CANH CHUA CÁ LỐC (Snakehead fish sour soup – The Love of Mother)

In the last year of high school, I was busy at studying, there’s nothing in my mind that stronger than the university. Like my friends, every day, I joined the main class while I attended in the tuition class. This time were difficult to me as I had to study on afternoon of second semester.

Eating Snakehead fish sour soup with rice

After the main class finished, I had to move the tuition class as soon as possible to get a good seat so I could not have a break time between 2 classes. When I left the tuition class on 9 pm, my stomach started demonstrating. But my mouth did not want to activate because the weather was so hot and I had to eat alone. However, I was a lucky person when beside me had a wonderful mother, she is the best chef of mine.

My favorite meal by my mom cook was Snakehead fish sour soup. This soup made me stronger and cooler. Its taste was special such as the sour of “tai chua”, the sweet of snakehead fish meat and the aromatic spices as I was really interesting when enjoy it. Fish with fish sauce not only delicious, but also sweet and salty, there’s no amount of rice was enough.

All tiredness seems to be disappeared. But the thing made me more emotional was that on those nights, my parents and sister were on kitchen with me. One talked, while other one asked about study, and mom picked up with chopsticks so much food for me. She even didn’t let me did things like dig rice, ladle out soup, wash dishes, so maybe the only way to make her happy was that to have a hearty appetite, eat soup appetizingly and try all my best on the the university entrance exam.”

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BÁNH XÈO (Vietnamese Pancake – The Raining day)

I was a child, every time the cold of the winter is nearby, my sister and I usually insisted our mom on making pancake, a famous and familiar food in Vietnam. Winter when I was ten is the most memorable time. In that year, rains seemed never the end and we got the greatest chance to eat the cake freely. While it rained heavily outside, we were enjoying our sweet pancake in our sweet home.

Vietnamese Pancake

In the morning, my mom cleaned rice and poured it into the bowl, then added the water to the rice until the seeds became bigger and softer. Afterwards, my sister and I took the bowl to the miller to make them into flour. Later on, my mother again added a little of water to the flour, mixed them with eggs, a spoon of turmeric and that is how to make the pan cake batter. I remembered that my sister is always interested in stirring that mixture.

My mother did almost everything likes cooking meat and shrimp with sauce, cleaning vegetables, washing bean sprouts, making gravy. Sometimes, we asked mom “what’s this?”, “what is it used for?” or ate one piece of meat on the sly.

Central Pancake

The cake was continuously cooked no matter how sweats fell on her face. She poured a large spoon of the mixture onto the hot greased frying pan, added some shrimps in the middle of the pan cake, some bean sprouts over and cooked them in closed pan. After 2 or 3 minutes, when it was cooked, mom folded it double, took it onto the dish. We quickly ran to the table while trying to smell deeply the sweet scent of that cake. Rolling the pancake with vegetables by rice paper wrappers, we tasted the food with hot and salty gravy. I will never forget that crispy, sour and sweet pan cake. That’s amazing!

How to east Pancake

When I grow up, there are a lot of food stalls where pancake is served. However, it’s no way more delicious than the cake made by my mom – The cake which is full of family love.”love.”

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BÁNH MÌ (Vietnamese Baguette)

           “One of the famous and delicious street food in the world”, "The palatable sandwich ever" are those sayings foreign press favourably call Vietnamese Baguette. Surpassing thousands tasty dishes all over the world, Vietnamese Baguette is now becoming more and more favourable in both domestic and international tourists thinking to combination of three factors: Tasty – healthy – cheap. In order to catch up with the hasty pace of life day by day, residents throughout the country gravitate themselves to the lifestyle of eating healthy, nutritious food and saving time.

Bread with ham, pâté, pickled carrot and white radish, cucumber and chili

As a result, it is not strange with trolleys of bread along streets being crowded by customers in the early morning, that makes wonderfully beautiful and vibrant scenes. Vietnamese Baguette is not too big, normally a loaf of bread is served for person, but still ensures of level of nutrition and fills us up with energy during the morning. Skin of bread is always sparkling with eye-catching golden brown colour, buttery taste of a pate, pork, chopped meat but it do not make people’s appetite of any fever thinking to sweet-and-sour taste of pickles, elegant flavour, fragrance of coriander, and spicy taste with some small pieces of red hot pepper.Additionally, Vietnamese Baguette shows own special features with various types of sauces such as soy sauce, gravy beef or other traditionally special gravy.
         Behind all those tasty, attractive and eye-catching flavour, bread involves many stories of life, human beings’ sense of mercy, that is all about poor, unfortunate kids sharing with each other loaves of bread who always sparkle with beautifully innocent smiles. Or stories about those workers with perfunctory meals to be on time for their afternoon shift. And those loaves of bread, even more interesting, always associate with students, who have to save every dime and penny to follow and fulfil their dreams...That is why is said: Vietnamese Baguette as itself says, “Simple but not that is simple.”

