May 30, 2007
Mom’s In Town
Mom’s in town and I haven’t been cooking. I thought she would whip up some kick-ass dishes for me and J but I was dead wrong. She hasn’t been cooking either.
Coming from Singapore, a place where cheap and delicious food is readily available and people’s favorite past-time is eating, she was more interested to eat out and see what the Bay Area has to offer. We are not talking about any fancy shamcy restaurants here. The Ranch 99 deli was enough to make her happy.
We bought roasted duck from Ranch 99 two times in ten days. J and I ate the meat, while mom was happy eating the bones with porridge. I am not ill-treating her - she said the duck bones were very tasty.
I also had a taste of the duck feet and cow stomach from the Ranch 99 deli. These are things I would never have thought buying on my own, simply because they look too weird to be eaten J doesn’t eat such things.
Mom is good at eating stuff with bones, be it duck feet, chicken feet or fish. She would bite off a piece of meat with bones, manoeuver her tongue around the the bite, spit out the bones and eat the meat. I must have gotten that tongue-skill from her, that’s why I would be the one eating the stomach part of the fish (which has bones) while J takes the upper body of the fish, the meaty part. I wonder if this tongue-skill helps in French kissing?
Bite This!
More recipes:
High Fructose Corn Syrup - The Ingredient Within The Ingredient
Sushi Maru - For A Quick Japanese Meal Fix
Vung Tau Restaurant - Bánh Khot
Minced Pork With Tofu And Mushrooms
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May 30th, 2007 at 8:38 am
I haven’t had cow stomach since I was 10 because for some reason I was seriously ill after eating some. Duck feet are my mum’s favorite as well :D. I prefer duck tongues myself. My grandma used to marinate duck tongues with soysauce, sugar and five spice powder and then boil it just until done. mmm. Ohh, just remember you’re gonna be so busy when the baby comes :D
May 30th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I ate duck feet this past weekend too! I prefer the chicken feet though. And I love tripe.
As for tongue tricks = good kisser, that’d be if you can tie a maraschino cherry stem into a knot with only your tongue. My cousin is the only person I know who can do that, and I’m obviously not going to kiss her to verify if it’s true! :)
Does your mom like duck tongue? My mom says it’s a special treat b/c in the old days, you’d have to kill a lot of ducks to get enough tongues for a bowl of porridge.
What’s the countdown now? Three weeks till baby comes?
May 30th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Anh,
I had duck tongue a few months ago, the first time, at a dim sum place (Koi Palace). An indescribable weird feeling came over me as I ate it. It’s just weird chewing the small duck tongues. They need that to quack :P
Chopsticks:
Finally our eating is somewhat in sync :) I too prefer chicken feet, as in the dim sum phoenix claws - more skin in those :)
Can you video an attempt to tie a maraschino cherry stem into a knot with only your tongue? Post it! Post it in your blog :D
Yep I just asked mom if she likes duck tongue and she said yes. How come we are talking about tongues again?! :p :p :p
Two more weeks ladies, two more weeks then I’ll pop. Right now I can balance a canned drink on my belly.
May 30th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Yich,
Haha! I’d have to wait until my cousin is in town again and I have maraschino cherries on hand, but her mouth is closed when she does it so it wouldn’t be a very interesting video.
Tongue. Tongue. Should we talk about beef tongue? That’s tasty. ;)
Two more weeks huh? Are you gonna post baby’s pic on your blog? If not, email me! I wanna see your little one!
May 30th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
hehe i don’t know about chicken feet.. not much meat! :D i haven’t had them in ages. that’s nice that she has come to visit. how often does she come?
May 30th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Chopsticks:
Noooooooooo! No beef tongue conversation pur-lease!
Not sure about posting baby pics. However, I will sure keep you posted! :)
Hi BuddingCook,
This is the first time mom is in the US. She is here only becos of the soon-to-be-due baby. I have a lower priority now in her life now. Maybe that’s why she is not cooking. Hmmm…
May 30th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
YES! the tongue thing definitely helps in kissing!! that and eating blue crabs
May 30th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Ah, so your mom came over early. I guess you will have to stay home for a month after the baby is born now.
May 31st, 2007 at 12:22 am
Baby? I didn’t know about the baby! and in 2 weeks too! wow! hope it all goes well!
May 31st, 2007 at 8:45 am
I have not had duck webs for a long time liao!
Bay Area has lots of things to eat! Dungeon Crabs!!! Did you bring your mum to eat? Wonder if it’s in season…
May 31st, 2007 at 9:30 am
Sim’s Mama in town! Cool! I love duck feet (duck web) braised with sea cucumber. Very Very nice arh! Cow stomach-is it tripe? I see them in my pho sometimes. I still eat it but not a fan of it. Does your mum like the weather here? So you brought her to Koi liow? Maybe you could bring her to HK Saigon Seafood Rest(nearer but as crowded-crowder means good mah!) for more chinese food if she no like other food. I remember seeing duck tongue/feet being served in dim-sum carts. :D
May 31st, 2007 at 11:20 am
Steam!
