawn halves, a handful of noodles, basil, mint, coriander and lettuce, leaving about 5cm (2 in) uncovered on each side.
3. Fold uncovered sides inward, then tightly roll the wrapper, beginning at the end with the lettuce. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
4. In a small bowl, mix the fish sauce, water, lime juice, garlic, sugar and chilli sauce.
5. In another small bowl, mix the hoisin sauce and peanuts.
6. Serve rolled spring rolls with the fish sauce and hoisin sauce mixtures.

Đá Dựng mountain

Hà Tiên, the Southernmost province is rich in historic and cultural relics. How could visitors to Hà Tiên forget such beauties and landscapes Thạch Động, Phụ Tử or father -and-son mount, Mạc Cửu tomb, Mũi Nai beach, especially the Đá Dựng tourism complex.

Photo: Phạm Lự

Đá Dựng is locally named Châu Nham, is part of Hà Tiên limestone range, only blue stone in Mỹ Đức commune, about 4km from Hà Tiên town. The mountain is not high but rocky and perilous. There are grottoes on mountain slopes, outstanding in a boundless water-field neighboring Cambodia.

Its legendarily believed that since time mountains met the sea, there were plenty of caves and grottoes and mangroves, an ideal habitat for bird-sanctuaries. Governor of Hà Tiên Mạc Thiên Tích and his learned fellowmen in Chiêu Anh Các (a club of poets) described the scene of white stocks on the mountains to be one of Hà Tiêns ten most beautiful landscapes.

There are 11 caves and grottoes, differently named: Biệt Động, Quân Y, Thạch Sanh, Nam Vang and Hoàng Gia Each name is sourced from a historical event or a man noted for his merits.

Below is cave N04 or Quân Y (or military health service unit) that still retains religious traces of our ancestors. The nature is sparkling in dew-curtain that looks more soleumn and scared at one end of the cave is an ancient pagoda, called Kỳ Sơn Tự.

Thạch Sanh grottoes is on mountain -top, the most beautiful one, stalactites and stalagmites look very much like characters in legendary story Thạch Sanh. There is a fairy -well or Giếng Tiên where fairies normally took a bath. On grotto Trống Ngực, it will make sound like drumbeat when you just lightly flap on your own chest or grotto Rồng where small rocks look like flakes of a dragon.

Visitors to Đá Dựng are happy to discover new thing, apart from mountain climbing, especially to enjoy more legends and folktales told by the local people or written in story-books.

Tra Viet – where tea lovers share their passion

Tra Viet hien quan (Vietnamese tea club) located at 50 Ut Tich Street in HCMC’s Tan Binh District is a popular venue for members of tea clubs from around the world. It is also a favorite of international students and local and foreign film troupes who want to learn more about the development of tea and business opportunities in Vietnam. There are bi-monthly meetings at the club for participants to discuss hobbies such as collecting teapots, composing poems about tea and chado (Japanese tea ceremony).

Tra Viet hien quan (Vietnamese tea club) located at 50 Ut Tich Street in HCMC’s Tan Binh District is a popular venue for members of tea clubs from around the world. It is also a favorite of international students and local and foreign film troupes who want to learn more about the development of tea and business opportunities in Vietnam. There are bi-monthly meetings at the club for participants to discuss hobbies such as collecting teapots, composing poems about tea and chado (Japanese tea ceremony).

The club is managed by Hoa Tra Viet JSC and was established in 2005 by young people from the land of tea, Bao Loc Town in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. The company is also in the business of trading tea and tea shops, and it plans to franchise their brand Tra Viet for those who wish to open tea shops under its umbrella.

Travel to Vietnam - enjoy "pho"

Vietnam is an agricultural civilization based on wet rice cultivation with ancient Dong Son culture as one of its defining aspects. The major stimulation of Vietnamese culture’s development comes from indigenous factors, with Chinese and Indian influence serving to further enrich it. Through history, Cham culture and the cultures of other minority ethnic groups in Vietnam have been integrated with Vietnamese culture in correlated effects. The official spoken and written language of Vietnam is Vietnamese.


Vietnam is considered a part of the East Asian Cultural Sphere, or Sinosphere, due to highly significant cultural influences from China throughout its history. In the socialist era, the cultural life of Vietnam has been deeply influenced by government-controlled media and the cultural influences of socialist programs. For many decades, foreign cultural influences were shunned and emphasis placed on appreciating and sharing the culture of communist nations such as the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and others. Since the 1990s, Vietnam has seen a greater exposure to Southeast Asian, European and American culture and media.

