So home, so cosy

"It's raining outside, Aki inside, tôm rim is tasty mum."

My son has stirred up my feeling about HOME with his description of the discourse, as pure and truthful as it was happening, of the scene, the affection, participants (including human and non-human) and their inner feeling. If going further, the statement of my son can bring you to his motherland, where dinner with all family members under a roof of torrential rain outside is cherished, where tôm rim (caramelised prawn) and steamy rice on the table are treasured when winter is in its full swing, and where no other thing on earth can pay for a cosy time of parents and children around a meal of dishes made out of love.

Family meals in our country are valued in their own way. Of no expensive or rare food, a Hue family meal is memorable for its affection steaming in each plate. It is the food shopping basket of mum in the rain, the young fresh greeny tips of kumara plants or water spinach, the fresh water fish caught in a flood, steamed fish paste in harsh days, all of those seasonal and local stuffs, with mum's hand, would become something warming up all the family's hearts in winter. Yes, winter, simply because it is a season of coldness, and thus of family gathering and extra care family members give to each other.


While a daily three course meal in a Hue family including soup (canh), simmer (kho) and stir (xào) is held for value because it speaks for a stable and basic material life, a family winter meal with fewer things due to the harshness of weather is memorable because its meaning goes beyond the everyday material value. Fish paste, which is kept for ages, duck eggs, whose delivery does not much depend on weather conditions, fish or prawn, which are caught in flood (and of course sold in market), and veggie, the staple major second to rice, all of those seasonal stuffs come a long way throughout the coldness, the wetness, and the harshness to the dining table to fill each stomach and heart with warmth. It is that long way in that condition that makes the family meal more than precious. It is also that long way in that condition that leads to a new world of recipes, uniquely and meaningfully created by mum.

No heart-made dishes would ever be born outside the roof of family I believe.

Photo note (from top to bottom)
1. Tôm kho rim (Caramelised prawn)
2. Gỏi rau muống (prawn + raw water spinach)
3. Giá trộn (Mung bean sprout salad)

Going veggie and beyond

The sensation of a veggie dish used to hit me most on Lễ Vu Lan (Ullambana Festival). It was something more about our culture and custom to observe the practice of going veggie during the festival.

In Vietnam, vegetarian food is prepared very sophisticatedly and time consumingly. Between a non-veggie and a veggie dish, most people will choose to make the former for its convenience. This implies the fact in our country making a good veggie dish is always harder than making a good non-veggie one. As a cook, I have been raised out of that perception and reality. I therefore believed vegetarian food was something special and upper-classed in terms of its spirit behind the food. I also therefore held appreciation towards those vegans.


It is not until recently that my veggie perception goes through a transformation. By going veggie, I am aiming to going green and clean. Simply speaking, it is all about vegetables and cleanness in its all senses. I try not to use lots of spices, particularly those spices which may transform the aroma and taste of vegetables. If possible, I try to serve raw vegetables or make them stay fresh over tender fire. In terms of nutrition, strong belief and evidence about healthy food are always held towards raw and fresh vegetables.

A veggie dish, if colour and texture preserved, can hit your eyes the way a picture does. Always through a dish of this kind of food do I enjoy a unique presentation of art. This kind of enjoyment can bring the gourmet beyond the visibility of food to a world of imagination and creativity, both materially and spiritually. With this point, I figure out some kind of sensation veggie food may bring to your mind and soul, the feeling you can surely have when in the middle of the nature's immensity.

Photo note (from top to bottom):

1. Bánh bột lọc chay (vegan tapioca cake with mung bean paste filling)
2. Sauteed mushroom and green round bean, mixed with raw snow pea sprouts
3. Rolled and fried egg and red cabbage, served with lectuce

Upon "My kitchen rules"

About new recipes, food materials, cooking styles and principles, the strict nature of a contest, and food styling, this TV programme has been intriguing me to move to the world of culinary art. Above all of the stuffs I learn from My kitchen rules, food styling stays longest and leaves the deepest footprint in my cooking learning world.

I am not learning to be a food stylist at the moment, nor is it my intention. It is culture, belief, and human life behind food styling that provokes my thinking and inspires me.


Preparing this dish has been the first time I executed food styling, with which I was pretty unsure if my dish could be labelled, but at least because I was having these two exotic words in my mind when preparing the dish and photographing it. After several looks at the photo, I believe it is not any attractive to those who are fans of thịt xíu (the caramelised belly pork), simply because caramelised pork is not normally served this way in our culture! That is my first lesson of food styling.


This photo came into being with an obsession of food styling. I deliberately use these two exotic words over and over again because I am obsessed by them. If it is, this photo can only look attractive because of its colours. Again, this is not a popular way of serving spring rolls in its motherland. I did not intend to translate our culture, particularly that of serving this kind of food through this photo, but I failed.

I decided to put action to my food, in the view to make it more inviting and lively. This kumara sweet soup is not lying untouched on the table. Layers of the soup reveal its texture, aroma, and real perception of its taste. What will hit your tastebud is a combination of solid and liquid, chunks and bits, sweetness and fattiness, and a multilayer of sweetness. With those, this photo speaks much to its viewer, the way an action speaks. I began to realise something...



