Tonight I'm having Bánh Xèo. It starts with a Vietnamese rice flour based crepe(for lack of a better term) with shrimp, pork, mushrooms, bean sprouts and mung beans. You combine this into a spring roll like fish with lettuce, mustard greens and an herb called Tia To. It uses the same wrap as a spring roll but instead of being soaked to a gummy consistency, you basically wipe the wet veggies on it to soften out a bit.
The dipping sauce is sugar, water, minced garlic, Vietnamese fish sauce and some viet red chili peppers and Thai green chili peppers.
The bourbon is a must. Nothing special, just Kirkland brand Buffalo Trace. Which by the way if you are a vodka drinker, the Kirkland French vodka is Grey Goose and 1.75L is usually only $25-30 (sometimes close to $20 on a really good sale).
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The dipping sauce is sugar, water, minced garlic, Vietnamese fish sauce and some viet red chili peppers and Thai green chili peppers.
The bourbon is a must. Nothing special, just Kirkland brand Buffalo Trace. Which by the way if you are a vodka drinker, the Kirkland French vodka is Grey Goose and 1.75L is usually only $25-30 (sometimes close to $20 on a really good sale).
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We all know there's only one way to eat fish, but there's 50 shades of violating the gimp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNkwKR04tPQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNkwKR04tPQ
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"Six Pack" is that original or a Black Flag cover? That song is special to me, in 1982 I was up till all hours rehearsing my AD524 paper at the ISSCC and left the radio on and I was woken up by "Six Pack" by BF.
We have that growing all over the garden, sort of a purple Shi So. Love Thai food for all the aromatics.
'59 original, 1st ever song of the band. (six paK, not pack)
(thinking about gimp symbolism and your QT comment, not sure when I'm ready again for another ninja flic)
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Excuse my ignorance. Via youtube you could binge on 60's Shaw brothers flix though the remake of the "Dragon Gate Inn" is probably as insane as anything gets. It has foodie interest BTW indescribable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Dragon_Gate_Inn
Vietnamese food is like that too. Huge bowl of fresh herbs to compliment the meal. In Vietnamese, if you aren't adding chili peppers, lime and fresh herbs you aren't understanding true viet food.
I must say the combination of To Tia and fresh mustard greens is very delicious. It gives a bright nutty meaty kinda flavor.
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True that
(ever tried different nuoc mam brands ? I'm somewhat compulsive-obsessivish, did an a-z market analysis on Viet/Thai fish sauces for a couple of years. Have nice video footage on the process, sizeable empty bottle collection. Large differences, imo. Just saying)
I've been fond of this lately, some of the silly marketing aside.
Red Boat Fish Sauce 40° North -- 17 fl oz - Vitacost
So the "first press' on the Red Boat actually means something while the "extra virgin" is borrowed from evo as hype?
You are more up to date as to what is current in Asia now.
My g/f refuses to visit some nations, ethics and all that.
I rely on conversations, e.g. a lengthy talk I had with a Korean gent while we both had to wait a couple of hours for a Swiss car tunnel to open up again. (all-bran, I'm really good at fact finding aka extracting info, whichever part/strategy is required
)
Last intel I have is that when it comes to food, they're still good in various Asian nations.
Fish sauce fermentation is serious business in both Thailand and Vietnam.
First-flush and AOC are more fitting comparisons.
(extra) virgin never had much of a meaning for me, taste is in the hand rubbing. A rotten olive is a rotten olive is a rotten olive.
My g/f refuses to visit some nations, ethics and all that.
I rely on conversations, e.g. a lengthy talk I had with a Korean gent while we both had to wait a couple of hours for a Swiss car tunnel to open up again. (all-bran, I'm really good at fact finding aka extracting info, whichever part/strategy is required
)Last intel I have is that when it comes to food, they're still good in various Asian nations.
Fish sauce fermentation is serious business in both Thailand and Vietnam.
First-flush and AOC are more fitting comparisons.
(extra) virgin never had much of a meaning for me, taste is in the hand rubbing. A rotten olive is a rotten olive is a rotten olive.
Good for her, we agree but here the politics red flag would pop up with any serious comments.
In the EU and the other member countries of the International Olive Council terms like 'extra virgin' have a legally binding and rigidly defined meaning.
However the USA is not a member so over there the terms are meaningless and you can call your oil anything you like. There is a grading code approved by the Dep for Agriculture but since it is voluntary it is meaningless.
It has to be noted that if you buy italian olive oil the olives themselves may have been lesser, imported ones. To get oil made from italian olives the label must say 'native' besides the usual 'extra virgin'. Italy consumes more olives than it produces.
Yes, IIRC the acidity and other chemical constituents, but there is also a taste component. For general sauteing I don't see the point but for crostini or salad some of the vineyards make outstanding oil as a side product.
Using extra virgin for frying is a shameful waste of oil IMO.
I only use it for that if I fry something off before adding other ingredients like when you're starting a stew.
An egg fried in extra virgin tastes weird but it's pretty much essential for salad dressing.
Being a cheapskate I use Aldi's own brand. Dirt cheap for an extra virgin and in blind taste tests it places consistently in the top few amongst oils costing 5 or 6 times as much.
I only use it for that if I fry something off before adding other ingredients like when you're starting a stew.
An egg fried in extra virgin tastes weird but it's pretty much essential for salad dressing.
Being a cheapskate I use Aldi's own brand. Dirt cheap for an extra virgin and in blind taste tests it places consistently in the top few amongst oils costing 5 or 6 times as much.
Truth be told, my Viet gf is the one who handles the cooking and selection of Viet ingredients. We did try a crap Thai fish sauce that did not taste very good, it was also too salty. It worked, but it was not enjoyable. We drove down to Greensboro, NC late last week to visit the Viet grocery stores there. She had a hard time finding the brands she knows in Saigon. So we asked the sales lady for her recommendation and she recommended this one. My gf said it is very good and I just checked the price, it was only $4 for the bottle. I saw the one that scott linked to there as well, but didn't look at the price.
I asked her, 'nhi' in this usage roughly translates to premium or extra-fine. She said there is a distinct difference between the two but she doesn't remember the exact difference, she will look it up later and let me know so I can let you know. EDIT: Nhi is like the first batch of fish sauce. I guess kinda like first pressing in oils, I think that is the origin of the "first press" on your bottle. Any one that is Nuoc Mam Nhi is a "first press"
@scott - oddly enough, the To Tia grows wild here in southern virginia. She and I were out hiking along a river and she found several patches of it. I thought she was kidding at first but once I got a look at it, she was correct. It even smells the exact same.
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