Food for Thought (part one)

(This blog-post is a change of speed from our usual posts)

We know that many of you have been anxiously awaiting our food blogging - well, here is the first post.

We've decided to have 3 food-blogging posts - the first will be about the basics: ingredients, cooking methods & produce. We're not food experts, of course, so this will just be our cursory observations.

Rice is, of course, the main staple in Vietnam - not only as the rice that we know, but also rice paper, rice noodles, rice crepes, rice crackers, rice wine, rice gelatin - and we've probably forgotten a few others... The rice paper comes in 3 or 4 different forms; the soft fresh form for making fresh spring rolls; another variation for making fried spring rolls, and another which is grilled or fried, similar to pappadam, like a cracker, which is served as a side dish to accompany salads and certain appetizers...

Here are many of the rice noodle forms in the Hoi An market

Rice paper used for fresh spring rolls - filled with bean sprouts, mint, shrimp, roast pork, and other vegetables...

Check out the big bowl of rice vermicelli noodles, served to accompany meals in a village house where one of our new Vietnamese friends lives (more on this later!)


Rice, pappadam style

Rice is also used to make rice wine and rice whiskey. For some reason, it is often sold in glass jars with various snakes floating inside!


Vegetables are also very popular - the most common (almost as common as rice) is water spinach - a.k.a. Morning Glory - a semi-aquatic tropical plant which "flourishes naturally in waterways and does not require much if any care." It is most commonly served simply sauteed with garlic, garnished with some hot chili pepper, and maybe drizzled with a dash of nuoc mam (fish sauce) - it is absolutely delicious. Apparently it is expensive in the West because it needs to be washed repeatedly to get rid of all the mud, dirt, sand, silt and whatever else it grows in...

Morning Glory (water spinach), served at one of our favourite restaurants in Hoi An, called... Morning Glory! It is sauteed with large sweet garlic, and on the top, sprinkled with fried shallots, chopped fresh red chili pepper, and drizzled with fish sauce (nuoc mam) and a dash of sesame oil. It really is delish!

Eggplant is another popular vegetable - they use a variety of eggplant species - the most common is the Asian eggplant called 'white eggplant' - others include Japanese eggplant and occasionally Italian eggplant.

Fried white eggplant - another of our favorites

The markets are colorful, with colorful characters, and fresh vegetables everywhere...

Tofu is another popular dish, made out of soybean. Tofu is popular among the many vegetarians in Vietnam - and is sometimes used as a meat-substitute, leading to some bizarre situations. When we visited a Buddhist orphanage in Hanoi, we were invited for 'vegetarian' lunch. When we sat down at the table, there were a dozen or so dishes that resembled various meat products, all made out of tofu (we worked out later) - for example, tofu shaped (and sliced) like fried squid, tofu-shaped like fried chicken pieces, tofu shaped liked pigs trotters etc. Each dish was artificially flavoured appropriately...


There are also various types of potato, including many types of sweet potato; yams, cassava... This appeared to be a regional phenomenon. We came across these mostly in the mountain regions of Central Highlands - particularly the markets in Dalat.


The Vietnamese consume lots of fruits too: dragon fruit, various banana species, mango, pomelo, tangerines, jack fruit, durian, papaya, rose apples, avocado, various melons, coconut... all widely available, looking fresh, luscious, inviting, and of course, very, very cheap!

Meat consumption is led by seafood on top of the list (in our experience) - from an incredible variety of fish, to shell-fish (shrimp of all sizes, oyster, abalone, clams, snails, lobster etc), eel, frog... Seafood was our preferred choice as often as possible, because it is often presented live in the outdoor markets in pots, or tanks, guaranteeing a certain level of freshness - particularly when the creature is butchered live right in front of you!

Live eels for sale in the market

Eels butchered / scissored on request!

Fried eel on the dinner table. Yum! (We actually ate this dish 5 times in three days in Dalat!)

And here are some happy frogs, prior to having their heads scissored off by the mean market lady!

And frogs on the dinner table

This is the common way that fresh seafood is presented in the restaurants - either on ice, or alive in tanks...

Lobster on the table in Mui Ne. We ordered this one from the tank on the street - and a few minutes later it came nicely grilled on the BBQ, seasoned with chili and garlic.

