Nước Chấm

• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice (2 or 3 limes)
• 1 tablespoon unseasoned Japanese rice vinegar (optional)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2/3 cup lukewarm water
• 5 to 6 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 or 3 Thai or serrano chiles, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)

Mix all ingredients. That's it!

Vermicelli Rice Bowl (Bun Thit Nuong)

I'm biased. I was raised on home cooked Vietnamese food. My mother doesn't have any recipes written down so when I ask her for recipes, she gives me wild guesses of amounts of ingredients, and always says "but just taste it and add what you think it needs."

So unfortunately, I've had to resort to finding recipes online and also ultimately tweaking amounts per my tastes. The reason I'm saying all this is because it applies to basically all my recipes I post here. Most of what I've posted here is pulled from a google search and saved here as a reference for myself more than any else, like self promo.

For the following recipe, I use the first section of ingredients for any meat. I think I even did it for shrimp and it worked, complementary-wise. 

I also have a recipe for nước chấm that my mom sent me. I followed the recipe exactly and it tasted perfect, the same as what I grew up with and poured on all my food. 

Banana Bread

 

Ingredients

• ▢1 Stick (1/2 Cup) Butter
• ▢3 Large Ripe Bananas
• ▢2 Large Eggs
• ▢1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• ▢2 Cups All Purpose Flour
• ▢1 Cup Granulated Sugar
• ▢1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• ▢1/2 teaspoon salt
• ▢1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter and set aside.
• Add the stick of butter to a large bowl and microwave for 1 minute, or until melted.
• Add the bananas to the same bowl and mash with a fork.
• Add the vanilla extract and egg to the bowl and use the same fork to mash and stir until no yellow streaks of egg remain.
• In a second large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together with a spatula just until combined.
• Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.