GRILLED CHICKEN WINGS ( Cánh gà nướng)

PREP 15mins

COOK 60mins

READY 45mins

Ingredients:

 2,25kg chicken wings ( maybe less or more depand on how much you want to enjoy
2 spoons of sugar
2 spoon of salt
2 bows of water
1 coffee spoon of seasonings: coriander, salt and garlic
1 coffee spoon of  paprika
½ coffee spoon of black pepper
2 spoon of honey
¼ bow of sesame

 Instructions:

Put sugar and and salt into a little pan,cook with little fire until you get a mixture like caramel (dark brown). Pour some water in, sugar with turn into solid form.Keep the fire on for the sugar to melt completely.







Add in pepper, black pepper and garlic. Heat the honey in the oven  some seconds and then pour honey into the sauce, mix well.



 


Arrange chicken wings in a tray, pour the
sauce on it. Grill themat 4000F in 30 minutes.




Then overturn the wings, grill for another 20 minutes. After that, pour 80% sauce in and grill 10 minutes more!








Lay them on a dish, sprinkle the sesame on.Enjoy with white rice!








Skill level: Intermediate




Good luck and have a great time with grilled chicken wings!



Lành Phạm,

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The ten irresistible dishes in Sai Gon (part 1)

Clams, grill goat breast, “banh trang tron” (mixed dry rice cake) or “pha lau” (viscera soup) are good dishes that you should try in Sai Gon.

1.      “Ốc” (Snail, Clams)

Wandering hours in Sai Gon at night without coming in a snail store, order a steam clam with lemongrass, grill cheese “so diep”, “cang ghe rang muoi ot” (chili salt fry crab hands), “so long nuong mo hanh” (grill so long with onion and oil)… means you do not really understand Sai Gon. “Oc” can be seen as an unmissable dish of Sai Gon. There are hundreds of snail stores in Sai Gon and they are always crowded. Sai Gon “Oc” is fresh, well seasoning and really yummy.

The price is about 20,000d a dish. There are some recommended stores that you can try: “Oc Xuan Hon” on Le Thi Bach Cat, district 11; “Oc Thanh Long” on Truong Dinh, district 3; and some others in district 4 and 8.

2.      Banh trang tron (mixed dry rice cake)

“Banh trang tron”, “banh trang cuon”, “banh trang nuong” are three kind of “banh trang” dish that are favorite of Sai Gon young people. The price is about 10,000 to 15,000d; “banh trang tron” is usually sold along Sai Gon’s street.

Beside “banh trang tron”, you can have “banh trang cuon” with tamarind sauce.

Shredde “Banh trang” with fry onion, chili sauce, oil onion, peanut, quail egg, beef jerky, mango and laksa leaf, mixing well in a nilon bag. Each places will adjust the seasoning to have different taste. “Banh trang tron”, “banh trang cuon” can order to go, but “banh trang nuong” has to be served instantly to keep the hot and the crunchiness.

3.      Goi kho bo (Beef jerky salad)

With the sweetness of beef broth, crunchiness of green papaya, “goi kho bo” is also a Sai Gon people’s favorite dish. The price is about 15,000 to 18,000d a dish. You can find the most famous place for this dish at Le Van Tam park, district 3.

When you arrive here, one guy will bring you a piece of paper to sit down under a tree. “Goi kho bo” at Le Van Tam park is on the pavement but it exist for about ten years. Here, people add some pieces of fry rice cake cracker on top of the dish.

4.      Pha lau (Viscera soup)

The customer of this dish is students and young people. There are many kinds of “pha lau”: pork “pha lau”, chicken, duck, beef “pha lau”. However beef “pha lau” is the most popular one. A bowl of  beef “pha lau” has beef tripe, bovine spleen, beef tendon,…

As usual, “pha lau” is served with bread or instant noodle. The price is about 15,000 to 30,000d/bowl. You can try at Xom Chieu, district 4 on Hoang Dieu and Le Quoc Hung street.

5.      Tra sua (Milk tea)

Every corner in Sai Gon has milk tea. Each store has their own flavor. Now, the most common milk tea in Sai Gon is Phuc Long. With the open space, people usually sitting at Bach Dang dock, order a cup of milk tea and chatting with friends.

Milk tea is a familiar choice of Sai Gon young people

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Da Nang: Celebrating The Culinary Cultural festival – The culinary of 5 country joining the Firework competition.

The Beauty in the specific culture – cuisine of 5 countries America, Poland, South Africa, Australia and Viet Nam that are participating in Da Nang Firework Competition 2015 is performed at “The Culinary Cultural festival – Da Nang International cuisine 2015.”

On April 20^th, Mr. Ho Van Anh, President of Da Nang Event and Festival Organizing Center said that, from 25-28/4, “The Culinary Cultural festival – Da Nang International cuisine 2015” will be placed at the park beside Novotel Hotel on Bach Dang street.

