Spring Rolls

Today I will be making the popular Vietnamese dish goi cuon, commonly known as spring rolls.  They look like uncooked egg rolls but they are in fact a completely different dish.  Different ingredients are used for the filling, they're not fried, and they're meant to be eaten cold or at room temperature.

The ingredients that I will be using are a half pound of pork loin, a half pound of shrimp, rice paper, chives, vermicelli rice noodles, hoisin sauce, and Sriracha hot sauce.

The first step is to boil two pots of water on the stove (one to cook the meat and one to cook the noodles).  Before I boiled the shrimp and pork, I cut the pork loin into small 1/4 inch thick pieces.

I let the pork and shrimp cook in the pot for only about 5 minutes to prevent them from being overcooked.

In the other pot I boiled 1/4 pound of vermicelli rice noodles until al dente, which was about 10 minutes, then I put them in a pasta strainer to drain the excess water.

To make the spring rolls, I first had to wet the rice paper on both sides with warm water to make it moist and pliable.  Then I placed the ingredients on it in this order: pork and shrimp on the bottom, then the noodles, and finally the chives on top.

I rolled the spring roll similar to how you would roll a burrito.  First wrap the sides so they overlap the ingredients, then start rolling it from the top.

With the ingredients I had, I was able to make nine spring rolls.  I served them with hoisin sauce and Sriracha hot sauce for dipping.

They tasted great but one issue I had with these spring rolls was that they weren't wrapped tightly enough so the fillings had a tendency to fall out as I was eating them.  Next time I will be making the vegetarian/vegan version of spring rolls.

Ca Kho

Today I will be making ca kho, also known as claypot catfish.  It is very similar to thit kho, the dish that I cooked in my previous blog post.  It is the most popular Vietnamese seafood dish.

The first thing I did was place three catfish steaks (totaling about one pound) and two one-inch pieces of pork belly (for extra flavor) in a small pot.  Then I poured coconut soda into the pot until all the catfish steaks were submerged.  I then added two teaspoons of nuoc mam, one teaspoon of coconut caramel, and let it cook on the stove for 30 minutes on medium heat.

After 30 minutes had passed, I turned the catfish steaks, added another teaspoon of nuoc mam, and let it simmer on medium heat for an hour (I had to cook this dish longer than my thit kho dish because I used more meat and coconut soda this time).  After another 30 minutes had passed, I put in eight whole pieces of Thai chili peppers and a couple dashes of black pepper. Then I let it simmer for the remaining 30 minutes.

The finished dish turned out exactly how I wanted it to be.  The fish was perfectly cooked; it wasn't overcooked to the point where it can easily break into little pieces.  The sauce was really good too; it wasn't too thick like my thit kho sauce.  I was afraid the sauce would be too spicy because I used a lot of Thai chili but it had just the right amount of spice to it.  This dish is meant to be eaten with white rice and I recommend pouring liberal amounts of the sauce over your rice.

Thit Kho

For this blog post, I will be making thit kho, a braised pork dish with a coconut caramel sauce.  Kho is a Vietnamese cooking technique of simmering meat (usually pork or catfish) in coconut juice until the sauce caramelizes and thickens.  The dish is sweet, savory, and spicy.  I learned how to cook this dish from my mother and this will be my first time making it by myself.  It takes about one hour to make.

The ingredients that I used to make the sauce are:
Two teaspoons of nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce)
One teaspoon of coconut caramel sauce (you can usually find this at any Asian grocery store)
One half can of coconut soda
I mixed all of these ingredients in a small pot and simmered it on medium heat.

I then cut up a half pound of pork belly into one inch pieces and put them in the pot with the sauce.

I let it simmer on medium heat for 30 minutes before turning the pork.  After 20 more minutes I gave the sauce a taste, which was too sweet so I added one more teaspoon of nuoc mam.  I also added a pinch of black pepper and a teaspoon of Sriracha hot sauce for spiciness (Thai chili peppers are preferred but I didn't have any on hand).  After another 10 minutes, I knew the dish was done because the sauce had completely thickened.  There was no more liquid in the pot.

The meat was really tender but the sauce was a little too thick.  I should have cooked it for about 40 minutes instead of one hour.  It didn't quite taste like the thit kho that my mom makes because the sauce was too thick, but overall, I'd say the dish was a success.  Next time I will attempt to cook ca kho, which is another popular kho dish with catfish instead of pork.

Dinosaurs Vietnamese Sandwiches and Crepes

Vietnamese sandwiches (known as banh mi in Vietnamese) are the product of Vietnam's history of French colonialism in Indochina.  It's an "East meets West" dish that takes influences from the cuisines of both cultures.  It's a popular street food in Vietnam and is gaining popularity in the States as well (evidenced by the existence of banh mi chains like Lee's Sandwiches).  The banh mi joint featured in this review is Dinosaurs Vietnamese Sandwiches in San Francisco.  I discovered this restaurant through Yelp and I thought they had made a mistake with the name because "Dinosaurs" sounds quite unusual for a place that serves Vietnamese sandwiches.  It is a very small establishment that consists of only a small kitchen, a cash register, and some tables outside (there is no indoor dining).  I found it uncomfortable eating at their outdoor tables because the tables are made of metal, and because they don't have any umbrellas or canopies on them, they reflect quite a bit of sunlight on a sunny day, which bothered me during my dining experience.

