VIETNAM: THE HIDDEN CHARM

By Ina Pedroche and Syra Takada

Colonized by different countries like China and France, Vietnam has a culture of both East and West. Vietnam has definitely a hidden charm waiting to be discovered. With breathtaking oceans, mountains, and a charismatic city, not to mention a cuisine that could beat other cuisines anytime, Vietnam is a tiger country waiting to be unleashed.

It was a joy for us, being the executive chef and the sous chef for this particular lab session and even though it took a lot of effort for us to put up and prepare everything, it was worth it when we saw how successful it was. We prepared 10 dishes that day and they were:

Goi Cuon (Summer roll)- A Vietnamese staple consisting of pork, shrimp, rice vermicelli, and herbs wrapped in rice paper. They are served cold and usually dipped in hoisin or a peanut based sauce.

Cha Gio (Deep fried spring rolls)- Cha Gio or “minced pork rolls” is a roll of ground pork, shrimp, crab meat, with shredded carrots, mung bean noodles (cellophane noodles/glass noodles), that is deep fried, giving it a flaky and crispy texture.

Pho Bo (Beef noodle soup)- A traditional Vietnamese soup with star anise as one of the main ingredients, giving it an intense and pungent flavor.

Vietnamese fried rice- Fried rice consisting of Chinese sausages, prawns, and green peas with coriander, fish sauce, and red chili as garnish.

Lemongrass grilled chicken- Ginger, lemongrass and soy sauce as the main ingredients.

Stuffed squid with ginger lime dipping sauce- Squid stuffed with pork and shrimp filling served with a dipping sauce of fresh ginger, fresh lime juice, sugar and fish sauce.

Bo Kho (Vietnamese beef stew)- A traditional Vietnamese beef stew and is considered a comfort food with Viet flavors of bay leaf, ginger, and star anise. Served with a French baguette for the Vietnamese or rice.

BanhMi (Baguette sandwich)- A fusion of Asian and European food traditions, BanhMi is a baguette sandwich of liver pate, cucumber strips, mayonnaise, cilantro, and a daikon.

Coconut sticky rice with roasted bananas- A coconut sticky rice dessert and in this case, served with sugar-coated bananas that were roasted.

Lemongrass ice cream- This delightful ice cream has a citrus flavor because of the lemongrass which acts as the main ingredient.

For the drink, we served Vietnamese iced coffee, which is basically a mixture of dark-roast ground coffee pressed into a glass and sweetened with condensed milk.

As for the servers, they were asked to wear the traditional attire of the Vietnamese, complete with their traditional hat known as nónlá.

CHASING CURRY

By Raphael Samson and Innah Pallarca

In this session of Asian Cuisine, we learned how to cook food with lots of spices in one dish! Your tongue and nostrils must be strong because you will experience how the spiciness of each Indian dish heightens every bite. Read along to feel (at least by reading) how their food taste.

South Asian cuisine focuses on India and Pakistan. They are known for different spices they use for their food. During the earlier years, India influenced other cuisines through trading. They traded spices and other ingredients common to them such as turmeric, coriander, ginger and cumin.

"...the cuisine has many recipes that feature vegetable based dishes. Vegetarian dishes are often paired with curry causes that can be very spicy." An example of a vegetable curry dish is Aubergine in Pickling Sauce. In this dish, the roasted spices are infused in the aubergines/eggplants then submerged to Bahaar, a pickling sauce made of cumin, dried chillies, onion seeds, mustard seed and oil.

Preparing the pickling sauce

Another example of a vegetable dish from this cuisine is Vegetable Samosa. Samosa is a baked/fried pastry that is usually filled with savoury meat or vegetable served as an hors d’oveures, quite similar to our own Empanada. For this recipe, we used potatoes and peas for the vegetable filling.

Vegetable Samsosa

In my opinion, Beef Balti was the spiciest dish served on that day. This is a curry-based dish where in the spices are stir-fried with onions. The spice mix will then be transferred to a food processor to further smoothen its texture. When the curry’s texture is achieved, it will be added to youghurt and then stir-fried into the beef. This dish is incredibly spicy!

Stir-fried spices in the food processor

Balti Beef

Pork Vindaloo is another curry-based dish from India. This dish is hot and tangy but not as spicy as the others. Vindaloo was derived from a Portuguese dish called Carne de Vinha d' Alhos. In this Indian version, the wine is substituted with vinegar.

