i flew into denang and have been in hoi an for nearly a week now and i must tell you that i’d been particularly looking forward to coming here ever since bourdain mentioned his love affair with this small city awhile back. it’s well located on both a river and a beach and you’d be hard pressed to find anyplace more charming.

luckily due to an agreement during the american war, this old city escaped unscathed from any active fighting keeping the ancient buildings intact. over the years due to dwindling trade the village had slid into decline but thankfully hoi an was resurrected about 15 years ago as a big tourist destination and in 1999 received unesco world heritage status. granted i’ve seen more white people here than in any other portion of my journey, yet somehow despite all the tourists and the countless souvenir shops all hawking the "same same but different" stuff, hoi an has retained an elegance that somehow combines the very old with the very new and still holds tight to all its beauty and authenticity.

i spend my days wandering about always hitting the market first to have breakfast and to revel in the simple yet highly aesthetic nature of these people. it’s a gritty kind of beauty but it draws me in. hoi an is small, with narrow streets so there are no cars allowed within parts of the ‘old city’ although motorbikes are allowed 3 days a week. you can feel the french influence in the architecture and it’s often compared to new orleans. but there is no mistaking where you are. this is vietnam...

my first two weeks here i managed to buy nothing at all. i’m traveling light and armed with michael’s measurements my only intention was to pick up a bespoke suit for him while in hoi an, a city well known for its plethora of tailor shops. the plan was to buy just one suit that i would be able to bring back with me in my modest bag.

and then i went fucking crazy. cause you know… you can take the jew out of nyc, but you can’t take the nyc out of the jew. and people, let me tell you. i have been SHOPPING. and it’s been SO MUCH FUN. you pick the fabrics and there are thousands, you pick the style, they tailor fit it to your body – and it’s pretty inexpensive… like, troi oi. i have died and gone to heaven. still though, in the midst of an exhausting shopping frenzy it’s a bit disconcerting when you ask how much that silk dress will be and the answer is 800,000. because that just really sounds like a lot to me. it’s 40 dollars.

i’m buying a cheap suitcase as well…

food. i’m supposed to be talking about food… but really, most of my food is bought on the street and i eat for one dollar when i’m feeling hungry and as much as i love the food here and could wax poetically (or try) about the herbs and the flavors, it is not the food i will remember…

it’s the colors of vietnam…

 it’s the juxtaposition of the old and the new colliding…

but mostly it’s the people of vietnam that take my breath away. and each photo has a story…

i wish you could have seen this… the woman on the left is 90 and her face was so beautiful…

the saleswoman

the paper recycler

the live chicken lady

the wine distributor

the tailors

the salt lady

but alas, a woman’s got to eat and so here are some highlights… each of these was bought on the street and comes with a glass of hot tea

beef with tomato, some kind of sausage on a fried egg served with a perfect baguette, table salad and dipping broth… 85 cents

this was a damn fine breakfast

it came from here. they’re packed up and gone by about 9am.

 a dish from hoi an, cao lau – 75 cents

made here at the market

and this woman by the river

served me this grilled pork. you roll it yourself with first a layer of dry rice paper, then fresh rice paper, the meat and the salad and then dip and eat… 1 dollar

dinner: com ga – chicken with rice and shredded pawpaw with fresh herbs and a broth with chunks of liver – really good – 1 dollar

which came from here…

bun bo – like pho but a richer broth.  my market breakfast – 75 cents

which came from here

closer pick of the market stall  - i believe that’s a pile of pork…

bahn mi – pate and pickled vegetables with herbs a bit of mayo and some sliced pork on a fresh baguette – 50 cents. i eat these often. i forgot to take a picture but they look like a sandwich. a really really good sandwich.

more to come… i need to hit the streets

 

the fishing boats of mui ne

i’m back in saigon after spending 4 days on the south china sea, or as they call it in vietnam, the east sea. there’s been no rain to speak of and the temps have been manageable as has the humidity. this is nothing short of pure luck so i thank the weather gods for being on my side – so far, so good…

before i forget, i learned something new today. ok, i learned a few new things today – like that vietnam is a little over twice the size as ny state (but visually quite svelte as one might expect from vn), but this? this is my favorite… i learned how to say "oh my god" in vietnamese! troi oi (troy oy). there you have it. but wait, there’s more! because for all you burgeoning buddhists out there the literal translation means "oh my buddha". is that not great? i can not begin to tell you how much this bit of knowledge has entertained me this afternoon. i plan on using it every chance i get. it even sounds yiddish. this is just too good.

and now, before we go any farther, back by popular demand…

my puppy

look at this face

and check out his little back legs…

i ate at that restaurant 3 days in a row just to hang with my boy and we totally bonded. he’d come trotting over at the sight of me and i fear that the little guy fell pretty hard. but i’m already more than well aware of how the long distance thing is just too difficult…

a piece of steamed fish and a bowl of rice. heaven…

so it was yet another of my turned around insomniac nights, probably around 2am or so and i’d eaten the fish and rice at about 4pm and i was suddenly very hungry. the desk in my room had a laminated menu boasting 24 hour room service but when i called i was told "closed". i asked if there was anywhere nearby that i could grab a late night bite and the woman said to me, "i come to your room". she actually said more than that but i couldn’t make any of it out except those words so i had no idea why she was heading this way but within a minute there came a knock on my door and a lovely smiling person was standing there with her arms outstretched offering me this bowl of fried rice – her dinner. she insisted. i said i could not possibly. she insisted. i said, how about i take half. she handed me the container and said her boyfriend brought it to her and that she was not hungry. i took it from her gratefully and ate most of it. and it was actually pretty good.

oh the people here…

this just cracks me up. constantly. if it’s not a door, it’s 6 huge sacks of rice or a live pig strapped onto the back – the possibilities of what gets carried on a scooter are limitless. but things need to get moved and cars are scarce.

a cemetery 

some random natural ravine close to the ocean. we drove by it and i gasped. so we backed up to have a look.

when i hired the jeep and driver i ddn’t know that it’d be a 1970 jeep. so 30 minutes into our drive it starts making a very bad noise. dude carry’s his tools with him and within 15 minutes it’s fixed. one thing i know for sure is that he’s not jewish.

j

the things one notices while one is waiting on a road in the middle of vietnam.

entering the dunes

check. that. out…

the wind was powerful…

off in the distance – just pale shapes – the sand was blowing like crazy

in the other direction… a mirage?

 diner that night. grilled oysters of a sort… 

this was our last time together and we played some more human/puppy games, he romped and bit my feet. i scratched his belly and his head and then when he crashed i wanted to snatch him up and take him home. 

but that was just not to be…

fishing boats in phan thiet

they only fish at night and never under a full moon

so these 9 or so cages filled with tropical birds are attached to this scooter. the owner’s feet are dangling out of the hammock tied up behind the communist propaganda billboard. and you know, you don’t get this just anywhere…

dragon fruit sold roadside on the way back from mui ne. it’s only been in saigon for about 25 years, originally from south america. i bought 2 for less than .40.

