What the Heck is Bún bò Huế????

This weeks film was Babette's Feast. Really, really great film! The most enjoyable part for me was when Babette was cooking her feast. Wow, I wonder if she can really cook like that. I think I remember Professor Bloom saying something about how she really is a chef in real life, but I'm not sure, maybe I just made that up.

I really have no access to that type of French cuisine. I'm sure they have French cuisine like that in the LA area, but I'm not going to drive over there and spend a bajillion dollars for some fancy French food. It sounds great though, but not now. I don't have the money for that! And no girlfriend to take! So that would be kind of lame to go there with friends or with my family. French cuisine just has this stereotype that it is very formidable and high-class. I'm not sure if it is or not, just saying.

I went home this weekend. In an attempt to try out something new, I convinced my parents to take me to a restaurant I've never been to. Boy was I in for a ride (literally).

My parents and I drove out 30 miles from Hacienda Heights to Westminster. I heard about a world famous Vietnamese restaurant here. If you've never been here, it is where many, many Vietnamese people live. Now I'm sure you have heard of a noodle dish called PHO. It is widely popular all over Southern California. It is a noodle dish patented by the Vietnamese. It is a type of beef noodle soup. However, what I was in West Minster for was my first attempt at trying Bún bò Huế! I've never tried it, didn't know what it looked like, and didn't know what it tasted like.



When the dish came, it looked like PHO. The difference was that there were big brown chunks of I have no idea what, and the soup was red. The soup was very spicy. However, wow, the entire meal was great. It was a complete 180 from what PHO was. It felt bold and daring. Great dish, but really not worth the drive! I don't think anything was worth that drive in the first place!!

In addition to this, if you have the time, I actually created a video about the Vietnamese heritage and culture back in high school for my junior English project. Just to make sure, I am not Vietnamese, but both of my parents were born in Vietnam. Enjoy the video!

Chinese Foodz

Wow! What can I say about this week! Eat, Drink, Man, Woman was an amazing film! Never have I felt so proud of the Chinese cuisine being prepared for me at home ever since I was a little kid.

I always wondered how both of my parents knew how to cook so well. They know so many recipes it is ridiculous! Sometimes they get lazy and just steam vegetables or pan-fry junk together, but when they're feeling really lively they can put together great feasts! There are a lot of times where my parents make these delicious meals and I wish I knew how to make them. I'm trying to think of one they've taught me right now..

Well, I can't remember. They did teach me how to make Thai styled curry, which isn't Chinese, but it is a staple in my mom's cooking. I don't remember how to make it though. My dad also taught me how to marinade beef Chinese style. The technique was grueling. I never knew they put so much time and effort into JUST the beef. I really give high respects to what they create! This is why, when I came home this weekend, I knew I was going to be really excited for the meal after watching the film.

I never eat Chinese food during the week at school. I don't really know how to make it. Even if I did, we lack the ingredients and seasoning, so it would be really hard and not worth the time. Besides that, no one in my house really eats what is cooked, it is a rare occasion. I told my mom, "Mom, you have to make some Chinese food!" and so she did.

I decided to give her a helping hand on this though. Three dishes, believe it or not, is A LOT to make by yourself. All the prep work and all the cooking is very hard to do if you're doing it alone. It took both me and mom maybe an hour and a half to complete the whole dinner.


Steamed veggies, Mabo Tofu, Sweet and Sour Pork. The steamed veggies were just seasoned with salt, pepper, and smashed cloves of garlic.


This is Mabo Tofu. It's a special type of tofu dish. It is usually prepared spicy. Yum! It is my sisters favorite, but too bad she is in SD and can't enjoy it with us!


This was my mom's first try at making Sweet & Sour Pork. It turned out great. The sauce tasted sweet, and sour. Haha, perfect.

A Craving Sparked From Frozen Food

You know, as college students living on your own, it’s increasingly difficult to find a way to eat during the week. Sometimes you’ll scrounge for leftovers brought back from the weekend from home, but most of the time you’ll eat out and waste money. It’s a typical “food” day today, meaning there is absolutely nothing to eat. I have with me here one banana and a bottle of water. The fridge is empty, but hey, maybe there is something in the freezer for me. There is! It’s a small box and it’s a Marie Callender’s Chicken Pot Pie. It looks so good, even if it’s just a box. The only bad thing is, it’s not mine, it is my roommates.

Luckily, he is nice enough to let me eat the last one. As I microwave it I can already smell every single ingredient in the pot pie. I take it out and completely destroy it. Have you ever noticed how the best part of any pie is the pie crust? Man, the pie-crust on the pot pie was amazing. It’s probably made of a puff pastry or something; it’s ridiculously flaky (in a good way).

