Banh Xeo - Waaaaaay yummy!!!

Tonight we made banh xeo for dinner. It's one of my favourite Vietnamese foods. Banh xeo is a pancake made with rice flour and turmeric. Its filled with prawns, pork and bean shoots. To eat it, you add fresh herbs and wrap small pieces of pancake in lettuce leaves. Most people dip it in fish sauce with sliced chillies. I'm a bit of a chilli wuss, so I eat mine with sweet chilli sauce. The crispy edges are the best bit.

 You can buy ready-made banh xeo mix in most Asian supermarkets.

Tonight we used a packet of coconut milk powder but I usually use canned coconut milk. I like my bean sprouts crispy so I add them after the pancake is cooked. Some people add them during cooking.

The finished product. Very delicious. So you can enjoy them too, here's the recipe. In case you have trouble finding the ready-made batter mix, I've given you the full recipe.







 Makes about 4-6 filled crepes


Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coconut milk
Approx. 1/2 cup water
This will depend on the thickness of the coconut milk
Oil, for frying

2 spring onions, finely sliced
200g prawns, peeled and deveined

200g pork belly, thinly sliced
500g mung bean sprouts
1 lettuce (I prefer cos lettuce)
1 bunch coriander
1 bunch of mint
Ready-made nuoc cham dipping sauce
Or make a simple dipping sauce by adding sliced chillies to fish sauce

Method

Wash lettuce, herbs and bean sprouts and drain well.

Combine rice flour, salt and turmeric in a large bowl. Stir in the coconut milk, then slowly beat in enough water to make a thin crepe batter. Rest batter while you cook the filling.
Over medium-high heat, warm oil in a frying pan and saute the pork belly until cooked through. Add the prawns and spring onions. Saute for a further 3-4 minutes or until prawns are cooked. Season with salt to taste. Remove filling mix to a bowl and set aside.

Wipe out the frying pan and reheat over medium heat. Add a small amount of oil. Stir the pancake batter well and pour 1/2 cup batter into the pan. Swirl the pan to evenly coat the bottom. Sprinkle some of the filling mixture over half the pancake, along with a small handful of sprouts. When the the middle of the crepe looks cooked through and the edges of the crepe begin to brown, fold the crepe over to cover the filling and slide it onto a plate. If the edges of the crepe are ready well before the middle is cooked, cover the frying pan with a lid whilst cooking. This should help it cook more evenly. Keep cooked pancakes warm in the oven while you finish cooking the rest.
To serve, put the pancakes, lettuce and herbs on a large platter to share. Give each person their own plate and a small bowl of dipping sauce. Place a piece of pancake on top of a lettuce leaf, along with a few sprigs of herbs. Roll the lettuce leaf up and dip in your sauce.


Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!
:)

Frogs for dinner anyone?

My husband bought some frogs for dinner last week. I'm just stoked that the butcher prepared them already. There is no way I could have skinned and cleaned the poor little things. Frogs are on my "Cute Little Critters" list not "Food I've Always Wanted to Try" list. I was a bit grossed about the thought of eating them but I figured "Why not? When in Rome..." They're actually not bad. The meat is quite sweet. They taste nice cooked with garlic and lemongrass. Although, I can't be bothered eating something so little. I lose all interest in food as soon as I find out I have to pick bones out of it. I think eating frog once was enough.

The wierdest thing happens when you sprinkle salt on frog meat. It starts twitching. A lot. The first time I saw it, I freaked right out. I thought it was going to jump of the plate and get me. I had some freaky dreams about frogs that night. Check out the videoclip below. I figured you had to see it to believe it.

Creepy, huh?

Road Rules? What Road Rules?

With over 87 million people in Vietnam, to say that the roads are busy is an understatement of the highest order. People in Australian cities complain that the traffic is bad and hey, I was one of them. I now realise that I was just whinging over bugger all. The picture below shows the true meaning of "peak hour".

There seems to be a general disregard for road rules here. If there are any, I haven't been able to work out what they are yet, and I've had a year to think about it. The general consensus is, he who honks his horn the most, gets right of way. Confidence, or at least faking it, is needed to survive on the road here. Bullying the riders around you is paramount when getting to where you need to go. If you want to cut across someone to get there, you need to stare down your opponents to get them to give in and let you. It's like you're constantly playing a game of "chicken".

Sunburnt Aussie Lesson # 3 - If you don't have have a set of kahunas the size of coconuts, fake it.

Obeying traffic lights seems to be optional. Or at least, people seem to think it is. Driving up on the sidewalk is commonplace and the standards for the road worthiness of motorbikes are definitely way below those of Australia. The motorbike in the picture below is the perfect example of lax rules.

 I haven't actually ridden anywhere alone yet but I've been spending a lot of time on the back of a motorbike taxi. He has taught me how to be a safe driver, but also one who also gets their own way. A taxi driver that makes you feel safe and secure is worth their weight in gold here. From my own experiences, they seem to be few and far between. Now that I have the whole thing sussed as well as I ever will, I plan on getting my own bike soon. I foresee a lot of blogs writing themselves on that front.

I have seen people carry some crazy things on motorbikes. There doesn't appear to be a limit to what is acceptable. But I have enough material on that subject for a whole blog so I'll leave that topic for another day.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that when you turn into a side street or change lanes, that it's standard practice to push that little knob on the handlebars that turns on your indicators. Isn't it? Apparently not. Seriously, only half the cars and maybe 10 percent of motorbikes here believe in using them. The other night on my way home from classes, I actually saw about a dozen people use them. Even then, it was only to turn off, never to change lanes. This is a very rare thing indeed. Hardly a day goes by when I see more than one or two people do it. I see it so rarely, I'm honestly shocked when it happens.

 Over 10,000 people die on the roads in Vietnam every year. Mostly, it's due to speeding and/or crazy overtaking (without the use of indicators). Every night I watch insane people with death-wishes fly in and out of the traffic at ridiculous speeds, just to get home 10 minutes faster. Whenever I see them, I can only wonder if they aren't truly suicidal.

Time for bed so here's to surviving another day on Saigon's roads.
Big hugs and kisses from Saigon. xxoo