Lan Hue News Today

>> anthony: goi hue is a traditional dish thats seldom made these days because of its complexity and the time needed to do it right. a fish stock is made from ca bong, a fish from the perfume river. pineapples, onion, chilies, shallots and coriander. a salad of quickly cooked prawns, rice noodles, ginger, red chili, garlic and galangal. layer of rice noodle, banana flower, then the prawns, garnishes. the strained fish stock is brought to the table with the salad in separate bowls, and combined j...

>> anthony: i love it. oh no, i like it. what i found when i first came to this part of the world, vietnam in particular, uh, my palate changed. i needed an elevated level of chilies and heat. much of vietnamese cooking abides by principles of yin and yang, heat and cold. this one, a lobster dish with five spices, balances the coldness of the lobster, with the heat of the spices. red onion, ginger, lemongrass, and chilies are added to the boiling water to cook the lobster. once the lobsters cook...

>> anthony: im meeting my friends for a country lunch. whats the specialty of this restaurant? youre saying chicken in baked in clay? >> ha pham: yes. >> anthony: another friend from the past, ha pham, linh, of course, lan and a new friend from hue, thanh. a last meal, some good-byes. >> lan hue: i have a question. >> anthony: yeah. >> lan hue: what make you stay so long in hue? because normally, travelers, they come to hue, they stay only one or two nights and thats it. >> anthony: really? >> h...

>> lan hue: no, its just -- >> anthony: oh, it just -- mmm! oh, this is great. >> lan hue: this is so nostalgic to me. when i was younger, every noon my mom asked me to take a noon nap. and say, if you take a noon nap then i will buy you some banh. and i would sit there in front of our house waiting for her. >> anthony: waiting! >> lan hue: yeah, waiting for her. with a dish, an empty dish waiting for her. she would come and then my mom would buy it for me. you do have the style. >> anthony: yea...

Thing is also an art in vietnam. we still learn how to wrap the thing and you know, learn how to unwrap the thing. so unwrapping a thing is also an art. >> anthony: right. im watching you. >> lan hue: youre doing it right, you are perfect. i think youre an expert. maybe the life before you, you was born in hue. >> anthony: in a past life? yes. >> lan hue: yeah. >> anthony: so this is shrimp? >> lan hue: mmm-hmm. >> anthony: pick it up and dip, right? mmm! very nice. >> lan hue: mmm-hmm. nice. >>...

>> anthony: banh ram it is a delicious marriage of fried and glutinous sticky rice dumplings. it starts with frying the paste in cooking oil. then, unpeeled shrimp are stuffed into dough. place the chewy part with crunchy part and sprinkle with chopped fried shrimp. >> anthony: oh wow. oh, thats -- that looks awesome. whats -- what is underneath here? >> lan hue: rice, uh, rice paste. >> anthony: rice paste, ah, okay. >> lan hue: but on the top, this thing, at the back is um, fried thing. >> ant...

Im meeting up with lan, for whats shes promised will be a very tasty afternoon snack. quan banh o le is set back from a quiet lane in the outskirts of town. its a neighborhood place specializing in this, banh beo, little pancake-like things made of rice flour, steamed in molds, and topped with crispy fried shallots and cassava paste, and crumbled fried shrimp. so, show me how you eat this. what do we uh -- >> lan hue: i had this when i was a little girl. so you make, try to pick it up like this....

>> lan hue: my mom, she never wanted me to go home after like, 10:00. she get angry if i go home at 11:00 or something. that scared me, so normally when i go home at night um, i try to go home very early. >> nguyen qui duc: riding a boat along the river, you sort of feel there are things living in the water, and the trees, and the darkness out there. d was in. because of smoking. but we still had to have a cigarette. had to. but then, we were like. what are we doing? the nicodermcq patch helps p...

Fill a chicken with lemongrass, wrap it in banana leaves, then cover it with the muddy clay from the nearby rice paddies. cook in the coals or a pile of burning straw, if you like. unwrap carefully, tableside. section with shears. >> lan hue: it smells so good. makes me hungry. >> anthony: serve with a little lime and salt, maybe some chili sauce. squash, bitter melon, and morning glory greens for veggies. mmm! thats good. some unexpected last words. >> ngu quoc thanh: on behalf of people of hue...

>> ngu quoc thanh: yeah? sometime drink a lot of beer i forgot. whose woods are these are i think i know. this house is in the village though. he cannot see me stopping here to, watch these woods fill up with snow. my little horse must think it queer to stop without a farmhouse near. between the woods and frozen lake the darkest evening of the year. he gives his harness bell a second to ask if theres some mistakes. the only other sounds of easy wind and downy flake. and something like. >> anthon...