Other popular meat products include pork, chicken, and beef (we were told that 'beef' is often water buffalo which has outlived their usefulness dragging ploughs around the rice paddies - resulting in dark, tough meat called 'beef')... Much of the meat is available in the outdoor markets, with slabs of meat sitting on open wooden tables, in the heat, unrefrigerated, attracting flies... This is a common sight, which commonly suppressed our appetite for meat...

Here are some not-so-attractive chickens spread out on an open table at the Dalat market...

And here are some various red meat products - including organs - again, out in the open. This picture was taken in Sapa where the climate is cooler - the scent of red meat sitting in the open in the hotter climates can sometimes become unbearable...

Vietnamese Flavours: Spices, Herbs, and Sauces
Yum! Roots - various types of ginger and fresh turmeric - are used heavily in Vietnamese dishes, and of course garlic is a given (the large, sweet garlic which they call French garlic, and the small, pungent garlic, referred to as Vietnamese garlic)...

The first basket on the left carries both ginger and turmeric - the lighter root on the left is ginger (Vietnamese use two types of ginger - the larger, smoother root, and the smaller, more irregular-shaped, more pungent ones, which you see in the basket on the left) To the right of the ginger is the fresh turmeric, used to add color and flavor. In the West we mostly use turmeric in powder form... Fresh turmeric is also apparently used to stop bleeding if you hurt yourself... such as, you know, if you fall face-first off your pushbike in the middle of the street... for example.

The large basket in the front contains small pungent Vietnamese garlic. This picture was taken in front of one of the village houses that we visited. The garlic is sun-dried for their own consumption...



Lemongrass is also widely used in broths and sauteed and simmered dishes

Vietnamese rely heavily on fresh herbs for flavoring - particularly mint, basil, coriander/cilantro, chives, and spring onion... Mustard Green is another which is served as a condiment, as well as eaten with food... Again, these herbs are widely available in all the markets, presented fresh, beautiful, and of course, cheap, cheap, cheap...

These herbs aren't very distinguishable from each other here, but there are heaps and heaps of fresh, inviting herbs from mint to basil, from cilantro/coriander to basil and mustard green...



As soy sauce is the main ingredient for Chinese food, Nuoc Mam (a pungent fish sauce based on anchovies) is used in almost every dish for flavouring, and in many cases is used as a substitute for salt... Tamarind, a sour, pungent fruit, is ground into a paste, diluted, and used as a sauce for many dishes. It adds a nice sweet & sour flavor. Soy sauce is usually used as a condiment presented in a small bowl, to accompany dishes as they are served, not as a cooking ingredient. Lime is also used as both a condiment and an ingredient in many dishes...

Dried shrimp, shrimp paste, dried squid, and certain dried shredded fish (fish flakes) are sometimes sprinkled over salads and some appetizers to add texture and flavour.

Here are various dried squid and fish products, together with some commonly used spices...

Various fresh hot chili - both green and red - are used as both garnishes and spicing/heat element in many dishes

As far as dry spices goes, Chinese 5 Spices, nutmeg and both black and white pepper are the main spices. In some sauces and dishes, a dash or two of raw/brown sugar is used to balance the acidity and add flavors...

Here is a bundle of spices presented by one of the market vendors - dried turmeric, white pepper, black pepper, dried star anise, chili flakes...

Cooking Methods and Meal Types
As everywhere, Vietnamese have a bunch of different cooking methods and meal types - from soups, which they refer to as pho, to noodle dishes, from simmering hotpot dishes, to BBQ/grill - they have it all.

The most common dish is pho (brothy soup) which can be chicken-based (pho ga), beef (pho bo), seafood, vegetables, etc. The broth is the most important element - this is where the mastery/flavour comes into play... They simmer beef, chicken, and/or pig bones for hours (if not a day) The resulting broth is graded based on its flavor and clarity... Lemongrass, fish sauce, garlic, onion, are all used in various combinations to flavor the broth. The next main ingredient is the noodle - mainly thin rice noodle. The meat (chicken/beef etc) is placed on top of the broth, after it is poured in a bowl with noodles. Garnish is then placed on top - basil, mint, hot chili pepper, green/spring onion. Pho also shows regional distinction - the three best known are those in the North (Hanoi), Central Vietnam (Hue) and South (Saigon). Almost every block, in every town, city and village has a pho stand or store-front restaurant. People in Vietnam eat pho as both a meal and/or snack - it is widely available and very very cheap.

