Bun Rieu (with recipe this time)

I’ve already told you about my fondness for bun rieu in a previous entry. I made it once with my mom but never wrote down her recipe. At the time, learning the recipe wasn’t my goal–I just wanted to spend time together. This time, I made the bun rieu myself. Now that she’s not around, I always think about her when I cook.

Bun rieu is very flexible and everyone makes it a little differently. I’ve had it with or without shrimp, pork blood cubes, pork…one time I even had a bowl with a ketchup-based soup base (not recommended! I never ate there again). When I cooked with my mom, we didn’t use any ground pork or crab–just dried shrimp–and we started off by sauteeing the tomatoes and green onions. I cut my onions large because I like the color but don’t prefer to eat them. Years ago, my cousin put quail eggs in which I love but have never seen done anywhere else. I based my personal recipe on what I like and what I grew up with. This recipe is easily adjustable to what you have around and your own personal preferences.

I added an extra egg to the recipe below because I want my rieu to hold together a little better than in the picture above. In my sleep, I must have been subconsciously thinking about the loose state of my rieu because I woke up with the memory of my mom instructing me not to stir the rieu so much that it becomes crumbly but to stir it a little so that it doesn’t become a huge raft.

Soto Ayam: Indonesian Chicken Noodle Soup

The first time I went to the Netherlands, back in 2003, I fell in love with Indonesian food. When I worked for a Dutch company, I made sure to eat Indonesian food every time I visited headquarters, south of Amsterdam. Everywhere you turn, there’s an Indonesian restaurant.

Indonesian food seems to be to the Dutch what Chinese food is to Americans (except for the history of colonization). The best thing about Indonesian food in the Netherlands is Rijsttafel–”rice table”. Its the best way for the novice (me) to sample everything that Indonesian cuisine has to offer. You get a little bit of everything in smaller portions: egg rolls, chicken noodle soup (soto ayam), sates, curries, salads…

Seared Ahi Tuna w/Cold Soba

Summer doesn’t hit San Francisco until September and October. Lately, we’ve had some really hot (for us) days where I don’t want to do much cooking. This is the perfect meal for one of those days. One bundle of soba noodles is plenty for the two of us, boiled according to package directions and rinsed under hot water. For the tuna, I just seasoned with salt and pepper and seared both sides in a cast iron skillet.

In a large bowl, I put some arugula at the bottom of the bowl and a portion of cold soba noodles on top. I sliced up the tuna and gave it a dab of wasabi. Finally, I poured over some soba noodle soup base and we had dinner!

Bun Thit Nuong (Vietnamese grilled pork over rice noodles)

Growing up, my mom often made this for us, especially on hot days. Summer generally doesn’t arrive in San Francisco until September, when I get home from work and don’t want to turn on the oven.

I often order these bowls when eating at Vietnamese restaurants and thought it would be a pain to put together at home. Turns out it really isn’t that hard, especially when you already have the marinated meat in the freezer (left over from an undocumented dinner party several months ago), the peanuts and noodles in the pantry, and pickled veggies in the fridge. You can easily put together the nuoc mam pha earlier in the week so that when you get home, all you have to do is boil the noodles, grill the meat and put everything together.

Bun Thang (kinda)

My family is from a rural, Catholic enclave in northern Vietnam (they fled south to Saigon in 1954) so many of the foods I grew up eating are from that region. My accent is northern and the terms I use are generally northern (e.g., gio vs. cha lua for steamed pork cake). I thought the food I ate growing up was typical Vietnamese fare until I asked my mom why I could never find any of the dishes I was craving at Vietnamese restaurants. Most Vietnamese in the U.S. seem to be from the South so the food from that region is better represented.

Bun thang is one of the northern dishes I grew up eating and rarely find in restaurants. In fact, the only place I know of in San Francisco that serves bun thang is Turtle Tower. Their version is pretty good (had it for the first time last week) but it is fairly simple to make if you have the right ingredients. I call mine kinda bun thang because I didn’t have all the right ingredients but did the best I could with the ingredients I had on hand. For a traditional bun thang recipe, visit The Ravenous Couple.

Last week, we were both feeling a little under the weather, it was chilly out and I had enough ingredients to make a recognizable bastardization of bun thang. I had boiled chicken, chicken broth and cilantro chiffonade left over from a batch of khao man gai, Three Ladies brand rice stick noodles and eggs.

First, the eggs. Growing up, I saw my mom do this all the time but had never tried it myself. I scrambled 3 eggs with a couple slugs of nuoc mam and fried a thin layer in a small non-stick pan. I flipped it when it looked ready. Next time, I will try to make it a little thinner.

my omelet could have been thinner

thinly slicing the omelet

one egg per person is probably a good guesstimation

The broth normally has some mam tom in it, but I didn’t have any at the time (now I do). Instead, I used some Thai shrimp paste (it didn’t dissolve very well) and dressed it up with a few more glugs of nuoc mam. Assemble pre-boiled noodles and everything else in a soup bowl, pour hot broth over it and you’ve got dinner!

A more authentic version would have had  gio / cha lua (Vietnamese steamed pork cake), some lime and rau ram (Vietnamese coriander)…but it was good enough for me. I figured it out and don’t have to ask my dad to make the same dishes over and over when I see him. My mom used to get a little annoyed when I requested the same 2-3 simple dishes from her vast repertoire and my dad is probably no different.