Growing up in a Vietnamese household, family dinner time was really important in my family. No matter how busy my parents were from work, (even when they worked multiple jobs), they always found time to cook up delicious Vietnamese home-cooked meals for my siblings and me. One of my favorite family-style meals included Canh Chua... Continue Reading →
Double-Fried Fish Sauce Chicken Wings
The air quality in San Jose has been really bad and I haven't had a chance to do much BBQing. The other day I woke up and the air quality index looked really good so I took out some chicken wings to thaw and wanted to BBQ for dinner. By noon, the air quality worsened... Continue Reading →
Vietnamese Braised Lemongrass Chicken
When I was a kid, my mom braised lemongrass chicken pretty frequently. She used to buy whole chickens from the store, cut it up into bite-sized pieces, and braised in fish sauce and coconut juice until most of the juices evaporate and tons of flavors get absorbed inside each chicken piece. I remember enjoying the... Continue Reading →
Braised Pork Spare Ribs with Quail Eggs (Suon Ram Man)
My girls are big fans of pork ribs. We generally smoke and BBQ our ribs, but last week I introduced them to another method for cooking ribs; braising. There are two steps in braising meat. First, you sear the meat on high heat to lock in the juices and to create the beautiful color on... Continue Reading →