3 layers of baby chicks…

roadside lunch

went for a bowl of pho

comes with table salad above and a damn fine glass of ice tea

for $1.25. the rice noodles were fresh. the broth was excellent.

look! it’s the banana scooter truck!

michael calls this a saigon station wagon. there are 6 human beings on this scooter. 

dinner for me in my hotel room. i gave the second one bought from the roadside to the clerk at the front desk as i’m off to the airport to fly to danang to spend a week in hoi an before i move on to hue.

and i’m realizing that there’s not much in the way of food going on here lately. i just mostly grab some street food and go. but there will be more to come. 

i’m falling asleep at my keyboard… i must call it a night…

one of the many astounding things i see in vietnam everyday…

i arrived in mui ne 2 days ago. it’s a haul from saigon, about 4 hours and i swear my driver takes valium for breakfast because he somehow manages to drive below the already painfully low speed limit. on the upside this allows me to practice a more zen approach to getting from a to b, which really, if it took, would be a very good thing for the likes of me who pretty much puts the pedal to the metal every chance i get. and then there’s the other benefit of the speed of life here in vietnam – i get to see everything around me for just a little bit longer.

i keep noticing how vietnam has its own static pace. whether you’re in the cities, in a village or on the water, the level of energy here feels constant. somehow this country has a certain grace to it. i feel it everywhere and it remains seemingly unchanging when i move throughout this land. vietnam just is.

for right now my travel adventures have been simple ones consisting of daily tasks such as finding a banh mi for breakfast (.50 and damn good), some aspirin (not as easy as you might think) and a few small custard apples for lunch. looking back, each of these little events were strangely fascinating in their own way – and i never so much as thought to pick up my camera. perhaps it’s all becoming ever so slightly familiar… could that even be possible?

the view from the door of my room

this place was right smack on the beach and really, just a perfect location. so there i was in my little bungalow with nothing around me but the sound of crashing waves. being that no setting could have topped this, and being that i was also a bit road weary and sleep deprived, i decided to order room service – take a chance on the food and sit out on my patio and have dinner.

if one were not to care about food, one may have enjoyed this immensely. case in point: here is a picture of my salad…

ok. the colors have been altered a bit to make this flashless night shot viewable. but what we have here is a squid salad. iceberg lettuce, tomato wedges, and chunks of battered and fried squid. it was dressed with that flawless concoction of lime juice, water, fish sauce and sugar – but still… c’mon. where are the fresh herbs? the cucumbers… and why was it fried?

to follow came a whole steamed fish on a platter which was very good and fresh. mui ne is a working fishing village – more on that in my next post – so one can expect great seafood here but the sauce was thickened with corn starch or the likes thereof and then ridden with this knorrs seasoning powder that is used over here with abandon. oh well. it was dinner and it was kind of fun in its own handicapped way. the setting was incredibly romantic and dining alone on the beach, sitting outside with the palm trees swaying in the night breeze is an interesting psychological exercise…

yesterday i didn’t follow michael’s advice and i allowed myself to be enrolled in mui ne’s cooking school on the beach. these classes are offered in nearly every town and it seems they all pretty much teach you various versions of pho, spring rolls and a salad, along with garnish cutting techniques. the instructor was sweet as she could be and reminded me of a little vietnamese wind up happy doll. her english was so heavily accented and lilted with cheeriness that i understood very little of what she was saying. 

the high points were twofold. a coconut smoothie over ice and ulricke, a very cool german woman who i went out to dinner with last night. she is lovely and we were up until 2 am drinking wine, sharing photos and swapping stories. 

ok, we talked about men. a lot.

banh xeo, a rice flour pancake with turmeric, stuffed with sprouts and shrimp

tomato skin flower. this was the instructor’s handiwork. i passed on making one of my own because i am of a rebellious nature… 

the salads here are my favorite. this one had shrimp and squid. the red pepper garnish magically reappears…

and there was more. but really, just being on the beach and in that environment was fun and funny and well, kind of wonderful. 

where we had dinner… super cheap and right on the beach… the vietnamese are very big fans of very bright lights. this, i could live without…

$11 bottle of wine. completely drinkable. the toilet paper napkins were more foreign to me than anything else last night…

grilled squid with lemongrass and chili sauce over sliced cucumbers. perfect.

and there were puppies! and this little guy and i hit it off bigtime. and then he crashed hard on my handbag.

he and i have a dinner date this evening…

i’m happily back in saigon for the night before i take off for the beach in the morning. i like it here, big city girl that i am. but not enough to go out tonight. i just ordered some room service pho ($1.50) and i am staying in. it’s just begun to storm and i could use the downtime to catch up on some more sleep – and sort through photos – and write this post. again, it will be more pics than anything. it’s gotten late.

i’m just back from can tho which is as bustling a city as you will find in the mekong, but for the likes of those like me (tourist. said in a hushed tone) it’s not much more than a jumping off point to experience the floating markets. the riverfront is abuzz with people hawking their boats. you choose one and off you go on a 20 minute ride up (down?) river.

there is this notion of a steadfast purpose when you see these people doing what they do, knowing that every single day of their lives it’s pretty much going to be the same thing over and over again. as a whole, the vietnamese are quite poor but since the land is fertile and the rivers are busting with fish, if you’re ok with living in what amounts to not much more than a hovel with a hammock, you can sustain yourself doing very little. find food, cook food and repeat.

the duck, trying to look innocent yet all the while planning his escape. the chicken has accepted its fate, regardless of what it may bring…

the mastlike bamboo poles advertise their wares…

there are boats that sell the staple ingredients of vietnamese cooking, like this woman with the dried fish and shrimp, whose entire life must be permeated with that smell, while others offer only produce. i saw one small boat outfitted like a mini cafe selling coffees to the other bigger boats that was just an incredible sight but i didn’t snap a pic in time. we circled back around to find her and i happened upon an even smaller boat with a woman selling pho. i missed that photo op as well and was sad about it all. but it’s hard to stay sad in vietnam…

beauty abounds…

dogs on boats. you see this a lot. i was told that it is for security. 

the bucket below gets pulled up and repeatedly dumped over his head and down his pants. i know this for a fact.

