Bubbly to start a wonderful weekend. In the background Luke Nguyen’s beautiful cookery book about Vietnam
Finally, we had some rain on Saturday morning which might be an indication that a season’s change is in the making. Anyway, it was cooler than normal which needed to be celebrated with a Prosecco. That’s how it started. In the background there was music from the Skyehooks, a Melbourne cult band from the 1970ies. All four of us we were very relaxed, did’nt have to be anywhere, did’nt have to go anywhere, in short quality time.
The cooking started with us making our first fish sauce. We followed Luke Nguyen’s recipe. I will not provie it here but instead encourage you to buy the book yourself. It is called: “The Songs of Sapa” and is the most fascinating cookery book I have seen in a long time.
The fish sauce recipe of Luke Nguyen
This is what it looks like: The home made fish sauce
After that the fish cakes were made, also a recipe from the above book by Luke who has become a kind of celebrity chef in Sydney. Together with his sister Pauline and Mark Jensen he has his own restaurant called Red Lantern.
Fish cakes sizzling in the pan…..
…….and on the plate
Rice vermicelli
Fresh salad leaves
Voila: this is what it looks like on a plate
You do not need cutlery or chop sticks, no, just use your hand. get some vermicelli on the salad leave, take some fish cake and dipp it in the fish sauce: hmm. You will not believe me but this is the most delicious “finger food”. What we forgot in all our enthusiasm was the plate of mint leaves. We will try this next time.
My go at it
The last question: what about the wine? Well, I hose my favourite Riesling from Alsace, a simple ‘2007 Hugel Riesling’, a wine with zest and character, young and vibrant, a citrus bomb for the taste buds.
Hugel, one of my favourite Riesling wines from Alsace
If you have the chance to get your hands on Luke’s book, please do so. It is worth it. The recipes he has collected are wonderful. Vietnames cusine is light but at the same time filling. After this wonderful lunch we were not hungry until late in the evening.
And this is what the cookery book looks like:
The Man from Mosel River 