Good Eats in Philly and Mississippi and Homecoming Cooking

+ Tender, Low-Gassiness Bean tips + Viet Herb Tote Update

Hello PTFSers! I’m back home from visiting the East Coast and the South. If you haven’t been in airports lately, they are crowded with business travelers and families. “Few people have regular work and school schedules anymore,” my husband quipped as we tried to make it through the 3:30pm crowds at the Charlotte, NC, airport.

We’d flown in from Philadelphia, where I had just done two collaborative dinners with Vietnamese American chefs — Carolyn Nguyen and Thanh Nguyen. They cooked and riffed on recipes from Ever-Green Vietnamese adding their own creative touches. For example, Carolyn used the book’s chicken, mushroom and ginger in caramel sauce as a tamale filling. She also paired EGV’s Viet mocha cake with her tres leches ice cream.

The chef and owner of Revolution Taco, Carolyn skillfully melds Mexican and Vietnamese flavors and traditions. Classically trained in French and Italian cooking, she runs a calm, professional kitchen. She is small in stature and felt like a steel rod when I hugged her. She’s tough and talented, yet shy about public speaking. Carolyn (top row, in center wearing apron) surprised me by saying, “I’ve learned a lot about Vietnamese food from Andrea’s cookbooks.” (I blushed like a ripe 🍅.)

Philly likes Vietnamese food and community. Second, center is chef Thanh and her mom! I got to meet Gail, who I know from my website and now PTFS For about 20 years but we never met in person.

Thanh (second row, center) owns Gabriella’s Vietnam in Passyunk, near the Little Saigon neighborhood and historic Italian market area. She shared that she was a biochemist who was so unhappy in her trained profession that she quit to cook professionally. She had no training or experience and works tirelessly like Carolyn. Her parents were disappointed but now support her by watching her children and helping out with the cooking. Gabriella’s is often mentioned in top restaurant lists, including the New York Times’ recent best 25 restaurants (free gift link). Whereas Carolyn takes a fresh and modern approach to cross cultural cooking, Thanh presents more traditional dishes. Her staff is mostly Vietnamese whereas Carolyn’s is diverse.

When I started writing cookbooks in the dinosaur age 20 years ago, Viet chefs didn’t do collaborations with me. Now, there are more Vietnamese Americans who are helming their own operations. Theirs are often small, with financial and staffing struggles — they can’t afford to hire a general manager or front of the house manager. They don’t do social media in a savvy manner. However, the food is good, they are genuinely hospitable.

Other Philly Spots

We were in Philly for four full days and got around.

Kalaya is the talk of Philly right now. It’s a lovely Thai restaurant that’s part of a local restaurant group. Chef owner Chutatip "Nok" Suntaranon works the room like a pro; she’s a former flight attendant. She recently went from a 39-seat joint to a 140-seat restaurant, which has been stressful, she said. I suggest the goat curry, steamed deboned branzino and grilled prawn. It’s a buzzy spot right now so make a reservation.

Kalaya fish, High Street dinner, wonton project breakfast.

High Street Restaurant and Bakery and the Wonton Project are at the corner of Chestnut and Ninth Street. Beard Award winner and co-owner Ellen Yin just celebrated her 26th year in business as one of the best restaurateurs in Philly. Her restaurants are solid in terms of service and the food balances salt, sweet, tart, and richness — an uncommon feat. High Street focuses on whole and local grains so you eat inventive, delicious food that won’t weigh you down. Ellen’s wonton project partly benefits initiatives to combat Asian hate. The wontons are wonderful and currently you can order online or at the bakery. I ate the plump steamed dumplings served in light broth for breakfast.

Reading Terminal Market in Center City is a sprawling area full of vendors representing some of the best in local food and ingredients. There are Amish vendors in one area, Italians in another, Chinese spots in a few, and well-priced butcher shops and produce vendors too. On the weekends, the market is packed with people, especially at midday so go early — around 10 or 11am, or later in the midafternoon, when the market is less busy and you can take it all in.

We skipped eating at Reading Terminal Market because Chinatown was just a few minutes away. I love how Philly presents the diversity of Americana.

I visited one of Chinatown’s bustling markets and was impressed with the range of fresh Asian produce sold (celtuce for $1.69 a pound!) and fresh seafood, including Chinese mitten crab that are imported from the Shanghai region and hard to find in America.

Reading Terminal Market and Chinatown within walking distance of each other!