Vietnamese phở noodle soup is made by sliced rare beef and well done beef brisket. Rice noodles are noodles that are made from rice. Their principal ingredients are rice flour and water. However, sometimes other ingredients such as tapioca or corn starch are also added in order to improve the transparency or increase the gelatinous and chewy texture of the noodles.

Rice noodles are most commonly used in the cuisines of East and Southeast Asia, and are available fresh, frozen, or dried, in various shapes and thicknesses. In Tamil Nadu and parts of Kerala, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Idiappam, a type of rice noodle, is usually freshly made at home and tends to be far more tender with distinctive texture, as opposed to the dried form of Chinese noodles. A variation of Idiappam, known as sevai in Tamil Nadu, is used as the base in savoury preparations; it is also called santhakai or sandhavai in the Coimbatore region of Tamil Nadu. A similar mode of preparation called savige is popular in Karnataka.

Phở is served in a bowl with a specific cut of white rice noodles (called bánh phở’) in clear beef broth, with slim cuts of beef (steak, fatty flank, lean flank, brisket). Variations feature tendon, tripe, meatballs,chicken leg, chicken breast, or other chicken organs. “With the lot” (made with chicken broth and all or most of the shop’s chicken and cattle offerings, including chicken hearts and livers and beef tripe and tendons) is known as phở đặc biệt (“specialty phở”)

Vietnamese dishes are meals typically served with lots of greens, herbs, vegetables, and various other accompaniments such as dipping sauces, hot and spicy pastes, and flavor enhancements, such as a squeeze of lime or lemon. The dish is garnished with ingredients such as green onions, white onions, coriander, Thai basil (húng quế) (not be confused with sweet basil, Vietnamese: húng chó or húng dổi), fresh Thai chili peppers, lemon orlime wedges, bean sprouts, and coriander (ngò rí) or cilantro (ngò gai).

Several ingredients that are not generally served with phở may be ordered by request. Extra fatty broth (nước béo) can be ordered and comes with scallions to sweeten it. A popular side dish ordered upon request is hành dấm, or vinegared white onions. The dish is sometimes flavoured with cà cuống, which is a pheromone, collected from the male giant water bug.

The best phở in Hanoi

I can say for sure that its definitely my favorite place to go for phở. And, I would be happy to argue that it is probably the best in Hanoi!

Every night at the western end of Hàng Mã, in the midst of paper street, starting at about 5:30pm, sitting on the corner is a middle aged women working her noodles, her pots, and her knife. You can almost picture her as a drummer with her two big base drums for stock, her two smaller toms for re-heating the phở, and as her snare, her worn cutting board for slicing the beef. She is fiery and fierce to her workers, kind and generous to her patrons.

The small street-side restaurant is run with her brother. An older man with a strong smile and a weakening voice. He acts as the maitre d’, busboy, and manger. The two of them are often in a heated ‘discussion’. Not knowing enough Vietnamese to understand, I imagine that it is about the rising price of quality beef, but I know that it is an argument and verbal-beating in response to something the older fellow forgot to tell the staff.

It is a joy to sit and watch the pair at work and the satisfied customers slurping away. It is obvious the sister-brother team have a well-developed customer base. Returning clientele show up every night picking up to-go orders of Phở Tái Chín (phở with rare beef and braised brisket) or Sốt Vang (Southern style beef stew) almost bowing in thanks as they see it slopped into their stainless steel carriers.

And what about the phở? Well, its delicious of course! Fresh ingredients. Great ratio of meat to noodles to garnish. Seasoned to perfection. The stock is clear and flavorful. There is a great selection of condiments for personalization. It’s a delight that I frequently treat myself to (at least once a week). And, every once in a while I am enticed to have a second bowl, half-filled with sốt vang.

Surely, a coveted family recipe.For those who have phở-ed their way through Vietnam, or have staked claim as Hanoi’s street-food gurus; or for those who just don’t believe that the best phở in Hanoi is on Hàng Mã, then I suggest you go, try, and prove me wrong.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, they have tall chairs and regular sized tables!

Phở Gà Trộn - Mixed Chicken Noodle

  

On a side road in Hanoi’s Old Quarter is a very popular, locals’ favourite restaurant serving what is called Phở Gà Trộn. Translated to English it means Noodle Chicken Mix. The dish, which is not readily found in Hanoi, is rich, fresh and delicious!

One of the neatest things about the restaurant is not the patrons that sprawl along the sidewalk on both sides of the road, but the long slender hall way that brings you to the actual 3-table restaurant. Inside, a single lady methodically and precisely prepares the never-ending orders of the phở gà trộn, as well as a specialty chicken and cabbage salad. A mountain of freshly prepared chicken surounds her as servers run back and forth with trays of the special dish.