Noodles aren't only used in soups - as in Chinese cuisine, Vietnamese consume a lot of stir-fries, saute and salads based on noodles. Again, variations depends on regions and seasonal ingredients. For example, in Danang / Hoi An area, they are known for their Cau Lau - "A textured wheat noodles mixed with veggies, bits of toasted rice paper, slices of pork and a wonderful light sauce... Interesting trivia... supposedly true cau lau cannot be made outside of Hoi An as the water for the dish must come from the Ba Le well, an ancient water hole hidden away in surprising spot, behind some very suburban houses."

This was the best Cau Lau that we had in Hoi An - again, at Morning Glory Cafe. We tried it at some Western hotels and it sucked...

Hotpots - simmered dishes
This is similar to Japanese Shaba-Shaba. Basically, you have a pot filled with broth or water placed on a portable hotplate which sits on your table. Plates with meat (seafood, chicken, beef or pork), vegetables (bean sprouts, mustard green, spinach etc), herbs (mint, basil, coriander, chives, green onion) are provided - and since it is mainly for group dining, everyone participates, mixing the ingredients in the simmering broth, adding various flavouring elements such as hot chili pepper, fish sauce and chili paste...

Here we are dining with our Vietnamese friend Le Ly Hayslip, over a traditional seafood hotpot. As you can see, to the right, is your fresh mix seafood as the main ingredients. In the center is the hotplate over which the pot of broth sits, simmering. To the left, is the mixed vegetable plate to go into the hotpot last, and some fresh herbs to be eaten raw with the meal (it is not always obvious which is which). As always, there is a bowl of rice vermicelli noodles as an accompaniment. What you can't see is a bowl of fresh, hot, hot, hot chili which we sprinkle over our meal once it is served for that needed heat element!



Others
Grilling and BBQ-ing are commonly employed methods - both at home and in restaurants. Since flavoring is very important, items are usually marinated first...

Frying is also used here and there - the Vietnamese usually use peanut oil for frying.

Salads
Salads are heavily and commonly consumed in Vietnamese cultures - from delicious green mango salad to banana flower salad. They are all delicately flavored , texturised in layers with great care, and artfully presented. The main flavoring elements are mint, basil, coriander, lime and lime juice... In some cases, seafood, pork, chicken or beef are included - along with crushed peanuts and/or sesame oil.

This is one of our many fave salads in Vietnam - Pomelo salad. It contains pomelo (a citrus fruit similar to grapefruit, but sweet), bean sprouts, spring onion, shrimp, mint, fried shallots, dried shrimp, hot chili pepper, a drizzle of lime juice, cane sugar, and fish sauce dressing. Absolutely yum.



Deserts and Baked Goods
As far as the baked goods are concerned, the French influence is indubitably present. We have travelled extensively, but Vietnamese baguettes are by far the best we have ever come across. The breads, particularly the baguettes, are incredible - across the whole country.

Here is a not-so-great photo of the bakery at Cargo Club, one of our fave restaurants in Hoi An. Their baguettes were to die for...

As far as traditional Vietnamese deserts are concerned, they can be broadly categorized as gelatinous - whether fried donuts filled with gelatinous fruits/fillings sold on the street corner, or steamed flavoured gelatin puddings in banana leaves...

Che is one of our favorite traditional Vietnamese street deserts - it's like a light pudding, with either corn, or mung bean, or tapioca base, served with lightly sweetened coconut milk and ice (the better restaurants always boasted of the fact that they made their own ice, and tried to convince us that we weren't eating the ice that we had just seen dragging down the street behind a motorbike!)

Here is the sweet corn and coconut milk che from Morning Glory Cafe.

Here are some profiteroles - the French influence is quite obvious in Vietnamese food - but thankfully, mostly in a good way! These puff pastries are filled with light custard / cream, served cold, with a drizzle of chocolate sauce...



Presentation
Last but not least, the food here is always presented artfully, tastefully, and delicately. Every day we marvelled at the effort taken in presenting the food - whether it was a green mango salad sprinkled with golden brown crushed peanuts and decorated with fresh red chilli pepper sliced to represent a flower, or vegetables such as carrot, cucumber or tomato, cut and sculpted on the plate... Deep fried shallots are also frequently sprinkled over certain salads and appetizers for texture, flavour and color.

