tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1284684 2013-05-21T12:28:23-07:00 Cookbook author Andrea Nguyen's site dedicated to Vietnamese recipes, Vietnamese food, Asian ingredients, Asian cooking tips, Little Saigon communities, and other Asian recipes and food cultures all over the world. TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ef22f53ef019102627028970c 2013-05-21T12:28:23-07:00 2013-05-21T12:46:07-07:00

I love to read a good book review, one that’s full of insights tinged with humor and sometimes, a bit of well deserved snark. T. Susan Chang is one of the few professional cookbook reviewers in the United States. You may know her work from National Public Radio, the Boston Globe, or her website. She takes every book to task, testing recipes and evaluating the merits of each work on a variety of levels. Susan’s got twelve (12!) years of professional experience to back her up, plus a solid knowledge of cookbooks that goes back further yet. You may not agree with Susan on all of her calls but you don’t have to. Like all excellent reviewers, she lays out her deep assessment so that...

Andrea Nguyen tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ef22f53ef017eeb45ac37970d 2013-05-17T11:04:09-07:00 2013-05-17T11:02:26-07:00

On Monday, my husband had dental surgery and for his post-operation, recovery dinner, I made a comforting (read: easy to chew) tofu, shrimp, and peas stir-fry. The Trader Joe-san medium tofu came in a 1 1/4-pound (565 g) block and I only needed about a pound. I had a little block left. What can you do with a chunk of leftover tofu? You can save it in the fridge, or in my case last Monday, I added it to a simple Vietnamese soup with mustard greens and a bit of chicken thigh sitting in the fridge. Asian mustard greens come in many varieties. At an East Asian or Southeast Asian market, you see “big gai choi” or “little gai choi.” Vietnamese markets also have a...

Andrea Nguyen tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ef22f53ef017eeb346cfb970d 2013-05-15T13:49:46-07:00 2013-05-15T13:57:39-07:00

I’ve been making very simple foods for the past week, mostly because my days of recipe testing and writing have been very full, often extending till 11 p.m. when I collapse into bed. That kind of work schedule doesn’t permit elaborate cooking. By late afternoon, the kitchen can look like something exploded. After tidying up, my husband and I usually take a daily walk to buy groceries for dinner. Some days, that’s the only time I leave my house so I relish the chance to stretch my legs and breathe extra fresh air. It’s also an opportunity to ponder dinner. Local farmers grow some spectacularly tasty broccoli and broccolini, which are sold at weekly farmer’s markets as well as independent grocery stores. My default preparations...

Andrea Nguyen tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ef22f53ef017eeafdc686970d 2013-05-09T12:58:13-07:00 2013-05-09T12:56:23-07:00

It was not so much nostalgia as a yearning for something deliciously Vietnamese that led me to whip up these scrambled eggs today. My mom taught me how to make scrambled eggs – after she let me prepare rice for the family. We’d have the eggs for lunch with bread. At the time, I didn’t realize how genius it was. There were just a handful of ingredients involved: shallot or yellow onion, tomato, eggs, fish sauce, and black pepper. If things got fancy, green onion was added for color. Making the Viet scrambled eggs got me thinking about the brilliance of simple cooking. For example, gently sauteing shallot turns it fragrantly sweet. Rush it and it can be harsh and hard. Go too far and...

Andrea Nguyen