การรับประทานอาหารที่ดี/Ăn uống tốt

I just love Chinese food. My favourite dish is number 27 - Clement Atlee

I would like to thank everyone who joined me today at An Chau Asian Market as part of the tour sponsored by Slow Food Buffalo Niagara International Institute of Buffalo. I hope everyone found the event informative and enjoyable. I know the owners of An Chau were thrilled to see so many new faces.
As promised, here are some helpful links to assist you in continuing your adventure in the wonderful world of Asian food. The following are some sites with helpful information about the various ingredients used in Asian cuisine:

China: http://www.china-family-adventure.com/chinese-food-ingredients.html
Japanese: http://www.savoryjapan.com/ingredients.html
Korea: http://www.maangchi.com/ingredients
Thai: http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/
Vietnamese: http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/
Asian: http://www.ming.com/food-and-wine/ming.com-guide-to-asian-ingredients.htm
Asian: http://asiasociety.org/lifestyle/food-recipes/food

The reference books mentioned were:

Bruce Cost: Asian Ingredients: A Guide to the Foodstuffs of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam
Ken Hom:Asian Ingredients: A Guide to the Foodstuffs of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam

You can find a link to Andrea Ngyuen’s “Asian Market Shopper” app here.

My Buffalo rising article on fish sauce can be found here. My blog post on Red Boat fish sauce and a link to Andrea’s recipe for nuoc cham is here. And as an extra bonus, especially for those who bought a jar of tamarind chilli paste, I also give you a link to my recipe for really great Thai inspired dressing.
Thank you all again for coming, and remember life’s too short to eat bad food.

A Sauce for Erasers

A meal without nuoc cham is no meal at all. Corrine Trang.

I am pretty sure that nuoc cham (nước chấm) is my favorite condiment.


When it comes to food, "favorite" is a marvelous adjective. It is so unabashedly subjective. So much more useful than, for instance, "best". Even so picking favorites isn't easy. The answer to "what is your favorite braise?" may be affected by so many variables - mood, weather, contents of the pantry. I have managed to come up with a top five soups list and even rank them, but the list and rankings are subject to change without notice.

Condiments present a different problem, there are not only so many to choose from; there are so many variations within each type. Much of what is used are prepared - in this case not always a bad thing. Consider ketchup. Heinz is my favorite ketchup. I will use others, Hunt's or DelMonte - even Sysco's House Recipe® - on french fries and burgers. Homemade is nice, but it just doesn't make it for that. Homemade Mayo is delicious, but I want Hellman's in my egg salad. Oh, and Mira- um, that other stuff, works well for breaking in a ball glove if you don't mind the stench.

Mustard is different. Webers is my go-to, but I have many favorites, like many styles and enjoy many combinations of flavor. I have found few, prepared or homemade that don't work for me.