many people come and buy from this market to then sell at their own smaller more local market…

gidgit goes to vietnam and sells pineapples

another of my favorite shots

aqua-scooters

this house was beautiful to me. it almost had a modern vibe to it…

back in the city… where it is 90 degrees and many of the women and some of the men dress for an autumn day in the hudson valley. white skin is in and if you’re tan, it’s just not sexy. so they cover up in a big way. gloves, opaque stockings and jackets. and then what might get tan gets bleached with skin whitening creams. it is big, big business in this country. be as white as you can… i suppose since they’re already so thin, they have to obsess over something.

in a skirt and side saddled. note the heavy stockings and gloves and facemask and jacket… this is the norm.

i’m only hoping she’s a well loved pet and not, well – you know… dinner.

this was right outside of can tho. at first we thought it was a buddhist temple but it is a temple to honor the founding fathers of the city. the man in his pajamas lives there in plain view – like his hammock hangs next to a little table – and that is his spot. so roughly what is happening here is that she is praying for something or other and then shakes a can of sticks until one falls out and on that stick there is a message and then she proceeds to throws these oddly shaped shell like things on the ground and depending on how they fall this tells how her luck will be. the vietnamese are super superstitious. note her outfit. remember, it was 90 or so degrees outside… and humid. i now find her crazy for 2 reasons…

sobering…

i went to the supermarket and this was the fish sauce aisle. i have been well schooled in the powers of this elixir.

i laughed and laughed and laughed…

larvae. it’s what’s for dinner. i had many interesting supermarket shots but this one was the winner for me. oh and see the tongs? why, it’s self serve!

dinner at a local place.

this was our dinner. i picked up the tab and it was 100,000 dong or $5. two bowls of excellent chicken broth with noodles and chicken, etc. plus a plate of bbq’d duck and pork with more chicken meat, the table salad and pickles. $5. (five).

 that was my table… just so you know.

the street scene where our restaurant was.

pure vietnam.

 

i’ve been on the move, so for now this post is one in pictures… about 40 or so, briefly captioned.

i wanted to lead with this shot. it’s from the home where i stayed the night before last which you will see more of in a moment. this is a wall in their kitchen which although somewhat rudimentary was quite large. these past two days have been incredible, only marred by my sleep schedule being thrown off in a big way. i’m just now back on track and i am on my way out the door to the cai rang floating market of can tho. more on that later but in the meantime please have a look at my latest wanderings. i’ve only brought my little point and shoot camera with me as i’m traveling for 5 weeks with one carry on bag. i’m a terrible photographer but i fancy myself having a decent eye so i hope you enjoy what i was able to capture. i’ll write more soon…

now on to the pictures…
 

launched out onto the river at ben tre

a stop for lunch on phoenix island. this is an elephant ear fish which was then rolled in rice paper with cucumber and served with a dipping sauce. it was 2 days ago and so i can’t recall just what the sauce was

after the river, a stop at a beautiful pagoda. i should tell you the name of it but i can’t recall that either. and atop the adjacent building sits…

 a smiling buddha that is ginormous. kind of like vegas comes to the mekong.

we walked around the pagoda and happened upon a back kitchen area. a group of people had come from 40km away to spend the day working on the landscaping and doing repairs to the temple. i believe it’s an annual sojourn from their village. they were sitting down to lunch and invited us to join them but having just eaten we politely declined. they were so incredibly lovely and we had a really nice exchange via my guide…

the vietnamese are wonderful people…

then we drove about 30 minutes and the driver pulled into a little storefront. we got out and i was told we had to walk to the house where i’d be staying. there were no roads for cars…

along the way i got a closeup of some of the graves. they dot the landscape all through the mekong. you see them in the rice patties, the fields, next to homes… if you lived on the land and you died there, that’s where you stay.

a warning. i think he’s saying "look what happened to the last guy…"

a road less travelled…

and on that road sits this house. and in that house the tv is on… i was relieved that was not to be my house.

security gates

my home for the night… looking out.

dining area. almost al fresco…

interior space leading onto my bedroom

closer up. and through the back door of my bedroom…..

the wash room

angles and rooftops

the lovely dinner served to us by the host

that night, laying in bed and looking at the window through my mosquito netting…

kitchen wall

one of the 5 family dogs… she was my favorite

a monkey bridge, temporarily widened for me…

the next day driving towards can tho. this is one of my favorite shots taken so far

snakes for sale… the recent flooding helps business

we stopped to buy durian. this place was just visually amazing

the proprietor 

i really do like durian

while we were driving – a typical shot of a (very) local market

(update: from here down, i am in can tho which is now considered the lower river of the mekong)

in can tho by the river just talking a stroll. i’d not eaten so i bought this off a street cart. fishballs. pretty much tasted as bad as they look. i ate a few and tossed the rest.

roasted corn and bananas along with some tapioca cakes. a german guy shared his tapioca cake with me and i liked it. the corn was dry and not so sweet.

but she was really nice and we talked to her for a bit

these are everywhere… rambutans.

and these were totally weird. i’d never seen anything like them. they grow in the water and you crack the shell with your teeth. the inside is like a cooked taro root, slightly sweet potato’esque.

the red fruit they call water apples in english. the juice is milky white and they’re quite sweet. i bought a kilo of the mangosteens. they were "pricey" at $2.50 a kilo (about 20 of them) because they were from thailand. the season is over for them here. god, they’re good…

banh boa with quail egg and some spicy meat with onion. i like these things…

this banh bao man ran over to see his picture after i took it. we all laughed and chatted for a few minutes

i ate the bun at ths cafe right next to the cart with my guide nghiep and a woman who wandered over to talk to us… i had a coffee with just a touch of condensed milk and it was dreamy.

another mosquito netting picture – because i thought it was so cool…

i’ll be back soon. thanks for looking…

oh vietnam… don’t make me love you so. the time will pass so quickly and then we will be apart. 

it’s the people. it’s the vibe. saigon has this "thing’ about it. this way of being that has taken me by surprise. amidst the never ending drone of 4 million scooters with a chaotic traffic pattern that somehow moves with a slo-mo ease that feels comfortable, even strangely choreographed – perhaps even enhanced by the the endless symphonic clamor of construction going on everywhere, i feel very peaceful here…

then there are the throngs of people eating, always eating… i’ve never seen so much eating happening – on the streets – everywhere people are cooking. women setting up a little spot with a propane stove and a pan for an egg and some bbq pork with a few customers gathered around sitting on these tiny stools. the local street food scene is astonishing. if only because of the bizarreness of it here in saigon. these are not the carts that you see in thailand, these are people kneeling down and cooking simple food with squirt bottles of chili sauce and fish sauce, everywhere…

westerners are warned off this local food. there is nothing close to any ‘sanitation’ and from what i hear one might tend to come down with nasty gastro issues if one were to indulge… i am fearless in this regards but have so far mostly eaten at the markets where supposedly the food won’t make you ill. for breakfast this morning i chose a stall at random in the middle of the market and had 2 fresh spring rolls and a bowl of noodles with shrimp paste cooked around a stalk of sugar cane and bbq’d pork. 42000 dong. or about $2.25. and it was very good…

i didn’t ask but i’m pretty sure the lower bins are snake… i think everything else was shelled crab, different kinds, different parts

ladies of the tofu

hearts, livers, tongues and something else below the tongues… maybe kidney?

