Showing posts with label comfort food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comfort food. Show all posts
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: khapoun
although i've always enjoyed it, i don't think i've ever ordered it from a restaurant that had it on its menu. too easy of a dish to half-ass if not prepared with the love and care it deserves. even if it's "passable," i heart it too much to let anything less than amazing fly when it comes to khapoun in paricular. and like most soups, it's definitely the best serves after a day!
i've seen people adding similar condiments they do for pho - a vietnamese noodle soup - in their khapoun; call me old-fashioned, but i think that's the wrongest thing of all! maybe i've been spoiled all my life, but if made correctly, this dish needs no additional seasonings for it's the fusion of the herbs and spices stewing in tandem with the broth - coconut, fried garlic/chilies and curry - that makes it robust and hearty in and of itself! anything extra, other than a spritz of lime juice, just overpowers it - either that, or it's not good to begin with and needs to be masked. haha, jk. at least that's how i've always had it :) and yes, it's always been that good! mmm.
what's your go to comfort food?
RECIPE: banh cuon
because this dish is pretty time consuming, they're not very popular or common on menus - regardless of the plethora of asian restaurants you may have at your disposal. and even when they are, i felt like they're half-assed... where due diligence just isn't paid and therefore never as good as homemade!
i've come to see the assembly as an art - the way everything works independently in tandem with one another with perfect timing. if that makes any sense.
i've also experimented with several different pre-packaged rice/tapioca flour mixtures and have uncovered the secret... adding 1 additional cup of water beyond what the package calls for. of course, there will always be its differences, but in my experience doing this allows for the best result for the brand. and i've come to develop my own preference... and ways to tweak it to my preferred consistency - a thin, transparent crepe-like steamed rice wrapper!
the only thing i enjoy as much as making banh cuon is experimenting with different dipping sauces to pair them with - but that's a post for another rainy day! :) mmmm! sometimes, the sauce is what keeps these little rolls of heaven interesting!
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: hmong cuisine
my family history traces back to the hmong that migrated down from china who eventually settled in the mountainous terrains of laos. there, they farmed the hillsides for hundreds of years where they lived completely separate from the lao majority... think: the amish, relative to american society. except, the hmong are not laotian citizens and lived segregated from the lao majority for hundreds of years, growing their own food and surviving completely off the lands we occupied.
long story short, it was during the french indochina war and later the secret war that the hmong in laos started to get recruited by the cia to rescue downed american pilots and engage in guerilla warfare in disrupting the ho chi minh trail. yes, the war was "technically" in vietnam, but the ho chi minh trail (the lifeline the communist vietnamese troops were using to send supplies and reinforcements south) ran right through the northern region of laos where the hmong lived, making them ideal recruits to fight alongside the american against the pather lao and communist vietnamese. hmong villages quickly transitioned from its once quaint and sporadic villages sprinkled on the landscape of laos to congregating around american airbases... and by the 1970s, the only life they knew - of farming - quickly took a back seat; food and weapons were now being airdropped on a regular basis by the cia to support their war effort.
needless to say, when the americans pulled out of the war in 1975 and abandoned their fellow hmong constituents... a genocidal campaign using chemical warfare was declared against the hmong by the pathet lao government for their involvement during the war. many were killed, many fled deeper into the jungles of laos, and many died attempting to cross the roaring mekong river in hopes to enter their neutral neighbor, thailand.
my parents, along with my 3 oldest siblings, were among the fortunate who succesfully made that dangerous journey to thailand where they lived in refugee camps for some odd years before being repatriated to the united states. other countries that worked with the united nations and welcomed hmong refugees include france, argentina, canada, french guiana and australia.
now that i've provided a very high level overview of the hmong and how we've come to live amongst you :) let's get back to the initial subject: hmong food.