Eating the ducks’ feet was a good tongue workout! :p :b :p
DF:
Yeah… that’s why the term Asians use is called “confinement period” - sounds more like jail time to me.
W&S:
Thanks!
KM:
Mom said she doesn’t want to eat crab cos she’s afraid the hard shells may break her teeth. Crab season is over liow. The best time to eat Dungeoness Crabs is Dec and Jan when supply is plentiful and the crabs are Hohoho BIG!
Tiga!
Ya… cow stomach is tripe. I also ate them in Pho or Beef Noodles before, but just a few strips, not a whole qtr pound of tripe! :P She likes the weather where we live but not in SF - too windy! We brought her to Mayflower in SF. Will check out the location of HK Saigon Seafood Rest for more Chinese food. Thanks for the reminder!
June 1st, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Yich,
Does your mama wanna try VNese food? I’m not sure where you are, but there’s three locations for Vung Tau Restaurant. I’ve only been to the one in San Jose but it’s very good. http://www.vungtaurestaurant.com/
It’s a little pricier than the average VNese restaurant, but the decor and food kicks it up a notch. I’d recommend getting #5 banh khot, they’re fried rice discs with a bit of coconut milk topped with shrimp, and the #8 bun sadec has a x-large shrimp.
June 1st, 2007 at 6:52 pm
She would probably like Pho (with the tripe, tendon and all the weird stuff), but that she can get from Pho Hoa, which is also available in Singapore. Vung Tau Restaurant look so classy! There’s one in Milpitas too. Yay! Can you recommend one more dish? *so that I don’t have to think* :p Something not sweet, not spicy and not cold.
June 1st, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Yich,
Pho Hoa isn’t good pho. It’s a chain. On my blog is a review of Bun Bo Hue Annam. That’s the central VNese lemongrass spicy beef noodle soup with blood cubes. Normally it’s served with pig’s feet but not at that restaurant. My friends say it’s the best in San Jose.
Vung Tau is a coastal town so seafood would be their specialty. I went for lunch so we just got dry noodle bowls (bun), that’s why I recommended the bun sadec. That shrimp was like 3 inches! I also liked #21 their dry noodles with shrimp and pork. and #17 bun bo nuong, with beef. The noodles are chewy, which I like. And there’s lots of veggies in the bowl so it’s very filling. That’s just recommendations of food I’ve actually tried.
For menu stuff that looks interesting or is more VNese specific, #11 is Trieu Chau (that’s VNese for Teo Chew), and since you are…you might be interested? I’ve never heard of this dish myself.
#33 banh hoi chao tom looks really good. They’re steamed rice vermicelli noodle sheets with grilled shrimp paste wrapped around sugarcane so the sugarcane juices will flavor the shrimp. Hmm. I gotta get around to making that soon. Typing the description is making me hungry! :P #34 is the ground pork version that I posted the recipe for. But go with the shrimp! It’s got sugarcane!
#60 is the lemongrass chicken I just made for the bbq.
#67 lotus root salad is good. It’s young lotus root, not the big kind made into soups.
#69 the lemon-cured beef is good but I’m not sure if you should be eating raw meat right now. The lemon “cooks” the beef. Think of it as a beefy version of ceviche. There’s a fish version as well so that you can get VNese ceviche. :)
#73 is sour catfish soup, similar to a tom yum in the sourness, but with a lot more veggies and fish.
#88 and 89 are catfish, fried crispy, or braised in a rich carmelized clay pot (my recipe for this coming soon). #97 is the fancier larger version but only order that if you plan to eat a whole catfish with rice paper and herbs to wrap them up.
OK, I hope those other dishes are good for you. I haven’t tried them myself, but I recommended this place to a friend who was in Hawaii for a week. And when she got back, she immediately (as in half an hour after she got home) drove there and thought the food was much better than what she had all week in Hawaii. She’s been back several times since then too.
June 1st, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Whoa! Thanks for taking time to write this essay. Hehe. I’ll have to print this out before I go to Vung Tau. Nope, I can’t eat raw stuff now… but can do so in TWO weeks. Hip hip hooray! #21 and #17 sounds good.
June 15th, 2007 at 8:16 am
You guys sound hilarious. I live in a so call “smaller city” in Canada, it’s called Winnipeg. Therefore, I don’t have the previlige to have good Vietnamese food. Not so long ago, my friend had a Vietnamese restaurant and boy her food was delicious. However, it was closed down, I was so sad.
Now, I’m pregnant and craving Vietnamese food like crazy. I’ve been begging her to cook for me but so far I just have a little success.
Umm, lemongrass chicken sounds good, you can either grill it or pan fried. It’s delicious.
June 15th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Hi Binnie, Wandering Chopsticks has a Lemongrass Chicken recipe :) Go check her out… I mean check out her blog :)