Gỏi cuốn 01

Group members: Vũ (Ng Chan Way), Phong (Khoo Shea Yee), và Nam (Tan Xiang Yang)
Ingredients:

24 medium-size raw shrimp with shells
16 round rice papers
Head butter lettuce
½ pound rice vermicelli
2 cucumber, and beansprout
1 cup fresh Thai basil leaves

Sauces:
teaspoons oil
2 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
5 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp chilli sauce

Procedure:

1. Wash the ingredients. Cook the shrimp in boiling salted for about 3 minutes. Shell, de-vein, and cut in half lengthwise. Refresh in cold water and set aside.
2. Cook rice vermicelli in boiling water for 5 minutes. Then rinse it inside cold water, drain and set aside.
3. Working with only 1 rice paper sheet at a time, dip the sheet, edge first, in the hot water and turn it to wet completely, about 10 - 15 seconds.
4. Lay the sheet down and stretch it slightly to remove any wrinkles. Place the ingredients neatly in a straight row. Top with a little vermicelli, bell pepper strips, carrot and 2 to 3 basil leaves. Make sure the ingredients are distributed evenly in a roughly cylinder shape on rice paper.
5. Using your second, third, and fourth fingers, press down on the ingredients while you use the other hand to fold over both sides of the rice paper. With fingers still pressing down, use two thumbs to fold the bottom edge over the filling and roll into a cylinder about 1-1/2 inches wide by 5 inches long. After 1 roll, line 2 shrimp halves onto rice paper before finish making all the remaining rolls.
6. To serve, cut the rolls into two equal pieces and place the cut rolls on an appetizer plate. Serve with Vietnamese dipping sauce on the side.
___________________________________________________________________________

Xin chào các cô và các bạn. Cuối tuần trước chúng ta rất vui vì chúng ta nấu ăn ở nhà thầy Minh. Chúng ta thức dậy lúc sáu giờ hơn sang………..

We chose to buy our ingredients early in that morning hoping to keep them fresh for our first preparation of Vietnamese dish. Our total cost was only $15 (not really sure about the reasonable cost).

At one time while we were preparing our ingredients (shell and de-vein shrimps, cut the basil leaves and cucumbers into smaller size), maybe because our cucumbers were attractive enough to catch Cô Bích’s attention, she came to us and helped to craft a small part of cucumber into a basket-liked decoration. We were motivated by this precisely-crafted basket and decided to make something more, which turned out to be cucumber made ‘heart’ and ‘vase (to hold flowers)’, as shown in the photos.

The most difficult part in preparing this cold salad roll was rolling the rice papers with whole bunch of ingredients inside. Some of the salad rolls were loosely packed while some were too tight that made the rice papers torn. We managed to finished everything including decoration at about eleven thirty, and were satisfied with our very first Vietnamese dish prepared.

As for the comments from các cô about our work, we left out meat slices as part of our ingredients, but in overall our dish was a good try.

This is a good experience for us who never prepare Vietnamese dish before (not even taste it for most of us), and here we would like to express our gratitude to everyone for making this project a successful one. Love you LAV1201~

Gỏi Gà 4

Title: Gỏi Gà (Group 4)


Location: Thầy Minh's house


Date: 3rd October 2009


Cast: Annaling, Daniel, Karen, Chao Qun

Us with Cô Bích and Cô Lê.

The four of us had reached way ahead of our allocated time, so we had to do other things to keep ourselves entertained.

Play with toys.

Shred chicken for phở gà (by order of Cô Bích).

Our preparation process:

Future nội trợ hard at work.

Remember to squeeze the water out of the carrots! Else the salad would be soggy. *ew*

End of preparation process. Time for decorations!

But first! We had to try out how our dish tasted like. And we invited Cô Bích to try our dish 3 times! She felt it was too sour AND too spicy. So spicy that she couldn't taste other groups' dishes. Opps!

After that, we got Thầy Minh to try out our dish and he thought it was alright. But Cô Lê still felt that the sauce was too sour. Hmm...