For lunch, we chose Sang Kee Peking Duck House and had the Peking duck with pancakes, gailan (Chinese broccoli) with wine sauce, and wonton and vegetable soup. It was a cold, drizzly day so the meal warmed us up.

Philly’s Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park was a standout. It happens seasonally in what was formerly a golf course, Ellen Yin told me. The vendors are professional and organized. Most are Cambodian or Laotian, with multi-generations working together. You can buy fried, wokked, or grilled snacks plus fermented fish, produce, and toys. Cambodian pop music plays from speakers. The vendors are friendly and the food is good. The best things I ate?

• Hor mok — Cambodian steamed fish in curry

• Green papaya salad vendors will pound your salad to order

• Fried sesame balls filled with mung beans

• Grilled bananas with coconut sticky rice

  

  

  A few of many highlights from the Southeast Asian Market in FDR park

Philly’s Little Saigon is on Washington and the nerve center is well stocked and tidy Hung Vuong market. A few blocks away is Ba Le bakery and deli where you can pick up crusty, light baguettes and banh mi.

Did I eat a Philly cheesesteak sandwich? I tried one at the Geno’s airport outpost. It was alright, with onion, provolone and hot sauce. Next time, I’ll go to Geno’s in town (or try the turkey or pork sandwiches at Reading Terminal).

Mississippi

Why go to the Deep South? Because it’s fascinating. I’m the current advisory board president of the Southern Foodways Alliance, a nonprofit that examines the Old and New South, in all its beautiful and not-so-beautiful glory. We talk about race, commonalities and differences, along with what is shaping the modern South, and to a certain degree, the rest of the country. At the annual weekend symposium in Oxford, MS, got to meet up with friends and acquaintances, such as Susan and Chris, who subscribe to PTFS.

Susan, Chris and me; City Grocery's shrimp and grits; stuffed crab at the SFA symposium, Chad Newton and Gracie Nguyen from East Side Banh mi in Nashville

What to eat? Lots. The symposium always features top chefs from the South, who prepare things like the stuff crab (above) for 250 people! When I ate out, I had outstanding meals at City Grocery and Snackbar, part of John Currence’s restaurant group. They are reliably delicious with well considered modern touches. The Gulf shrimp and grits at City Grocery was our dinner and lunch the next day. Vish Bhatt helms Snackbar so there are South Asian ideas melded with those of the deep South. Try Vish’s green tomato pie recipe that I made from his award-winning cookbook.

On the way back to the Memphis airport, we detoured to Home Place Pastures for a well made lunch of shaved beef atop a shredded wedge salad, barbecue sandwiches, plus black-eyed peas and rice. All the meat is raised by the farm. I’d skip the egg rolls next time.

Home Place Pastures interior and food

Homecoming Cooking

After being on the road for 9 days, I looked forward to my own cooking. It’s cozy cooking time so I soaked then simmered up a pot of Italian butter beans. Cooking them stovetop allows me to monitor progress better than in the Instant Pot or other kind of pressure cooker. The beans I used were locally grown and kinda pricey so I wanted to treat them with care.

Tender, creamy bean tips: Soak dried beans with salt (1 to 1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt per 4 cups water) to help make their skins tender and their flesh flavorful. If I add baking soda to the soaking water too, I use the smaller amount of salt and about 1/2 tsp of soda per 4 cups water. Salt and baking soda both tenderize the beans and prevent them from bursting during cooking. After soaking, drain and rinse the beans before cooking.

Cooking beans with kombu and/or ginger add flavor and mitigate gassiness. I also lightly salt the pot for extra flavor.

What did I do with the beans? I made one of my favorite dishes from Ever-Green Vietnamese — a five-spiced mushroomy stew with lemongrass, star anise, ginger, and tomato. It’s a vegetarian/vegan take on classic bo kho beef stew. You don’t miss the meat because bo kho’s defining flavors come from vegetables. One of my recipe testers reported that a friend said the stew tasted like the beefy rendition he’d had at a restaurant! That’s validation for the many rounds it took to get the flavor just right!

The Bo Kho-style Mushroom and Bean Stew recipe on page 224 uses canned white beans but any similar kind of bean will do, whether you’re cooking them up yourself or not. And, as the recipe Note says, cook up 8 ounces of dried beans to get the same amount as canned. For dried shiitake mushroom buying tips, watch the Ever-Green Vietnamese Zoom book talk recording!

Viet Herb Tote Update

I put a rush order on them and they’re suppose to arrive next week. Stay tuned!