Chúng em là nhóm một của Gỏi bưởi tôm. Nhóm của chúng em gồm có năm người. (We are goup 1 of Gỏi bưởi tôm. Our group consist of 5 people.)
The members of our group are Tan Yan Ling, Loh Peiye, Loh Jiahui Kenneth and Loh Kah Yee Kelvin and Cai Qingwei Aaron(From left to right).
Before we begin to tell of our adventures during this cooking project, we would first like to thank our fellow teachers for their assistance and help in this project. We would like to thank Thay Minh for his generosity in opening his place up for us to conduct our project. We would like to thank Cô Bích for providing us advice on how to make the dish and the decorations and last but definitely not least, we would like to thank Cô Lê and Cô Quỳnh for organising and being there to help answer some queries.
Recipe
1. 1 pomelo
3. 3 shallots or 1 small onion, finely chopped
4. Carrot, finely shredded
5. Cilantro leaves
6. Leaves of 8-10 sprigs Vietnamese mint, finely sliced (must be fresh!)
7. ½ cup (125g) fried crispy onion flakes
8. ½ cup (125g) unsalted roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
9. 1 packet shrimp crackers
Dressing
1. 2 tablespoons fish sauce diluted with 2 tablespoons water
2. 2 teaspoons sugar, or to taste
3. 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
4. 2 small cloves garlic, chopped
5. 1-2 fresh chili padi, chopped
Preparation of dressing
1. Mix fish sauce, water, sugar and lime in the ratio of 4:4:1:1.
2. Add cloves garlic and chili padi and taste if the flavor is good.
Method
1. Peel the pomelo. Pull the membrane off the segments as cleanly and completely as possible. Discard the seeds, pull the flesh apart into small flakes and set it aside.
2. Boil a pot of water and cook the shrimp until they turn pink. Drain and set aside to cool. Peel and devein the prawns, then halve lengthwise.
3. To make the dressing, mash the garlic and chili together to a paste. Add the diluted fish sauce, lime juice and sugar and mix well. Slowly add in the garlic-chili paste bit by bit to the mixture until the desired spiciness.
4. Combine the pomelo, prawns, shallots and carrot shreds. Toss well with dressing to taste, adding extra sugar if you wish. Serve in a bowl and sprinkle with cilantro and fresh mint leaves, fried crispy onion flakes and chopped peanuts. Surround the bowl with shrimp crackers and serve.
Chapter 1: Battle plan
We had several meetings prior to the project day to discuss about the necessary preparations and things to bring. Firstly, we had to properly allocate the duties and workload, so that no one is over burdened with the preparations. Next, we had to decide how we would want to implement our decorations. It was then when Yan Ling decided to use a pomelo skin as a bowl and Kelvin suggested using chillies to make a flower like decoration. BEST IDEA EVER!!! Kenneth brought the sushi mat to act as the base for the dish and a small Vietnamese flag to score those extra points. Genius!!!
After making the necessary decisions and allocation of work, we set our plans into motion.
Chapter 2: It’s time to cook food!
We arrived at Thay Minh’s house at 10 in the morning. Yan Ling and Aaron brought along the carved pomelo bowls. We laid down our belongings, arranged the newspapers, setup our arsenal and began our work. We started off with the peeling of the prawns under the supervision of Master chef Kelvin. Peiye and Kelvin were assigned to cut the prawns. We place the prawns in the fridge after that to keep in fresh and proceeded to making the flower like ornaments with the chilli. Cô Bích provided a crash course on designing ornaments using cucumbers, tomatoes and capsicum.
After that, we proceeded to making the dressing, which was done by Kenneth under the guidance of grandmaster chef, Cô Bích. We went through many tastings (adding more garlic and chilli) to finally obtain the PERFECT TASTE of dressing.
After the dressing is complete, all is left is to mix the ingredients all together with the dressing. It was this moment that we all started to see our masterpiece come together. Our joy was not alone, it was accompanied by a hunger to immediately devour our project, but we had to control our urges to consume our food before the presentation. The smell of the fried shallots was heavenly; it called out to the depth our souls, pleading us to take a bite. How can anyone resist such sinful culinary temptation?
We then placed the salad into our marvellously decorated bowl and our dish is ready to be served. We decorated our bowl with the ornaments we prepared and cleared up the area.After the final decoration, I suddenly felt reluctant to eat our project. Look at it; it’s a work of art, a master piece. Eating it would be a crime against the arts, a declaration of war on beautiful looking food. But well, looks like our project has to resign to its eventual fate of being devoured by everyone.
Chapter 3: The final hour is upon us!!!
We brought our work downstairs to the function room where it was going to be judged.
Look at that picture above. This is the look of satisfaction. The look that says, “ah...finally... This is probably the most awesome project around”.
We placed our dish on the table and waited for the tasting session to commence. As you can see in the picture, all the groups have beautiful with many creative designs and ornaments. Some had boats, others had baskets. It really goes to show the effort and love that went in to make these dishes.
Epilogue: The aftermath
We really enjoyed this experience in LAV1201. It’s something you might not get to experience in NUS.
Because, if you really think about it...
How often are there projects that involve cooking?
How often are there projects that do not involve stress and is actually fun?
It was an enriching morning and we all enjoyed ourselves through this experience. It exposed us to Vietnamese culture and cuisine which many of us would otherwise be unfamiliar of.
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