midweek gems #6

Vietnam food safety & hotels, no-peel ginger in 7 recipes, your Carolina tips?

Hello there!

A number of you have been tapping your keyboards in the PTFS chat threads. Mitchell, Candace, Mary, and Anna zoomed in on the Shira Ae tofu salad. It’s a breeze to make with the versatile dressing recipe. Mary double downed on it!

As a follow-up to last Sunday’s dispatch on Hanoi travel tips, we’ve been trading ideas on how to navigate food safety issues in Vietnam. Joan, Naomi, and Jack offered excellent advice on finding good eats that won’t do much harm aside from making you over indulge. Check out the thread and weigh in.

Chat FAQ: What am I chirping about?

PTFS chats allow subscribers to casually discuss topics that are related or tangential to the dispatches.

• All subscribers can use the chat to post comments, photos, and videos. You can only do text on dispatches like this one.

• If you are a paid PTFS subscriber — the header in this email identifies your status — start a new chat! Ask a question, share an observation, and/or post a photo or video. I will be notified and everyone gets to comment too.

💎 Travel: Where to stay in Vietnam

In the recent travel chat thread, Richard recommended a certain hotel. There are many to choose from. As you’re looking for options, know that Agoda.com is fine for booking hotels. It’s akin to Expedia.

That said, cross-reference with the hotel website because you may find an equally good deal. If you book with the hotel directly, it may be easier to tweak your reservation as plans change.

There are many apartment hotels in Vietnam but in Hanoi’s charming Truc Bach neighborhood, I got an Airbnb. It was a fine self-service apartment for our needs. Same day laundry service turned out to be included too. And, you get to connect better locals, too.

💎 Seasonal: Young ginger + 7 recipes

Around this time last year, I wrote about easy prep baby ginger and a gingery noodle dish recipe (below, center). Did you get your paws on some? Whether you did or not, it’s a spring and autumn ingredient.

Earlier this week, I scored baby (young) ginger delivered to my door — by Weee! It was my first time with the grocery delivery service. You’ll likely find young ginger at Ranch 99 and other Chinese markets, or ‘international’ markets. Selecting it in person is best but if you can’t, consider something like Weee.

Aside from noodles, what else can you do with young baby ginger? If you’re like me, you’ll get a handful and want to indulge. To preserve the season, make pickled ginger. If you have lingering pickled ginger, do something to use it up.

Pickled ginger recipes to check out:

• Chinese pickled ginger offers sweet heat and uses regular white vinegar for great results

• Japanese pickled ginger (gari) recipe has tangy heat

• Panfried tofu with pickled ginger (👉 use this PTFS panfried tofu method to coax more umami from the tofu)

• Pickled ginger and chicken salad

Can you use baby ginger to replace regular/mature ginger? Definitely go for it, and know that you don’t have to be ginger about it. 😆 Go wild and use lots because it’s gentle ginger. Plus, ginger aids digestion, is an anti-inflammation food, and benefits you in many other ways.

To illustrate subbing young for old ginger:

• For a Cambodian-style gingery chicken stir-fry that requires 4 ounces of mature ginger, use 5 ounces of baby ginger. Fry it a little shy of brown because it has more moisture than mature ginger.

• In my handy Gingery Sesame Salad Dressing, you need 1 1/2 teaspoons grated (mature) ginger. Use 2 to 3 teaspoons of grated baby ginger. Add more if you like the extra punch. Taste as you go along.

💎 Your finds in Charleston and Raleigh?

Next week, we’ll be in South and North Carolina. Charleston and Raleigh will be our temporary home bases. Got insights on local flavors? We’re looking forward to exploring Charleston’s historical sites and lowcountry cooking. In Raleigh, we’ll mostly be in the hands of the Southern Foodways Alliance’s annual symposium. We will have a car!

I’d love your insights via comments or in the chat. Thanks in advance.

On the docket for this coming Sunday Special is an under-the-radar place in Vietnam that not many people are going to — yet.