Camacho Watcho

Several week’s ago we were invited, along with a few other couples, to learn some cooking techniques from a Vietnamese woman. Lana moved to the US from Vietnam a couple years ago and a friend of Carly’s mom. She is an excellent cook and delighted us with a meal of spicy Tom Yum soup.

While we all were eager to learn and help, we were given strict instructions to just observe her while she busied herself in the kitchen. It was a great time chatting with the girls and watching Lana as she pulled everything together.

The essence of the soup is in the broth, which Lana made from scratch using pork bones, lemongrass and taro root. This bubbled on the stove while she prepared a spicy sauce of lemongrass, garlic, tomato (she used ketchup) and oil and then cleaned the seafood and greens.

Once the broth was ready, she removed the lemongrass and bones and then added the sauce. Along with some Tom Yum paste, a seafood bouillon cube, tofu and the seafood itself – we were ready to dish up our bowls.

Usually this soup would be poured into a serving bowl with a heating unit and placed on the table for everyone to make their bowls of soup, but in this occasion we did this at the stove. Lana demonstrated how to assemble the steaming bowls. First, your serving of greens are added to the soup pot to wilt. You then put some noodles in your bowl and choose the seafood and other vegetables that you want. You then retrieve your greens and then ladle the spicy broth on top. We all patiently waited in line clutching our bowls for our turn – it smelled incredible.

The taste was absolutely perfect. Spicy but slightly sweet – the ultimate comfort food. The seafood was perfectly cooked, tender and saturated with the spicy flavor. When the weather turns a bit cooler, I’ll have to dig up a recipe to see if I can make this at home myself.

Tags: cooking, Food, Vietnamese

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 9:46 am and is filed under Customs, Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.