ears and innards…

squid and shrimp and soft shell crabs…

the wonderful herbs that make everything explode into some kind of harmonious cacophony of flavor…

a fish portion of my wanderings…

the garlic, ginger, shallot, lemongrass vendor – way up top towards the center are those tiny little purple shallots that i love

right outside the market… on a quieter sunday mornng

it all comes at you – but gently…

the french were here and it shows…

tonight for dinner i took myself out to hoa tuc, one of the acclaimed restaurants of saigon. for my first course i asked for a half order of one of the salads. spicy char-grilled beef with kumquat, mustard sprouts and white eggplant. the eggplant was uncooked (who knew?) which was a pleasant discovery and the overall dish was just plain excellent. 

for my second course i had bbq fillet of vietnamese snapper with spicy beet root and ginger sauce. on a personal note i liked that they didn’t mess around with trying to make it look like anything other than what it was. which was perfect. 

a glass of torrentes, a small bottle of water and the above was $15. at one of the top rated restaurants in the entire city. my 20 year old server, huon was incredibly sweet and since the night was slow had time to practice her english on me and share that she was sad today because her boyfriend had been caught sitting in a cafe with another girl. she ended it with him and now he is very sorry. on the upside he had bought her an electric fan for the room she rents. i advised her to keep it. we parted friends and i think she was sad to see me go as she walked with me awhile down the street towards my hotel.

perhaps i will visit her again when i circle back around to saigon, if only for the update.

 

i think the only thing that’s truly remarkable about the fact that i made this dish is the whole "presentation" thing. i’m usually short on looks and long on flavor. by the time i get a dish tasting how i want it, the way that it looks matters little to me. especially if knife skills are required and it’s only a decorative garnish. i’m just not that cook. except for today. today i spent about 6 hours with 2 guys, one who was the chef and the other who was just a lost paying soul like me looking to glean some cooking tips. there were 4 courses for our lunch which began with a trip to saigon’s biggest and best market, ben thanh. i’m going back by myself tomorrow for a longer look. the hell with the war remnants museum and the reunification palace, show me how the people live, show me what sustains them. to me the market is the life force of the city. 

dried shrimp. lots and lots of dried shrimp…
 
the banana flower salad is a relatively common dish in vietnam and one that i have seen in the states, but instead of the banana flower, cabbage is used. why i never make this at home, i do not know – but now i plan on having it often. it is simply a taste sensation and so incredibly simple to prepare. the dressing is the vietnamese classic of equal parts water, lime juice, fish sauce and sugar with minced garlic and chiles. the salad is the shredded banana leaf, shredded chicken breast, julienned carrots and green peppers (take that ruhlman) and some fresh herbs. we used rau ram and hun kay – the former i know is available in the ny area although not readily unless you live in chinatown and the latter i have seen but don’t know the english name and googling it didn’t help. but regardless, mint and thai basil would do quite nicely. the salad is finished with crispy fried shallots and chopped roasted peanuts – not too much of either, and let me just say once more: this salad is truly amazing. and honestly, it’s not even cooking, it is merely assembling. oh, and chili pepper flower and outer banana flower petal dish? optional…

nearly everything is alive and there is zero fish odor.

also at lunch there were seafood and taro fried spring rolls that were ok but not so much my thing, and pho was explained and assembled but i’ve learned from pardus how to make that and quite frankly, michael’s broth is better. but it was a lovely setting with really nice guys and we had good fun. afterwards i went and got a neck and head massage while also getting a foot and leg massage. simultaneously. for an hour. for $30. in what would be considered a high end spa. i’m not sure how physically therapeutic it was… if you’re into serious massage this is in the vein of swedish – at best, not so much therapeutic. but still, it was welcomed by my travel weary body.

for dinner, a vietnamese crepe at the night market. there were also shrimp steamed in beer and a bowl of rice noodles with some bbq’d pork that were both excellent. 

i was moving past them quickly so pardon the blur… but this is vietnam.

see this? i like this… i like this so much that i had 3 of them. in a row. on a cathay pacific first class flight to hong kong. on my way to vietnam.

oh. wait. have i not told you? 

i just got to saigon this morning. i made a decision about a month ago that i needed to do this – and that i needed to go as soon as i could. ever since hearing bourdain go on and on about this country, i’ve felt drawn here. i’ve never had much of a desire to go to asia in the past. i’ve always been the europe girl. give me italy, spain, france (in that order)… over and over, and i am pretty damn content. but suddenly it was vietnam. i had to go and now i am here. and if you’re even the least bit surprised, well you’ve just no idea… 

part display, part mise en place at the outdoor restaurant where i dined streetside.

so i’ve not been in touch for awhile (again) even after saying that i would be more diligent about posting. i mean, trust me when i tell you that there is no shortage of very fine restaurant dinners in my life and then there’s michael and me in the kitchen which is not too shabby in the least. i’ve had more than enough material to perhaps even wow you on occasion. just the night before i took off, i started dinner and then michael came home and we bounced a few ideas off each other and came up with the most remarkable dish. seared lamb over fregola with roasted and crisped kale, garlic and zest, deglazed with fresh chopped tomatoes, that was so nuanced we were giddy. cooking with that man is so much damn fun… among other things.

but listen, honestly, all those empty declarations of how i vowed to post regularly were nothing more than good intentions gone awry. and you must know that i really want to share this experience with you. because i’m here for at least 5 weeks and i’m on my own and well, you can be my traveling companion – in a way, except that you won’t be picking up any checks… which is too bad because if you were to ever take me to a fabulous dinner, saigon would be the place to do it. the food is so damn fine and it’s all on the cheap. 

dinner was to be light. after being plowed with (good not great) dim sum, lobster, duck and congee and whatever else my heart seemingly desired on all the flights, i hadn’t much of an appetitie. but i wanted to go to the night markets and so off i went, into the frenetic energy that is saigon. i took it to the streets dodging the scooters and cabs with the aplomb of a local and made my way past the 5 star hotels and the likes of louis vuitton, until it got just a bit earthier. in vietnam, you don’t have to go too far for everything to get really real.

this plate of clams in a lemon grass broth cost me $1.50. and it was stunningly good…

coconut water and beer on ice. 

i bought some durian and ate it sitting in a park, knowing i couldn’t bring it back to the hotel. it was incredibly good and nothing like the frozen ones i’ve tried in the states. if i may say, the follow up burps were a bit funky – but worth it.

ok, i’ve hit the wall and am literally falling asleep at my computer. it’s after 1am and tomorrow i’m shopping and then cooking lunch… i don’t think i’m jet lagged, it’s more like i’m really disoriented AND i’m a 49 year old woman. for example, i was so sure that tonight was thursday but i was informed under no uncertain terms that it is in fact friday night. which means i’ve been in the same clothes for 48 hours. no lie.

clean clothes or not, i’m here and it’s exactly where i need to be. 

