Gỏi Cuốn - Vietnamese Spring Rolls

If phở were the most popular Vietnamese dish outside of Viet Nam, I would guess that bánh mì were the second, and gỏi cuốn the third.

I make phở regularly when it's soup weather, but I've never attempted to make bánh mì. For starters, there's no way I can replicate the bread. And when one can buy a bánh mì for less than $4, why go through the trouble to make it at home?!

Which brings us to gỏi cuốn. This is a refreshing food item that is better made at home than at restaurants/delis, IMO. The home version will consist of the exact amount of ingredients that you want, and of course, they'll be fresher. What are the ingredients, you ask.

There's pork belly:

Shrimp:

Rice vermicelli:

And the ubiquitous fresh veggies and herbs. In this case mint, chives, lettuce, and bean sprouts:

Which all gets wrapped up in rice paper:

Here's the finished spring roll along side with the hoisin & peanut dipping sauce.

Mời ăn!

Read More

Dog Show Afternoon

Two Ender posts in a row!

This afternoon we went to a dog show hosted by Alyssa, Ava's friend from horse-riding. Alyssa and her neighbor organized this whole event - from the invitation flyer, to the show activities, to the judging and prizes. Well done, girls! We had a terrific time meeting the other dogs and their owners. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of the other dogs as I was holding Ender on his leash and he was very eager to romp around.

Ender was also distracted by the bushes when Ava walked him around for the "show and tell," but eventually they hit their mark. Or close to it.

Guess who placed 1st out of 9 dogs?

And we even voted for other dogs instead of Ender!

It was such a fun time. Thank you, Alyssa!

Read More

Dog Day Afternoon

Today we took a family day trip, but what made it special was that Ender joined us. In fact, the trip was mostly planned around him. Our destination was Half Moon Bay - we were heading to the beach!

We first stopped at the San Benito Deli to pick up some delicious sandwiches, then it was off to Poplar Beach. We chose Poplar Beach because it's a dog-friendly beach where dogs can go off-leash.

Half Moon Bay is pretty small so the beach was a quick drive from the deli, and we got there early enough so that parking was easy.

Here's a picture of some crazies who opted to get to the beach via a 45-degree walkway.

Amazingly, they made it to the beach intact and our story doesn't end here with a trip to the emergency room!

Once we got on the beach, the fun started! Even though it was cold and overcast (your typical Northern California beach weather in August), the water was a good place to be. 

Surprisingly, the beach was dotted with blue jellyfish everywhere. This was something I'd never seen before.

Close-up of the jellyfish:

Upon some extensive research (a one-second Google), it turns out that millions of them washed up on Pacific beaches across multiple states and that they are not jellyfish. They are hydrozoans called Velella velella, whose common name is "by-the-wind sailor." How cool is that?!? Their name, that is. I'd love to be referred to as a "by-the-wind sailor!" Anyway, here's an article explaining what it means that so many washed up on the coast.

In addition to the Velella velella, Ava and Ender enjoyed checking out the rocks (or are they minerals?).

... and the cliffs.

After all this excitement, we were ready to leave the beach. But before we do, I have to include this pic of Ender that we all loved. It looks as though his tail is photoshopped! Hilarious!

Ava was in a mood for pie so we stopped by Aunt Audrey's Pie Shoppe, but alas - it was a fake store front. It's cute, nevertheless. 

Next, we headed to the Moss Beach Distillery where wonderful things awaited Ender.

Ender had a good meal here, and so did we. Minus the stray dog hairs in our food. Still, this was a good place to end our visit to Half Moon Bay.

Read More

What a Difference Three Years Make

Here's a photo of Ava and Ender on our drive to Half Moon Bay:

And here's Ava and Ender on our way home after he was adopted:

Read More

Happy Day!

We had a wonderful day at Tilden Park celebrating my nephew's birthday, picnic-style.

Here's to you, J! xo

Read More

Thịt Kho - Caramelized Braised Pork and Eggs

These days, Vietnamese food is rather popular. And when most people think of Vietnamese food, they probably picture phở. This beef noodle soup is so beloved, you can find a phở restaurant in just about any metropolitan city. My globe-trotting sister has sampled it in far-flung places such as Prague and Macau.

However, there's a dish that is eaten in just about every Vietnamese household, yet it's rarely offered in restaurants: caramelized braised pork, known natively as thit kho. In my family, we would eat this dish with rice or we would wrap it up in rice paper with pickled bean sprouts. The latter is often eaten at Tết, Lunar New Year, and it's my favorite way of eating it.

It had been a while since I'd had it, and my cholesterol level isn't high enough, so I made a batch. Oh, did I mention that the best version of thit kho is made with pork belly?

The pickled bean sprouts accompaniment also included Chinese chives and red onion. Mostly Chinese chives as I love that stuff!

The combination of the savory, silky pork and the tart, crunchy veggies is a match made in heaven! 

Read More

Hatching Day Again!

The last of our broody hens hatched her eggs today. Considering we've had a non-stop streak of broodies since April, I'm pretty satisfied with the number of chicks that we currently have (19).

This hen (who has no name) had actually already hatched eggs just a couple of months ago. She did an excellent job of sitting on the eggs, but when they hatched she did a terrible job. She killed her first chick, pecked at the subsequent ones, and then she abandoned the nest. Bad mama!!!

So when she went broody this time, I let her sit on the eggs, but I was a little anxious about what would happen when it was hatching day. I had hoped to put her eggs under another hen to finish the job, but since we have no other broodies right now, that wasn't an option.

As hatching day neared, I regularly checked under her for new chicks and observed her with them. It didn't look like she was trying kill them, but I couldn't be sure. So just to be safe, I set them aside in a separate box. You can see that some of the chicks are still new and their feathers have not yet fluffed out.

After more observation of the mama hen, I decided it was worth a try to put the chicks back with her. Besides, it's a lot of work hand-raising chicks and I'd rather the hen did the job! While the hen didn't try to kill the chicks, she also didn't quite know what to do with them. Here she is in her cage frozen in confusion. (Mama hens are usually either sitting with the chicks underneath them or walking around showing their chicks where to find food.)

It took a couple of days, but she finally got the hang of it. 

Everyone wins - the chicks get their mama; the hen gets to experience motherhood; and I get less chicken work!

Read More