Something I'm Doing Right

I'm hard on myself. No arguments from me on that point. Unnecessarily hard, I'm sure. One of the things that I (and really, all Mothers, right?) wonder about is if I'm doing right by my child. If I'm giving her enough. If I'm giving her the right things. As evidenced by my over-long ramble on my recent Tet post, one of the things I worry about is that I want to support Adeline's Vietnamese identity and I always feel like I should be doing more. There is ONE area of my parenting that I do not question and the proof is here in this picture...

That's an empty 24 ounce bottle of fish sauce for those who can't figure it out. Fish sauce or nuoc mam is THE Vietnamese condiment. It's made by allowing fish (usually anchovies) to sit in barrels out in the warm Vietnamese air and ferment (another word for rot, yes?) and then the liquidy stuff is drained off and that's your fish sauce. The smell...well...as a person who was not raised with fish sauce the smell is hard to get past. It's unquestionably very tasty, but the smell is...pungent and earthy and above all FISHY. I grew up in a town with a big fishing industry and that smell is familiar to me, but not in an "MMmm, let's put that on rice" kind of way. I don't know if I will ever stick my nose in a bottle of fish sauce and say "YUM", but Adeline does, and I'm happy about that. I'd say the average non-Viet Canadian person eats ZERO fish sauce per year, but we go through a couple of big bottles of it. We've tried enough of it that I've got a brand I prefer and I even find it making it's way into non-asian foods like spaghetti, for the umami kick it gives. I suppose you could make Vietnamese food without it, but it's just not the same. I cook a LOT of Vietnamese food and I'm proud of that. There are many parts of Vietnamese culture that I can't give Adeline, but by the time she's an adult she will be able to make many Vietnamese dishes and will have that connection to her heritage and hopefully some good memories of being in the kitchen with me. Right now Adeline loves to cook with me and hopefully she always will.

This year I'd like to expand my repertoire of Viet dishes though, as it seems like I cook the same things a lot - pho (both chicken and beef), bo kho (stewed beef with lemongrass, tomatoes and carrots), stuffed tofu, crunchy fried spring rolls and fresh salad rolls, lots of marinated and grilled meats and seafood in the summer served with rice vermicelli, herbs and a fish sauce based dipping sauce, banh mi sandwiches with homemade pickled carrots and daikon, pan fried noodles, and all sorts of stir fried meat and vegetable dishes with rice, but there are still lots of things I want to try. I have lots of Vietnamese cookbooks and EVERYTHING looks good in them.

Here is my goal... Over the next while I'm going to attempt some of my favourite Vietnamese dishes or pick things from cookbooks to try and then I'm going to blog about them. I'll start with three of my favourites...

Banh Xeo - a crispy Vietnamese crepe with pork, shrimp, mung beans and sprouts

Banh Cuon - soft fresh-made rice rolls with shrimp, pork and mushroom filling (this one is INTIMIDATING)

Bun Cha - David and I LOVED this noodle and grilled pork dish so much in Hanoi that I must learn to make it as soon as the weather lets us get the barbecue going again

I'm also trying to source seeds or plants for some more Vietnamese herbs for my garden this summer. Amazingly I think my rau ram is going to overwinter and be a perennial so I'm excited to have it again this year. I wondered if our (admittedly mild) Canadian winter might off it, but it's looking healthy out there and is just waiting for some sun to put on some new growth. I think I'm even going to have to put it in a pot as I can see that it has some thuggish tendencies. I can also grow basil and mint, but I'm hoping to find some of the more unusual herbs like red perilla (tia to) and Vietnamese balm (kinh gioi) that I remember eating and loving in Vietnam.

As always I apologize for being too lazy to put the work in to include the accent marks in my Vietnamese words. I always say I'm going to go back and edit and add them, but I never do, so I might as well just apologize and move on!

 

Comments

[mimi lam]

Happy NY to your family, you certainly have a long challenge list of VN food and herbs to accomplish. How funny, I use a little fish sauce in spaghetti too, it is excellent for enhancing your cooking dishes. You can buy the prepared mixed flour for Banh Xeo, Banh Cuon at Asian stores. The Rau Ram you can grow with their stem cutting, approximately 3 inches long. Good luck, and happy planting and cooking in your new adventure.

[Karen]

looking forward to seeing the vietnamese dishes