Hot dogs, hamburgers, sausages and beer are the standard for summer barbecues, and let’s just say that I went to quite a few barbecues this year and wasn’t shy around the grill or the keg. Usually that is enough to make me check myself and start eating vegetables to balance things out, but between vacations and out-of-towners who wanted to try all of NYC’s best food (see “Bauernfruhstuck: Breakfast of Champions,” “Perfecting the Classic Crepe,” and “England: Good Food, Horrible Death”), this summer ended up being pretty relentless on the arteries. Some people detox by doing a cleanse or an all-fruit diet, but I don’t have the willpower for that sort of thing. So I turn to Vietnamese food.
Aside from being extraordinarily healthy, there seems to be three universal themes in Vietnamese cuisine: crunch, contrast and balance. You’ll probably find yourself using uncooked lettuce leaves as a wrapper, or tossing julienned cucumbers and fragrant herbs with some noodles. In fact, you’ll have fistfuls of herbs in every dish you’re eating, rather than the condiment-sized amounts that Western cuisines generally call for. Salty fish sauce, the most widely-used ingredient, is reinvented again and again through unique flavor-combinations with sugar, chilies, oyster sauce, etc. — it’s this complexity that engages all of the taste buds. But, more than anything, it’s the balancing act that pulls it together, the magician’s touch that ensures a mouthwatering combination of textures, flavors, and colors. There’s no whining here – you’ll WANT to eat your vegetables.
Some countries are just blessed, and Vietnam’s geographic location and agricultural diversity certainly ensure an array of fresh ingredients. Its long, skinny shape gives it more than 400 kilometers of coastline; along with the freshwater fish of the Mekong River it’s no wonder that seafood is used more often than chicken, beef or pork. Fertile deltas in the north and south are devoted to rice paddies, and though the south is known for its bounty of fruits and vegetables, the mountainous highlands of the north are able to grow lettuce, carrots, coffee and other crops that require a cooler climate.
But colonialism and expansion have also shaped Vietnamese tastebuds – considered a renegade colony by many Chinese even to this day, Vietnam became an independent state in AD 939 after nearly a millenium of Chinese rule. But Vietnam managed to avoid the heavy oil use that plagues much of China; Chinese influence is limited to the use of chopsticks, as well as ingredients such as bean sprouts and soy sauce. After Vietnam conquered the Cham and Khmer of the south, Indian-influenced Southeast Asian flavors were incorporated into the national cuisine. Sour and fishy flavors are their best legacy, but curry powders and herbs also became extremely popular. Finally, French colonization in the late 17th-early 18th century introduced baguettes for banh mi, coffee, potatoes, and sausage-making, but by this point, Vietnamese cuisine had come into its own. French influence ended up being fairly miniscule.
Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, millions of Vietnamese fled for the U.S., but their cuisine is far from being a takeout staple like Thai or Chinese food. Sure, pho and banh mi have devoted followings, but they’re mere gateway drugs to a world of mind-blowing possibilities that I’ve been exploring ever since I got back from traveling. For my first healthy meal in practically two months, I decided on Lemongrass Beef with Cool Noodles – you might think I’m insane for eating beef when it’s the very thing I’m trying to rid from my body, but in this dish, the quantity of beef is so small it’s practically an afterthought. In the end, I established the harmony that is so crucial to Vietnamese cuisine, both in the dish I was preparing and in my soul that I was trying to nourish.
Lemongrass Beef on Cool Noodles (from Mai Pham’s “Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table”) – Serves 4
*This might look complicated, but it’s really not – there’s just a lot of parts involved. However, there is a lot of chopping, so if you have a food processor, that will probably help. In my opinion, the scallion oil didn’t do much for the dish, so I’ll omit it in the future. But everything else is essential.
2/3 lb beef sirloin or other tender cut, thinly sliced into bite-sized strips
2 tablespoons minced lemongrass
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced lengthwise
rice noodles with fresh herbs, ready for serving in noodle bowls, recipe to follow
2 tablespoons scallion oil, recipe to follow
4 tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts, recipe to follow
1 1/2 recipes vietnamese dipping sauce, recipe to follow
1. combine the beef, lemongrass, oyster sauce and fish sauce in a bowl and let the meat marinate for 20 minutes
2. heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 20 seconds. add the red onion and stir for 1 minute, then add the meat. stir and cook until the meat is cooked and the onion is soft, 3-4 minutes
3. to serve, divide the beef topping among the 4 prepared noodle bowls. garnish each bowl with 1/2 tablespoons scallion oil, 1 tablespoon peanuts and about 1/4 cup dipping sauce. toss several times before eating.
rice noodles with fresh herbs:
2/3 pound small dried rice vermicelli
2 cups shredded red-or green-leaf lettuce
1 1/2 cups bean sprouts
1/3 cucumber, seeded and cut into matchsticks
1/3 cup green or red perilla leaves, fish mint, or mint leaves, cut into thirds
1/3 cup asian basil leaves, cut into thirds
1. bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. add the rice vermicelli and stir gently to loosen them. cook until the noodles are white and soft but still slightly resilient, about 4 minutes. drain and rinse under cold running water. gently fluff the noodles and set them aside for at least 30 minutes. the noodles should be dry and sticky before serving.
2. gently toss together the lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumbers, perilla and basil leaves. divide the salad mixture among 4 bowls. top each with 1/4 of the rice noodles. the bowls are now ready for the topping.
scallion oil:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
5 scallions, green parts only, cut into thin rings
1. heat the oil in a small pan over moderate heat. add the scallions and stir 10 seconds. immediately remove from the heat and transfer the oil with the scallions to a small bowl. place in the refrigerator to cool for 10 minutes. remove and set aside at room remp until ready to serve. will keep up to 2 weeks stored in the refrigerator in a tight-lidded jar.
vietnamese dipping sauce
3 thai bird chilies or 1 serrano chili, or to taste
1 clove garlic, sliced
3 tablespoons sugar
2/3 warm water
1 1/2 tables fresh lime juice
5 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons finely shredded carrots for garnish (opt)
1. cut the chilies into thin rings. remove 1/3 of the chilies and set aside for garnish. place the remaining chilies, garlic and sugar in a mortar and pound into a coarse, wet paste. (if you don’t have a mortar, just chop with a knife) transfer to a small bowl and add the water, lime juice and fish sauce. stir well to dissolve. add the reserved chilies and carrots. set aside for 10 min before serving.
roasted peanuts
1 cup raw shelled peanuts, skins removed
1. place the peanuts on a cookie tray and bake in a preheated 325-degree oven until golden, about 20 minutes. halfway into the baking, gently shake the tray so the peanuts roast evenly. (you can also roast the peanuts in a dry pan over low heat) remove and set aside. use the peanuts whole or coarsely chop them with a mortar and pestle, a food processor or a knife.
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