Hello friend!
Mushrooms are not just fungi, they're fun, they're au courant. Who says? The culture observers did and do. I've been spotting mushroom t-shirts, posters and other artwork. A food photographer recently published a gorgeous cookbook on mushrooms! When we shot the photos for Ever-Green Vietnamese, I made sure to have a compelling photo of mushrooms.
That said, cooks often have questions about shiitake mushrooms – how to buy them, if fresh is an ok substitute and how to rehydrate them well. I recently went to a food event and one of the dishes served feature a lot of poorly rehydrated shiitake mushrooms. They were hard and chewy, though they looked good. My friend asked me why, I responded that they just were not well rehydrated. Pondering that incident, I got to work on soaking, chopping, writing and videoing a new blog post on how to buy, soak, and prep dried shiitake mushrooms. (The article is an update on what I've written in the past. I hope you find it useful. If I didn't cover something, let me know!)
Getting Ready for Thanksgiving
We're going to have an early Thanksgiving with my Mom this year. On her menu is a family favorite – chao boi, a special seafood porridge with shrimp, crab, and chicken. Mom's been making the porridge for decades and we never tire of it. I recently shared a recipe for chao boi in the November issue of Food and Wine magazine. If you don't get the publication, my chao (porridge) recipe is online, along with stories and recipes from four other families that celebrate the holiday in somewhat unconventional, non-traditional ways. The feature article includes Hawaiian celebrations involving ginger-ponzu salmon poke, a Mexican family's vegan posole rojo, an Indigenous chef's roasted sweet potato and maple chile crisp, and a Korean American author's absolutely delicious cheesy scallion sourdough bread dressing.
I never thought I'd get to write about Thanksgiving because my family's celebration is far from being a picture perfect ideal. I doubt that my parents knew who Norman Rockwell was. Our dressing was sticky rice, not a bready affair. When Food and Wine asked me to write about non-traditional Thanksgivings, I was oddly expert in the subject. If you check out the recipe links I included above, do read the stories too. The excellent dishes are as important as the human stories attached to them.
For dessert options, F&W has lots of pie recipes too. But in your planning, do review Genevieve Ko's nine Thanksgiving pie recipes at the New York Times. They are spectacular and there's a custard pie inspired by Cantonese dan tat (egg tart).
In the Bay Area, the San Francisco Chronicle culture and restaurant critic Soleil Ho recently wrote about a Viet bakery that makes beautiful laminate dough (puff pastry) for its meat-filled banh pate so. California Bakery is on the west side of town and you can get donuts and banh mi but I'd go for the pate so. And if you want the Bay Area's round up of bakeries, the paper has you covered with this listing of the best bakeries.
A Recap and Some Encouraging Ideas
Here are few Viet World Kitchen posts for your consideration:
Shiitake Guide: How to buy, soak and prep the 'shrooms
I loaded this new post with tips to help you make the most of the super umami ingredient.
Rich Vegetarian Sticky Rice Dressing
I could eat the dressing on its own.Roast Chicken with Curry Leaf
Who needs turkey? Use different herbs (thyme, lime leaf, etc.) if curry leaf isn't handy.How to Spatchcock (Butterfly) a Chicken or Turkey
Yes, it involves practicing CPR, of sorts.
Hope those ideas seed tasty ideas in your kitchen!