‘woman reclining’ by sierra pardus, the most magical child on earth…

so it seems that just when i am finally back to blogging, i am also steering clear of the kitchen, living on somewhat plain fare. one of these days soon i will again balance this whole blogging, cooking and eating thing but right now i am focused primarily on the FRET which is not conducive to creativity in the kitchen, at least for me.

but regardless of any of that, in order to post i needed photographs to inspire me so the first order of business was to get a new camera as my old SLR had moved out. and then suddenly a beautiful nikon D40 landed so graciously in my hands. and i am growing to love it more every day, learning how to use it properly while coming to terms with the fact that it’s hard to focus on anything, when everything else is blurry…

i’ve decided that somehow this sculptural primary colored figure of a woman represents me, except i don’t really ever wear hats. and she is oh so painfully thin – and well, if nothing else, at least i’m on my way back down… but still she is me, reflecting on how she managed to get herself onto that hard surface in the first place and wondering what now to do… but dear readers, please know one very important detail about her, one that may be hard to discern being that her face is quite flushed. she is flashing a blazing smile. because she remains hopeful with an open heart…

and maybe she holds out hope because one of the best parts of life is that it’s full of all kinds of surprises. and as unlikely as this small one might sound, let me tell you about a cracker from vietnam…

we were shopping at a local global market when these were spotted right next to the rice paper wrappers, and for $1.79 or thereabouts, we decided to bring them home and see what they might be. the ingredients read: rice flour, black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds, onion, sesame oil, dried shrimp, salt, water, MSG, and sugar. they came with no directions or suggestions so first we tried to soak them as one might do with rice paper – but to no avail. so next they were popped into the oven and in just a few minutes, they became food.

the one on the left is uncooked, the one on the right is…

today when i baked one in my small convection oven, you could actually hear it expand. but you had to listen very carefully – just as one desperately needs to do in order to grow themselves… it was like hearing food stretch after waking up from a good long sleep. the heat transformed this curious disc  – and quickly, into something quite nice. there was a spice factor that i couldn’t quite figure out based on the ingredient list but nevertheless, MSG and all, they are damn good.

the tiny dried shrimp almost appear as if in suspended animation

along with a day filled with butterflies, hummingbirds, fawns and four point bucks, this was just another example of the beauty that surrounds us…

back in the days of no car and a 12 lb puppy (also known as early march ’09), i was home watching martha stewart. which honestly, i hardly ever do. but let’s face it, she gets the best guests. chef after chef they make the pilgrimage to the martha from a wide array of great restaurants, shooting the breeze with the quintessential homemaker – who is perhaps the worst interviewer/conversationalist on tv – while they cook up rather remarkable food. and i am here to tell you, it can totally draw you into the martha vortex. you, meaning me. or us – if you’d like to join in.

anyway i was younger then – and it was raining. and on that day the shows theme was ‘atlanta’, which although only a 4 hour drive from nashville, is one i rarely take. but i hear the atlanta restaurant scene is damn fine, which then naturally conjures up all kinds of longing. envy. gluttonous thoughts. you name a deadly sin and i’ve conjured it.

so, the chef from ‘repast‘ was on martha, doing an interesting version of crab cakes. and i just happened to have a pound of jumbo lump meat sitting in my refrigerator along with nearly every other ingredient – except the lemongrass and the raw shrimp which were easy purchases.

mostly easy because chris picked them up on his way over. i literally willed the ingredients to my door.

cooking with chris is truly wonderful because for the most part he does everything. and i like that in a sous chef. plus he’s way better with a knife than i will ever be. and he also cleans up really nicely. and i mean – my kitchen.

crab cakes tend to be bound with varying amounts of breadcrumbs and i loved the fact that these are held together with a shrimp mousse. but what initially sparked my interest was quite simply that the overall ingredient list screams huge flavor burst. and i am nothing if not a fan of the flavor burst. actually perhaps i am a slave to the flavor burst.  i’ll need to contemplate which of those rings more true and i’ll be sure to report back.

1 cup heavy cream (i used half and half)
1-inch piece lemongrass, crushed
1-inch piece ginger, crushed
1 star anise
1 dried birdseye chile, crushed
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon Tabasco
1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
3 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 pound fresh medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 large egg
1 pound jumbo lump crab meat, picked
zest of 2 lemons
1 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon canola oil

come on… does that not sound just lovely? but listen, i had to lean it down a bit by making a different dairy decision. half and half is about as much fat as i can bear. i think using cream would be the way to go if only i lived in an alternate universe and wanted that fattier mouthfeel – but not for me. not that day. maybe not ever. although it could happen. tomorrow. because the flesh, it is weak in the face of fat grams…

so then:

place cream, lemongrass, ginger, star anise, and chile in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. remove from heat and let cool; strain, discarding solids. stir in fish sauce and tabasco; set aside.

heat sesame oil and olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. add scallions and cook until soft, 1 to 2 minutes. remove from heat; let cool.

place shrimp and egg in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. with the machine running, slowly add cream mixture; process until well combined.
In a large bowl, mix together crabmeat, lemon zest, and cooled scallions. gently fold in shrimp mixture.

line a baking sheet with parchment paper (i used a silpat) and sprinkle with cornmeal. place a 1-inch high round cutter about 2 1/2-inches in diameter on baking sheet. fill cutter with crabmeat mixture, packing down slightly. repeat process until all crabmeat has been used, about 8 times. transfer to refrigerator to chill, 6 to 8 hours.

preheat oven to 350 degrees. heat butter and canola oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium high heat. place crab cakes, cornmeal-side down in skillet and cook until golden, about 2 minutes. turn crab cakes and transfer skillet to oven (i never did this) until cornmeal side is golden and crisp, about 5 minutes. serve immediately with butter sauce.