Pork Vindaloo

Indian cuisine is known for being bold when it comes to the usage of spices and flavors. But this particular Indian dish is a bit different from the others. Chicken Tandoori is a popular Indian dish marinated in spices and yogurt then grilled and baked. The dish got its name from the cylindrical clay oven, Tandoor, used for cooking it. This meat dish’s spiciness is very mild and has a smoky flavour from paprika.

A dish from the south of India is Spicy Shrimp. The shrimp is stir-fried with the spices and chillies. We adjusted the spiciness of this dish. The original recipe requires it to be very spicy.

For the starch that will go with the main dishes, we made Kitcheri. Kitcheri is a dish consisting of two grains, the rice and the lentils. We cooked the rice in a pilaf way for it to have flavour. It is then fried with cinnamon powder, garlic and peppercorns. Unfortunately, our kitcheri became sticky because we only have short grain rice.

Lastly, the dessert and beverag our class made was Rosewater Pudding and Lassi. Both of these cleanse the pallette from the strong flavor of the appetizers and main course. Lassi is a drink composed of yogurt, milk and mango. It is similar to mango shake. We had a problem with Rosewater Pudding because of the gelatin we have. It didn’t set because the gelatin was too weak.

The South Asian cuisine is as rich and diverse as its region itself. How they use their spices reflects the dimension of their culture. 

BEYOND KIMCHEE

By Ruxien Aclaracion and Julie Anne Cortes

I was assigned to be the Executive Chef of Korea and my Sous Chef is Julie. The whole experience, from booking the ingredients to service was a real joyride. At first I know it would take a lot of effort to have a successful function for Asian Cuisine. It was a challenge for me; I wanted to push myself doing this kind of job so that we can practice it when we go to the real kitchen world.

We had a difficult time to do the market list and maintain the 3,300 budget. But we ended up having 4000+ budget.

Julie and I were so glad that it became successful. Actually, we took it as a challenge because we had also a successful function before us, which is the Japan group.  I am confident in saying that we did our function better.

We designed the ceilings with crepe papers and chinese latern and filled the airwaves with K-Pop music so that people can feel the korean ambiance.

All in all, the guests liked the food especially Chef Kel.

So we had a lot of dishes namely:

• 9 treasures such as anchovy, pickled radish, sesaoned bean sprouts, seasoned eggplant, seasoned cucumber with sesame seeds, cabbage kimchi, sauteed mushroom, sweet potatoes and boiled quail eggs.

• Squid and mushroom stir-fry with noodles
• Spicy stewed mussels
• Toasted nori

• Bulgogi

• Kimchi Hotpot

• Bibimbap

• Dak Galbi gui (grilled chicken)

• Kimchi fried rice

• Pork Stew and Beef Stew
• Sticky rice with dried fruit and nuts

Most of our dishes have Kimchee - Spicy fermented cabbage and spicy fermented radish.

Since it has to be fermented at least one week, I already made it at home.

Facts:

Kimchee is a staple of Korean life and many people include it in their meals three times a day. You can eat it by itself, or use it in so many different Korean recipes.

Almost any food can be kimchi-ed, and there are over 170 varieties!

Korean chopsticks and eating bowls are often made of metal as Koreans have been working in metal for centuries, even developing metal type for printing, two hundred years before the Europeans did.

Bibimbap: What is the most popular Korean dish? Among westerners, barbecued meats. Among Koreans, the hot rice mixture called bibimbap. From humble origins as a catch-all for leftover vegetables, it has become a top dish in its own right.

Kimchi refrigerators: Traditionally, kimchi ferments in stone pots outdoors. This may be the old way, but modern Korean homes now have kimchi refrigerators, which keep the spicy pickle at the ideal, steady low temperature to encourage fermentation. It certainly beats trekking out in the snow to get some for dinner.

Soju: Soju may be the national drink of Korea, but it didn't originate there. This distilled beverage, made from fermented rice and/or other grains, originated in China and traveled through Mongolia to Korea, where it has been popular for centuries.

Seaweed is for wrapping your rice to help pick it up, not just a nice dried salty side snack. Learned that from a Korean commercial. Previously I’d just been eating my little bowls of seaweed and rice separately. 