Here we've the process of making another dish. It's called Leftovers. Don't waste food!

Dump everything into a mixing bowl and serve.

End product. Vietnamese 'Rojak'.

Tasting time! The 'rojak' tasted pretty good!

Thầy Minh's wife came along to join in the fun! :D

Group 4 with our "decoration" and dish. Guess who/what is the decoration.

Our final Gỏi Gà!

Before the judging begins, the girls decided to reward themselves with a drink!

Can you spot Group 4's Gỏi Gà in this photo? :D

Judging time: Hmm.. I wonder what Cô Bích just tasted.

Woah, check out our teachers' expressions!

Cô Bích was anticipating what Cô Lê's expression would be. I believe they were tasting (not fully cooked) beef stew.

A Kodak Moment.

Cô Lê going for some other dish.

After all the students and teachers "attacked" the table of food. Check out how empty our plate became! *proud moment*

Group 4 with Cô Bích, our teacher for TA1 class and our mentor for the cooking project!

A final shot.

Sinh viên tiếng Việt - Students of Vietnamese Language

Tips from Cô Bích:

-        
The teachers like sweet stuff (not sour or
spicy, unlike Singaporeans or Thais)

-        
Do not mix sauce and vegetables too early as the
vegetables will turn soggy

-        
Mint leaves must be torn into small pieces to
bring out their flavours

-        
All vegetables must be shredded/chopped thinly

-        
Must squeeze water out of carrot

-        
Must prepare lots of sauce

-        
Always prepare more than required (in case
something goes wrong)

-        
Go early to get cooking tips from Cô Bích

-        
Get the right kind of mint leaves (if in doubt,
ask)

-        
Don’t waste food (pass the remainders to Cô Bích to make the dish called ‘Leftovers’)

-        
Peanut should only be added right before serving
to preserve its crunchiness

Individual Afterthoughts:



Annaling:

Through
this cooking project, I got to know my classmates better. The atmosphere of the
cooking project was a lot more relaxed than normal classroom lessons, which is
why most of us were more natural and bonded better.

It was evident during the tasting of the various dishes how different
Singaporeans’ and Vietnamese’s taste buds were. Our teachers evidently favoured
sweet stuff, while Singaporeans could handle spicy and sour food better.

Our
Vietnamese teachers proved to be indeed a fun company as they mingled and
gamely tasted our food many times to give us their opinions. I would love to
partake in more of such activities!

Daniel:

In
class, we can learn to speak the Vietnamese language, but this cooking project
allowed us to learn about the Vietnamese culture. From this project, we can see
how different taste buds of the Vietnamese people (as compared to the Singaporeans).

What
made the whole project interesting was the bonding between our classmates and
teachers and the opportunity to cook dishes that were unfamiliar to us. While
some of us saw the cooking project as a challenge, because they had never
handled a knife their whole lives, others took it as an opportunity to put
their culinary skills to good use.

Karen:

The
cooking session was a very enjoyable session. It provided good bonding time
with my Vietnamese language classmates and teachers. I found out that we each
had very different preferences with regards to food taste. When some of us
found the sauce okay, some found it too spicy or sour. I guess when we cook, we
have to be mindful of the person who will be eating the dish. In this case, as
we knew the teachers were the judges, we got the teachers to try the sauce, and
realized the teachers’ preference was rather different from ours.. I also
realized that there were a lot of cooking tips that we could not find online,
which could only be taught by the people who had experience with the dishes,
such as co Bich. Overall, it was a memorable experience and I definitely will
try making some of the dishes at home too!

Chao Qun:

That was
the most interesting group project that I ever have in my life of studying.
Apart from learning to cook Vietnamese dish, it gave us a good interaction time
to know our coursemates and tutors well. Although I didn’t help much in the
cooking section, I’ve tried my best to finish the food as much as possible
(Oppssssss…). And, I just realized that I never step into kitchen to help my
mother to cook a single dish before. So that is why my cooking skill is poor.
Should have prepared this Vietnamese chicken salad for her next time if she
dares to try it…Haha

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!