and we’re talking yuzu caper butter sauce. ok, so i am down with a little butter sauce. afterall, it’s just a. little. butter sauce. but no. chef joe truex’s recipe is using well over a pound of butter for 4 people. after using a cup of heavy cream in the cakes. sorry chef. no can do. so we improvised and used about 1/3 of that, cut into some yuzu juice, capers and shallots. and it was more than plenty. crazy freakin’ chefs… they are trying to kill us. i swear… so unnecessary.

all in all it was a good dish although i’m not running to make it again. the shrimp mousse was a fine idea and good for future reference. it would translate well to any number of seafood related cakes or stuffings. i suppose my biggest issue was that i didn’t pick up much of the spice infusion flavoring in the finished product, and that was somewhat disappointing. so next time i’d hit it a bit harder to get the flavors more pronounced.

but it was different. and interesting. and it brought me and martha closer together and quite frankly, we needed that.

and well, chris cleaned up so very nicely. it was almost like it never happened…

merle, my loved and adored burmese kitty: february 1, 1994 – december 25, 2008

happy new year. it’s been so seemingly long now since i’ve written that i barely know where to begin except to say that i’ve thought of you. often. like every time i cooked or ate i’d think – i’m a food blogger and i should be telling somebody something about this. and then i’d go watch a movie.

but first of all, thanks for supporting ‘menu for hope V‘ and for bidding on the mullet roe from ‘rk’s black hammock smokehouse’. the total worldwide effort raised over $60k which will make a real difference in the lives of so many african children. or it could buy me the bmw i’ve had my eye on. you decide. anyway, i hope that a ceF reader wins the mullet roe because then you’ll finally understand just what i’ve been going on and on about regarding this esoteric florida delicacy.

and please note that i truly believe that you are all more than worthy of this amazing foodstuff and i can assure you that if i were empress there’d be mullet roe sacs for each and every one of you. because that it the kind of empress i would be. and if being empress were an electable position, smoked mullet roe and bottarga would be my platform, and my campaign slogan would be "smoke fish eggs, not your enemy" or "more sacs, less tax". granted, the concept needs tons of work. but i would totally be there for you in this way.

and thanksgiving in december was finally celebrated on ny’s eve. and after i read through every suggestion that you left in the comments, we took it all to heart and as many of you suggested, opted for sheer simplicity. we kept the food close to the ground with few ingredients. i roasted 2 chickens using the infallible zuni café method of salting smaller sized birds and covering loosely in the fridge for 2 or 3 days, then hitting them with a very high heat for about 50 minutes. the result – crisp skin and moist meat every time. i baked a simple cornbread using olive oil and made the stuffing using that and chicken sausage, red onions, garlic, celery, sage and veal stock. i also caramelized some brussels sprouts in a heavy skillet and hit them with a balsamic glaze and then roasted some sweet potatoes in nothing more than olive oil and salt. the cranberry sauce had fresh orange zest along with the juice, just a bit of brown sugar and a cinnamon stick.

at dinner, santos toasted to his beautiful wife rudrani, recognizing the auspicious evening and upcoming year with an excellent bottle of tattinger’s and we ate our dinner with a bottle of cotes du rhone. we felt grateful to not only be alive – but together, looking forward to the best year of our lives, if only because it is the one we will be living.

and being the exciting people that we are, cary and i were in bed at 11:30pm and flicked on the tv to watch all the festivities in nyc and do the whole pretend countdown (we’re on central time) and DID ANYONE ELSE SEE DICK CLARK AND GET FREAKED THE HELL OUT? it was, shall we say, NOT GOOD. it wasn’t the slurring due to the stroke it was "the face". he looked like he had died 2 days before and was embalmed, then put in full make-up and propped up in a chair. NOT GOOD. we both got the willies and quickly changed the channel. so much for going out with grace… i think much of america collectively gasped when they saw him. it kind of broke my heart.

and there was actually some food worth mentioning that happened to get cooked and then photographed in my kitchen during the tail end of ’08. so i thought i’d purge what was left in my files and hit you with it all at once in the name of starting fresh and not being wasteful.

this first dish, which i’ve now made perhaps 4x and have neglected to mention it to you, dear readers, is a smashing thing to eat. it’s a total wow and you need to make this one soon. grilled haloumi with caramelized fennel. oh. my.

just grill the fennel in some olive oil until it caramelizes, toss it with chopped italian parsley and spritz with lemon. then top it with the grilled halloumi. it is so much better than you might imagine it to be. so even if you are sitting there thinking, "no – i get it. that would be excellent", then you go and make it and it’s like crazy good and everyone thinks you are a brilliant cook and talks about you for days on end. i saw this dish on an australian blog called souvlaki for the soul. besides his beautiful food, the guy is a serious photographer. anyway, you heard it here second. now go make this.

jennifer? i told you i was going to make this and i did. and then i bought the book because ‘sunday suppers at lucques‘ by suzanne goin is most definitely a must own. and romesco is a must have in your repertoire. it works with nearly everything and although i’ve no recollection what fish this was, it was an excellent accompaniment to the romesco along with steamed broccoli.

romesco sauce
from ‘sunday suppers at lucques’ by suzanne goin

5 ancho chiles
2 T raw almonds
2T blanched hazelnuts
1 ¼ c extra virgin olive oil
1 slice country bread, about 1 inch thick
1/3 cup canned san marzano tomatoes
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 T chopped flat leaf parsley
½ lemon for juicing
kosher salt

preheat the oven to 375. soak the chiles in hot water for about 15 minutes, then seed and stem them. spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast them for 8-10 minutes. remove from the oven and set aside. fry the bread in a bit of the olive oil, then let it cool and cut into cubes. return the pan to the stove, heat the chiles for about 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes. cook them until they break down and the juices are reduced, then turn off the heat and set aside.

pulse the nuts, bread and garlic in a food processor, then add the chile and tomato mixture and pulse again to combine. pour in more olive oil while the machine is running until you have the texture you want. taste for seasoning, then stir in the lemon juice and parsley.

ok. i know. not beautiful. but i am so incredibly proud of what’s going on in that bowl you just couldn’t know. you see, peter and heather are constantly cooking all these amazing asian dishes filled with mysterious ingredients to the point where i personally find it to be borderline between annoying and inferiority complex causing. my problem? i’d say so. but a few weeks ago i whipped up this little number using only what i had on hand. undoubtedly a red bell pepper would have come in handy along with some bamboo shoots or something else with color but it tasted pretty damn good and it contained the following, in no particular order:

white miso
mirin
shoyu
raw chicken breast
a chopped shallot
frozen peas
sriracha sauce
fresh rice noodles – sold refrigerated in the vacuum sealed bag
gochujang
sesame oil
my poultry stock

never to be duplicated, but again, it was a proud moment – especially since there is no chinese food in nashville worthy of buying unless you count ‘pf changs’. sad but true.

