Bring the Flavor of Vietnam to Your Kitchen Salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and spicy: these are the flavorful tenets of Vietnamese cuisine. This exhilarating culinary culture is rich but light, deeply flavorful but made with simple ingredients, and filling while also easy to prepare. That’s the message that authors Van Tran and Anh Vu wanted to bring to a hungry crowd when they opened their banh mi stall in London, an international city that surprisingly lacked the tastes of the authors’ childhoods in Hanoi. As their business expanded, The Vietnamese Market Cookbook followed. The recipes are simpler than you might think but explode with the purest flavors of vegetables, seafood, lean meats, spices, chiles, and treasured Vietnamese condiments like fish sauce. Old and new favorites collide: Asparagus and Crabmeat Soup, Papaya Salad with Crispy Anchovies, Claypot Chicken with Ginger, Sea Bass Carpaccio, Kumquat Jasmine Iced Tea, and Crème Caramel. From chapters like “Sweetness and Happiness” to “Spiciness and Adventure” and “Saltiness and Healing,” this lusciously filling book will bring a little bit of Vietnam into your home.
