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Dưa Giá / Pickled Bean Sprouts with Carrots and Chives

Dưa giá is one of the most popular pickled side dish for a Vietnamese meal. It is a usual accompaniment for stewed dishes such as braised pork belly with eggs (Thịt Kho Trứng) or other salty type of braised meat dishes. The slightly sour and sweet pickled bean sprouts offset the saltiness of the braised meats. This is an easy recipe to make anytime of the year.

This recipe is rated easy.

Ingredients

1 lb of bean sprouts

2 carrots

1 bunch of chives

6 pearl onions, peeled

8 Thai chilies

1 ½ cups of warm water

½ cup of vinegar

1 ¼ teaspoons of salt

6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon of sugar

Directions

Peel and shred the carrots.

Rinse the chives to get rid of any dirt and cut them into 2 inch sections.

Slice the pearl onions in half.

Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of sugar to the vegetables and let them marinate for 10 minutes. Rinse thoroughly with water.

Make the pickling juice by combining 1 ½ cups of warm water, ½ cup of vinegar, 6 tablespoons of sugar and ¼ teaspoon of salt.

Add the pickling juice and the vegetables to a jar and set the jar in a sunny spot for 1 day before serving. (You may need to make more pickling juice in order to cover all the vegetables.)

Squeeze out any excess pickling juice from the vegetables before serving. Enjoy this delicious pickled beansprouts with braised pork belly with eggs or with plain boiled pork belly with fish sauce.

For more recipes, visit our EAT page or Recipe Index.

Authors: Susan Tran and Chau Hoang

Words for Thought

Published by La Vie Partagée

Weekend Unexplored: Bakewell, England

Published by jjl11160227

As a weekend excursion from London, I traveled with my family to Bakewell, a small town in Derbyshire in the heart of Peak District National Park. It was their first trip to the United Kingdom, and my parents were eager to see the countryside of this region as well as the grand estate of Chatsworth House, the setting of Pemberly in Joe Wright’s 2005 film adaptation, Pride and Prejudice (also my mother’s favorite Jane Austen novel).

Getting there:

We took to our destination by public transportation, setting off at London’s St. Pancras to catch the East Midlands train to Chesterfield. From there, a 12 minute walk through town brought us to the 170 Hulleys of Baslow bus stop to Rutland Square in Bakewell. In total, the trip from London took about four hours.

Where to stay:

Although tired, we were met with warm hospitality by our Bed and Breakfast hosts, John and Marie, of Melbourne House. The rate for a double room is 70 GBP/night.

Melbourne House peakdistrictonline.co.uk

A short distance from the town’s center, the rooms within were clean, comfortable, and spacious. Each morning, we were cooked a full breakfast, consisting of eggs, ham, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, and toast, accompanied by coffee or tea.

Local gems:

Bakewell is best discovered through its many walking paths. Traversing along the bank of River Wye, through the many gardens and footpaths over the rolling fields of green, brought us to stunning pastoral scenery.

After hours on foot, we rewarded ourselves with the famous Bakewell pudding at the “Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop.” I can’t claim for sure if this recipe was created here. But I will say that eating their Bakewell pudding was a delectable treat that everyone in my family loved. Bakewell Pudding is an English pastry that has a base layer of jam and topped with an egg and almond paste filling.

Food options for dinner were plentiful during our weekend stay. Our favorite pub that served generous portions and good pints of beer was the kitchen and bar of the Peacock Inn. There are options for a variety of palates; the menu offers a wide spectrum of choices from classic pub fish and chips to Krahi curry with naan.

Peacock Inn Photo credit: tripadvisor

Photo credit: Kristina Lam

The old part of the bar dates back 200 years, and their selection of local ales from Bakewell brewers and peak ales were quite delicious. My favorite was the Chatsworth Gold, a beer made with honey from the Chatsworth Estate.

Visit to Chatsworth House:

Chatsworth House Photo credit: Kristina Lam

One cannot leave Bakewell without visiting the home of Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. From Bakewell, we caught the hourly bus that picks up passengers at town center, Rutland Square, and took it to the Estate for the opening at 11am. The House, passed down through 16 generations, has over 30 rooms to explore. These rooms are connected by staircases, hallways, and corridors that leave viewers in awe by the art on its walls and ceilings. Within, Chatsworth contains the masterpieces of Rembrant, Reynolds, and Veronese, among others.

Photo credit: Kristina Lam

The gardens are just as beautiful outside. We spent a lot of time just walking through the grounds, with highlights that include the Emperor Fountain, the Greenhouse, Salisbury Lawns, the Cascade, and the Maze.

With only a weekend, we just saw a small piece of the beauty within the Peak District. But it was well worth the effort. I am already awaiting to return to see more.

