Food in Vietnam

Food is my life. Anybody who knows me well knows that I love to cook and eat things. Cooking is half the fun. And sometimes it's all the fun, especially when a recipe doesn't work out.

It's hard sometimes to stroll the streets here in Hanoi and find something that I can eat. But when I find something, I can't be happier. It's not uncommon for me to be walking completely full from a meal, and to pass by some food vendor selling some sort of delicious snack food and totally cave in. At the moment I'm in love with chè, a gloppy concoction of sweet beans sprinkled with candied fruit or lotus seeds.

Though I haven't yet mastered the art of making chè, I've been quickly trying to learn how to make Vietnamese food. I took a cooking class in Hoi An (in Central Vietnam) and Bangkok. That's one souvenir I want to bring back home with me: the art of making Southeast Asian food. I learned how to make peanut sauce, green and red chili paste, pad Thai, Penang curry, green papaya salad, Isaan, dau phu sot ca chua (tofu sauteed with tomatoes), dau phu xa ot (tofu with lemongrass and chili), banh xeo (Vietnamese savoury pancakes) among others.

Whenever I go back to Montreal, my friends should brace themselves for delicious Southeast Asian feasts.

Start fasting now.