Gỏi cuốn 03

Chào các thầy cô và các bạn!

chúng em là project group Gỏi cuốn 03. Chúng em tên là Phúc (Charles), Khôi (Wei Hao), Thưy (Pei Hua) và Danh (Terry).Chúng em đi nhà thầy để nấu ăn gỏi cuốn vào chín giờ sang.

This is it….3rd October 2009 was the long awaited day of our Vietnamese Food Festival. This event gathered all level 1 Vietnamese students together to explore the Vietnamese culture through food. Food which plays an important role in one’s culture signifies many aspects of a country. As such, this cooking project was one of the highlights of the module. Unlike the past semesters, this time round, the food festival was held at Thầy Minh's house. 

Our group was supposed to prepare Gỏi cuốn, a traditional Vietnamese wrap. All of us came prepared for this event with bags and bags of ingredients. When we arrived at Thầy Minh's house, his house was already packed with our friends of LAV1201. Everyone was so engrossed in their cooking and definitely also enjoying themselves very much. Each of us was responsible for getting specific ingredients and we prepared it the day before the Food Festival.

The ingredients are as follows:
• Bee Hoon
• Vietnamese rice paper
• Lettuce
• Cucumber
• Basil leaves  
• Mint leaves
• Bean sprouts
• Pork belly 
• Tiger shrimps 
• Fish sauce

The most interesting ingredient of this dish was the Vietnamese rice paper. I was surprised by how the texture of the paper changed as it came into contact with water. Cô Lê and Cô Quỳnh taught us the proper way of wrapping. This procedure was not as easy as it seemed when we cooked it ourselves. You must be really careful not to tear the rice paper. 

Procedure: 
1) Wash all ingredients.
2) Soak Bee Hoon in cold water for 20 minutes then place into boiling water and cook for 5 minutes.
3) Rinse under cold water, drain and set aside.
4) Slice the pork meat and cucumber into thin strips. The prawns were cut into half.
5) Place a sheet of rice paper on a plate. Arrange the lettuce, cucumber,mint leaves, basil leaves, bean sprouts, chives and Bee Hoon on the rice paper, along the edge closest to you.
6) Top with slices of pork and shrimps.
7) Fold the edge of the rice paper closest to you over the filling. Then fold the left and right hand sides over and roll the spring roll away from you to form a neat parcel.
8) Continue to make 15 more rolls.
9) Serve with fish sauce.

                                             Charles slicing the cucumber 

                                             Putting the fillings into the wrap

                                             Pretty fingers wrap pretty rolls

                                              Who's the handsome guy on the LEFT?!?

                                               "Added the prawn?"

                                             Full concentration on the salad roll

We then went on to decorate our Gỏi cuốn and prepare the fish sauce for the dish.

                                             Salad Roll Fusion

                                       The Final Presenation.. Where is Charles?? In the salad roll?

                                                            Glutton for punishment!!!

The grading of each group’s dish started around noon. Every team final product looked very appetising. During the critique, Cô Bích who is a very good cook pointed out our mistakes in the selection of ingredients without even having to see through our cooking process. She sensed everything through taste! Cô Bích also mentioned that some of the dishes taste much better than that from Business School canteen. 

After which, all of us were given the opportunity to taste the food. On top of those prepared by our friends, Cô Bích also cooked her trademark phở gà for all of us. 

All in all, the food festival was a success. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all the teachers for making it happen.

Our reflections

Pei Hua: I really enjoyed myself very much that day. It was a wonderful and insightful experience for me. The food festival was just like a bonding session for everyone where all our teachers became just like friends to us. Although everyone was exhausted by the end of the event, the weary was all overcome by the joy and laughter on that day. 

Wei Hao: It was a really enriching experience for me as it was one of my few times preparing a dish. Especially since it was a Vietnamese dish, it was really an eye opener for me. I never thought that the various vegetables that the Vietnamese would heavily use in their dishes could taste so delicious together. I would definitely like to try preparing and tasting the other Vietnamese dishes some other time.

Charles: To be honest, I would say that I did not really get to experience cooking Vietnamese food as I have to leave early on that day for a midterm in school. Fortunately I have the chance to see Cô Lê showing us how to wrap the Gỏi cuốn before I left. Tiếc quá! Nevertheless, I feel that the main aim of the project is to bring all of us together and I am glad that I have at least mingle around with my coursemate of LAV1201. 

Terry: I have never cooked or prepared any dishes except for instant noodles till now. However, I had a great and fun filled experience during the few hours of “cooking mama” session with my wonderful classmates as well as the teachers. I am sure that we have learnt new recipes to prepare new Vietnamese dishes instead of Singaporean delights. I look forward to prepare a new dish in the next cooking session (if there is any). LAV1201 Super Fun!!! 

