My Asian Food Trip

Day 1

Recipes:

#1 Seafood Sweet & Sour Soup    Ingredients:

Tilapia                                  Palm Sugar
Prawns                                 Tamarind
Tomato                                 Fresh Herbs
Celery                                  Lime Juice
Bean sprouts
Fish Sauce
Chilies


Procedure:
1. In a pot combine water, tamarind paste, fish sauce & lemon or lime juice.
2. Add all the other ingredients. Cook.
3. Season TT.
4. Serve.
                                                      

#2 Caramelized Chicken & Ginger

                                                           

Ingredients:

Chicken
Ginger
Green onions
Garlic
Black pepper powder
Soy sauce
Fish sauce
Chili powder


Procedure:
1. Saute in stone pot the pounded ingredients w/ 1T oil.
2. Add in the chicken. Brown the chicken.
3. Add water. Season TT. Reduce.
4. Serve

#3 Steamed Rice

Ingredients: 

Long grain rice

Water

Procedure:

1. Cook the rice in a pot w/ water.

2. Serve.

Day2

#1 Nuoc Cham

Ingredients:                                                     Procedure:

Garlic                                                                        1. Pound garlic & chilies in mortar & pestle.

Chilies                                                                       2. Add all other ingredients. Taste.

Fish sauce                        

Sugar

Water

Lime juice

#2 Banh Xeo

Ingredients:                         Procedure:

Pork fat                                          1. Slice pork fat & pork belly thinly. Put in separate bowl. 

Pork belly                                          Season w/ salt & pepper.

Shrimp                                            2. Slice shrimp in half.

Mung beans                                   3. Soak & boil mung beans. Remove the skin. Strain.

Mung-bean sprouts                       4. Remove the roots of mung bean sprouts.

Batter:                                            5. Make batter. Chill for 30 mins.

Rice flour                                       6. Slice onions & mince garlic.

Coconut milk                                 7. Render pork fat & belly in a pan then cook the onions & garlic

Turmeric                                        8. Add shrimp & batter (thin). Cook till crust is formed.

Leeks                                             9. Add mung beans & mung bean sprouts. Fold one end.

Salt                                               10. Serve w/ luttuce leaf, carrots, jicama & nuoc cham.

Aromatics:

Onion

Garlic

Seasonings:

Salt

Black pepper powder

#3 Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls

Ingredients:                              Procedure:

Rice wrapper                                      1. Poach pork belly. Poach shrimp.

Pork belly                                           2. Soak rice vermicelli in water.

Shrimp                                                 3. Remove roots of mung beans. Blanch.

Sweet basil                                          4. Soak rice water in hot water. Put in table.

Coriander leaf                                     5. Add the ingredients shrimps last.

Mint Leaves                                       6. Roll. Serve w/ Nuoc cham.

Romaine lettuce

Mung bean sprouts

Rice vermicelli

Water

White wine vinegar

Black peppercorns

Lemongrass

Ginger

Shallots

Onion

#4 Vietnamese Crispy Spring Rolls

Ingredients:                               Procedure:

Ground pork                                        1. Mix fillings together. Season. Set aside.

Crab sticks                                          2. Dip wrapper in hot water. Lay flat on table.

Mushroom                                           3. Add in the fillings. Deep-fry. Pat dry w/ paper towel.

Carrots                                                4. Serve.

Onion

Leeks

Rice vermicelli

Wood ear mushroom

Dried Shallots

Salt 

Pepper

#5 Hoisin Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:                           Procedure:

Hoisin sauce                                     1. Mix all ingredients in a pan.

Peanut butter                                    2. Simmer for 5 mins.

Chili powder                                      3. Serve.

Butter

Fish sauce

Garlic

Day 3

#1  Cabbage Salad

Ingredients:                          Procedure:

White cabbage                                1. Make vinaigrette.

Purple cabbage                               2. Add Vinaigrette w/ the sliced cabbage.

Sriracha                                           3. Serve.

Lime juice

Sugar syrup

#2 Lemongrass Chicken Skewers

Ingredients:                          Procedure:

Chicken thigh                                 1. Make marinade. Marinate the chicken.

Lemongrass                                    2. Put in skewers.

Kaffir lime leaves                          3. Grill. 

Garlic                                              4. Serve. 

Ginger

Olive oil

Red chili powder

Palm sugar

Fish sauce

Bamboo skewers

#3 Crispy Skin Salmon w/ Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:                         Procedure:

Salmon                                          1. Marinate salmon w/ lemon juice & ginger.

Lemon juice                                  2. Heat pan w/ veg oil. fry the seasoned salmon skin down.

Ginger juice                                  3. Finish in the oven.

Coarse salt                                   4. Serve w/ tomato sauce.

Black peppercorns

Veg oil

#4 Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:                         Procedure:

Tomato                                           1. Caramelize onion in a pan.

Shallots                                           2. Add all other ingredients.

Onion                                              3. Serve w/ the salmon.    