presenting, farinata – a thin chickpea pancake/pizza like thing that’s pretty popular in liguria. i saw farinata mentioned somewhere and then i found this recipe on the food & wine website – and well it’s very much my kind of food. yes yes, i scorched the top a bit with my broiler but really it was no big deal – just a very surface ring of black. you basically mix garbanzo flour and water and let it sit for a couple of hours. then you preheat the oven to 500f, skim any foam off the batter and add salt, rosemary (i think i used sage) and olive oil. then heat a cast iron skillet in the oven for 10 minutes, add some olive oil to the pan, add the batter and bake. again, i made the mistake of deciding to brown the top a bit more and i took my eye off the oven…

but there were no complaints and it went fast…

this was from the ‘king arthur flour whole grain baking‘ book. i’m pretty sure this recipe called for peaches but i loaded it up with 3 pears being that i had just bought a huge box of them to support a friends daughter school choir. great idea… so much better than gift wrapping or magazines. anyway, i lowered the amount of sugar the recipe called for and well, cary ate the entire loaf in one day.

vegetables on brown basmati rice. exciting, i know. please try and contain yourselves. but for the record we’ve got brussels sprouts, carrots, onions, garlic, broccoli and some lovely briney olives lightly sauteed in olive oil and finished with a balsamic glaze. and i must tell you, it was quite delicious. and since i took a picture of it, i felt the need to share. because not only am i needy that way, but also because the rice had the perfect bite and the vegetables were cooked to that crisp but not overdone finish. i got lucky on this one. it was a moment in time where all the planets aligned just so, and the vegetable gods smiled down upon me. and i was grateful and appreciative and all those things that the vegetable gods expect one to be.

scarlett runners from rancho gordo dusted with espelette. there’s some pan fried tilapia back there with a spicy green olive tapenade on top. but the beans and the espelette were seriously good. and even more seriously basque.

but regarding the espelette… like if ever you were to get some? think eggs. scrambled, deviled, fried or perhaps just one orange egg yolk sitting atop a small mound of sheeps milk ricotta mixed with a bit of orange zest, sprinkled with this extraordinary pepper and then tucked carefully between 2 sheets of thin pasta…. yes. think that.

so dear readers, for the record – my personal ‘o9 resolution is to lean down both physically and financially. and i’m heading in that direction, yes i am. and there’ll be more on that later.

and although i may be 4 days late, allow me to raise my virtual glass to you. here’s to a kinder, gentler new year…

buddha wants you to know that even though ‘life is suffering’, drink acai

and you probably think i made that up, right?  "not just a berry, a lifestyle…" but no dear readers, it’s the actual motto from the acai roots company.  i definitely would have been so berry much more clever.

and do you see that glass being lovingly cradled by the buddha?  it contains pure potent purple goodness. what you’re looking at is an acai pulp berry smoothie that will allegedly, among other things - improve your sex drive.  it’s one of the most powerful and nutritious foods known to man, and widely acknowledged as one of the richest anti-oxidants available.  i could go on about the high levels of omega 3 and 6 as well as the amino acids, not to mention all the fiber… but i’ll leave the thorough research in your capable hands.  bottom line is that DR. OZ gives it the big thumbs up.  need i say more? 

i’ve also seen it in the drink section of ’whole foods’, being touted as the superfood to end all superfoods.  it’s as though they’re screaming the accolades of this brazilian berry across the globe.  Drink. This. NOW.

so last week, before i left for LA my friend angela gave me a big frozen container of acai pulp - the creme de la creme of acai.  blended with a banana, fresh blueberries and some ice cubes, it became a really nice spring breakfast for a few days running.

please excuse the fact that i breathed while taking this photograph without a tripod…

so, while i’m on the west coast not eating anything worth mentioning, the memory of this smoothie is actually pretty damn appealing. i plan on ordering a few containers and seeing if i notice… well, anything…

but ummm, do you think that just a little side of bacon would affect the ‘sex life’ perk?

or more accurately, peanut butter noodles. but the dish is still much better known as "noodles in sesame sauce" and usually ‘cold’, at that.  at least in nyc where i lived on it for the better part of my early 20′s. and even though i’ve seen a few versions that use roasted tahini, the peanut butter version just works so well on every level that it’s what i do, because it is quite frankly – an absolute and total winner. and everybody loves a winner… yessiree.

anyway, this dish had been on my mind since i saw it over at smitten kitchen and then recently again at kalyn’s, where she used whole wheat noodles. i think the earthiness of the ww pasta lends itself perfectly to this dish.  my version is an adaption of both of those, leaning more towards the ‘gourmet’ recipe from june 2002

peanut sesame noodles
adapted from gourmet, june 2002

i totally blanked on the sesame seeds, which is too bad because i have the black ones sitting right in my kitchen and they’re both a great looking garnish and tasty.  so try to use your imagination, ok? 

1/2 cup smooth organic peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup warm water
2 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger
2 medium garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoon brown sugar or honey or agave
1 tablespoon sriracha chili sauce – or to taste

1 lb whole wheat thin spaghetti
1 orange or red bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
1 cucumber, seeded and cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
1 cup of snow peas
4 scallions, thinly sliced
chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
1 lb of shrimp or chicken or beef or pork belly! or tofu

mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a strong blender, set aside
put water on to boil for noodles
slice the cucumbers and bell peppers into long thin strips
slice the scallions and chop the cilantro

if you’re using shrimp, skewer and grill.  if you’re using another protein, i trust that you will figure it all out just fine…

one minute before the pasta is ready, throw the snow peas into the pasta water.
drain and toss with the sauce, serve immediately garnished with the vegetables and make it all look pretty,
  

because you’re good enough, you’re smart enough and doggone it people like you…

i make pad thai about every 6 weeks or so.  my last batch was documented here.  i take this ritual pretty seriously and i like to think that my version is by far the best and most authentic in town, which really under the circumstances of where i live is no huge accomplishment.

but tonight i had a very special request.  and pad thai it was going to be.  so luckily, and in keeping with ‘eating down the house‘ all i needed to pick up was cilantro, green onions, bean sprouts and a lime.  everything else was here… except the noodles.  i was running low.  so in the midst of an unusually demanding day where a trip to the international market would have been near impossible, i got a package of noodles from angela, my best friend who lives in the hood.  i did a quick drive-by between appointments and we did a hand-off worthy of a marathon relay race. 

i’m used to soaking my noodles for about 20/30 minutes in room temperature water so i didn’t bother to read the package.  i assumed that all rice sticks were created equal.  but this brand called for soaking in boiling water for 6 minutes… 

so my pad thai was al dente.  to say the very least. 