This is where the light-bulb went off. This is where I told myself “Wow, I think chicken pot pies are my favorite food to eat”. There is just something about the chicken pot pie. Maybe that’s why it has the label ‘comfort food’. It’s just as portable as a pizza, but it offers so much more. Every single ingredient put into chicken pot-pies are perfectly made for one another. Potatoes, vegetables, chicken, gravy, PIE-CRUST…WOW. I’m sold. I’m going to make my own.

There’s a web-site I always go to for my recipes: recipezaar.com. The recipes offered here are guaranteed to be amazing. The recipe looked relatively simple, and lucky for me I had almost every ingredient that I needed. A quick stop at the grocery store is all I need. I bought myself a bag of potatoes, pie crusts, half & half, and chicken broth. I had frozen vegetables and chicken at home already. Ready to cook!

The entire process was fairly simple and straightforward. The hardest part with the chicken pot pie was perfecting the gravy. All you had to do for the potatoes were peel them and cut them into chunks. For the chicken, I baked four chicken thighs at 475F for 40 minutes. They came out great. I cooked the onion, potatoes, frozen veggies together with some butter. Then I added the half & half along wit hteh chicken broth to create the sauce. You let it boil so that it's allowed to thicken. Add the chicken, and stir. Then you pour the mixture into the pie-crust. First-time around it was too thick, second-time around it was perfect. A funny story goes with the ‘first-time around’ though. I finished what goes inside the pie and I poured it into the pie crust. I guess the mixture was too hot, making the foil pan warm and forcing it to be a little flimsy. As I am carrying the completed pie to the oven, the entire thing just collapses on me and I drop the whole pie onto the ground. I should’ve taken a picture of it, it was such a sad sight. I was really bummed out, but I had extra of both mixture and pie so I made another one. Hey, you learn from your mistakes. Baked it for around 45 minutes at 375F and....voila!


Sorry, crappy phone picture.

It was delicious. After making it for the first time, I re-bought whatever I needed at the end of the week and made two more. One for me, and I personally delivered the other to a few good friends. They loved it!

Hmmm, I’m going to try to tie this in with Tampopo, however, it sounds impossible now. But I actually did grab ramen at a ramen shop back at home on the weekend after watching the film. I ordered the signature ramen bowl. The cool thing is that my friend works there as a waiter and usually hooks me up with free food!

Italian Food = Pasta = Yummy

Our first film was Ratatouille. I’ve actually seen this movie before, but who hasn’t? It was actually very entertaining to say the least. I’m not entirely sure who I saw the movie with when it was released. I think I took a girl out to see it with me. I don’t remember much about what I thought of it, though. The one thing I do remember saying is that it was too long, however, I didn’t feel this way after watching it for the class.

It’s funny talking about these animated films. I feel like one day we really won’t even need actors anymore. Animated movies are becoming ridiculously realistic now. Anyways, back on track.

After watching Ratatouille, I had a real craving for Italian food. I wasn’t about to go to Olive Garden and drop $20 though. Don’t get me wrong, Olive Garden is delicious. But don’t you ever notice how after you heat up your leftovers there’s that gross layer of grease at the bottom of your bowl? This is why I decided I would cook again this week.

This week’s attempt is much more sporadic in a sense. I’m not really sure how to create a pasta dish, but I figured I would give it a shot. What do I have in my refrigerator? It’s funny, this is what I always ask myself when I’m about to cook something. I went through the list, in my head:

• Pasta (big tubey ones)
• CHEESE (a big block of cheddar)
• Frozen Veggies (5 lb bag)
• Chicken (I love chicken)
• Onion (I’m immune to crying)
• Tomatoes (not a big fan)
• Garlic (THE BEST)

Ok, I guess I’ll make something out of this. I decided to sauté the onion, tomatoes, garlic, and frozen veggies. I baked the chicken, and after it was cooked, took it out and shred it up into shredded chicken. I threw that into the pan.
Cooked the pasta, poured that into the pan, and mixed everything together. I poured it into this big..I don’t know what to call it. Bowl? Box bowl? And then I shredded a whole bunch of cheddar cheese on top of it. Broil!

This was my final product. It was a little on the dry side (obviously because I didn’t make any sauce), but man it was surprisingly good! I guess it was good because every ingredient was just a good ingredient. I mean, there wasn’t much experimentation going on. What I did was straightforward. It turned out pretty nice. I would’ve liked the pasta to be a little smaller, but the big tubey ones were all I had. I decided I would share with my roommates! They liked it. Or maybe they were lying.