Here in San Jose, thousands of miles from the rice paddies of Southeast Asia, the heart of Vietnam beats in the shops and restaurants of Lion Plaza. Culinarily speaking, Vietnam is far more than pho and spring rolls, as my sister Anna found out. She had signed up to help paint a new school, but when the local coordinators found out that a certain food writer had asked her to keep an eye out for good recipes, she found herself packed off to the kitchen instead. In a shanty kitchen built over a murky canal, Anna learned that Vietnamese cuisine combines the raw and the cooked, the sweet and the spicy, chile heat and citrus tang. The village women kneel on the floor to cook, expertly tending the fire under the big iron pot and pushing the scraps through the wide cracks in the floorboards.
Ingredients are fresh and meticulously prepared into dishes with a flair for visual presentation.
Rice is the staple food, complemented with plenty of seafood, fresh herbs, and tropical fruits. Over the centuries, Vietnamese cuisine has adapted the influence of different groups of immigrants and neighboring cuisines without losing its own character. Stir-fry, congee and chopsticks came from China, while from the French the Vietnamese accepted white asparagus, potatoes and a taste for coffee and baguettes made with rice and wheat flour. Curry made its way westward from India and mingles with coconut milk. Vietnamese share a love affair with pungent fish sauce with their Thai neighbors.