Midweek check in: Ever-Green Vietnamese Free Zoom Class

+ IRL event updates + SF dim sum tip

Hello there!

I don’t typically write midweek but wanted to remind you to sign up for tomorrow’s EGV cooking class. It’s FREE for anyone who has the book in hand, has it on order, or getting it as part of an event ticket. PTFS Found Members can also sign up for the class. I’ll be Zooming from my kitchen about rice paper, demo a recipe, and answer as many questions as possible in the 1-hour session.

The class and bonus recipes are my way of thanking you for supporting Ever-Green Vietnamese. Registration ends tonight at midnight PST so submit your purchasing information by clicking here.

I will email the Zoom link and information tomorrow morning. If you can’t attend, a recording link will be emailed to all registrants.

Don’t have Ever-Green Vietnamese yet?

If online retailers are for you, the book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart and many others -- wherever books are sold! But, consider the limited number of signed books available at:

• Omnivore Books on Food (SF)

• Bold Fork Books (D.C.)

• Kitchen Arts and Letters (NYC) is discounting the book for Cook Issues podcast members

• Burlap and Barrel Spices (online only) is offering PTSF members a free set of their excellent kitchen towels. So, along with the book, add the kitchen towel to your cart. At checkout apply this code: ANDREA-NGUYEN

Pre-order a copy from Book Larder (Seattle) and I’ll sign it next week when I’m in town! The Book Larder event sold out but you can order a copy for me to sign.

And, if you attended the dinner at Banh NYC or Saigon Social, or will be attending the sold out Ba Bar Green dinner next week, you’re eligible too for the class too. (I’ve never had to type “sold out” before for any of my events so it’s strangely awkward and wonderful.)

Event Updates

Last weekend’s Center for Asian American Media Festival was splendid. Remarkably, the warm sun came out in San Francisco and I didn’t need to wear a jacket! San Francisco Chronicle and Beard Award-Winning journalist Soleil Ho and I had an amazing conversation about Vietnamese food culture, including the many facets of cultural appropriation and culinary authenticity, vegan fish sauce creation, plus how to write good recipes! If you’d like to have these kinds of conversations at PTFS, let me know in comments. Eastwind Books (the oldest Asian American bookshop in the nation) sold out of EGV(!). People stood in line patiently and some brought their “pandemic” copies of Vietnamese Food Any Day for me to sign too. More film festivals are including food and I’m thrilled.

After the book event, Soleil (the former SF Chronicle’s restaurant critic) suggested lunch at Osmanthus Dim Sum Lounge on the outskirts of Chinatown. It was the best dim sum experience I’ve had in a long time. Don’t miss the low-key sounding but ethereal baked Chinese barbecue pork bun (below). Overall, Osmanthus’s dumplings were made on human scale (not too big) and you savored the dough as much as the filling; both are important in dim sum for the dumplings to shine. Osmanthus refers to a plant, whose flowers are similar to Elderflowers (the Woks of Life website has a great write up).

Where else will be I heading on the tour? This is what remains in on my calendar, with one tweak to Los Angeles — the Now Serving book signing was moved to Thursday, June 22 (it was on Father’s Day and the shop owners forgot to black out that date). Chef Minh Phan of Phenakite and Porridge + Puffs in Los Angeles and I are discussing an event that I’ll announce soon.

MAY

• Zoom, 5/18, Early-Bird Bonus Cooking Class (5/17 registration deadline)

• Seattle, 5/23, Book Larder, demo + signing (sold out, but you can order signed books)

• Seattle, 5/24, Ba Bar Green, community dinner + signing (sold out)

• SF, 5/30, Commonwealth Club, talk with Rachel Khong + signing

JUNE

• Oakland/Rockridge, 6/3, Market Hall

• Santa Cruz, 6/13, Bookshop SC, talk

• Los Angeles, 6/22, Now Serving, talk (event link to come)

Coming up on Sunday . . .

I’m working on something about MSG, which is now considered beneficial to health. Stay tuned for the weekend dispatch!