The tourists at the InternationalCulinary Cultural festival in DIFC 2013

This is one of the side activities that is allowed by Da Nang People’s Committee to contribute to the International Firework competition 2015 (DIFC 2015). The festival is set up by Da Nang Event and Festival Organizing Center and some local hotels, resorts, restaurants; it is mainly focus on introducing the beauty in culture-cuisine of  5 nations in the DIFC 2015 that are the USA, Poland, South Africa, Australia and Viet Nam.

According to Mr. Ho Van Anh, this is the second time that this festival was celebrated in Da Nang. The high light of this year’s is the nice looking design of the stalls that brings up the culture of each nation and also the cooking place, displaying the traditional dishes. The food is made by standard hotels and restaurants. 

Especially, with the support of the Embassy of Australia, the Embassy of Poland in Viet Nam, “Goc nghien cuu Viet Nam-Hoa Ky” (The research corner Viet Nam-America), ELI English Council, Nguyen Hien Dinh “Tuong” Theater and some other organizations, the tourists can experience the representative culture of 5 nations at the common culture space displaying images, tools, daily routine in each country’s spirit, culture.

Besides the culture-cuisine space of 5 country in DIFC 2015, the tourists can also try Thais, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese food, the high class ice cream from French, German, America…; experiencing the art activities such as face painting, henna painting, portrait painting, cosplay, folk games, Japanese Origami, “photo for fun”,… and other art program on every nights.


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DYEING COLORS IN VIET NAM’S CULINARY CULTURE (part 2)

Yellow

Turmeric

Turmeric has the dark yellow but when dyeing food, it turns out a light yellow really nice looking. The North people usually use the fresh turmeric juice to make color for sticky rice; dyeing sweet cake, pancake, and curry powder or in some soup such as fish soup, green banana soup…

Qua danh danh (Danh Danh fruit)

This used to be popular in dyeing food, but later on it disappeared bit by bit. Danh Danh is usually wild grown in some wet ground area, it has bright yellow, not toxic, taste lightly. Therefore it used to dye some kind of food that is clear, light taste such as jelly, xu xe cake or some other kind of cake.

Hoa hoe (Hoe flower)

Food dyed by Hoe flower juice has the beautiful yellow. When mix Hoe flower juice with wine, it will be orange yellow. If soaking sticky rice with Hoe flower to cook sticky rice, or in bread flour the dishes will have the turmeric yellow.

Purple

Purple is one of the most beautiful color in Viet Nam culinary. Talking about purple, anybody can name the one hidden behind that color is “la cam” (Cam leaf). Fresh Cam leaf is smashed, squeezed to get the juice. The liquid has very nice purple color, no smell and lasting color. It is usually used to dye sticky rice and some cakes.

Brown 

The sparkling brown or caramel color is made of color liquid or “nuoc hang” which is created from sugar. It is popular in poached, cook or making cake. Depending on the dilution or thickness of caramel, the cake can have many levels of brown from light to dark.


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DYEING COLORS IN VIET NAM’S CULINARY CULTURE (part 1)

Color is always attractive in Viet’s culinary culture. From long time ago, Vietnamese people knew how to use natural ingredients to create the stunning color for their dishes.

Only using the natural ingredients, but with many years experiences and the clever, elegant makes the color in Vietnamese culinary culture be always perfect, and spot-on.

Green

Rice leaf

Green is the color of leaf, usually appears in many Viet Nam’s dishes. The gentle green is usually named under the color of “cốm”, but “cốm” featured green is made of young rice, bringing the flavor of the whole rice plant in a piece of sticky “cốm.”

Pandan leaf

However, the popular ingredient used to dye Viet’s dishes is pandan leaf. Pandan leaf is easy to raise and really popular. It’s not only easy to make the color but also flavorful. Pandan leaf is used to dye some kinds of cake, jelly or some drinks.

Besides, people can also use star gooseberry leaf or “la khuc” (cudweeds) to make some nutritious dishes.

Red

Gac fruit

Talking about the natural red in Vietnamese dishes, many people obviously think about Gac fruit. The core and seed of Gac are soaked into rice wine to make the light red for “Xoi Gac” (Gac sticky rice), which is a sweet sticky rice dish meaning lucky. The red in the layer around Gac’s seeds doesn’t solute in water, but oil, wine; so it has to be soaked into alcohol or wine for using.

Cashew seed

The Southern culinary prefers cashew seeds to made the red orange color for some dishes. Cashew seeds are harvested, crushed in hot water, detached from the dirt. People take the flesh to ferment and get the red on the bottom, dry, compress into small balls to use.

Beetroot

Cu den (Beetroot) is not only used to make a really good soup, but also used to make color to dye cake, candy or jelly. Smashing the beetroot, putting into hot water and then wait until cooling down. Get all the flesh out, we have the dark red liquid.

Black

The specific black of “banh gai” is made of Gai leaf. Gai is a fiber plant but Gai leaf is used to dye jelly and “banh gai” that is jetty like asphalt.


