TRAVELLIVE 2 - 2018

food&beverage
The boiled chicken dish may look
simple, but to cook it right is no easy
task. When cooked, the skin must not
be cracked, it should have a nice color,
and most importantly, the meat must
be tender. It's then served with a salt,
pepper, and lime dip, and garnished
with kafr lime leaves.
Chicken glass noodle soup is a dish
that makes use of the water left over
from boiling the chicken and the
chicken giblets to balance the whole
meal full of meat and sticky rice.
The mixed stir-fry is made up of pork
rind, beans, carrots, mushrooms, heart
and kidney to give the dish an attractive
color, and is a perfect addition to the
Tet food tray.
Gac fruit sticky rice is chosen for its
color as red is believed to bring good
luck for the new year.
It is best to enjoy the meat jelly when
the weather is cold with some light
rain. If you are not the fussy type,
simply take pork or chicken meat,
or pig trotters, braise over low heat
with onions and mushrooms for one
night, let the cold temperature itself
cool the meat down for a day, and
your meat jelly will be ready to be
enjoyed with pickled cabbage.
Banh chung, a traditional Vietnamese
rice cake made from glutinous rice,
mung beans and pork, can now be
easily found in supermarkets and
markets. The best banh chung however,
is made at home with the gather of the
whole family after a busy year.
Pickled onions with a little pungent,
spicy, and sour taste, are best enjoyed
with banh chung.
The spring rolls, with their sweet
and sour dipping sauce, are a hugely
popular dish around the world,
and an indispensable Tet dish. For
delicious spring rolls, the ingredients
must be well proportioned, and fried
in hot oil over medium-high heat to
get that crispy crust.
Vietnamese bamboo shoot soup is a
dish made with pig trotters and dried
bamboo shoots. The dish often reects
the talent of the cook. When I was
young, my mother often took a week
to prepare all the ingredients necessary
for a delicious bamboo shoot soup. The
dried bamboo shoots must be soaked
in water, and stewed several times with
new water each time to get rid of its
bitter taste, then stir-fried, and finally
cooked some more with the stewed
broth of pig trotters. The nal bamboo
shoots must taste like lean meat.
TRAVELLIVE
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