The food of Ha Noi that even I didn’t know

Half of my family on my mom’s side is from Ha Noi, so naturally we eat a lot of Northern & Hanoi style food. But there are still many things my family don’t have in their “repertoire”, and I got to discover a few dishes with this recent trip to Hanoi.

Cranmerry (or cranberry many different ways for the many holiday parties you will uh, have to go to)

Merry Christmas! Knowing how slow I am with posting, I probably won’t have a chance to post again until waay after Christmas, so, here we go: Merry Christmas!

How many holiday parties, since before Thanksgiving, have you been to already? How many will you have to go to? “Have to” might be the wrong word for some – yes, talking to you, party-whores. I like to go to parties when I’m not expected to bring anything. Bringing stuff on the train is annoying. Also, thinking about what to make that will please everyone at the party, including those that can’t tell the difference between cat food and pate, is stressful. I take criticism just fine, but I criticize myself a lot if someone doesn’t like my food, and at parties you never know who’s gonna be there.

Don’t take me wrong – I do love cooking for people. But most of my friends, either due to self-selection or their own niceness, often like my food, and I like cooking for them. In fact, I made a Thanksgiving dinner for friends who didn’t go home, and it was great. My own personal favorite dish (that I made, adapting various recipes online) was the cranberry chutney. I always thought the canned cranberry sauce was a bit weird, and since we were having tandoori turkey, cranberry chutney seems appropriate.

Ingredients

Basil panna cotta – writing a blog post while hating the hurricane

Hurricanes – they are annoying. Things are damaged, schools are closed, trains stop running, etc. and of course, everyone freaks out (although most of the time legitimately so). This Sandy thing is admittedly quite legit (look at that New Jersey flood photo!!), but all we feel here in Boston is very strong, ominous sounding winds raging outside. Everyone asks me if I’m prepared, to which I shrug and if possible, show them this photo below:

Fresh vegetables tart with crumbled feta, or why sometimes naked (food) is good

I came back from a party/celebration/event/fundraising last night, stuffed with good food (mostly because I was helping out in the kitchen and you know how it goes…) It’s themove’s summer sol party (http://getoutma.org/summersol/), celebrating local food and people connecting with the land and the farmers that feed them. What’s more appropriate than a recipe celebrating the freshness and local-ness of food? You’re saying I made this random, lazy, Sunday-morning-can’t-bother-to-cook recipe a long time ago and was just waiting for an excuse to post it and wax poetic about it? Nah, I don’t know what you’re talking about…

Ingredients

Do a good thing, from time to time!

Hi guys – so some of you already know I volunteer at farms sometimes, and that’s really the only exciting part of my life, haha. One of the non-profit groups I volunteer with is named theMOVE  (www.getoutma.org) , and now I’m helping them fundraise for next year. And, I know what you’re thinking – no! I’m not like one of those Planned Parenthood fundraising people that stopped you on the street! This is legit, I swear! I even have the website link!

I’ve volunteered with them a couple of times and can tell you that they do terrific work to help kids understand better their food sources, why eating healthy is important, and how, for example, “organic” is more than the fancy pantsy things in Whole Foods Most importantly, it’s just a chance for the kids to really get out of the classroom, have a chance to bond and grow as a person, have a meaningful activity that might kindle their interests in the environment, food, and agriculture.

Dave, the founder, connects with schools and teachers and basically just organizes trips for kids from public schools to volunteer at farms, for free. But nothing is free – there’s transportation costs, lunch costs, among other things. So I hope you can help us make the trips happen!

Here’s how you can help:  themove.chipin.com/put-a-kid-on-the-bus-nhi . I appreciate your support for our cause

Red lentil (dal) with a loooot of dairy, and herbs

I went on a cooking spree today – it has been a while since we really cooked anything serious. We did have a Korean feast at one point, and some very good Vietnamese noodles at another, but I’ve been either too lazy, or thought that it’s nothing to document. Korean and Vietnamese food come to me quite easily, I don’t have to think much about it. Vegetarian Indian food, or just vegetarian in general, is a beast, and whenever I make something vegetarian with an Indian flair, I consider it an achievement. Also have to document it, because I will have no idea how to make it later! This is why I gave up after a month of trying to be vegetarian. I learned a ton from my Indian landlord, but if I’m hungry, I want my food NOW. Cooking something you’re ill-equipped for, knowledge and pantry-wise, is like…abstaining from sex when you’re ovulating. It’s hard.

黙ってくれ！私は私の食べ物をよく知ってるから！

In the past few days I’ve heard some of the most ridiculous things people say about food, completely void of common sense. It’s funny how much that could get me riled up, because as I point out to them that they are wrong and they think I’m crazy, I take it to mean that I don’t know my food. Ok, I don’t know the food of, um, Africa, or Turkey, but are you saying I don’t know my Vietnamese food? Or something so basic as chocolate and milk? Ok, I don’t know my math, you can insult me however you want about my math. But when it’s common sense food knowledge that I have experience with, and have tested (albeit with a small sample), AND let me reiterate, is common sense, it sort of offends me when people imply I don’t know jack. Here are some common sense things that I thought might benefit people. Until you provide me *concrete proof* otherwise, I refuse to believe in nonsense that defies logic.