Small sidewalk bakery in Vietnam

        With the  Vietnamese Baguette, we always enjoy completely fresh new flavour by all senses of tuition. It, without the doubt, is a big regret for those who miss this special dish when visiting Vietnam. And what are you waiting for? Give it a try then you figure out how and why  Vietnamese Baguette was, is and always be conquering even picky folks.

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Mì Quảng (Quang Noodle) - The Simple Love

         Someone told that: the shortest way to a men’s heart is through his stomach. Being young, most Vietnamese boys tend to flirt with sexy girls. They would like to lay their eyes at someone who is beautiful and charming. However, men are more careful to choose their wife, who will be their children’s mother and daughter-in-law of their parents. Obviously, they would rather choose the girls who are proficient in household affairs. Because of this above thinking, when I start to love him, I also start to pay more attention to my kitchen. I often surf the web to search for new recipes. Despite variety of dishes I tried to cook, he still loves only Quang noodle. 

Quang Noodle with shrimp, pork

          Sometimes, in the morning, I go to market early to buy noodles. Noodles are made from rice flour. Rice flour is steamed, then floored a little bit sesame oil. There are 2 types of noodles, namely white noodles and yellow noodles. Yellow noodles are different from the white ones that it’s also made from rice flour but added some saffron flour. Therefore, yellow noodles are much more delicious than white ones and that’s why my darling likes yellow noodles so much. I buy pork, noodles, shrimps, quail eggs, vegetable, lemon and especially green pimento. Once I have got all the necessary ingredients, I begin to process Quang noodles. This process consists of 3 steps: Boiling the eggs, Cooking the mixture of pork and shrimps and Mixing all of them into boiling water. Finally, I add some pimentos to make the sauce more palatable.
          Now are how to enjoy the noodle. We first need to add clean vegetables to a big bowl and let the noodle on then finally add the sauce of shrimp and pork on top. Don’t forget to add cooked peanuts, cilantros and a little bit lemon juice to enjoy perfect Quang noodle. My darling likes salty food so I also prepare a spicy fish sauce which is made from pure fish sauce and finger-sized, fresh pimento.

        Looking how he enjoys the Quang noodle makes me feel so happy.The sweet mixture of shrimp sauce, pork sauce, the tasty fish sauce with spicy pimento and the sour lemon juice is good enough to glamour that man.

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Cá nục hấp cuốn bánh tráng (Rice paper rolls with steamed scad - Scad rolls)

           When referring to types of rolling meals, central coastal people who live in severe weather conditions can't help mentioning "Scad rolls" - A popular dish with regional flavor. In July, when wind starts blowing from the South to the Coastal, It's time for fishing Scad. 

Steamed Scad with chili and scallion

It is the high value species in both nutritional and economic aspect, chosen by most of Vietnam housewives for cooking a lots of diversified and interesting dishes. 
               Scad Rolls is always given priority to be chosen because of the simplicity in cooking but diversity in nutrient. Its ingredients are also easy to find and very cheap. It's definitely not a bad choice. When reading the name of this dish, You can easily envision the main ingredient that makes it special Scad . After being washed, the fresh fishes will be put on the dish and marinated with onions, spices, peppers and chopped chili. All of them are blended until the fish is absorptive enough to be ready for the final step putting in the steamed pot. Each region has each special steaming method. Especially in Danang, You will have a chance to be experienced the very special taste because Scad is sometimes wrapped in a silver paper to steam. Thus, the flavor and nutrients of the fish will be kept entirety. In addition, heat will make liquid secreted from the fish which later is blended with marinated spices and then became a dish that’s mixed by salty taste of the sea, sweetness from the fish and piquancy from chili. We’re sure that it will satisfy any diner.

Rice paper rolls with steamed scad - Scad rolls

            Scad Rolls is enjoyed with water morning glory (bindweed) – A very familiar vegetable in Vietnam. The crispness and sweetness of this vegetable will harmonize with the softness of the fish by a very surprising way. This combination not only makes diners not be fed up about the dish but also unforget the special tasty of them when leaving Danang. The next component will be Rice paper. The tasty of this dish also depend on what kind of Rice paper will be used because of its flexible. In Danang, people usually use Rice paper made from rice flour.  However, this dish won’t be perfect if misses a very important component: Sauce. In Danang, the housewives often uses seasoning sauce. When you taste it, the saltiness will be on your tongue first, then it becomes spicy and finally, the sweetness of pineapple remains in your neck.

            Eating method is very simple: Just spread the girdle-cake on your hands, put on it some pieces of the fish and vegetables and then roll them all.

Scad Rolls, with the perfect combination of traditional flavors and multi-nutrients, has been being success in holding visitors to stay longer when they come to Danang. In addition, due to eye-catching and simplicity form, it often appears in family meals of local people.

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