Love Letters

Oh yes, another Valentine's Day has come and gone. What am I left with? Love Letters..Julie's Love Letters that is. They are coconut flavored (egg rolls) cookies/biscuits. They have a crispy texture. They taste sweet, sort of reminds me of a fortune cookie with coconut flavor, but lighter. As a child, my father would buy cookies very similiar to these for me everytime he went to an Asian grocery store. Whenever I want to treat myself or cheer myself up I buy a box of these. In these Love Letters, comes 28 cookies packaged in 2 sealed foil wraps. I can eat all 28 by myself! They come in other flavors, such as strawberry, chocolate cream filling, vanilla, and coffee. I've only had coconut, since that's what I prefer. I've already eaten 6 cookies while composing this post. I had better slow down.

Laap or Goy?

What's the difference between laap and goy? Forgive me if the spelling is incorrect. For some reason I always thought that laap was made with sliced meat and goy was made with ground/minced/chopped meat. I grew up eating a lot of it...with a lot of sticky rice. And it was so delicious, especially since it was made by my parents. There are so many variations and I don't know how to make any of them (but I try). I don't have the toasted rice powder or padek so I use a mix from an envelope.



Along with the the laap, my parents would sometimes serve pork rinds, sliced cucumber, eggplant, cabbage, lettuce, or sadao.



Here's a picture of frozen sadao. I tried looking it up on the internet and only found 'Neem flower'. It's hard to describe. My parents always purchased it frozen and would boil it and let it cool before serving it with laap. It has green stems, leaves, and flower bulbs. It tastes extremely bitter. But I think it goes well with the spiciness of laap.


I made pork goy. I cooked 1lb of ground pork. I followed the instructions on the back of the envelope mix. To that I added juice from 2 limes, shredded pork skin, 4 thinly sliced green onions, 1 diced shallot, 1 diced large jalapeno pepper, chopped cilantro and mint. And I served it with the sadao and steamed jasmine rice.

Tet Festival at Balboa Park

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Vietnamese New Year celebration at Balboa Park. The festival was a mix of carnival rides, traditonal live entertainment, pageants, games, and ethnic food vendors. I had a fun time, but wish I had stayed all day. I wanted to catch the night time live entertainment and fireworks.


Since the next best thing to live entertainent is food, I got into line for some delicious Vietnamese food. I went to 4 different vendors total. The first one was selling coconut waffles and banh khot. I've never had banh khot before. After eating some, it reminded me of kanom krok and tastes like banh xeo.


Did I mention how long the lines were? The second line I got into was a bust. As I approached the front of the line, they vendor ran out of food! So it was on to the next line.


Here is how they make banh khot.


Here's a closer look at the banh khot.


I also got some eggrolls, meatball on a stick, grilled beef on skewers, and Laotian sausages. Some other things I tried and didn't take pictures of were banh chung, banh tet,steamed pork buns, and banh mi. I did a lot of eating. Overall, I had a great time and the weather was perfect. Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Trying Out Something Different

One of my favorite Lao dishes is som moo (soured pork sausage). As a child, I remember watching and helping my parents make it. I think this is the same envelope mix they used. I really wanted to make some but I don't quite trust myself with the task yet. I don't want to end up giving myself or worse others food poisoning. My parents usually made som moo for special occasions or for when we went visiting other Laotian families. Sometimes my mom would make an extra batch and save it to make nem khao, which is another of my favorite dishes. Eventhough I live in an area where I can buy som moo, I had a hard time finding 'the right kind' to satisfy my nem khao craving. I've mistakenly purchased in the past some that were 'sweet' instead of sour/salty. So I decided to do what my mom did when she didn't have any som moo available to her. Here's my version of nem khao. There are two steps to making this dish. First you prepare the rice balls and fry them and then the second step is assembling the dish.


I don't have a recipe with exact measurements. For the rice balls, I cooked 3 cups of jasmine rice. To that I added, 1 1/2 C of grated coconut, 3 tablespoons of Mesaman red curry paste, 1/2 lb. of cooked ground pork, 6 thinly sliced green onions, and 2 teaspoons of salt. Everything can be adjusted to your personal taste preference. I love the taste and smell of the curry paste but others might not like it as much.



I add all those ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix.


To form the balls, I put some of the mixture into a zip lock bag and form the balls (so that I don't touch the mixture - the curry paste irratates my skin). I made about 16 balls. After forming all the balls, I placed them on a tray in the freezer before I fried them. When I was deep frying the balls, I did have one that fell apart on me.

To assemble the dish, I chopped up more green onions and a large bunch of cilantro, fried 14 dried chili peppers, chopped up some dry roasted peanuts, sliced two limes, and prepared some thinly shredded pork skin.


And one package of cubed ham. I know this recipe is strange but it really does taste great. And I find it hard to get others to try som moo so this is a nice alternative to the traditional nem khao.


In a large mixing bowl, I crumbled the balls, mixed in the lime juice and the rest of the ingredients except for the peppers. I served the nem khao over lettuce and garnished with the peppers and mint leaves. I could eat this for the next 3 days. It never lasts more than a couple of hours in my house.

Happy Holidays!!

I am leaving in a few days to spend Christmas in Texas. Today I baked some cookies to get into the Christmas spirit. I made sugar cookies, gingerbread men, peanut butter kisses, holly bushes (?), and dark chocolate chip cookies. I am not decorating the house or putting up a tree this year since I'll be in Texas.

United Oriental Food Market

5349 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115
(619) 582-8999

Last weekend I was craving Lao food so I went to United Oriental Food Market. I like it because they are the only grocery store (that I've been to)that sells laap (beef and pork), tam mak hung, keng noh mai, mok pa, and other Lao dishes. This is great for when I don't feel like cooking. Plus around the corner on 54th St. there is a restaurant that sells roast pork.


I got a small order of tam mak hung (papaya salad). It was made right in front of me. I ordered a mild version. It was just spicy enough with lots of slices of tomatoes, but I would've preferred more lime juice. I like eating tam mak hung with pork rinds, pak boong(water spinach), or ngo gai(saw leaf herb).


This is the next dish I picked out. I don't remember what it's called. Maybe someone can tell me. It's shredded bamboo in a yanang leaf sauce garnished with sesame seed and cilantro. I like eating this with slices of eggplant.


This last thing I got was sai oua(pork sausage). It almost tasted like the sausage my mom and dad would make for special occasions. My parents made the sausages with kiffir lime leaves, lemon grass, and coriander root. Well, those were the flavors I could taste. The version from United Oriental Food Market came close. I like my sausages slightly sweet. My mom liked them more sour. She would hang them up to dry before storing them in the freezer or cooking them.

I also got all of that and a container of sticky rice. Everything tasted great.

I Love These Sandwiches

Saigon Sanwiches & Deli
4133 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105
(619) 284-3034


Last Tuesday I got to treat myself a bahn mi, because I did so well in school this semester. I decided to try Saigon Sandwiches after reading Kirk's Blog.This is the 5th Banh Mi shop I've tried in San Diego and it's the best by far. I got the 'special'. The flavors were just right. I loved the pate, the pickled vegetables, cucumber, hot peppers, and even the mayo.


Next time I will have to get two sandwiches, one special and something different. I usually don't stray from the dac biet. Maybe one day I will run into Kirk during one of my Banh Mi excursions and thank him for his very informative food blog.