Mmm simple Vietnamese garlic fried rice (Com Chien Toi Trung) with fried shrimp!

Super simple, I even bought pre-cooked/peeled shrimp for this and fried it in Annatto sesame oil for that dark sunset orange shrimp 🍤 color!

The secret to get that extra yellow, eggy color and taste is to mix in one raw egg with your cold day old rice prior to frying up the rice. I also like partially scrambling eggs separately as well for those bigger egg chunks in your fried rice! Mmmm

This is popular traditional Vietnamese dish, thịt nuong, is one tasty grilled pork! NOM NOM NOM

And, since it’s finally warmer out- throwing these on a grill gets those perfect charred marks and a more smoky flavor. When my parents wanted an easy dinner this was often served with just rice and a side of my parents fish dipping sauce, Nuoc Mam Cham (see recipe for dip below).

*Fun fact- even though I’m Vietnamese American, I can’t speak Vietnamese but I can understand it almost fluently. Part of my food journey is not only to document all my parents recipes, but also learn how to properly pronounce these dishes and learn a little background on the dishes.

Salt and pepper crab (cua ran muoi) is one of the most visually appealing and popular dishes in Vietnam. It’s like finger licking good- the crab is first deep fried in a light flour batter then tossed with roasted salt and pepper, jalepenos and green scallions.

Every year in during the first week of August we would take a trip to Carthage, MO for Marian Days which is a big pilgrimage & festival for tens of thousands Vietnamese American Roman Catholics. There would be dozens and dozens of tents from all over the US with food vendors and they would serve the BEST Vietnamese foods. One of the favorites for us kids were banh mi sandwiches.

A warm crispy baguette is filled with meat (usually pork), pate, cilantro, pickled carrots and daikon, jalepenos, and lightly slathered in mayo with a few dashes of Maggi! My favorite was always the BBQ pork (Xa Xiu).

Vietnamese red roasted bbq pork. Known as Xa Xiu in Vietnamese or Char Siu in Cantonese, these are traditionally used in Banh Mi sandwiches and egg noodle dishes. I love them with a sticky and charred outside as if they were smoked on a bbq grill. MMMM nom nom nom

This taro soup is a homestyle comfort food that dad used to cook all the time at home when we were kids. Typically at our dinner table there was almost always a soup to accompany our meat/fish dish. This soup was always one of my favorites because of the soft, sweet, and unique taste and texture of the taro potatoes.

These crispy air fried Vietnamese fish sauce chicken wings are savory and finger licking good! Nom Nom Nom…

If anyone knows me, I hate soggy wings, rather I like my wings crispy and dipped into a sauce. I adapted my parents recipe to be a more of a dry oil rub served with a fish dipping sauce. Typically the dry rub is just dry ingredients, then it’s tossed in a honey/fish sauce glaze but today I’m cutting the sweetness and opting for something a little saltier and savory.

So I did something!  I combined two of my favorite things, a Banh Mi sandwich and a hamburger mashed into one!

This Banh Mi inspired burger is oozing with a homemade Maggi cilantro mayo/aoili, a Maggi seasoned beef patty, fresh jalapeños, cilantro, cucumbers, and pickled daikon & carrots sandwiched between a hot, buttered brioche bun!

In Vietnamese this is known as Mỡ Hành. This simple garnish is simply made with lightly fried green scallions and is often served with traditional Vietnamese dishes.

Vietnamese shaking beef, steak tips, steak salad aka Thit Bo Luc Lac!We didn’t have much steak growing up but this Vietnamese steak 🥩 salad was something I always loved! They call it shaking beef because you chop up top sirloin in 1” cubes and shake it in a pan until it’s nice and dark around the edges.

Today after 15 days of reminiscent childhood foods and good feastings, Lunar New Year celebrations officially come to an end.Pictured above is Bánh Chưng, a traditional Vietnamese food eaten during Lunar New Year (Tết) 🇻🇳 and is made from glutinous rice (aka sticky rice), mung beans, pork belly that is tightly wrapped in aromatic phrynium or banana leaves.

This is popular traditional Vietnamese dish, bún thịt nướng, is a tasty combination of grilled pork, vermicelli rice noodles, fresh veggies & herbs, and serviced with a side of fish dipping sauce, Nuoc Mam Cham.

The secret here is the honey in the pork. It adds a touch of sweetness and helps caramelize the pork.