Hanoi styled spring roll in Movenpick Hotel- Photos: Huu Khoa
Vietnamese cuisine
promotion is still sporadic and scattered
* You have shared in your
book that you love cooking because it is a passion that your grandmother gave
you. What dish from your family do you still love to do and remember all of recipes?
It
is “Cơm rượu Gò Công” which is
different from “Cơm rượu” made in
other provinces. It is cut into beautiful square shapes and carefully pressed.
I still remember every time my family had a feast; everyone gathered to
remember someone on their death anniversary, and my grandmother would usually
ask me when I will make “Cơm rượu”
and “Xôi vò” - sticky rice cooked
with green bean.
“Cơm rượu” has to be made three to four
days in advance. The sticky rice has to be special rice called “Nếp ngỗng” which is long, has a milky
white color and is not too old. After that we will clean the rice and dip it in
warm water for three to four hours. We put in the water a little pandan leaves
to have good smell. After that we will steam the sticky rice twice. The first
time we have to cook the rice only about 80% done. Here the rice seed becomes
transparent, but it still hard. The rice is then wrapped with a piece of
fabric, then the bundle is dipped into salty water, then spun with a chopstick
until the liquid leaves the rice. You continue to reduce until the water in the
rice has nearly dried then, put it back into the pot and cook until well done.
It is then compressed by a heavy object on a flat and square surface for two
hours. Then you put yeast rice on top of the sticky rice, which should be
produced in Sa Dec province - considered as the most suitable to make this
dish.
The
knife used to cut the sticky rice must be dipped in very concentrated salty
water. After cutting into small and square pieces you will use banana leaves to
wrap them then put them into a steamer. It must be closed very tight. My
grandmother sometimes used a new blanket to wrap the whole steamer to make sure
there no air escapes or enters, and put the wholes steamer and blanket into our
family’s rice store. After three days we take the steamer out and it has an
incredible aroma. Then we take the sticky rice out and put them into a ceramic
bowl and pour the accompanying juice into the bowl, where it is kept another
day before eating.
At
that time I didn’t know about the yeast rice, but after I went to university I
knew that yeast rice doesn’t work if it comes into contact with air. That is
why we have to put the whole steamer into the rice store, and it is important
to have a constant temperature. If not the process of turning sugar into wine
won’t be done properly. I also often wonder how our ancestors knew how to use
microbiology to make “Cơm rượu” or
fish sauce, soya cheese, etc. though they never studied at any school or
university.
*In your career as
a professional chef do you have any memory about any dish that you remember the
most, which is not only interesting but also worth for us to think of as useful
lesson?
It
is about the trip to Hong Kong to cook in a 5-star hotel, the Marco Polo
Gateway Hotel. I went with Chef Sang, deputy chef of De Nhat hotel and Mrs.
Trang, head chef of Ky Hoa. Because we carried so many things I decided not to
take sticky rice with me, but thought to buy it there. Although I was worried a
little bit because when you fry sticky rice you need to select the sticky rice
carefully. If it is too new then sticky rice won’t be full-blown, and if it is
too old then sticky rice will be hard when you fry it.
We
didn’t check the list of 60 dishes which will be divided to cook per day until
we have arrived in Hong Kong. Although it is still not yet the day of making
the full-blown sticky rice, but we practiced first to ensure no accidents. I
asked Chef Sang to try to make it and check if it could be done properly with
the rice that we bought in Hong Kong. We didn’t inform anyone about this and
intended to do within our team, but finally everybody knew and brought their
camera to record what we were doing. Fortunately the sticky rice was
full-blown.
When
we were in Vietnam the sticky rice was full-blown about 80% but it was 100%
when we did it in Hong Kong. All the guests were there at that day gave us a
big clap. I went to check the store and saw that it was a bag of sticky rice
imported from Thailand. Normally Thai sticky rice is very clammy, but
fortunately this bag must be old and so it had less sticky liquid within the
rice. After that the organizing committee and Marco Polo Gateway Hotel decided
not to cut the ribbon for the opening ceremony but we made four sticky rice
balloons, then put the ribbon around the balloon and the organizing committee
cut the four sticky balloons to start the food festival week.
* In your opinion, what
should we do to improve Vietnamese cuisine in the point of view of
international tourists or visitors and up-grade the position of Vietnamese
cuisine on the international map?
Our
cuisine has strong nutritional value, which is good for our health. There are
four groups of food that considered as good for health and all of them are
already included in Vietnamese food. Our advantage is having diverse weather
and a long coast, so seafood resources are very abundant. There are many ethnic
minorities, so there are many unique and interesting combinations of food among
these regions. Other chefs from other countries used to tell me that Vietnam
should have a government sponsored promotional program like Thailand has done.
The
promotion of Vietnamese cuisine is still sporadic currently. When I introduce
food I see that most diners are very surprised. Why? Because they know only two
dishes like “Phở” and spring-roll. The food presentation is also very important
because if we want to present at the international level the dish should be
simplified and convenient to eat, but also has to be appealing. Chefs also need
to be trained officially and professionally; not only learning from experiences
of previous chefs, at home or at the shop where they are working. I find it a
pity that Vietnam doesn’t have a Food Institute to display and preserve all
typical dishes of the 54 ethnic groups.
Mr.
Philip Kotler, father of world marketing used to say that Vietnam won’t become
a kitchen of the world. It has been five years already since he had a comment
about Vietnamese cuisine, but we haven’t done a museum for Vietnamese folk
cuisine. We just need to collect cooking tools or kitchen equipment and recipes
of all ethnic minorities. Many other countries have done this so is it really
too difficult for Vietnam to follow?
Theo Cat Khue
Tuổi
trẻ