EXOTIC ASIAN FOOD WORKSHOP III/IV –  28 January 2016

 

Vietnamese cuisine is fairly unknown in The Netherlands and people see often Vietnamese cuisine as part of the Chinese and/or Indonesian cuisine.

Many Vietnamese dishes include five fundamental taste senses; salty, sour, bitter, sweet, spicy.

Vietnam’s most famous dish; translucent spring rolls with greens, coriander,

angel hair noodles and mix of pork or shrimp or crab. Naturaly we start with the art of spring rolls…It’s very therapeutic!

PHO – Vietnamese beef noodle soup- is the most traditional dish. It looks like a simple broth with fresh herbs & veggies. Pho is cheap eat out but to be able to make a honest home made version ? If you ask me you need more practice…practice makes perfection!

There are many wild leafs and plants used in Vietnamese cuisine. Sirih/betel leaf is one of them. Sirih has the heart-shaped shiny green leaves.

The plant has many traditional medicinal uses in all around Asia.

Culinary use of betel leaf is a popular spice in south east Asian cooking, with the leaves being used raw and cooked. A traditional way of preparing the leaves is as a wrapping for spiced meat and other morsels. In Vietnaam, these wraps are a favourite snacks.

Persimmon fruit is easy to find in Europe last years… That is also one of my favourite fruit. Persimmon cake was a star of the night…