The dishes cost around 50,000 VND each (2.5 USD) and definitely worth the challenge of finding the place. The address to this must-try street-food is 65 Lãn Ông, two blocks down from Hàng Gà near “bamboo corner”.

Noodle ( Phở) in Vietnam

Phở (noodle soup) is a delicacy and specialty in Vietnam.
It is probably Vietnam’s most famous food, and locals and foreigners alike can be seen chowing-down on the rice-noodle soup in almost any major city in the world.

Soup is not the only way to enjoy Vietnam’s signature dish – “mixed pho” is a new dry blend of soft noodle threads and tasty sauce
Phở gà trộn (rice noodles mixed with chicken). When rice noodles are mixed with chicken, the dish tastes greasy but not fatty.

Most of Vietnam’s unique culinary traits, known for their nuance and subtlety, are available in a bowl of phở noodle soup. Whatever foreign visitors are from, they often love to find their own tiny phở shop on some unfamiliar corner or down a small alley. Walking the city in search of the best phở is as great a pastime as any.

In its most traditional version, phở is prepared as a rice noodle soup served with beef, herbs such as basil and cilantro, and bean sprouts.
Apart from the traditional version, talented Vietnamese cooks have combined other ingredients or prepared phở noodles in non-soup dishes. Phở cuốn (rice noodle rolls), phở chiên (deep-fried rice noodle crisps) and phở xào (stir-fried rice noodles) are three different non-soup options enjoyed on city corners.

But the newest version is phở trộn, which translates literally to “mixed pho”: it’s rice noodles with sweet and sour sauce. It has a delicate and pleasing taste that eaters often enjoy in the summer. There are many kinds of popular phở trộn and among the most popular are phở gà trộn (rice noodles mixed with chicken), phở bò tái trộn (rice noodles mixed with rare beef), and phở trộn thập cẩm (rice noodles mixed with chicken and beef).

Phở trộn is prepared by mixing scalded rice noodles, meat, herbs, bean sprouts, roasted peanuts and some sweet-and-sour sauce in a bowl. Next to the bowl of mixed rice noodles is a bowl of broth which is taken from boiled bones and smells fragrantly of ginger and green onion.

The threads of rice noodle in phở trộn are white and naturally crisp. They are soft but still tough enough. The sauce is extraordinarily delicious.

The sauce may be the most important part of the dish because it decides whether the dish tastes delicious or not.
Apart from some basic ingredients needed to prepare the sauce, restaurants often have secret recipes to make themselves stand out for their delicious and distinctive sauce.

Some restaurants use soy sauce in phở trộn instead of sweet-and-sour sauce. The soy sauce is critical to the success of the dish, therefore, it is prepared pursuant to a special recipe. When the soy sauce is added into the bowl of mixed rice noodles, it creates a fragrant and flavorful mixture.

When rice noodles are mixed with chicken, the dish tastes greasy but not fatty. It still retains the flavor of the herbs and spices used.
When rice noodles are mixed with beef, the beef is sliced thinly and marinated with some spices to make it softer and sweeter. The beef can be rare, well done, or anywhere in the middle.

BOX: To enjoy phở trộn in Ho Chi Minh City, customers can come to the following restaurants:
Pho Dam Sen
3 Hoa Binh Street, Ward 3, District 11
Pho tron Ly Van Phuc
5 Ly Van Phuc Street, Tan Dinh Ward, District 1

Source: en.baomoi

Vietnam’s ancient city of Hoi An goes car free

BANGKOK: Vietnam’s ancient city of Hoi An in Quang Nam province has launched its first Car Free Day campaign on Sunday to coincide with its annual Nature Day.

The UNESCO’S world heritage site was the first city in Vietnam to run the campaign aimed at creating a healthier environment, Vietnam news agency VNA reported.

Campaign participants rode on bicycles and pedicabs around the city’s old quarter to raise awareness of environmental protection among locals and tourists.

“The campaign shows how committed the locals are to environmental protection. The city has successfully organised a pedestrian street in the old quarter since 2002 and has hosted the Nature Day in the last three years,” said Hoi An city’s People’s Committee deputy chairman, Nguyen Van Dung.

“We are honoured to be the first city in the country to join the Asian network of Car Free Day programmes. We hope the campaign will encourage people to use more environmentally friendly vehicles like bicycles and battery-powered bicycles and to walk more.”

The Car Free Day campaign started in La Rosshelle, France in 1997 and has attracted the participation of 2,268 cities in 40 countries.

Hoi An city has set up 13 sites for people to exchange used nylon bags for new reusable bags.
BM