Something to be aware of when travelling is what kind of foods a culture eats that you might not find paletable. In travelling with my friend Dave I’ve seen a vegetarian give in and start eating meat. He tried for a while to go vegetarian but the Vietnamese just don’t eat much food without beef, chicken or shrimp. Every other day or so he keeps commenting on how he jet ate ‘a lot more meat than he is used to’.
Thankfully I’m not and have enjoyed all of the carnivorous delights 
troy Food, travel
The food in Hoi An is wonderful. With a strong Hue influence we are finding it easy to eat good food either on the street, the market or in the local restaurants. Tourists are everywhere and the good restaurants are packed for all the local specialties like Cau Lao, steamed fish, Banh It and Bahn Mi sandwiches.
Walking the riverside market in the morning it’s easy to see why the food is so good, it’s incredibly fresh. As the seafood boats come it’s bought up and gone very quickly. Same goes for so much of the local produce. I would love to come back here with some friends, rent a house with a kitchen and take some cooking lessons.
troy Food, travel Food, travel, vietnam
I came up with this last night, a variation on another recipe I had tried. It was excellent.
Ingredients
1 bottle Riesling
4 Pears (Bosc, etc)
1 Tbsp Vanilla
4 Strips of Orange Peel
2 Tbsp Sugar
Start by heating the reisling in a non-reactive pot with the sugar, vanilla and orange peel. While it’s heating peel your four pears and carefully insert into the Riesling once it simmers. Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes, checking the pears occassionally by inserting a knife into the thickest part to see if they are done. Don’t let them get mushy. When done remove from the pot and let cool. Now turn up the heat and cook down the remaining wine just until it turns into a syrup. It will turn extrememly fast so watch it otherwise it will burn. Set aside the remaining syrup for later.
To serve place a pear in a bowl and spoon over the syrup. Add ice cream to enhance.
troy Food pears, poached, recipe
John’s wife, Emily, asked my if I’d like to cook for John’s birthday dinner. I found this quite an honor so, in his honor, I went all out. I don’t think I’m much of a cook so I enlisted the help of Toby Sanderson, chef extraordinaire. Together we created an excellent Asian styled menu complete with wine pairings. For the most part I thought it was very good and the patrons felt the same. The watercress salad was actually not too astringent as the dressing fought off the leaves. The Sauvignon Blanc I chose was good but could have used more body and fruit. Everything else however was well paired, especially my second shot at poached pairs. What a wonderful night and surprise that I could pull off my first ever all Asian dinner. Methinks I need to stay with that theme for a while longer.
Here is the menu.
Le Menu
L’Anniversaire de John Cornwell
Appetizers
Avocado Tempura
Champagne
Entrée
Bosc pear and watercress salad with sesame and almond dressing.
2007 Groth Sauvignon Blanc Napa, CA
Main
Seared Ahi tuna, avocado and mango chutney accompanied by sautéed Asian greens and fragrant jasmine rice.
2007 Sineann Pinot Gris, Newberry OR
Dessert
Bosc pears poached in Riesling atop Bi-Rite Ginger ice cream.
2006 Glacier Riesling, Yakima Valley, WA
troy Food, Uncategorized birthday, dinner, john cornwell, menu, recipe
I wanted to share a recent love of mine. Chateaux Lascaux
troy Food