Garlic

Chili powder

Sugar

Fish Sauce

Chicken stock

Tomato paste

Day 4

#1 Pho Bo

Ingredients:                           Procedure:

Beef bones                                     1. Make the stock.

onions                                             2. Char the onions. Add to stock w/ all the other ingredients. 

shallots                                           3. Reduce. Season tt.  

ginger                                             4. Serve w/ cooked rice noodles & garnish.

star anise

cinnamon stick

dried sand worm

Garnish:

bean sprouts

basil

long coriander

chilies

lemon or lime wedge

hoisin sauce

Thai chili sauce

Seasoning:

rock sugar 

black pepper

fish sauce

salt

#2 Banh Cuon Batter

Day 5

#1 Waterfall Beef Salad 

#2 Stir-fried Seafood w/ Basil

Day 6

#1 Tom Yum Goong

#2 Pineapple Fried Rice

#3 Thai Fried Chicken w/ Sweet-chili Sauce

#4 Curry Lobster

Day 7

Mid Term Exam (Crispy-fried Breaded Pork w/ Tomato Sauce, Toasted White Bread & Micro Green Salad)

Day 8

#1 Papaya Salad w/ Chrispy Pork

#2 Pad Thai

Day 9

#1 Black Bean Crab

#2 Rice Claypot

Day 10

#1 Daikon Cake

#2 Fried Noodle w/ Black Bean Sauce

Final Exam (Black & White Restaurant)

Amuse Bouche (Chicken Sate w/ Mango Salad)

Appetizer (Pomelo Salad)

Main Dish (Massaman Beef Curry w/ Black & White Rice & Buttered Broccoli & Carrots)

Dessert (David's Black & White Palitaw/Rice Cake)

When Worlds Collide

Psychologists would agree that mentally healthy people have good “boundaries.”  Unlike the tangible perimeters of the physical realm, psychological boundaries are the lines that demarcate your emotional world from others.  They also signify the limits of certain interpersonal behaviors.  You could probably stroll into a co-worker’s office who you’re friendly with, take a seat uninvited and blurt out obscenities about your ex.  But you couldn’t do that with impunity in your boss’s office.  There’s a boundary there.  And if you can do that with your boss, then the two of you have blurred that boundary.

     In all walks of life people occasionally cross boundaries.  Sometimes this is a good thing but most of the time it’s not.  Boundaries are there for a reason.  It is the intuitive and prudent individual who knows when it is fortuitous to breach certain boundaries and when it isn’t.

     Boundaries certainly exist in the culinary arena.  There are the interpersonal boundaries between the customer and restaurant staff or the staff and the head chef.  But on a larger scale, there are boundaries between different cuisines and/or techniques.  It is here that a brave few have ventured into the murky waters of culinary synthesis, otherwise known as “fusion” cuisine.  Even fewer have done so successfully.

     Fusion cuisine began in the 1970’s, spearheaded by such culinary icons as Wolfgang Puck.  Puck laid the groundwork for one of the most commonly fused pairings:  European and Asian cuisine.  Traditionally trained in Europe but equally well versed in Asian cooking, Puck’s launching ground was the apropos California, situated midway between Europe and Asia.  Over the ensuing decades “east meets west” eateries began emerging throughout the country, most notably in urban areas where the cultural melting pot was more amenable to culinary integration. 

     Eurasian cuisine blends ingredients and/or techniques from the two cultures.  For example, a spinach salad (Mediterranean) may be paired with tempura battered scallops, (Japanese).  Chinese pot stickers could be filled with traditional European ingredients.  Risotto may be infused with wasabi.  Poached tofu is an example of the intermingling of technique and ingredient.  Here the French method of poaching is combined with an Asian victual.  A less discrepant form of fusion cuisine is when two types of Asian cooking are combined such as Thai and Vietnamese or Thai and Malaysian.  Here the orchestration of ingredients and techniques is less challenging.  Proponents of fusion cooking espouse the bounty of creative opportunities and new taste sensations that it affords.

     Dissidents of fusion cuisine call it “confusion” cuisine.  The point being, that all too often chefs combine ingredients that have no business being together.  The result is a gustatory nightmare.  Consider this excerpt from a recently published review of a new restaurant in New York City:  “Sometimes the dishes get a little out of hand.  Black sea bass is overwhelmed by Asian spices and chop-suey style mussels.”  

     Other than a lack of culinary dexterity, “confusion” cuisine occurs when chefs try too hard to develop something innovative.  Let’s face it; all the classics have been done to death.  Nowadays a crucial means for a chef to make his mark on the culinary world is to go where no chef has gone before.  Unfortunately, sometimes that’s into a black hole. 

Determining which ingredients can commingle propitiously is a daunting task.  There’s a tremendous degree of subjectivity, namely the great variability of human taste.  While I would find ginger crusted lamb in miso broth to be abhorrent, another person may proclaim it to be extraordinary.  The trick of course, is uncovering those elusive and unheard of combinations that naturally resonate with most palates despite the few inevitable dissenters.  Talented chefs can sometimes find the best of both worlds. 

     Merging ingredients/techniques from two dissimilar cuisines into a single dish is not the only road toward culinary enmeshment.  There’s a French/Thai restaurant near where I live that serves both classic French and Thai dishes that are culturally in tact.  The “fusion” is the mix of both types of cooking on the menu.  Thus you could order steak au poivre with haricot vert (black peppercorn encrusted steak with French green beans), or pad Thai, the classic noodle dish of Thailand. 

     The antithesis to fusion cuisine is to create dishes, indeed entire meals, from ingredients indigenous to a specific culinary region.  The theorem is that foods, (and wines for that matter), grown together in the same microclimate, share a natural affinity for one another.  Undoubtedly there is merit to this position from a biochemical standpoint alone.  Proponents of this “terroir” driven school of thought recoil at the idea of crossing culinary boundaries.  Chefs who are true to their cultural roots believe that fusion cooking diminishes the integrity of both cuisines.  More scathing criticisms attack it as an attempt to obfuscate a lack of culinary talent and/or an attempt to jump on the latest food craze at the expense of culinary propriety. 

     If you’ve never tried fusion cooking I strongly recommend you do your homework before you do.  Seek out a place with a good reputation.  Whether you condone fusion cuisine or not, the fact of the matter is that it can be a culinary minefield.  You may not mind your worlds colliding but you don’t want them blowing up in your face.