The first sandwich that I ordered was the Special, which is the typical combination banh mi offered at other places.  It had all the usual ingredients: pickled daikon and carrot relish, cilantro, cucumbers, Vietnamese mayonnaise, liver pate, cha lua (a type of Vietnamese bologna), and Vietnamese ham; but I noticed one missing ingredient that is usually found in banh mi sandwiches: headcheese.  I'm assuming they left it out because the gelatinous texture of headcheese might be too strange for most Americans.  The crust of the baguette had a very smooth glazed texture.  The baguette was crunchy on the outside but it had the density and chewy consistency of sourdough bread; maybe they baked the bread this way to appeal more to San Franciscans?  The bread tasted great, however, and I welcomed the sourdough-like texture.  The mayonnaise they used was authentic Vietnamese mayonnaise, which is thicker and more buttery and oily compared to regular store bought mayonnaise.  One complaint I had with this sandwich is that they put too much pickled daikon and carrot relish in it, which let the sweet and sour flavors overpower the flavors of the other ingredients (such as the deli meats).  This sandwich costs $5.00, which is about twice as much as a combination sandwich from other banh mi places.

The second sandwich that I ordered was the Pork, which had everything from the Special but with grilled pork instead of deli meats.  The pork was quite good; they used a lemongrass marinade, which gave it the taste of grilled Vietnamese pork chops.  I preferred this sandwich because I could really taste the flavor of the marinaded pork, compared to the deli meats in the Special, which were overpowered by the relish.  At $4.75, it even costs less than the Special (although I still consider it overpriced).

At around $5 a sandwich, it's hard to recommend this place to people (especially college students since it's located near SFSU) on a budget.  But if you're willing to pay a little more for slightly above-average sandwiches and don't feel like driving to San Jose for better, cheaper Vietnamese sandwiches, then go for it; it's one of the few places in San Francisco that even serve banh mi sandwiches.  I would rate Dinosaurs Vietnamese Sandwiches a 6/10.

Bewsenick Pho and Crepes

For my first Vietnamese restaurant review, I wanted to choose a restaurant outside of San Jose, my hometown and a city known for having a Vietnamese restaurant on almost every corner.  Bewsenick Pho and Crepes in San Carlos is a quaint little Vietnamese restaurant with a nice cafe-like atmosphere.  It doesn't look anything like your typical pho restaurant.  In fact, if it weren't for the hoisin sauce and Sriracha hot sauce bottles on the tables and the photos of various dishes on the walls, you wouldn't be able to tell that this is a pho restaurant.  It's a very clean establishment with painted walls, granite tiles, and decorative objects on display; unlike some of the grimy hole-in-the-wall joints that I've been to.  The menus are entirely in English with photos, which makes it easy for anyone to order.

I ordered the egg rolls as an appetizer, which at $5.95 for six small pieces seemed a tad overpriced.  The plating was very nice; the egg rolls are served on a bed of lettuce with sliced cucumber and tomato for garnishes and sweet nouc mam (fish sauce with pickled carrots and daikon) for dipping.  The egg rolls were crispy on the outside, but slightly mushy on the inside, which is unusual for an egg roll.  The filling consisted of pork, mushrooms, carrots, and clear vermicelli noodles, which had good flavor.  The egg rolls were served warm instead of hot, which was disappointing to me.  I would not recommend this appetizer because even though it had good flavor, the mushy texture was off-putting, it's served warm instead of hot, and it's overpriced for what you're getting.

For my main course, I ordered the large pho combination, which cost $8.75, slightly more than what other places are charging.  The garnishes that came with the bowl of pho consisted of the usual: Thai basil, sliced jalapenos, and bean sprouts.  They also provided lemon wedges, which I thought was strange because pho is suppose to be eaten with lime (yes, there is a difference).  Before I tossed the garnishes in my bowl with some hoisin sauce and Sriracha, I gave the broth a taste test to see if it was good enough to stand on its own.  It passed.  The broth had that authentic taste and aroma with hints of beef and Asian spices.  It didn't have the dreaded MSG taste or after-effects (like headaches) either.  The meatballs, tripe, tendon, and tender flank slices tasted like they were from quality cuts.  The rice noodles were cooked perfectly too; they had a slight chewiness to them instead of being overcooked to the point where they can easily break apart.

Although I was disappointed with the egg roll appetizer, I highly recommend this place for its authentic tasting MSG-free pho and aesthetically pleasing atmosphere.  One minor annoyance I had was that the waitstaff would sometimes watch you eat, which was awkward.  I also had to ask for napkins because they didn't provide any at my table.  But overall, the service was really good; they were friendly and on top of things like clearing tables of finished plates.  I would rate my experience at Bewsenick Pho and Crepes an 8/10.

Food Pho Thought

In discussions regarding the best international cuisines around the world, I rarely hear Vietnamese cuisine mentioned.  I believe that this is due to lack of exposure; Vietnamese cuisine is relatively new to the American food landscape compared to many other ethnic cuisines.  Vietnamese restaurants didn't start popping up in the US until the 80's and 90's because the Vietnamese American population was almost non-existent before the end of the war (most arrived as refugees).  In this blog, I want to get more people interested in Vietnamese food by reviewing restaurants in the Bay Area, explaining the cultural significance of certain dishes, and documenting my attempts (whether successful or unsuccessful) at cooking various Vietnamese dishes by myself.