FINDING NORI

By Victor Manuel and Chelsea Monera

 Many people are big fans of Japanese cuisine. It has touched the hearts and filled the stomachs of many satisfied eaters and picky gastronomes alike. Perhaps a reason why people love it so much is that it does not only appeal to taste, but also to the other senses as well. Japanese food aims for a full experience, satisfying its eaters in every aspect.

Beef Kare is simply the beef curry of Japan. It is composed of beef stock, different aromatics, Japanese curry paste and leeks. Curry is popular in Japan, in fact, curry can be considered a Japanese national dish similar to ramen. It’s flavor differs from the usual Indian curry having a milder, smoother and deeper taste. Infusing it with Japanese spices such as togarashi gives it its unique taste, certainly making it a “wafu” dish, or a dish that has been “Japanized”. It simply means dishes that have found it’s way to Japanese pallets and embraced it as their own.

Chicken Teriyaki - Apart from sushi and tempura, chicken teriyaki is another popular dish from Japan. Teriyaki is derived from two Japanese words; “teri” meaning glossy, and “yaki” meaning grilling. We used Kikkoman, sake, mirin, ginger, brown sugar, salt and pepper for the teriyaki sauce and we thickened it with slurry, also giving it it’s glossy appearance. As what chef said, Japanese dishes revolved around 3 main ingredients: Shoyu, your Japanese soy sauce, Sake, Japanese rice wine, and Mirin, a sweetened version of Sake. Taste mainly differed on the proportions of these 3, in the case of the teriyaki, Mirin is used more than Sake, giving it its distinct sweetness. The chicken is marinated in the sauce, grilled, then topped again with the sauce.

Gyoza is a Japanese pork potsticker. Our filling for our gyoza are minced pork, kutsai, cabbage, mushroom, garlic, onion, sesame oil, Kikkoman, salt, pepper and togarashi. It is closed like a Pinoy empanada, then folded up in the side to resemble a fan. The technique we used in cooking it is searing then steaming. We have to use a non - stick pan so that the wrapper won’t stick to it. What basically makes it different from your chinese dumplings is using shoyu instead of regular soy sauce, enhancing that savory taste.

Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made from glutinous rice. The outer layer is the chewy dough, while the filling, though traditionally a red bean paste, has now been popularly replaced by ice cream. To give it a more Japanese feel, we used a matcha - flavored ice cream. Doing it was certainly tedious. You have to work with the dough while it’s still hot, putting frozen ice cream in the middle, wrapping it quickly and freezing it immediately. Unfortunately, our freezers our not that reliable, causing the filling to melt inside, distorting its shape while refreezing. On the bright side, the mocha still tasted well, the smooth ice cream complementing the chewy texture of the dough.

Assorted Sushi/Sashimi/Maki - Sushi has become a staple to Japanese food. Though up to before the war, the rice and nori were ways to preserve the fish, the Japanese soon found out that the fish tasted better with the fermented rice, at the same time instead of just throwing them away. To prepare it, rice is first cooked, dried, then mixed with Mitzukan, Japanese rice vinegar, salt and a sugar. In assembling yung maki, put your nori sheet on top of the sushi mat. Cover it evenly with the sushi rice, put the meat and other fillings, then roll. Finish it by rolling it lightly on tobiko or ebiko, which are flying fish and shrimp roe respectively, then slicing to serving portions. This time, we did it differently by putting the filling on top instead of inside. For the nigiri, shape it using the palm of your one hand, and the index and middle finger of another. Get a portion of the rice, then press is with your two fingers, rotating it until it gets the oval shape. Put the fish on top then tie with nori. With the temaki, cut the nori into squares, fill with rice and toppings, then wrap like a cone.

Asari Butter Clams - This one is my favorite of all the dishes, and one of the easiest to make. Heat your hot pot to smoking point, then add your clams. Deglaze it with sake and cover. Then, make compound butter with garlic and melt it in a shallow pan. Add your clams and deglazed sauce. Season with shoyu and pepper, finish with sesame oil to make it more aromatic. Simple dishes, simple ingredients, wonderful flavors.

