Good Morning, Vietnam 🇻🇳
A symphony of flavors in your kitchen
Allow me to briefly set the stage:
My love affair with Asia “officially” began in 2018.
It was the first time I spent a few weeks exploring Hong Kong and mainland China. I was at first skeptical but one of my best traits that has made a great cook is ‘curiosity’; of culture, cuisines, flavors, techniques, processes and science of cooking.
Flash forward to the end of 2023 and I’m moving to Asia 🙌 . Funny how life works out.
As many of you know in early 2023 I spent almost a month in Thailand and again, fell in love. I have always loved spice and ‘loud’ flavors. This grew in large part by finishing late night after cooking in high end kitchens and needing late night eats.
By that time you’ve tasted dozens of sauces, meats, garnishes… over and over… your palate is usually fatigued and there’s nothing better than a mouth-numbing Sichuan beef or a bowl of screaming Thai green curry. This is also where I would take my line cooks on day-off meetups or sometimes on breaks in between shifts.
I wrote a few times about my Thailand journey last year, plus a few recipes; feel free to go back if you missed!
Thailand 🇹🇭: Bangkok & Chiang Mai, Thai Pork Skewers (Moo Ping), Mango Coconut Sticky Rice 🥭 🥥 🍚
Enter Vietnam 🇻🇳
Flash forward to present day.
Over 4 months now in Hong Kong. Spending most of my days cooking and days off are spent exploring or cooking with other chefs in their restaurants so i can keep learning.
*Yes, this is a mental illness. Working for free for other people so you can learn more 😂 Ironically it’s how I’ve made some of my best connections and friends in the industry.
I’ve always appreciated good Pho, Summer Rolls and especially Bun Bo Hue (Spicy Beef Soup) as well as giant bowls of Vietnamese chicken salad on shredded cabbage doused in Nuoc Cham… and more.
I’ll be talking more about chicken later. The poultry in Asia is just mind blowing. Butchered fresh daily, never frozen and having the famous 3-Yellow chicken in my hands whenever I want. It deserves it’s own post!
But to be honest Vietnam has always been down the list because I prefer the loud flavors of Thailand, Sichuan etc.
So I connected when i first landed with a chef who spent 7 years cooking in Vietnam. He now does pop ups around Asia and frequently in Hong Kong. Eating his food was a lightbulb moment for me. Talking about the culture, flavors and regionality allowed me put in more context the differences in cuisines especially when talking about Thailand and Vietnam.
Hot, sour, sweet and salty are the hallmark flavors of Thailand.
They are also the hallmark flavors of Vietnam, but expressed in different ways.
This was an aha moment for me and I made the connection via a musical analogy.
Thailand is the Heavy Metal of these flavors. Big, loud, palate shaking, racous and fun.
Vietnam is more like a Symphony. Keeping all those flavors in balance to create layers of delicious flavors but are not screaming out of balance at any time.
They use a lot of the same flavors just in a different approach.
This makes complete sense when you look at a map with Vietnam and Thailand. They share almost exact longitudinal zones and have very similar ingredients.
(Thailand is the one that look like an elephants head)
Add to that.
Vietnamese food is having a moment in the spotlight!
While many chefs from Mainland, HK and Japan have been fleeing to Thailand over the past 3-5 years, I believe next up you will see more chefs going to Vietnam. The economy is ripe with great ingredients, reasonable labor and low rents. My friend tells me he thinks Vietnam is 10 years behind Thailand in terms of culinary development which means, if correct, in the next 5 years or so we should be seeing some exciting developments in Vietnam.
I’ll be headed to Vietnam this year so stay tuned!
To give you a brief a intro to Vietnamese flavors here is an amazing condiment that you can keep on hand to spruce up meals.
Following this post I will drop a pho recipe for you to make at home. And in between that I’ll be dropping a leisure guide on one of my recent explorations to an outlying island off the coast of Hong Kong.
Stay tuned!
Mỡ Hành
Mo wuuut? 👀 😂
Yes, Mo Hanh.
This is a green onion and oil condiment that is great on rice noodle bowls, grilled meats, fish and the list goes on.
This is not to be confused for the Hainanese ginger-scallion sauce!
The problem is that most recipes call for just dumping hot oil on chopped scallions which is just wrooooong and missing out on a ton of opportunities for flavor.
Below is the process and seasonings to make the best ever Mo Hanh!
Ingredients:
1000g scallions, finely sliced (white and green parts)
350g neutral, high heat, oil (palm or peanut are best. You do not want any flavor added from the oil; leave the EVOO, ghee, tallow, etc on the shelf.. please!)
35g fish sauce
12g granulated white sugar (don’t omit this, trust me)
4g MSG (yup!)
4g sea salt
Method:
Take the scallion and slice thin with a sharp knife. You don’t want to squash the cell membranes of the onion with a dull knife.
Now place the onions in a larger heat-proof bowl (ideally stainless) set on a hot pad and add the remaining ingredients (except the oil!). Briefly mix to incorporate the fish sauce, msg, sugar, salt.
Now put the oil into a saucepot making sure you have at least 3 inches of head space. Place over high heat and heat until smoking. not little whisps of smoke, I’m talking “oh no, the Thanksgiving Turkey oil is about light up” 😂 . You want the oil giving off a decent amount of smoke.
Now take the hot oil and being extremely careful, pour it over the surface of the seasoned green onions. (see below)
You want the oil hot enough so that it extracts the water from the inside of the scallions and makes an actual emulsion between the oil and water. Once the oil is all added stir briefly with a metal utensil and allow to cool to room temp. (You can stir occasionally if you want to make sure your mixture is emulsified.
*note: obviously the batch in the video is a much larger batch than 1000g 😂
Use the night of making on any grilled meats, fish, rice bowls… sky is the limit! Any leftovers can be fridged and I guarantee won’t last more than a day or so before being consumed 🙌
I hope you enjoyed this brief intro to Vietnam and stay tuned for more Vietnamese gems as I’m exploring more myself!
Enjoy VN man, I know your tastebud would eventually tell the difference between North/Middle/South of VN