Friday, November 27, 2009

a vietnamese thanksgiving

i had suggested cooking a turkey dinner for my family at my wee house, but my mom would rather do her vietnamese style thanksgiving instead which means breaking out the hibachi bitches! my mom loves making "bun cha" when she has the time, which is a rice vermicelli noodle dish with grilled pork patties and grilled pork belly. so for turkey day this year, i ate a monster helping of pig instead.

the hibachi grill. genius. seeing this grill was like seeing an old friend and having convos about the good ole days when i had to sit there and fan the flames with cardboard. this year, my little sis was given the job. haha sucka! here's the pork patties getting a good grilling.

grilled pork belly. one of my favorite components in this dish. nothing says PIG loudly than a helping of pig fat and skin.

then my mom decided to grill some goat. my vietnamese vocabulary is not that extensive so she either said goat or deer. either way, the billy goats gruff or bambi tasted good.

and here's charlie, lying patiently, waiting for a scrap or two to come his way. this dog eats WAY TOO MUCH when his grandma's around. i think he can get a job at a busy street corner hustling for scraps. he is rather good at it. look at that face and those droopy eyes!

an here's my momma, the best cook ever (my dad is amazing too. once upon a time, my parents both owned a few restaurants between them, but restaurants are tough business ventures to say the least, but i'll save those stories for another day). she's getting the bun ready for consumption. i also bought a bottle of prosecco from silverlake wine to celebrate the meal. that was tasty too!

my mom outdid herself this year with the eggrolls. they were crispy on the outside, but super juicy in the inside. the eggrolls were stuffed with a generous helping of crab meat and shrimp along with other ingredients that makes the eggroll KING of all rolls. i consumed enough to last me till christmas i think.

all the grilled meats are put in this vinegar and sugar sauce to marinate a bit. the sauce adds flavor to your bun as you ladle everything into your bowl.

my bowl of bun cha without the helping of veggies that should probably go in there. carnivore, what can i say?

our vietnamese thanksgiving!

and that's how MY BELLY spent thanksgiving. there are many reasons to be thankful this year, from the serious to the silly. for sure, being able to write a silly blog about food and actually have people (you know who you 3 folks are out there) read it is one of them. i hope you all had a wonderful meal and didn't go into debt with all the black friday shopping. i didn't...i'm rubbing my belly and playing the wii! i love 4 day weekends!

11 comments:

  1. Happy (vietnamese) Thanksgiving, Bags! I was outlet shopping earlier this morning and I saw 2 hour lines to get into Gucci and Coach. Those luxurious bags hanging in the window made me think of you.

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  2. thanks afro! i hope you had a good thanksgiving too!

    what time did you wake up to go outlet shopping? my friend went at 9pm on thanksgiving...i guess some stores open then. for future reference -> gucci maybe, but coach, oh hells no!

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  3. Thank you for sharing your Vietnamese Thanksgiving. My dad, who is Japanese-Am is way too hick to go for what my mom (Vietnamese) would like. I know her relatives marinate their turkey in fish sauce. I was always envious.

    That pork belly looks amazing. So smart to grill outside. It was way too hot to be running the oven on Thursday.

    Btw, we had that same prosecco...we made bellini's with it. Delicious.

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  4. Everything looks great, but the stuff from the grill really is mouthwatering. I love seeing how different people/families spent their Thanksgiving! Thanks for sharing.

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  5. oh my goodness. You guys are my heroes. Vietnamese done right on Thanksgiving! Cool, unconventional, and wicked delicious!!

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  6. My Vietnamese family ALWAYS insists on an American Thanksgiving. I'd give just about anything for cha gio and bun cha for turkey day! Wanna swap fams?

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  7. oishii eats- a turkey marinated in fish sauce sounds awesome! reminds me of a time when my mom interpreted her version of tacos by adding fish sauce it...they tasted vietnamese and since my sis and i were kids then, we were sorely disappointed. i'll tell my mom that you guys thought her food looked amazing...she'll get a kick out of that. and the wine was bubbly and nice. bellinis sounds good!

    marie- charlie thought the grilled foods were awesome too. the poor thing watched with such anticipation in his eyes.

    burp and slurp- thanks! my mom likes to flex her cooking muscles which is OK by me...i don't mind washing dishes.

    gastronomer- in my lifetime, i've only eaten turkeys twice for thanksgiving. t-day was always asian, whether vietnamese or chinese. i must admit, i secretly wished i had some mashies as a side dish :0 hahaha, no swapping fams. my parents might actually prefer to keep you and then i'll be an orphan :(

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  8. That looks marvelous. Your mom looks like a magician with all those noodles in her chopsticks. I also love the strategically placed bottle of prosecco. The witness protection program approves. Next time tho I insist on a picture of dish towels over your hands to thank god you're in So Cal and not BFE.

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  9. hahaha! yjs- i see the image of dish towels wrapped about my hands has stuck. my momma is like an asian rumpelstiltskin spinning that vermicelli out of that plastic basket. she is short like him too. my thanksgiving was great. hope yours was yummalicious too!

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  10. Thank you for sharing this with us! Havent really been exposed to VIetnamese food. Now I want some!

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  11. The outlets by Sacramento opened at 10pm, so my friends and I were out there pretty much after we finished dinner. I think I lasted til about 3am and then had to call it quits. Some insane sales.. but with insane lines too.

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