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THE ART OF SAUCES IN VIET NAM’S CULINARY

Sauce plays an important role, to fulfill the taste of a dish. Sauce can be made from fish paste, original soy sauce; it might be steamed or mixed, combined with chili, ginger, garlic, sugar, lemon juice…Every housewife experiences the specialness as well as the sensitiveness to make a sauce for each dish. Even with the same ingredients but the different in portion can bring the different sauces.

Among infinity Vietnam’s spices, fish sauce is the most popular for making a sauce. Fish sauce can be used in daily meal, to eat with boiled vegetable or rolls, especially fry fermented pork roll. Sweet and sour fish sauce has the main ingredients are fish sauce, lemon juice or vinegar, sugar, garlic, chili… Each dish will decide the taste of salty, sour, and sweet in the sauce.

Different than the sweet and sour sauce, ginger fish sauce is especially suitable for some dishes that have stinky smell such as duck, fish, snail… The fish sauce in ginger fish sauce is usually the original fish sauce, mixed with sugar, a bit of lemon juice, finely crushed ginger. Ginger fish sauce with duck doesn’t have to be add water, but with snails, clams it does need.

Shrimp paste is one of the specific sauce in Viet Nam’s culinary. Shrimp paste is mixed with lemon juice or kumquat juice, beaten well until bubbling, add a bit of sugar. Somebody like to mix shrimp paste with white wine to elevate the flavor of this sauce. Shrimp paste can be served as a sauce in some family’s dishes such as ca phao (white small eggplant), fry tofu, or an unmissable part of bun dau mam tom (tofu, pork vermicelli with shrimp paste). Shrimp paste can also be used to season for some dishes such as snail vermicelli soup, bun rieu (crab noodle), bun thang…

We cannot forget the soybean sauce… It is from soybean but it’s different in the way people make it due to area. The North people like “tuong ban”, with smoked baby cow, boiled vegetable… The Middle like soybean sauce with finely chopped pig liver, with blended sticky rice for serving with “banh khoai” or “nem lui”. The South people like to mix it with sugar, sticky rice but add a bit of coconut cream. Every single bowl  of sauce is really elegant, flavorful presenting for the consolidation of Vietnamese community.


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HAVE A TRY ON 7 GOOD DISHES AT CHO LON- SAI GON (Part 2)

5. Ca vien ca ri (fish ball curry)

It is surprised that there is only one fish ball curry in the big Cho Lon area, right at the corner of Nguyen Trai street. Mr. Hung-the owner says that “This dish is easy to make, but not anyone like it. Therefore, with one who like the aroma of curry will love it at the first try.”

In Hong Kong, Taiwan,… fish ball is one of the most famous street dishes and worth to try. The crunchy, chewy fish balls are cooked in spicy curry broth brings you an extremely special dish. Fish ball curry can be served with egg noodle, with or without the broth.

Fish ball curry is a familiar dish in movie

This is an only one fish ball curry store on Nguyen Trai street, district 5

6. Dim-sum

Dim-sum is an aggregate of Chinese traditional breakfast dishes. According to somebody, this came from Guangdong, China. At the beginning, the tea stores usually served the entrepreneurs who always had long way travelling, so they required fast and convenience food but cheap. Thus, Dim-sum little by little appeared with different appearance, flavor, but still has a standard of “little but good.”

Dim-sum includes small but elegant dishes

It’s not easy to make Dim-sum because of its requirement. The stuff inside is selected from fresh ingredients. Beside shrimp, fish, crab, meat there are also vegetable and mushroom,…Everything is finely chopped and mix well together. The seasoning must be careful to keep the freshness of the ingredients. There are many type of cooking in Dim-sum: steam, boil, fry,…Besides, the skin outside has to be wrapped carefully and nice-looking. Dim-sum is placed in the small bamboo steamers with lids to preserve the hot and flavor of the dish.

Dim-sum is usually steamed, but some are fry

Dim-sum is one of the most article, elegant dishes in China’s culinary. In Cho Lon area, Dim-sum is available at any Chinese restaurant.

7. Cac mon che (Sweet gruel)

After getting full of the sour, spicy, savory dishes… the last thing you should do is try a little sweet of Che.

Totally different from “Che” at other places, “Che” in Cho Lon area is less sweet and fat. these are the most popular Che: che tra trung (egg tea sweet gruel), Cao quy linh, Du du ham (Slow cook papaya), bach qua (Ginkgo), Che me den (black sesame sweet gruek), che hanh nhan (Almon sweet gruel)…

Che tra trung is the egg cooked with black tea until tea absorb into the egg yolk. Because of the tea absorbing, the egg white is a bit acrid and chewy. But the egg yolk is fleshy but not fat, blending with the tea aroma can make the eater get addicted.

You might think it’s not good at the first try. But when you get used to it you can’t help eating this kind of Che

Cao quy linh is a really cool Che. But its flavor is a little bitter, so it’s usually served with condense milk or honey to reduce the sense of bitter.

Cao quy linh

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