Hanoi - Old Quarters

Hanoi not only plays host to 7 million - zilian motorbikes , it also has many beautiful & colorful building which are full of Culture and History. Each street back in the old days had merchants and households that specialised in a particular trade, such as silk traders, silver etc. The street names nowadays still reflect these specialisations.

Once you managed to figure out how cross the road safely and avoid the motorbikes, you would be able to take in this pictureous town. Most buildings in the Old Quarters of Hanoi has a french style and mainly painted in Yellow and has green shutters. This is because a large number of French settlers moved to Vietnam from the south of France, especially Marseilles, and made it a point to recreate the architecture of the old country while abroad.

After exploring parts of the town, our guide brought us to this small restaurant called " Minh Anh". As soon as we sat down BAM! One by one food kept coming, from springrolls, to soups to deep fried stuff to fishes. The thing was we haven't actually ordered anything. I started getting worried, something fishy is going on here, is this one of those "lets cheat the foreigner in Vietnam" moment?

So I called our guide, and asked him "Who order this food?" he said "ME", and I was thinking "mmm.. he must be in it too; *@*&#! ". Then I said, "how much is this gonna cost me?" and he said "Nothing, You pay already! you want beer you buy , food you pay already .All included in your package". A smile stretched on my face, and I said "You are a champion" I ordered a beer and gave it to our guide and started digging in.

What a meal, everything was so fresh, cooked and served warm. I thank our guide for the great choice.

Hanoi - full of surprises. Whats have you been surprised with recently?

Triple Cooked Lamb

A month after Ortiga , I started craving the lamb again. Shaking and shivering… all I was thinking of was that soft lamb…I think I’ve got the lamb munchies.

With the Global Economic Crisis, I thought I’ll save some money and make it myself. Made my way to the "Lamb Dealer" or butcher as some call it, and asked for some lamb shoulder. Surprisingly; it was one of the cheaper cuts of lamb…only about $9/kg.

Firstly fry the lamb shoulder in a pot with some oil and seasoned it with a little salt and pepper. After the lamb gets a little brown and slightly crisp, fill the pot with some boiling water and mix in some Italian herbs, paprika, salt, pepper, garlic, spring onion, carrots and chicken stock(to soften the meat). After a few hours, take it out and placed it into the oven at about 170-180 degrees till crisp( so you might want to check on it every 10 mins or so).

With the leftover stock, reduce it further … and season based on preference. White wine could be added for a little extra flavor ;)

Ingredients

Lamb shoulder 600g

Italian herbs

Paprika

Salt & pepper

Garlic

Spring onion & carrots

chicken stock

Optional – Homemade mint sauce

Mint leafs – Finely cut

Vinegar

Sugar

Combine the mint and sugar in a small pan. Add the boiling water and stir till the sugar dissolves. Add the vinegar and mix well. Allow the sauce to rest for 15 minutes for the flavor to develop and all ready to go.

What do you guys get the munchies for?

Have a cuppa - The Hanoi Way

The current cold winter * (cold for me anyways) reminded me of my trip to Hanoi, Vietnam. Yoshi and I went there last December. Driving out of the airport we could see how skilful the Vietnamese people are in balancing.This guys could drive through traffic with huge items being place on their bikes and motorcycles with ease. In mist of all the chaos, these people kept their balance as steady as can be.

We arrived at out hotel room freshened up and headed out to discover the streets of this old city. He stayed in the Old Quarters, so was heaps to see around this area. But, being a coffee junkie, I needed my caffeine hit.

So the first stop that we made was this small old coffee shop, the lady mending the shop couldn’t speak a word of English nor did they have any menus. So we tried saying coffee in as many languages as we knew...COFFEE ? KOPI? COHEE ? CAFE? ...and she smiled and said ohhh...

Then it came ,"Cafe" made with finely ground Vietnamese-grown dark roast coffee individually brewed with a small metal French drip filter (cà phê phin) into a cup containing about a

quarter to a half as much Condence Milk. You could see how black and thick the dark matter they call coffee was. Then I looked around and everyone had ice as well, I wanted them too... damn, how was I to describe ice to this lady?

I raised my hand and said ice, that didn’t work...and pretended like I was holding an empty glass and said "cling-cling"... she still didn't get it! A few more unsuccessful with my attempts at charade with the shop lady, some else from another table got me! and order Ice for us in Vietnamese . I said thanks and gave them a thumbs up . Had a sip of my coffee... and then SLAP... boy was it strong! I sure woke up that morning...

Anyways if you go to Hanoi wanting to order Ice coffee in Vietnam, It's called "Cafe Da" ;)

Ever got lost in translation?

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Winter is here in Brisbane and its been one of the coldest since I’ve been here. To warm the house up I’ve started baking quite a fair bit. I used to find baking quite hard and tedious, so I stayed away from It. I remember when I was young, watching my auntie bake; she used to measure everything to the gram, made sure the timing was right and waited in front of the oven till her cake was done. Oh Boy, I loved eating it, but so much hassle.

Whilst browsing through a “Gourmet” food magazine, I saw a fancy looking plate of something that look so familiar, It was a pandan chiffon cake. Then the flashbacks and craving started; my dad used to get us a pandan chiffon cake every time he goes to the Pasar Malam( Night markets in Malaysia), well “us” would be an overstatement...It was mainly for me...cos I would devourer half of it before bedtime.

The chubby boy inside of me was shouting “get this cake!!!”. So that night I looked up the ingredients and started baking..

Ingredients :

• 5 egg whites
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 5 tbs coconut milk
• 4 tbs vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup caster sugar, extra
• 150g plain flour, sifted
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder, sifted
• pinch of salt
• pandan essence (preferably green for colour)

How?

1. Preheat oven at 170°C or there abouts
2. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add the sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat thoroughly after each addition until you achieve stiff peaks. Set aside. Almost like a meringue.
3. In a separate bowl whisk egg yolks with extra caster sugar until thick, pale and fluffy. Add coconut milk, vegetable oil, pandan assents, flour and baking powder, and whisk until combined by folding the egg whites into the yolk mixture three batches.
4. Pour into baking tray. To make it easy to take the cake out, I covered the tray with baking paper. Bake for half an hour, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean; personally I like the skewer method.
5. When cake is out of the oven, leave it to cool down in the tin for a while.

Extra stuff :

- Blended coconut caramel : How?

1. Boil water and sugar(brown/dark sugar if available) till tick and caramelised

2. Mix the caramel and coconut flakes.

3. Let it cool down till harden

4. Then Blend it in a blended(i used a coffee bean blender), It look like sand.

And lastly cut a slice for you

And A slice for me!