Obviously from the pictures of the food above, you already know that Vietnamese presentation of food is very artful and appetizing. Here is one more picture to convince you... Here is a dish of simply grilled shrimp. Simple it is not, right?!

Next Up
Our adventures in cooking class at Morning Glory Restaurant in Hoi An...

Lifestart Foundation

We met with Karen Leonard of LifeStart Foundation - a non-profit foundation "created to help orphans, street kids and families in Vietnam to become self-sufficient."

We have been in contact with Karen since before we arrived in Vietnam, and had a couple of meetings with her before she took us around and shared with us some of her projects in action.

Karen's foundation is involved in several projects in Hoi An, including an education program for a select group of street children, business development and arts & craft training for disabled adults, sponsoring a select group of poor families in Hoi An, and providing medical care in conjuntion with other groups such as Dr Josh Solomon's Hoi An Foundation and Robyn Morley's Children Hope In Action.

As we have previously emphasized, our focus has been primarily on smaller NGOs with on-the-ground leadership and hands-on management. Based on our research, LifeStart Foundation fit these criteria, and we had been looking forward to meeting with Karen and her team. Karen and Lifestart exceeded even our expectations - Karen is passionate about her work, she is very hands-on, managing all her projects on the ground, she is very energetic and hard-working. Everybody we spoke with in Hoi An spoke very highly of Karen and the work that she is doing.

Here are two videos - the first is an 8 minute interview we did with Karen - she discusses some of the specific needs and requirements of disabled adults, LifeStart's objectives and needs, the natural limits of small NGOs, and working with the Vietnamese government.



The second video highlights some of LifeStart's work - the first segment is some footage from the disabled women's project, teaching disabled women to be self-sufficient by producing a range of arts and crafts products including cards, bags and vases. The second segment shows Karen, working with a translator, developing a meal plan for a twenty year old terminally ill woman. The final segment is a short interview with a recently-retired LifeStart volunteer from Australia who discusses some of the ways he has been able to help LifeStart during his short tenure here.





These first two photos are of the disabled women's group in action, learning their arts and crafts which they hope to turn into an sustainable internet ecommerce business. The women appear normal & healthy in the photo, but many of them can't walk due to polio or landmine accidents, resulting in the loss of one or both legs.



This photo is of a classroom in session where a select group of street-children is provided with general education and English. In addition to two day-time classes, LifeStart's school also provides evening classes. Some of these kids come from abusive backgrounds, and others have been exploited in one way or other... Without LifeStart (with some help from the Vietnamese Government), these kids would not be receiving any education, and/or care.


Karen took us to visit this family - the mother belongs to the Disabled group in Hoi An. She doesn't have any legs, and walks around the house wearing shoes on her hands. Karen helped her get a special 3-wheel motor-bike which enables her to travel to her clients to pick-up work-orders involving computer work.

She has two daughters, the oldest is around four years old, and the younger is about 9 months old. Her husband repairs shoes for an income and works from home. He is able-bodied. They have a kinda romantic union story: one day she was locked out of her house, and due to her disability was unable to get in... he was passing by, offered to help her, and the rest is history...

Here is another of Karen's clients - he is going to pick up and repair cell phones using his newly modified 3-wheel motorbike provided by LifeStart. When Karen returns to Vietnam in a couple of months, he will have his business plan prepared for her evaluation...





The next three photos show another of LifeStart's projects - sponsoring families who live in their boats on the river in Hoi An under extreme poverty. Many of the children of these families also attend the LifeStart school.

The first picture is of a boat where a family of seven lives and works. The boat is approximately 14 feet long by 3 feet wide. In the foreground is Phuc, a boy of 13 who lives on the boat with his family, and attends LifeStart's school - he has acquired a good level of English thanks to Karen and her volunteers.

The next pic is of a similarly sized boat that is home to three people, and is also used for 'commercial' fishing to provide for the family. The final picture is of a replacement boat that Karen is getting made for the family. The boat will also have a motor which will enable the family to travel out of the river and into the sea where the fishing is more viable...

We're going to be on the road for the next week or so. We have a couple of fun and yummy food related posts that we will try to publish while on the road.

Next we'll be reporting from Dalat and/or Phan Thiet (Mui Ne)...

Dr Josh Solomon, Hoi An Foundation

Last week we met with Dr Joshua Solomon of the Hoi An Foundation, a non-profit organization which provides medical services to disadvantaged Vietnamese people in the Hoi An region.

