Eating My Way Out of a Vietnamese Bakery

Don't call them hot dogs! They are better than hot dogs!

French influence has percolated just under the surface of Vietnamese culture since the days of French Indochina. The fallout has been largely beneficial in the modern era, with the best of France rubbing off on Vietnam in the form of food and architecture.

This goes double for the world of baked goods!

These breads and pastries I've sampled from around Ho Chi Minh City are always surprising and almost always delicious, with few exceptions!

Take a look at this photographic diary of some of the most interesting pieces of breaded bliss I discovered over the past few weeks!

Above: a braid of sweet bread cradles a halved piece of pork and garlic sausage, with chili paste, spring onions, and a hardboiled quail egg. There's a sticky sweetness to the pastry although it's decidedly savory overall. A small lunch!

A small aside - I'm sorry in advance that I don't have the various Vietnamese names. These are often simply lined up in a glass case, with no placard to define them. I've done my best to transport you there via my photos and words. If you can help me name these, please let me know in the comments or email me from the sidebar!

Feast your eyes...

In Which My Sister Makes Taro Root Ice Cream

Ahoy!

So my sister just sent me the newest link to her completely adorable cooking blog, and it's a serious winner.

Her stated goal is to make everything that I eat in my What is it? posts, and she started with the Taro Ice Cream, because holy god delicious. And she added mangoes?! Is she a food wizard? (Hint: yes.)

Check her out if you get a moment, and see the magic of Taro Root in action!

http://breadandbedlam.blogspot.com/

Enjoy, and stay tuned as she attempts to make all the excellent/horrifying mystery foods I shove in my pie hole here in Vietnam. Things are about to get real.

Love,

Ben

What Is It?: Kem Khoai Môn

I'm back, in my series that asks: But seriously...

What is it?

If it looks like a duck:
This item looks like ice cream. Purple ice cream. It has to be ice cream, or frozen dairy treat, or soft serve of some kind. (It better be ice cream, because that's what I was craving. This post is completely based on the fact that I wanted ice cream. Ice Cream.) The color is close to the color of my living room two apartments ago - sorta purplish. I'm guessing some kind of berry? (Sigh. You know it won't be.) It looks like it's got half of something that looks like a lavender-fleshed coconut on the front (bottom left), and chunks of purple flesh in the picture, too. Mmm!

What Is It?: Bánh Da Lợn

Today I will kick off my new food series! I call it "What is it?" because that seemed clever enough.

In this series I will take one new food that I'm baffled by and break it down for your enjoyment. If all goes well, then my body will break it down for nourishment. If not... well, we've all been down that path (God, those jerky strips - never again. OR maybe, for science, if I'm desperate).

But, no seriously:

WHAT IS IT?