For related articles, visit the TRAVEL page.

Author: Jenifer Lam

Featured Photo: Flick – John Dalkin

Bún Riêu / Crab Vermicelli Soup

Published by La Vie Partagée

Bún riêu is a very popular noodle dish in Vietnam for its simplicity and deliciousness. This is a tomato based vermicelli noodle soup that has three popular variations: crab, fish or snails. Bún riêu cua is probably the most well known version made with rice paddy crabs. These are small crabs found in rice paddy fields and would then be cleaned and pounded into a paste. This crab paste and tomatoes are the essential ingredients for the broth. The soup is easy to make and is a great way to serve a lot of people at one time.

This recipe is rated medium in difficulty and makes approximately 6 bowls of noodle soup.

Ingredients

1 can of minced crab in spices

1 can of minced prawns in spices

1 lb of ground pork

½ lb of shrimp (approximately 9-10 shrimps)

¼ cup of rouc (fine shrimp sauce)

¾ cup of ketchup

1 package of fried tofu

2 tablespoons of fish sauce or nouc mam

⅓ cup of vegetable oil

½ of a yellow onion (optional)

2 tomatoes

1 bushel of vermicelli noodles

6 cloves of garlic

4 eggs

a few stalks of mint

1 to 2 cups of bean sprouts

4 stalks of scallions

1 iceberg lettuce

4 limes

a handful of cilantro for garnish

Directions

A. Prepare the meat mixture

Peel the shrimps. Using the back of the knife and the pressure from your hand, flatten the shrimps. Make sure the shrimps are still intact.

In a mixing bowl, add ground pork and the flattened shrimps. Chopped 2 stalks of scallions and add to the pork/shrimp mixture.

Add 5 cloves of minced garlic and the cans of crab and shrimp pastes to the mixture. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar and ½ teaspoon of salt.

Add 4 eggs to bind the ingredients and mix to incorporate the ingredients together. Set aside.

B. Prepare the stock

Rough chop 1 clove of garlic. Using the back of your hand, flatten the 3 ends of the scallion stalks to release the juice. Rough chopped the scallions.

Heat a pot with ⅓ cup of vegetable oil. Brown the garlic and scallion. (Asians will fry the garlic for a nice toasted fragrant, while Americans will sweat the garlic.)

Turn the heat to medium and add ¼ cup of rouc and ¾ cup of ketchup and stir for approximately 1 minute to combine into a paste.

Add 16 cups of water and turn the heat up to high to bring the stock to a boil. Do not cover the pot otherwise the broth will become cloudy. Skim any foam that rise to the top.

Optional: Add 1/2 of an onion to the stock to absorb the smell and to add a bit of sweetness to the soup. We did not do it for this demonstration.

Once the stock comes to a boil, turn the heat to medium or equivalent of a small boil. Add the meat mixture 1 scoop at a time to the soft boil broth.

Cut 2 tomatoes into 8th wedges. Add the tomatoes when the soup comes back to a boil after adding the meat.

Season the broth with 4 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of sea salt and 2 tablespoons of nouc man or fish sauce. Do not stir because that action will break up the meat balls.

Let the stock boil for another 5 minutes to incorporate the seasoning. Add 1 package of tofu to the top of the soup and let the tofu absorbs the broth.

C. Prepare the noodles

Fill a pot with water and bring it to a boil. Once the water boils, add 1 bunch of vermicelli noodles.

Once the noodles and water come to a full boil, turn off the heat and let the noodles soften. This will prevent the noodles from sticking to it.

When the noodles are cooked (al dente), rinse off any excess starch.

D. Prepare the condiment plate

You can prepare the condiment plate while waiting for the the noodles to be cooked.

Julienne the lettuce and rough chop a few stalks of mint.

Wash 1-2 cups of bean sprouts. Combine the lettuce, mint and bean sprouts into a bowl and mix.

Cut the lime off center into slices. Doing this will avoid any core and will get the most juice out of each lime.

E. Assemble the noodles

Add a handful of noodles to the bottom of a bowl. Scoop out 1-2 meat balls and 1-2 tofu wedges per bowl.

Add the stock with the tomatoes and garnish with chopped cilantro and scallion.

Enjoy this soup topped with a handful of the lettuce mix and a generous squeeze of lime juice.

For more recipes, visit our EAT page or Recipe Index.

Authors: Hung Nguyen and Chau Hoang

Words for Thought

Published by La Vie Partagée

Best of France NYC Exhibition: Fashion Highlight

Published by La Vie Partagée

Each year, French Touch Events put on the Best of France exhibition. I was able to check out the exhibition this year that took place in Times Square on September 26 and 27. There were a good selection of French exports such as makeup, food and travel. I was interested in the three fashion brands that were showcased at this year’s exhibition.