Hoi An Foundation's current focus is treating "hearing impairment, HIV infection, chronic medical diseases, health prevention, and rehabilitation for children with disabilities"

We spent a morning with Dr Solomon in his clinic, observing as he treated patients and interviewing him and An, his assistant/translator. Dr Solomon invited us to follow him around on his rounds, visiting patients who are unable to get to his clinic for a variety of reasons, but unfortunately we were unable to join him because he was heading to the US.

Dr Solomon works with a number of other NGOs in and around Hoi An, including Lifestart Foundation, Kianh Foundation and Children's Hope in Action - everybody speaks very highly of Josh.

In Part One of the interview, we see Josh in action with a patient, and he discusses the need for treatment of chronic diseases.


In Part Two of the interview, Josh discusses AIDS/HIV in Vietnam


In Part Three, Josh discusses his objectives, and his needs. He is looking for volunteers from across the medical spectrum; doctors, physiotherapists, speech therapists, nutritionists and nurses. Josh is also looking for certain medical equipment which will enable him to deliver medical services more efficiently. Of course, cash donations are also always valuable...



Thanks Josh, and good luck with the fundraising...

Global Village Construction Project

As we mentioned in the previous post, we had a full day with various Global Village Foundation projects. In the afternoon we visited some of GVF's schools, and we spent the morning with GVF founder Le Ly Hayslip and two of her staff members, traveling to a nearby village to visit a site where GVF is building a house for a family - the father is in a wheelchair and makes his meagre living selling icecream to support his wife and three children - ages 6-12. All three children are in school.


We'll take you on a visual tour of our morning...

Our day started in downtown Hoi An with Le Ly and two GVF employees, Vinh and Hung - five of us with three motorbikes. Le Ly first took us to the Hoi An Central market to purchase those conical hats that are so popular here. She bargained with the local vendor - 3 hats for 36,000 Vietnamese Dong - approximately $2.40 in total! Man, we were so thankful later in the day after spending a few hours under the blazing sun... no wonder these hats are so popular here in Vietnam! Of course, we felt silly being the only non-Vietnamese wearing them - but the embarrassment was way worth it!

Next stop was waiting for the barge by the riverside where old ladies sell various sweets and refreshing drinks - Le Ly purchased a bag full of fried donut-y looking gelatinous sweets - they appeared to be fruit gelatin wrapped around sweet corn paste and then deep-fried in god-only-knows what kind of oil... some of us were more adventurous then others when Le Ly offered them around...


Another vendor had a very basic, hand-operated metal presser through which she fed raw sugar-cane to extract juice. The juice is then mixed with water, lime juice, a dash of salt, and ice of very questionable cleanliness... (we often see big blocks of ice being dragged through town on the back of motorbikes!) However, scientifically speaking, this drink makes perfect sense here in Hoi An - replenishing the body fluids lost in the heat (and for other reasons) - basically, it is Vietnamese Gatorade!


When the barge arrived, we all piled on - the five of us and our motorbikes, women traders on their way to and from the markets, and a bunch of local construction workers...



After 20 minutes or so we were in a different world, just 5 kilometers or so from downtown - but a world away; apparently very few tourists get here...

As we rode on our bikes to the construction site, we were greeted by school kids, water buffalo, pigs, and cows as we passed fishermen, rice fields, sleepy village houses and traversed another river on a rickety wooden floating bridge...

When we arrived at the construction site, especially Le Ly, all the locals came out to investigate the noise - old women, school kids, basically the entire neighbourhood...








The family is living in the unfinished house while the construction is taking place - with the piles of sand, dust, concrete and construction equipment lying around everywhere. As you can see, the father is very happy, and thankful to Le Ly and GVF for building the house, and we're sure he'll be even happier when construction is finished in a week or two...

The eldest child was at school, but we took a photo of the younger boys (below). One of our members is sponsoring the three children to go to school - for the grand sum of $200 per annum for all three. Sixty five dollars per child doesn't sound very much, but many Vietnamese children don't attend school because their parents simply can't afford it. Sixty five dollars includes: school tax, books, notepads, pens and pencils, backpack, two uniforms, school shoes and rain gear for the long rainy season in Vietnam...

We wish the family all the best - and study well, kids!