ROUSES_JulyAug2019_Magazine

Bahn-jour

by Sarah Baird

Banh mi. Egg coffee. Pho. These dishes are now staples of Vietnamese cuisine, but their omnipresence is a rather re- cent development in the country’s long, complex culinary and sociopolitical history, which has been sculpted by ed- ible influences from China, the Khmer Rouge and beyond. Above all others, though, it is arguably the French —who colonized the country we now know as Vietnam in 1883 — who have left the most lasting mark on the dining habits of the Vietnamese. “Wandering the streets of Hanoi, one can now find pho shops near bakeries selling banh mi (warm, crusty baguettes, which make for excellent sandwiches), and market vendors selling freshly sliced and salted pineapple next to cafes where Vietnamese and tourists enjoy rich cups of coffee,” writes Erica J. Peters in her 2011 book, Appetites and Aspirations in Vietnam , which examines the food politics of Vietnamese culture during French colonial rule. “Two hundred years ago, none of those delights were there. A hundred years ago, they had all just arrived. The French colonizers who conquered Vietnam in the second half of the 19th century are long gone, but certain culinary contributions remain.” If you’re up for a highly specific edible adventure, spend a day seeking out, making and eating only Vietnamese dishes with French influence for a delicious lesson that traces global history. (Trust me, it’ll be better than any bar crawl or progressive dinner you’ve ever experienced.) Here’s how to get started. BREAKFAST: SUA CHUA Start off your sunrise-to-sunset, French-Viet culinary exploration with a little sua chua, or Vietnamese yogurt. “The Vietnamese had not used milk, butter or cheese in their diet before the French colonial period and consequently had never bred their cows for milk-giving abilities,” writes Peters. And while some Tamil immigrants from Southern India were producing goat milk in Saigon in the latter half of the 19th century, the French began importing their own cow’s milk, including condensed milk, from France. The Vietnamese quickly adopted milk into their culinary repertoire, not as much

Ca phe da, a Vietnamese-style iced coffee• Get the recipe at www.rouses.com/recipes

Tho through the Dalat region and north to Ninh Binh and beyond. Near those planta- tions, Vietnamese villagers drank an infusion of coffee leaves, prepared with fresh leaves like local tea. In colonial cities, however, a new style of coffee drinking found favor: brewed strong, with sweetened condensed milk, and iced in the tropical south.” Vietnam soon developed a distinct and dedicated caffeine-fueled tradition all their own, while wholeheartedly adopting the culture of the French café as a meeting place and focal point of neighborhood social activities in cities like Hanoi and Saigon. Ca phe da (literally, “iced coffee”) typically begins with a robust dark roast that’s been brewed in a phin (a metallic, French-style siphon), then added to a cup full of ice — much like the iced coffees that are now ubiquitous in second- and third- wave coffee shops in the United States. A more popular version involves scooping a few tablespoons of sweetened condensed

for its drink-it-by-the-glass tastiness as for its ability to be morphed into other foods — like yogurt and flan — which more readily matched with traditional flavor profiles and provided a cooled-down counterpoint to the country’s warm climate. Most often made using sweetened condensed milk as a base, Vietnamese yogurt is slightly less tangy than other yogurt varietals and retains a smooth, almost fluffy, consistency. MID-MORNING BREAK: VIETNAMESE COFFEE Need a little early-in-the-day pick-me-up? Look no further than Vietnamese-style cof- fee: a saccharine, but potent, elixir that took France’s coffee habit to a completely new level of delicious complexity. “Before [French] colonialism, few Vietnamese had tried coffee,” Peters explains. “But during the period of French rule, coffee plantations stretched from Ca‘n

Ava Street Café, Baton Rouge "There are a lot of really great choices for pho in Baton Rouge —Drunken Fish, Pho Café, Nine Dragon, Dang’s. My fiancée, Gloria, and I are addicted to the pho at Ava Street Café. We pick up or eat in at least once a week. Gloria orders the mixed vegetable pho. The vegetable broth is so good I get it as the base for steak pho instead of the usual beef broth. We also order the garlic butter edamame, which is equally addictive." - Chris, Category Manager

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