Chào các bạn!
Last saturday we had our cooking project at thay minh's house! our group prepared the vietnamese chicken salad Gỏi gà, both the spicy and non-spicy version.. it's a fusion dish yea! ;)

These are some of the ingredients that we used for chicken salad. carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, chilli, lime juice, tomatoes, and lots and lots of spices!

put the chicken and veggies in a large bowl.. toss toss toss!

and tada~!

freshly plucked basil leaves.. in a pot!!

our final product.. it tastes as good as it looks! pretty nhe?

LOOKING BACK...

The cooking session on Saturday was a very enjoyable one. It did not really feel like a project because we had so much fun together. It was a great time of bonding. Letting our hair down was what we greatly needed after facing all the stress in school. We certainly learnt a lot from the cooking styles of the Vietnamese. What we found different from the Chinese way of cooking is the use of different types of herbs and spices to give a dish a strong taste. Not only did we get the privilege of tasting the wonderful gourmet of Vietnamese food, we had the privilege of cooking and hence getting a greater appreciation for the Vietnamese culture. Although chicken salad is a simple dish, but we learnt that salad is an essential dish that cannot be missed in any Vietnamese meal. The cooking project allowed us to have a little ‘snippet’ of being Vietnamese. Through this, not only did we learn how to speak Vietnamese, but ‘taste’ it as well! =D

THE END~

cam o'n thay minh for hosting us, the teachers and friends for the lovely experience!

Chè Đậu Xanh

Chào cáo bạn,

Thứ bảy tuần này chúng em nấu ăn, che đậu xanh. Sáng thứ bảy chúng em rất mệt vì không có

sáng ăn, nhưng chúng em rất vuì vì nấu ăn ở nhà thầy minh.

Chè Đậu Xanh ingredients:

600g of skinless green beans

Some sugar and salt

A few pandan leaves

Coconut milk

Sago pearls

Steps:

Before the day of cooking, skinless green bean has been soaked overnight.

Step 1: Add in skinless green beans into 500ml of water in pan with pandan leaves added for aroma.

Step 2: Bring the water to boil, stir constantly till green beans are soften.

Step 3: Press the beans through a sieve.

Step 4: Add in coconut milk and sugar, stir until sugar has dissolved and making sure the soup is thoroughly mixed.

Step 5: Add in sago pearls and reduce the heat once the pearls turn translucent.

Step 6: Add in some salt to enhance the taste.

The hot green bean soup is ready to serve now.

Cooking experiences

We thought it was sweet enough, but Cô Bích said no. therefore we added in more more MORE & MORE sugar. Cô Bích cũng added in a lot of coconut milk, so that it will be more delicious. Finally, when we tasted for the last time, it is ngon!

Decoration experience

After the cooking, we started to put our heads together to translate our decorating idea into product. We started off with our tray. First, we covered the tray with a layer of banana leaves to create the atmosphere of nature. After that, we arranged our serving cups with flag stirrer in the tray. Every stirrer carried a Vietnamese flag with it, and every cup carried an orchid flower by the side of the cup. Then, some other orchids were placed around the cups. And the national flower of Vietnam – Lotus was displayed too, but it wasn’t in its best ‘health state’ as it looked like it had been taken out from water for 5 years. =( Nevertheless, our way of presenting our final product still looks great under the power of our creative hands :Þ

When we are waiting for the other groups, we suddenly realized that we forgotten to add salt to Chè Đậu Xanh!! Ahhh! Lucky the soup was still warm, so we added in some salt and hoped that it could dissolve completely in the soup.

Overall, it’s 100% edible and 100% ngon, but just not sweet enough and not enough coconut milk added (as what Cô Bích and Cô Lê commented)… Haha…

We would like to thank everyone who has helped us in one way or another that day. Thank you everyone for making this such a fun experience for all of us!

Học tiếng Việt học kỳ 2 năm học 2008- 2009

Chào các em. Dạo này cô lười viết blog quá. Cô đã định viết 1 entry về hoạt động của chúng ta ở học kỳ trước nhưng mà lười quá nên giờ mới post được.

A warm welcome to those of you who visit this blog for the first time. A warm welcome back to those who are regular visitors of our blog. Just to let you know that this is the blog of the Vietnamese Language Programme. This is the place where we share our thoughts and capture our most memorable events when learning Vietnamese.

