My 89-Year-Old Mom's Podcast Debut
+ La Lot Leaf Lowdown + Beef in La Lot recipes
For over sixty years, my mom walked a few steps behind my dad. He was a former lieutenant colonel in the South Vietnamese Army and provincial governor. Despite retiring from the military in 1963, he continued to lead. My mom, Clara Nguyễn Thị Tuyết, understood that she was the core part of his army of one.
According to Vietnamese etiquette, she formally went by bác (elder) Hoàng (my dad’s first name). American clients of her tailoring business called her Mrs. Hoàng. That was the name on her business card. To close Vietnamese friends and family members, she was cô/chị (auntie/older sister) Tuyết.
After my dad passed in 2021, I asked, “What name do you want to go by?”
She thought for a few minutes and said she preferred Clara Nguyễn Thị Tuyết. That combined “Clara” (her baptismal name and citizenship first name) with how her name is traditionally presented in Vietnamese (family name + middle name + first name). In Ever-Green Vietnamese, I present her as Clara Nguyễn Thị Tuyết.
Vietnamese culture and food are full of personalizations, dualities, and fuzziness. The country and its people have been pushed around, and they’ve pushed back too. At the end of the day, it’s about having self-determination, something that we can all line up behind.
The name issue came up again, when
invited me and my mom to do a podcast conversation for . Kerri is among the editors of the newsletter, and also went to high school with my oldest sisters in San Clemente, where we grew up.Mom didn’t know what a podcast was until I explained it to her.
“What do I have to say? It’s radio but not live?” she said. You have a lot to say. It is not live radio so you can mess up, be more relaxed.
“Are they coming to the house?” she continued. “It was so much work and I was always nervous when you did the magazine stories and photographers came here.”
No one comes to the house for this. We just have to look nice from the waist up.
“Ok, I will do it because I want to help you in your career. If you are here with me, I know I will be okay,” she said.
Yay! I reported back to Kerri, who politely asked how Mom want to be addressed.
‘Clara’ is fine, Mom firmly said.
If my dad were still alive, he would have recorded this podcast conversation with me. But Clara Nguyễn Thị Tuyết, 89, stepped up to the plate.
The night before taping the podcast recording, she said, “What are you wearing?”
A nice t-shirt. Clara ironed a blue silk blouse she’d sewn for herself. As always, she had her makeup on and did her fancy traditional Viet lady hair.
Listen to the podcast with Kerri and Mark and cook a recipe from the book here:
After we finished, Mom said, “I’m glad that’s done. Let’s have lunch.” She quickly changed out of her nice blouse and we cooked.
That day I made one of Mom’s favorites from Ever-Green Vietnamese — beef and tofu la lot rolls (bò nướng lá lốt, page 259). Mom bookmarked the page in her copy of the book because she adores the new and better recipe that I came up with for the filling. It’s moist and flavorful, always perfect, she said.
Lá Lốt Leaf Lowdown
What is the deal with lá lốt? It’s a highly fragrant leaf that’s favored in Vietnam, Thailand, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Viet folks enjoy it cooked but Thai folks love it in raw form. The leaf releases an incense like, warm aroma when heated and a peppery, spicy flavor when chewed.
For decades, I bought the leaf during the warmer months from Vietnamese, Chinese-Viet, Thai and Cambodian markets. Now I’ve also been growing my own for the last three years (I buy plants from Etsy and Viet markets in Little Saigon). Here’s a video I made of the leaf in my garden and at the store, plus how I make bò nướng lá lốt.
My go-to, best lá lốt recipe is on page 259 of Ever-Green Vietnamese. From that recipe, note the following:
Having lá lốt leaf makes for the Viet ultimate experience. But, you can do without the leaf and still have a great meal.
Instead of ground beef, use ground pork (northern Viet style), chicken, turkey, lamb or a ground beef sub like Impossible Foods (this is one of the few times when I’m into alt meat).
Online tips for sourcing and rehydrating the bánh hỏi fine rice noodles (a popular accompaniment and what I call for in the recipe) are here.
If you don’t yet have the book, use the recipe at the website (it is good but not my best version). For paid subscribers, I’m sharing the Ever-Green Vietnamese bò nướng lá lốt filling recipe below in both text and PDF formats.