hmong cuisine today would be characterized as using herbs and spices such as lemongrass, cilantro, green onions, fresh chilies, garlic, mint and ginger - while fish sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and sriracha are among the most commonly used condiments. due to where we have been historically located, it's no surprise there are prevalent lao, thai, vietnamese and chinese influences in our modern cuisine, however, it's only been within the last four decades that we've had access to these ingredients. prior to the war effort, hmong food was no more than steamed white rice eaten with boiled greens and chicken/pork/beef... seasoned with only salt, if it were available. that alone is quite the accurate reflection of our organic roots, especially from a people whose lifestyle was literally reaping the fruits of their labor by surviving through true agrarian means for as long as they've known. it truly is mind-boggling how much our cultural food scene has developed in my lifetime from my parents'. after all, i can only imagine how different the concept of a "grocery store" would have been for them when they initially arrived to this foreign land, when all they've known up until that point in gathering food was raising their livestock, growing their vegtables/rice and hunting wild game.
that all said, i guess modern hmong cuisine could be anything i throw together using the aforementioned ingredients.
here's a good representation of hmong food, for inquiring minds, popular in any hmong household today. and oh yes... i could eat just one, or a combination, of these for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy. my kinda soul food i grew up with; much of it naturally organic, including free range poultry and livestock.
1. raw laaj 2.boiled pork and greens 3.khapoun 4.dilled mustard greens 5.papaya and stirfry 6.pho 7.sweet pork (qaij qabzib) 8.stuffed chicken wings and hmong sausage 9.bbq chicken (nqaij ci) 10.boiled greens (zaub hau) 11.boiled chicken and herbs (tshuaj) 12.eggrolls 13.pho kauv
as you can probably see, spice is another important element in hmong cuisine. a side of hmong pepper (chilies sauce) is also usually paired with every dish, oftentimes said to complete the meal :) on that note, it's also safe to say we don't regularly eat deserts but when we do it would be nab vam, as pictured below. nab vam is also known as a tri-color desert, which is a sweet coconut-based tapioca drink served cold! mmm. and there you have it... hmong food.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: banh cuoun aka fawm kauv
steamed pork rolls. i still remember how much i'd crave these little bad boys after i'd moved away for college. it was during those days when i yearned for a little taste of home (or, missed my mum) that i found myself trying to make them, only to fail... every. single. time. call me crazy, but i still have vivid memories of watching the mixture go down my drain as i poured it out after many honest but failed attempts... and the feeling of defeat as it overcame me was just as traumatic.
a little dramatic here? yes, haha, but i can laugh about it now. then? then, i just remember feeling so damn sad each time i built enough courage to try again, convincing myself of only positive thoughts, only to fail and fail again.
it was because growing up, banh cuoun was what my mum always made me as a special treat because of how time-consuming they are! maybe it was just because it was her who made them, but they definitely were and still are one of the most nostalgic foods that always has a way of invoking an emotion of love and brings me back to a sense of security. strange how food can do that to a person...
needless to say, i didn't go on very long after that not knowing the trick to making fawm kauv. i made sure that during my next visit home, they weren't ready and waiting for me, as they have been in the past, and instead, spent my time in the kitchen with my mum making them together... her showing me the ways. :) after several more visits and the confidence from her guidance, she was phasing out her own involvement - and before i knew it, i was mastering them on my own!
i like to believe i've gotten the technique to making steamed rice rolls down to an art now; i'm even experimenting now. and for the record, yes, the pan does in fact make an incredible world of difference; that's what i didn't have in college, the right pan. i also had neither the knowledge to get my mixture right, nor the meticulous skill set required for the assembly too... so, thanks mum! <3 these days, it's not so much the rolls i'm worried about anymore, but moreso the endless ideas with dipping sauces to complement them! again, another blog post for yet another rainy day. :)
i foresee a tutorial on how to make these little guys in the near future with how often i make them. it just hasn't happened yet because it's one of those processes where rhythm and timing are everything and although it's fairly simple... the learning curve proved to be fairly steep, as i learned the hard way. haha. i don't know how i'd handle the relapse of another failed attempt if it happened! lols.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)