In semester 2 (AY 08/09), our cooking project was once again a great success. You can see the fun and excitement of our food festival in previous entries. Apart from the cooking project, we also had lots of fun in our travelling project. We did also have an unforgetable Vietnamese Afternoon where we made friends and practiced Vietnamese with many Vietnamese students at NUS. In addition, some of the students from Viet 1 and Viet 2 had an enriching and enjoyable immersion trip in Vietnam. In other words, we had another memorable semester together.

I am posting here some pictures to highlight the major activities of Sem 2, AY 2008 - 2009. Hope you all enjoy it.I look forward to reading all the reflections of the new batch of the Vietnamese students after the cooking project in 2 weeks :)

cô Lê

NẤU ĂN Ở NHÀ CÔ BÍCH

Other pictures of the cooking project can be viewed at the following link:http://www.cyworld.vn/myhome/album/list.php?mh_id=12000156617&menuid=11&viewtype=all&folderid=4&onfolder=Y

ĐI DU LỊCH VIỆT NAM

Sinh viên tiếng Việt không những chăm chỉ và thông minh mà còn rất sáng tạo. Nếu không tin, các bạn hãy xem sinh viên làm hướng dẫn viên du lịch như thế nào nhé.

Some pictures of our travelling project can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123381&id=660112494&l=4688877bfc

(to be continued)

Học Tiếng Việt Ở Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh

9 Sinh Viên, 3 Tuần học tập, 1 Tuần du lịch, Hàng ngày nào cũng đi chơi...










sẽ tiếp tục...

Chè Chuối

Chào các bạn.

Đội “Ngôi sao” bao gồm Phương,Việt, Lộc và Cường. Chúng tôi muốn nấu món Chè Chuối.

From left: Cường, Lộc, Phương và Việt

Team “Ngôi sao” met and embarked on our first task for the day...finding Cô Bích’s house! We bumped into Kiên and he led the way to Cô Bích’s house. Cảm ơn Kiên. We were amazed by the beauty of Elizabeth Heights. Nhà Cô Bích rất đẹp.

Our master chef at work

Our master chef was Phương. She had already practised cooking Chè Chuối three times at home! She truly is a dedicated chef.

Trong đợt nghỉ giữa kỳ, Việt đã đi du lịch ở Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh. Việt had obtained sago, jackfruit chips, potato chips and decorative items for us from there. Việt had also bought red Vietnamese t-shirts which became Team “Ngôi Sao’s” attire.

Lộc and Cường were in charge of decorations. Lộc woke up early in the morning to go to Ấn Độ Nhỏ to search for a banana leaf and Cường went to look for tiny bananas.

While cooking, we had difficulty estimating how sweet the Chè Chuối should be. After pouring in our entire packet of sugar, we thought it was sweet enough maybe even too sweet. But we were wrong…time for Cô Bích’s sweetness test…not sweet enough….add more sugar…Cô Bích’s test again…still not sweet enough…add even more sugar…finally sweet enough.

We now had to wait for 30-45 minutes for the dish to be ready.

Preparing decorations while waiting

Waah..still have to wait some more...

Helping our friend while waiting

Here’s the recipe for the Chè Chuối while we continue waiting:

Ingredients: Serves 6 – 8 persons
30 g (1/4 cup) sesame seeds (toasted)
6 ripe bananas (peeled)
500 ml coconut milk
250 ml water
1 pandan leaf, washed and tied in a knot (optional)
110 g sugar
1/4 tsp salt 3 tbsp tapioca pearls (sago), rinsed in cold water and drained

6 simple steps to making your own Chè Chuối:

1. Heat a frying pan over medium heat.

2. Add sesame seeds and stir constantly 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden.

3. Slice bananas in half lengthways, and then cut the pieces into thirds for a total of 36 pieces.

4. Combine coconut milk, water, sugar, salt and pandan leaf in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the sugar dissolves.

5. Add the bananas and tapioca pearls. Cover and cook over low heat, stirring often, for 5 to 7 minutes more, or until the tapioca pearls turn translucent.

6. Remove the pan from the heat. Spoon the mixture into individual dessert bowls and sprinkle half teaspoon sesame seeds over top before serving

The final product!!

Bạn có nghĩ là món này nhìn rất hấp dẫn không? Món này nhìn không chỉ hấp dẫn mà còn rất ngon nữa.

Once the Chè Chuối was ready, we decided to give it a taste test. It was absolutely delicious. In fact we loved it so much that we were afraid that it might finish even before the judging by the tutors!

We had a great time preparing and cooking the dish. It was fun cooking in such a beautiful place and with such a cheery atmosphere.

Cảm ơn cô Lệ, cô Quỳnh và cô Bích đã tổ chức một dự án thật vui để chúng em được thưởng thức nhiều đặc sản Việt Nam.

Cảm ơn các bạn vì những món ăn thật ngon do các bạn chế biến.