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).

Sauerkraut is super easy to make and it’s only two ingredients, cabbage and salt! I added garlic and siracha just to add a little asian kick but this recipe is perfect just plain!

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!

How anti-Asian sentiment has exploded, but the East has made some of your favorite things.

It would be impossible for us to claim we’re all about good living, love, or being the best you can be, and then go silent when uncomfortable things and injustices take place. This past year has become an inflection point for so many things. Political upheaval, social injustice, healthcare, our economy, and all of this just scratches the surface.

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.

Growing up my mom enjoyed cooking Italian foods while my father did all the Vietnamese foods. These meatless “meat”-balls are amazing and tastes just as good if not even better than real meatballs. It doesn’t seem like it now but I was a vegetarian for over 10 years so I love a good plant based meal every once in a while!

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.