Bean sprout salad & Vietnamese food report1

Vietnam has some French culture from the colonial period. Bread is one of them. The French-style breads are so popular there as a quick meal and a lot of local shops sell baguettes on the streets. A plain baguette is only about US$0.2-0.5.

Also you can find western style bakeries in big cities like Saigon where you can enjoy pastries with coffee (refer the photo). There are so many types of beautiful bread including Vietnamese-tasting ones for US$0.5- 1.

OK, Today's cooking using bean sprout is refreshing and goes well with strong tasting food.

Ingredients:

bean sprout

chicken breast

wakame (small seaweeds)

soy sauce

vinegar

sesame

1- Boil bean sprout and wakame.

2- Boil and tear the chicken in small pieces.

3- Mix 1, 2, soy sauce, vinegar and squashed sesame.

Itadakimasu!

Tofu and wakame salad

Tofu has been my favourite food since it saved me when I got sick from stress working in US. It made me realize that I was Japanese!

You can buy tofu outside the original places now but it's a little harder to find a Japanese fresh tofu. I only found Chinese tofu at an Asian supermarket in Australia and it surprised me that there were many more types than Japanese tofu.

I like eating tofu just with a bit of soy sauce, then feel the kind taste of soy beans and the softness in my mouth. It also refreshes you when you eat with a strong tasting food. I often make a salad. Tofu can suit any type of taste even for Italian or French style salads. If you enjoy tomatoes and tofu with olive oil, basil and pepper, then you can feel it as a ricotta cheese.

Ingredients;

tofu

bean vermicelli

wakame seaweed*

oil

vinegar

soy sauce

red chili powder

*Wakame is explained here.

1- Keep the bean vermicelli in the warm water until it becomes soft. Cut wakame into 3cm pieces.

2- Make a dressing with oil, vinegar, soy sauce and red chilli.

3- Break the tofu and stir it with 1 and 2.

Itadakimasu.

Wakame omlete for your hair

 Have you ever eaten seaweed? It's not common to eat seaweed in western countries but popular in eastern Asia like Japan and Korea. There are a few different types of seaweed but unfortunately I can't find the English words for those, so I will explain major tree types quickly below...

• konbu- thick and long kelp that you might have seen in the ocean. Dried konbu is mainly used for stock.
• wakame- smaller and thinner than konbu. You can buy dried or raw wakame at supermarkets'. It suits salad and soup well.
• nori- dried laver seaweed. Nori goes with rice like sushi and onigiri, and also it's often cut finely and used as a topping.

It is said that seaweed is good for your hair. I don't know if it actually makes your hair grow more but it's true that seaweed has a lot of vitamin, mineral and fiber which make your hair healthier.

Today I will cook a simple omelet with a lot of raw wakame.

Ingredients:

raw wakame

2 eggs

salt

pepper

1- Wash wakame to get salt away, keep it in the water for 10 minutes and squeeze. Cut it into 3cm pieces.

2- Fry 1 with some sesame oil, then place it to the side.

3- Mix the eggs, some salt and pepper, then put it on a heated pan and add 2.

4- Roll it like an omelet.

Itadakimasu.