Category Archives: KennyBenchTravels

KennyBenchTravels: Food in Vietnam- Diep Ca, Ot, and Trung Muoi

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Eric,

Sorry for the long hiatus.  So to make up for the long absence I thought to include 3 new edibles.

The first is a vegetable.  It took Lam and I a while to figure out what the name was and we were more confused once we found out.  The name of the vegetable is “Diep Ca” which directly translates to “Mint Fish”.  It’s named this because the smell resembles fish, which I didn’t get and I’m not one to argue.  The leaf is firm and when folded too far will snap.  The flavor has a very strong sour taste and is slightly lemony with a slightly bitter aftertaste.  They use this leaf a lot of fresh rolls and they also pulverize it to make healthy vegetable juices.

The second edible is the Vietnamese Chili which is called “Ot”.  These come in 2 varieties, red and green.  You find these absolutely everywhere and they are used in a ton of dishes.  They are used as a cooking ingredient as well as just eaten as is.  Almost every restaurant will have these readily available in the fresh variety or they will provide a mushy version which they take chilies with some vegetable oil, blend it then cook slightly that you scoop with a spoon to add some spice.

Now to break the myth surrounding the “1000 Year Eggs”.  In Vietnam they call them “Trung Muoi” which is just “Salted Egg” and they don’t take 1000 years to make….but they do take about 1/2 a year.  The process is you take a duck egg and soak it in very salty water for 1 month.  After that you cover the egg in either a special saw dust or mud from a certain region of Vietnam.

After that you let them sit for several months.  The albumen of the egg gelatinizes and with the saw dust version takes on a brownish/yellow tint while the mud version becomes quite dark.  When they are ready you clean off the egg and boil it and eat it like normal.  Usually these are used in pork dishes.  We were able to open one of the yellow ones to take a look inside, but the mud ones I guess are too runny to open.  Mmmm…doesn’t that sound delicious.

I’ll try to send more soon…there are still more things left to see.

Kenny

Thanks Kenny!!!

Eric

KennyBenchTravels: Ambarella in Vietnam

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Kenny is back again this week with another really interesting piece of fruit, ambarella.  Take it away Kenny!

Eric,
Here’s some photos of Ambarella.  It’s a strange fruit that you eat when it is still very firm and crunchy.  It has a very light sweet flavor and you eat it with some chili salt.
The interesting thing about this fruit is that you don’t really cut it, you kind of break it.  What I mean is that after you wash it you take a knife and make vertical cuts into the fruit.  Once you make several vertical cuts you put the knife into the fruit and twist it so that it breaks a section of the fruit off.  The reason for this is because of the seed.
The seed is very spiny and looks kind of like a sea urchin with all its spikes.  They hold the fruit firmly in place so you can’t cut it, thus the breaking method.  The first time I ate this my Vietnamese friends gave me the seed which still had some fruit on it.  I quickly tossed it into my mouth and bit down, which instantly caused me tons of pain and cut the inside of my mouth.  Biter Beware.
More to come…
Kenny

KennyBenchTravels: Dragon Fruit in Vietnam

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Kenny is back again with more fruit from Vietnam.  I love his posts and once again, thanks for coming to the dark side!!  Take it away Kenny!

Here is a fruit that many people have probably seen, but when I first started to travel through Vietnam was completely new to me.  The sheer stark contrast of the inside versus the outside and the vibrance just under the skin was amazing.

When I took photos of the fruit it might look over-saturated in color but this is really how the fruit looks.  If anything I have had to tone down the saturation just because the inside of the skin is like disco neon pink.

The plant grows like a cactus.  It’s not a very tall plant but when it initially grows is soft like a cactus but as it matures hardens and becomes more tree like but still not very tall.  Most of these are grown in the southern part of Vietnam where the temperature is more consistently hot and humid year round.

People eat it as is, just cut grab a spoon and scoop, or you can slice it and put it on ice with a little sugar or some yoghurt.  The texture of the fruit is very close to a kiwi just before it becomes fully ripe.  So a little firm but gives away when you eat it.  If you get one that isn’t quite ripe, then there is really no flavor. When the fruit is ripe then it is a a little sweet with a sour initial flavor and with a very slight earthy flavor.  Oh and you just eat the seeds, so no spitting these ones.

I’ll show you a fruit next that has a seed you definitely want to avoid.

Kenny.

KennyBenchTravels: Fruits in Vietnam

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My friend Kenny has been in Vietnam for quite sometime now and I have been begging him to take pictures of food related items for about a year now.  Finally, he has agreed to come to the dark side! He’s funny as hell and he takes amazing pictures…..perfect fit for this blog!

He has had his work published on www.activeasiavn.com (click) and a few other sites too so it’s a huge honor for me to have him on here.  I don’t exactly know what he’s going to send me so we’re all in for a surprise! :)  Welcome Kenny!!!!!

Eric,
Yo,  so here’s the first couple photos of a fruit in Vietnam.  I’ll keep processing the rest and send them over.  I’ll start with a slightly mundane fruit and move towards the bizarre.
The name of the fruit is: Longan.  This fruit has to be along the family lines of lychee. The outside of the fruit is a dry brown shell.  You open it by digging your nail into it and the shell just kind of cracks open.  The inside of the fruit is this slightly translucent meat which you can see the big black seed in the middle.  The fruit has a similar taste to lychee which I describe as a grape cantaloupe spinoff.  Texture is similar to lychee or a firm concord grape.  It’s really sweet….and the seeds are a good size so you can really get some distance once you’re done cleaning it off.
This is one of the more normal ones, it gets better from here and get’s even as bizarre as some photos I have a fruit which I don’t know the english name yet, but it looks like you cut open someone’s chest and revealed 12 bloody hearts imbedded. Very sci-fi.
Some of these fruits have interesting points…some just look bizarre.  Also here is a picture of a general wet market in Vietnam.
Kenny

Thanks Kenny!!!!! Can’t wait to see what else you’re up to/eating!

Eric