Pork Miso and Ramen Miso soup is a traditional Japanese soup consisting of dashi, a seafood based stock. Almost all Japanese meals are served with miso soup. Although there are many different kinds of ingredients that can be added to miso soup, we decided to put in tofu, leeks, spring onions, konbu, sake and Shoyu for seasoning. This time, we used it as the soup base for our Porkloin ramen. We first let our porkloin sit in a hot stock for an hour. Then, sliced it into chops, to go with each bowl of ramen and miso. Sadly, the ramen was not cooked well, being put in the boiling water only for a short time, and also letting it sit in the miso soup, causing the soup to become thick because of the starch and reducing in volume because the noodles absorbed the liquid. However, the taste still remains to be flavorful, having that savory taste with a hint of bitterness.

Assorted Seaweed Salad uses different kinds of nori. First, we used the konbu, hydrated it and sliced in julienne. Then, the hijiki seaweeds which also needed to be hydrated. They were brought in little strips then enlarged when soaked. Lastly, the nori we use for our sushi. We toasted it a bit, sliced it to a fine julienne and added it as garnish. Along with the seaweeds are blanched enoki mushrooms and a sesame oil vinaigrette.

Though we were late in service, I was happy with the outcome of the dishes. Perhaps it’s really a no – brainer why people keep coming back to Japanese food. Because in these dishes, we are able to savor the real taste of umami, the one that brings the deliciousness of the food, without using any artificial ingredient to stimulate it. In Japanese cooking, it’s just really there, present in every bite. <i>Itadake mas</i>!

GOURMET PARADISE

By Stephen Gelacio and Thea Adelante

Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan cuisines are part of Mainland China or what people know as “Descendants of the Dragon”. Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were influenced by Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese cuisines.

These cuisines focus on light-seasoned, fresh, and simply flavored dishes. And some of the dishes are quite spicyand savored, combining a lot of exotic ingredients. Most common ingredients that they use are light and dark soy sauce, sesame oil, and chillies which give the dishes special aromas and tastes.

Read along as we show and tell you how their food tastes!

Spring rollsare a large variety of filled, rolled appetizers that contains ground pork, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, onion, chili, cabbage, mushrooms, tofu, bean sprout, coriander, and basil. We had our cold kitchen group made it and did well as they followed the recipe. Though some of the instructions were changed it turned out to be as good as we expected it to be.

Lemon Chicken usually consists of pieces of chicken meat that are sautéed or deep-fried and coated with a thick, sweet lemon-flavored sauce. This is where the sweetness and citric flavors are juggling up through your senses. This lemon chicken didn’t turn out to be as good as we expected because there were no lemons delivered to us. so we don’t have a choice but to use the alternative recipe of calamansi. The taste of the lemon chicken was still good but of course you will know that we just used calamansi as a substitute to our lemon.

Lettuce Parcels is composed of sesame oil, onion, lean beef mince, peanut satay sauce, dark and light soy sauce, coriander leaves, lettuce leaves, ginger, and mushrooms. For me the best dish that we did that function was this dish because you can see on the face of the guests that they are happy of what they are eating. And even some of the guests asked us if they can have a take out of this dish

Lechon Macau is composed of pork belly, star anise, garlic, bay leaf, and Chinese five spice powder. This dish was also successful even If we didn’t have a recipe to follow to. We just got some instructions from our substitute chef how to do it. And it turned out to be one of the best dish that we did for our function. You will know that this dish was delicious because it is one of the first dish that was finished and the guest would also like to have a take out of this dish.

Yang Chow Fried Rice is composed of rice, eggs, roast pork, shrimp, onion, garlic, peas, ginger, and sesame oil. This dish was supposed to be good because of its taste and the toppings that are in it. The only comment of our chef, the guest and our classmates was the rice itself. The rice was too sticky for us to use in our yang chow fried rice. But some of us liked it that way, that it was a bit sticky and overall, taste wise and toppings they said that it was good.

Egg Tart is a popular snack in Hong Kong that originates from English custard cakes. Egg tart is a pastry that is filled with egg custard and baked. I think that everybody loves this pastry because of its addicting taste of sweetness. We had 2 of our pastry chefs do it. And the just followed the recipe that we gave then it turned out to be as what we expected. Like the normal good egg tarts that we are used to.

Chai High Tea is made out of black tea leaves, ginger, cinnamon, milk, and honey. We had a hard time doing it because of the taste, even if it looks easy to do. We really don’t have a clue what it tastes but we just followed what our substitute chef told us. We had a guest that doesn’t like it sweet and some doesn’t like it too bitter so we had to adjust it as requested by the guest.