caramelized canned tuna

Sweet, funky, extremely affordable, just 3 INGREDIENTS, and ready in ten minutes. Exactly my kind of recipe.

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1 c (1 120 g package) of canned tuna in olive oil

1 tsp fish sauce

1 tbsp maple syrup or other sweetener, like sugar or honey

serve with your favorite rice, couscous, whole grain, or pasta – or over a giant salad

Fry the ingredients together on medium heat until the smallest bits look caramelized and crispy. Probably between 5 to 10 minutes.

by Taste Cooking

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As per usual, I really didn’t follow the recipe. Heated olive oil in a small skillet, and added a can of low-sodium tuna packed in water, as that’s what I keep in the house. (Olive oil packed tuna highly recommended, as the splatters from even a well-drained can of tuna in water are not fun to clean.) Added an uncomfortable amount of fish sauce (maybe a teaspoon) and about as much honey, with an extra sprinkle of sugar.

Because the fish sauce and tuna are so fishy, it doesn’t taste as sweet as you’d expect. The sugar cuts the stinkiest edge from the fish sauce flavor, and allows you to taste the fermented notes in the fish sauce better. The crumbly bits taste like smoked salmon candy, and the larger bits are meaty and complex.

Smells terrible when the fish sauce hits the pan, but wow, I was not expecting to like this as much as I do. It doesn’t taste like what you think it will taste like.

One warning: this is NOT ulcer / GERD diet compliant, if the way I’m feeling now is any indication. May be a bit too early in my healing process to have THAT much fermented fish sauce. If you don’t have holes in your stomach or small intestine, this is a really fantastic quick meal.

Highly recommended to almost anybody!

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soda sữa hột gà (egg soda)

I remember, as a child, reading an old book where the kids drank egg creams. I begged my mom to let me try one. Finally, she let me have one in a dingy old diner. I was horrified by it. No egg? No cream? Not overly sweet? Misleading!

This year, I tried a soda sữa hột gà with my friend in a great Vietnamese restaurant in Chicago. That was what I wanted as a kid, all those years ago. We both loved it. I’ve craved it a few times since then (like now)

It’s light yet heavy, sweet but not overwhelming, and not nearly as strange as it sounds. Think of a lighter, unspiced eggnog.

1 T sweetened condensed milk
1 raw egg yolk
seltzer (as needed, 1-2 cups)
ice
two glasses

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adapted from wikibooks

sweet veg spring rolls

light, refreshing, crunchy, colorful, easy, gluten-free (spring roll wrappers are made of tapioca and rice), nearly raw, vegetarian or even vegan, and no-cook!

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soak your spring roll wrappers in warm water for two or three minutes. if you don’t soak them for long enough, they won’t stick. you want them pliable, not plasticky.

some ideas for things to put in your spring rolls:

+ cabbage slaw (salt, sesame seeds, fresh ginger and garlic, and heavy on the lime juice)
+ carrot slaw or carrot salad with sesame oil and rice wine vinegar
+ colorful bell peppers and/or hot peppers
+ avocado
+ mango, peach, grilled mango or peach…
+ leftover grilled meat
+ bean sprouts
+ cucumbers (we found long and skinny korean cucumbers! but they mostly tasted like the english kind.)
+ hard-boiled eggs
+ mushrooms
+ glass noodles
+ herbs like mint, chives, or cilantro

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dip rolls into something wonderful, like

+ ginger soy sauce (mince some ginger and leave it to sit in soy sauce while you cook)
+ lime peanut sauce (thin warm peanut butter with sesame, peanut, or chili oil and lime juice)
+ mint chutney (ferment your own!)
+ kim chee
+ any other awesome korean ferment (scallops-kochujang[chilipaste]-garlic!)
+ hot pepper sauce
+ garlic aioli (mince garlic into yogurt, mayonnaise, or both with a squeeze of lemon juice and black pepper and let sit at least one hour)

bahn hoi

what? a steamed noodle-and-cornmeal pancake??? i have no idea what this would taste like.

250 g rice vermicelli

100 g corn flour

2 T. Oil

Method :
Soak the vermicelli in very hot water for about 5 minutes.

Drain thoroughly.

The vermicelli should be as dry as possible.

Put them into a large mixing bowl. Cover with with corn flour, making sure it is well coated.

Bring some water to the boil in a steamer and grease the steamer rack with some of the oil.

Spread some of the noodles out flat over the steamer rack in a thin layer to make a 25 cm pancake.

Cover and steam for about 6-7 minutes.

Remove the cake to a board either with a spatula or by inverting the steamer rack.

Re-oil the rack and make the next noodle cake.

You should make four in all.

As the cakes cool down on the board, they form a sort of pancake.

Cut them into squares shape.

Serve warm.

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