Pows or Pork Steamed Buns or Banh Bao - Whatever you want to call it!

I've been looking for Banh Bao from every single Vietnamese restaurant I've been to. However, I was not lucky enough to find exactly the one we had back home. All of them were a kind of Chinese dim sums or dumplings. I wanted our Banh Bao so badly. I missed our Banh Bao, and thus I made it. 

(Image Source: from the Internet, found by Google Image Search)

Carrot soup with miso and sesame

Feeling like eating miso soup? If so, you're not alone. Recently I also feel missing that soup so much. I don't know why, maybe because I haven't had that soup for so long. And yeah, it was also randomly I read a post from smittenkitchen.com about carrot soup with miso and sesame 1 week ago. I felt like big idea coming together from two strangers 

(source: smittenkitchen.com)

Panna Cotta - first try

Panna Cotta was the competition topic of December from food and photography facebook group that I'm joining. Even I've never tried this food before, I thought it was just like fruit jelly I usually watched my grandma made. Thus, on my mind, it's kind of easy, LOL. Plus the event hosts also said the recipe was not hard at all, simple, easy, just make and succeed. Yeah, I heard it clearly, just make and succeed!

Cooking: Non-greasy omelet for a healthy breakfast

This is my breakfast for today, super fast, super easy.

- one egg

- 2 or 3 bread slices

- veggies

- soy sauce

Roasted Chestnut and Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup

Today I made roasted chestnut and another kind Vietnamese soup. Just share them here as my hobby. 

Roasted Chestnut

Very easy. Just buy raw chestnut from grocery, wash them out and cut 2 lines on top of them to make X sign. Be carefully not to cut on your fingers or palm since chestnut shell is pretty hard.

Put chestnuts all on a foil tray or baking pan. Turn on the oven around 425F and bake for 30 to 45 minutes. Remember to mix the nut once or twice during the time so they’re well cooked all sides.

You should peel the shell as soon as the nuts are warm enough to hold by hands. Don’t let them cool completely. The skin will stick with the shell and hard to peel when the nuts are cool.

Roasted chestnut

Fried simmered eggs

Simmered food is very familiar and popular in Vietnam. That kind of food has some good benefits such as non-greasy and perfectly seasoned. My grandmom and dad usually cooked fried simmered eggs for family parties when I was still at home. Actually they always cooked the eggs with pork (bacon). It's such a long time I'm away from home and my eating habit has been being changed more or less. I don't really eat pork for the whole year round.

For those who didn't know how simmered food looks like, this is a short description for simmered fish: http://www.vietnamfood.org/entry/ca-kho-simmered-fish.html

Some days ago, just suddenly I needed some Vietnamese food badly. I was like feeling fried simmered eggs on my tongue. I was missing its pattern in my mouth as well as its well-seasoned taste. What came had come, I ran into the kitchen and began cooking even though it was too late at night . I just cooked eggs alone, no pork (bacon).

Image source: http://www.camnanggiadinh.com.vn