Tanya Heath Paris

Website: http://www.tanyaheath.com/

Tanya Heath is a luxury shoe brand with a unique story. Their shoes have interchangeable heels that are made for the working woman. One can adjust the heel height depending on the height preference. The concept is very innovative and the shoes are comfortable. However, the price point is high for the target audience: modern working woman. On their e-shop, the shoes price ranges between 360 Euros to 700 Euros. The shoe does not have the brand cache such as Yves Saint Laurent or other comparably priced brands. The idea is that you can buy a pair of shoes at a high price point and be able to update them with different heels and therefore have many different “looks” from one pair of shoes. The issue is that the heels are not inexpensive at approximately 50 Euros per set. Additionally, it is unclear how long the sole of the shoes would last, making the 50 euros spend that much harder to justify. I tried on the heels at the exhibition and liked them a lot. If price is not an issue, Tanya Heath’s shoes are innovative and ideal for a woman running around town.

Haveney

Site: http://www.haveney.fr/

Haveney is a small French clothing label created by Marie-Laetitia Rossazza based in Marseille. The designer focuses on minimalism which translates to the black and white aesthetics and simple lines in her collection. There are many variations of the simple black dress in her collection that evokes the French gal. For those that are shorter and have more curves, the clothes may not work well for those body shapes. Currently, her collection can be purchased on Haveney website.

Unfortunately the clothes look better worn than hanging on the rack. You can see better pictures of the Fall/Winter 2015 collection at Vogue UK site.

Aurelia Hoang

Site: http://www.Aureliahoang.com

Aurelia Hoang is a made-to-order bridal wear designer based in Lyon, France. After fashion school at Istituto Marangoni in Milan and working with designers such as Véronique Leroy, Isabel Marant, and Kenzo, Aurelia decided to launch her own bridal wear in 2007. She describes her style as “smooth, comfortable, simple and elegant, heavily loaded with silky materials and lace from Calais”. Her dresses remind me of an elegant bohemian girl mixed with a good dose of ethereal. The dresses also look much prettier in person as you can see the delicate beading and stitching details in each of her gowns. Aurelia currently has a showroom in Lyon and Paris. The price point for each dress is still relatively affordable so if you are in a mood for a French gamine bridal gown, check out Aurelia Hoang’s collection on her website.

Each of these designers is looking to expand into the US market and I am looking forward to see how the US respond to their aesthetics.

Disclaimer: The author and Aurelia Hoang are related.

For more articles, visit the DESIGN page.

Author: Chau Hoang

Featured Photo: Aurelia Hoang

Pumpkin and Ribs Soup

Published by La Vie Partagée

With the holiday approaching and the winter chill setting in, soup becomes a favorite for the winter. In the US, we have an abundance of pumpkin around the autumn time and into the winter months. Naturally, we merged pumpkin and traditional ribs soup into our version of a light yet filling meal. This soup can be eaten by itself or with toasted bread or rice.

This recipe is rated easy.

Ingredients

½ a block of soft tofu

½ lb. of pork ribs

2 ½ cups of pumpkin cube

2 tablespoons of chopped onion

½ tablespoon fish sauce

Chicken bouillon powder (½ teaspoon for marinade and ¼ teaspoon for soup)

Salt

Sugar

Ground pepper

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (“EVOO”)

2 stalks of scallion and cilantro for garnish

Directions

Cut the short ribs strip into smaller pieces of approximately 2 inches.

Marinate the meat with ¼ teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of diced onions, ¼ teaspoon of ground pepper and ½ teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder.

Cut the pumpkin into 1 inch cubes. You will need approximately 2.5 cups of pumpkin.

In a medium size pot, heat 1 tablespoon of EVOO and sauté 1 tablespoon of onions until it becomes translucent. Add the short ribs and sear all the sides.

Add 5 cups of water and let the liquid come to a boil. Skim the broth of all the impurities that float to the top.

Once the broth comes to a boil, add ½ tablespoon of fish sauce and ¼ teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder.

Cut ½ a block of soft tofu into smaller slices. Cut them again into 1 inch slices.

Cut 2 stalks of scallion into 2 inch segments.

After boiling the ribs for 20 minutes, add the pumpkin.

Boil the soup for another 10 minutes and gently add the tofu.

Add the scallions and turn off the heat.

The pumpkin should be soft enough to eat, but not too soft so it is falling completely apart. Add ⅛ teaspoon of ground pepper and serve.

For more recipes, visit our EAT page or Recipe Index.