Vietnamese Food

This week, instead of talking about restaurants on Main Street, I thought I'd hit a little closer to home—or my roommate's home.
My roommate Mai-Lien is Vietnamese and I've been begging her since our sophomore year to have our roommates over her parent's house to eat some of the traditional Vietnamese food her mom makes.
A few weeks ago, Mai-Lien made plans to have us over to help her mom (an extremely gracious host) cook some of these dishes, and then of course eat them. On Thursday, six of us drove to Wilmington to help her mom out and enjoy one of the greatest pleasures in college—not having to cook for yourself.
When we arrived at 5 p.m., her mom had already finished the vegetable fried rice, made with shiitake mushrooms and bacon, so it was up to us to help finish the menu. My roommates Chrissy and Kate got to work preparing the string beans and Courtney and Mai-Lien began preparing Chayote.
Chayote?
It's also called "vegetable pear" and to be honest, that's pretty much what it looks and tastes like. On the outside, it looks like a mix between a pear and a squash and it's sweet with the juicy crunchiness of a pear.
Courtney and Mai-Lien chopped the Chayote into small slices, which Mai-Lien's mom, Mrs. Tron, then put in a pan with oil and let them sauté with some minced fresh ginger for about 10-15 minutes until the ginger was fragrant.
While this was happening, Mrs. Tron and I got to work preparing Minh-Nhat, a pork dish. The dish started with washing dried shiitake mushrooms. I'd previously only had them fresh, and I must admit that she's onto something with using the dried variation. They were way more flavorful than the fresh ones and a great addition to the dish.
After we washed them off, we soaked them in water to extract some of the flavor. The mushroom-water then combined in a pan with the ground pork and four tablespoons of fish sauce to cook.
Fish sauce is a condiment that is derived from raw or dried fish and is an important part of a lot of different Asian cooking styles. It adds a different dimension or depth of flavor to dishes.
We then chopped up the rest of the mushrooms and added them to the pot, along with clouds ear fungus. Yes, fungus.
The fungus has a softness that adds texture to a dish and they look like, as my roommate Chrissy said, seaweed.
When all of the ingredients were mixed with the beef, we added an additional tablespoon of fish sauce and about a cup or so of scallions.
Tip: When Mrs. Tron saves scallions for later use, she not only puts them in a ziplock bag, but first wraps the scallions in newspaper before putting it in the bag in the freezer. This keeps the strong smell inside the packaging and not all over your fridge and freezer.
Once the pork was done cooking and the green beans had sautéed, we were ready to sit down and eat.
The fried rice was salty with a crunch added by the bacon strips. The softer textural qualities of the shiitake mushrooms and other assorted vegetables added depth to the dish. It was also great as a leftover (we're still eating it.)
The Chayote may have been the find of the night though; the soft crisp crunch of the ‘pears' with the added sweetness of the fresh garlic was a taste combination I've never experienced before, and a vegetable to add onto my short list of ones I actually like.
My favorite of the night would have to be Minh-Nhat though. Maybe it's because I had a hand in making it, but the mushrooms and pork were, again, salty and delicious and completely different from any pork dish I'd ever had.
Mrs. Tron and Mai-lien's dad were not only nice enough to open up their home to us, but I think we all actually learned a lot about Vietnamese food as well. And my picky roommate Chrissy actually ate everything on the table…well, except for the mushrooms.
The food is actually easier to cook than you think, too. Look below for the recipe for a Vietnamese pork dish.
If you try your hand at Vietnamese cooking, let me know how it goes, and if you have any great family recipes that you love, send them in! Keep Craving!
Ingredients

2 lbs Ground pork
8-10 Dried black shiitake mushrooms
¼ C. Dried clouds ears (tree fungus)
1-2 Tbsp. Vegetable or peanut oil
4-5 stalks green onions
2-3 Tbsp Fish sauce
¼ Tbsp.Black pepper
Salt (optional, to taste)

When buying pork, choose a lean, boneless cut (pork loin, rib end or center cut). Ask the butcher to cut off visible chunks of fat and have him grind the rest. Some butchers will be happy to do this for you free of charge.
Dried mushrooms and fish sauce (preferably Vietnamese fish sauce) can be purchased in most American or Asian grocery stores. I have found clouds ears fungus only in Asian grocery stores.

Directions
1. Wash and soak the dried mushrooms in warm water until soft. Cut off stems and slice the caps into strips. Reserve the clear part of mushroom water and discard the part with sediment.
2. Soak the clouds ears in warm water. When they are soft, wash them carefully—they can be very gritty—and slice. Discard this water.
3. Chop the green onions.
4. Heat oil in skillet on medium heat. Make sure the pan has a lid. Stir fry green onions until slightly brown.
5. Add the ground pork and brown it in the oil. As it browns, chop the pork with a spatula to break the lumps. Add the mushroom water at this time.