When my thinking has grown, I began to ponder how to build a connection with food through the photograph. A food looking inviting also means a food in company, a food going hand in hand with you through some kind of exploration, and a food coming in some form of cherishment. Again, it is the translation of culture, customs and habits, and the life style.

Eventually, it is something about a healthy and balanced life when it comes to why food is born. If it is raising us, cultivating us, and beautifying our life, I believe food should be reproduced the way it will reveal multiple layers of meaning, which is my keen desire.

Habits blind a cook's eyes

When it comes to Hue food, I found myself conservative. I believed good food must be original and authentic. I enjoy the fact that I have to work really hard to make my food authentic and truly Hue-styled. The enjoyment indeed comes from my hard seeking for authentic materials, choosing servingware, styling food, and adorably gazing the product.

When it comes to cookery cultivation, I have found myself in the line of openness. I want to be and am open to acquiring this art to my fullest. It is this 'wanting' many times moves me forward and backward in cooking and evaluating food. Chè bắp Huế (Hue styled sweet corn sweet soup) can be a brilliant example for this point.


Due to its being starchy, Hue sweet corn is often made to give (slightly) thick sweet soup. This version used to grow my tastebud up and embrace my enjoyment, at least until I encountered another breed of sweet corn in NZ. It is not starchy at all. Each slice comes on its own. It is something quite different from its 'name sake' in Hue. It is therefore a puzzle for me. Whether to keep my embraced version or to change? Why do i have to keep the authenticity while I cannot bring about a real one? Honestly, I did try by putting some flour in my soup, and it turned out not to be worthy to dive my tastebud in. Why can't corn sweet soup be as light as other kinds of sweet soups?


I now hold the belief that the light version can be something worthy to appreciate new dimensions in gastronomy.

More about bánh bèo

I am a gourmet of bánh bèo. I enjoy eating them, preparing them, talking about them, adorably gazing them, and by all means preserving them. Born in Hue, the cradle of bánh bèo, I am fortunate to know all versions of bánh bèo and ways of preparing and consuming bánh bèo.

The dish is so versatile, it can be consumed right from gánh hàng rong (the street vendor's hand)

(Photo taken from the internet)

or at a royal dinner.

(Photo taken from the internet)

Bánh bèo can be prepared either in a small round shallow bowl and consumed right from the bowl

(Photo taken from the internet)

or prepared in round thin moulds and unmoulded and arranged in a plate for serving.

(My home-made bánh bèo)

When it comes to serving method, I prefer a plate of super thin bánh bèo to small round shallow bowls. Despite a big fun of seeing a high pile of bowls getting higher and higher when you eat more and more and possibly the feeling of unmoulding the "cake" and putting it straight into the mouth, I find myself loyal to those super thin "cakes" served from the plate. To me, those super thin "cakes" are really in sophistication, beautification, and simplicity. I may sound 'subjective', but, yeah, it's me.

(My home-made bánh bèo)

A kind of sophistication that may be unique to this kind of bánh Huế is the sauce, nước mắm. Nước mắm bánh bèo is the precise word I must use for its uniqueness because it stands on its own among dishes and sauces on earth. I can decide whether some one's bánh bèo is truly bánh bèo or 100% bánh bèo Huế through looking and sensing its nước mắm bánh bèo. No lime or lemon, no garlic, and especially richly prawn and fish sauce smelling , nước mắm of this "cake" is made from prawn broth, fish sause, water and sugar, in which the prawn broth should be of the biggest importance in terms of quantity and taste. Hot chillies can be added to enhance but not alter the taste of this kind of sauce.

(My home-made bánh bèo)

Nước mắm bánh bèo is not a dipping sauce. The whole plate or small round bowl is often served after being added a good amount of nước mắm, which just goes hand in hand with tôm chấy (prawn flakes).

(My home-made bánh bèo)

Uhmmm! Wake me up when you want to talk more about bánh bèo. :)

Just because of lady Spring

Whenever lady Spring puts her steps onto Earth, I can't help sheltering me indoors but strolling around the campus with a camera and capturing every single of her act. What's more, I even find myself being so much obsessed with her face that I see it comes into being right from my dish.

Bánh bèo, a Hue traditional dish that is always my first choice when it comes to Hue food or some kind of delight I feel brave enough to bring to you because of its sensation, is celebrating Spring today. Look at her shining and gorgeous hue, it is nothing else but Spring and her freshness.

It begins with food

Whenever I stop for lunch in the office, either a food website or my photos of dishes I made would hold my chopsticks and feed my tastebud. This time is a difference. It is something like a piece of garment you would dream to make on your own after one third of your lifetime (window) shopping for clothes. Yes, this page is engendered from my passion and comes into being from just a sip of noodle soup.

Congratulations on me for being brave to step out to talk about food.

I put a photo of instant noodles here (although it is from the Internet) to mark an even poor dish like a cup of instant noodle but being able to ignite me.