was i happy about this?  nooooo…  am i willing to let go of the fact that i totally screwed up?  um, yeah.  i guess.  between you and me, secretly i kinda liked it although this particular pad thai making event was just so not about me and my strangeness.

but the flavors were spot on.  tamarind, fish sauce, chili sauce, palm sugar, dried shrimp, salted dried radish, shallots, garlic, peanuts, peanut oil, eggs, bean sprouts, green onions, cilantro and lime.  and the best shrimp i know to buy around these parts.  take all of that and you’d be hard pressed to go too far wrong.

for dessert it was dulce de leche on a spoon with a shot of espresso. 

because you’ve just gotta keep ‘em guessing…

i want to thank luisa from ‘the wednesday chef’ for posting her scrambled eggs with shrimp dinner.  her dinner wasn’t pretty.  nope, not even a little.  and she knew it but was real about the situation on the plate including the fact that it tasted really good.  because the truth is that life isn’t always pretty, right?  and in the case of food – who cares?  ok, let me rephrase… who cares all the time?  we’re home.  we’re hungry.  and we’re out of parsley.  parsley does tend to help a bit.  it’s the lipstick of food…

last night i threw dinner together quickly.  i started with 4 of my 9 csa cucumbers.  they were peeled and sliced and tossed with green onions, chili flakes, white vinegar and turbinado sugar.  i had leftover steak from the night before and decided to use all my japanese eggplants and 1 of my 4 butternut squash.  so this one dinner alone used up a bunch of produce which was excellent!

the eggplants got sliced and grilled on my stove with minimal olive oil.  the squash was simply peeled and steamed.  cary did a thin cut on the steak – and all of it got sauced with an on the fly mix of white miso, turbinado sugar, mirin and a 2 year shoyu (aka soy sauce).  lucky for all of us i had some black sesame seeds to sprinkle around.  but hey, still kinda not so pretty…

but good?  very.

cary loves pad thai.  a lot.  he loves pad thai so much that i can sometimes even bribe him with the promise of this dinner.  i’ve found that it is good to have a dish this adored in your relationship arsenal, especially when dealing with certain yard-work hating men.

so early on in our relationship and before my blogging days, i set out to find and make THE pad thai recipe of a (my) lifetime.  it took me about a month or so of googling, talking to friends, eating pad thai out and about (mostly terrible with the exception of ‘basil’s‘) and visiting the international markets here in town.  finally, armed with some knowledge, i was dangerous enough to take my frankensteinesque version to the kitchen.

and it was surprisingly spot on.  i was amazed.  no, delighted.  even mildly amused.  there i was – a middle-aged woman of jewish heritage kickin some pad thai ass. 

now, as noted i’m not thai.  i’ve never been to thailand.  i am an expert on nothing in particular.  so if you want to make pad thai with ketchup and peanut butter and that works for you, i’m totally fine with that.  in the cosmic light of all things, it matters not one bit.  at least not to me. although there are those that seem to feel a bit more passionate on the subject… which i totally get.  like in the case of cannoli cream.  like when can grand marnier ever substitute for candied citron or orange peel?  don’t even get me started… 

but i digress…

so people - if you want to taste something really really good and are willing to procure the proper ingredients and do what in all fairness is somewhat easy prep work, i urge you to give this pad thai a serious whirl.  i should imagine you will be quite pleased with yourself. the simple key to success is to have your mise en place – in place.  then it’s a total cinch.

for some reason, i’ve been remiss in making this for my guy.  it’s been probably 6 months since i broke out the ol’ seasoned to perfection wok. 

Pad Thai by CY

import foods  <—  good, reliable and reasonable source

1. palm sugar – 2 pieces (or about 1/4 cup of sugar – brown also works fine)
2. tamarind concentrate – 3 T
3. fish sauce – 3 T
4. chili sauce – 1 T (the kind with the rooster on the bottle)
5. shallot – 2 chopped fine
6. garlic – 5/6 cloves – chopped finely
7. salted radish – 1 each finely diced
8. dried shrimp – ¼ cup – soaked in boiled water for 10 minutes, then very very finely diced
9. rice sticks – 8 oz – soaked until desired tenderness (soft but firm)
10. thai ground chili pepper – to taste
11. shrimp – about 10 jumbo shrimp – peeled and veined with tails left on (tiger shrimp are amazing)
12. peanuts – ½ cup unsalted roasted – crushed (make sure they’re fresh and have peanut flavor)
13. peanut oil – about 7 or 8 T (don’t bother skimping here – it’s just not worth it)
14. eggs – 2
15. bean sprouts – 2 cups
16. cilantro – to taste
17. green onion – sliced
18. fresh lime wedges

*please note that I haven’t bothered with tofu or chicken – seems pointless to us here at the ranch but please, feel free

1. mix first 4 ingredients until sugar is dissolved – microwave helps
2. cook shrimp until pink – separately in any pan or use the wok – set aside
3. add about 2 T oil to hot wok – then add shallots and garlic
4. after about 30 seconds add crushed dried shrimp and salted radish
5. after about another 30 seconds or so – add 3 T oil and then add noodles
6. combine noodles with mixture in pan – moving noodles until they cook to the right consistency
7. move noodles to one side of pan – tilt the wok slightly and add 2 T oil - then add two beaten eggs – swirl around – let set up – mix with noodles
8. then add sauce and combine, adding bean sprouts and about ¾ of peanut’s
mix well in wok

turn out onto platter or bowl – add the shrimp, green onion, cilantro, rest of the peanuts, and ground chili pepper.  lime wedges for everyone. 

my version tonight didn’t exactly follow the ‘proper’ order but it was close enough.  i didn’t add the beansprouts until after i threw the shrimp back in the wok – and the shrimp really didn’t need to go back in the wok – and the peanuts never made the wok but got mixed in after it all hit the serving bowl.  really it had been too long and i wasn’t reading my own directions.  but it worked.  and it was great. 

this should keep the pad thai jones at bay for a few weeks…

for the salad i use finely chopped napa cabbage, torn spinach leaves, green onions, julienned red bell peppers and carrots, mung beans, fresh basil, mint and black sesame seeds – although the regular tan ones will do fine…

but it’s the dressing/sauce that will truly floor you. just throw the following into your blender:

juice of at least 2 limes
a bunch of cilantro
olive oil
fresh peeled garlic and ginger – a lot
honey
soy sauce (i use something called nama shoyu and really like it)
a jalepeno or habenero pepper

let the dressing soak into the salad for at least an hour before serving to soften the cabbage. i served it with grilled shrimp on top.

this dish is absolutely beautiful and you’ll impress all your friends.