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Homemade Vietnamese Coffee

I love eating Vietnamese cuisine, and one of my favourite drinks that is special and unique would be Vietnamese Coffee, which I found out it wasn’t hard to make at all!

Ingredients
1 to 2 tbsp condensed milk
1 or 1.5 tsp ground coffee (courser grind works best)
boiling water

First, I put the condensed milk in the bottom of my cup. I love my coffee’s sweet when I drink coffee.

Then, I place the coffee grinds into the little contraction which is the French Filter (cà phê phin) – which is the coffee filter. It’s nice to use dark roast to get the strong flavour and the course so it doesn’t fall through the filter. Put the top on the filter and screw it tight. The tighter you screw the top on, the darker and stronger the coffee will be. This will take a longer time for your coffee to brew. Alternatively, you don’t have to tighten it to the max where the coffee won’t be as dark, and you’ll get your drink faster too! It’s up to you! The coffee they typically use is the brand Trung Nguyen

When the coffee has finished dripping through the filter, you’re ready to stir it up to dissolve the condensed milk and enjoy. If you like an iced version (ca phe da), fill a glass full of ice and enjoy!

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Ping Pang Pong

Yes, I am aware that having Dim Sum in Las Vegas is odd, but we did it! We went to Gold Coast Hotel just off the main strip for Dim Sum at a place called Ping Pang Pong

I’ve got to say, not bad at all for dim sum!! The quality of the Chinese food was really good, and I honestly don’t really remember the price, but I believe it was very reasonable – otherwise, I would either be saying “it’s a GREAT deal!” or “it was SO NOT worth it!”

We started with a bowl of jook or congee – pork with thousand year old egg (Preserved Egg Porridge), which is a very common and popular Chinese rice porridge! It was actually really good, and the texture of the jook was smooth and done quite well!

No matter where I go, I’ve always got my favourites – like Chicken Feet which always seems to be delicious! It’s not exception here, the sauce is really one of my favourites and it was tender!

Also, you really can’t go anywhere without enjoying some Ha Gow – Shrimp Dumpling, and the shrimp was really fresh, sweet and crisp! The dumpling skin was really nice – steamed to perfection!

My parents really like Steamed Pork Balls, so of course they order it! I didn’t mind it here, and it was great!

Steamed Bean Curd Roll

Beef Tendons are one of my favourites when done right. Here, they did this right too! The tendons was infused with flavour and the tendons were soo soft with the “tender” gummyness texture. It was intense and deep, and cooked with the perfect marinade!

This was a weird order, it’s a Shrimp Balls with Crispy Rice, which is like the typical shrimp balls, but they covered it in crispy puffed rice! It added a new dimension of texture to what seems like a simple dim sum! It was a great idea! It worked!

I love any sort of rice crepes, but we ordered 1 order of Beef Rice Crepes, and I honestly thought it wasn’t enough! They actually stuffed their crepes with lots of filling, as some places just put a thin layer of meat in. The actual crepe was really fresh, soft, silky and quite thin!

Overall, this turned out to be a fantastic place for lunch! Everything was so delicious, and the service was excellent. Food constantly came out – which was really easy to over eat! This would be a place I would return to if I wanted a dim sum fix in Las Vegas! Everything was really fresh and you can definitely tell all the dishes were steamed not long before arriving onto the table!

Ping Pang Pong (Gold Coast) on Urbanspoon

Ping Pang Pong – Gold Coast Hotel

4000 W Flamingo Rd
Las Vegas, NV 89103
(702) 367-7111

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Nectaflor Wild Flower Honey

Lately, I’ve been enjoying lots of honey – with desserts, as a thickener, as a sweetener or just with some tea/water. I have heard of flavoured honey, but I’ve never tired it for myself until now. I’ve purchased a bottle of Nectaflour Honey which wasn’t that much more expensive than good quality honey from the store. I purchased my bottle in Wild Flower Flavour and it really leaves a lovely light floral note!

I really enjoy a nice hot cup of honey water, which is light, and rather refreshing! It’s really good for the throat and it’s just a wonderful wind-down technique at the end of the day. I feel the floral scent and taste really enhances the experience for me, and I can’t wait to try more flavoured honey at this point!

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Homemade Chinese Roast Pork Belly – Siu Yuk 燒肉

Home Made Crispy Skin Pork Belly – Siew Yoke

Okay, this isn’t something we eat a lot of at all, but I really wanted to make it, and it’s Roast Pork Belly. I bought my strip of pork belly with bone in and skin on from the Asian grocery market, and we just got a small slab.

Ingredients:
slab of pork belly
1 or 2 cube of fermented bean curd
Chinese Five Spice (五香粉)
White Pepper
Salt
Rice Vinegar (or white vinegar)

The first thing is first, you gotta clean your meat – so rinse the pork belly off well with cold water, and pat it completely dry with paper towels. You do need to make this a few hours ahead, so plan ahead!

Once the pork is clean, make the marinade for the pork belly by smashing a piece of the fermented bean curd until it’s a paste. Add to the paste the Five Spice, and White Pepper.

Prepare the meat now, by stabbing the skin with your knife – not through the entire skin, but you want lots of punctures on the skin. If you want, cut the actual pork meat so marinade gets through. I didn’t do this as my pork belly has bones.

Then, rub the marinade all over the pork belly EXCEPT the skin. Leave the skin part dry for now with nothing on it. After the marinade is on the pork, rub the salt onto the skin, and do a really good job of it. Try to get it into some puncture holes if you can! Put the entire slab of pork belly onto a wire rack with a line tray underneath and refrigerate for a few hours – or even overnight.

After you’ve marinated for a few hours, take the pork belly out of the fridge while you wait for the oven to preheat. Set the oven to 400F, and then put the pork belly into the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes and pull it out to brush some rice wine vinegar on the skin. I brush it again after another 20 minutes. Then, continue letting the pork bake until almost thoroughly cooked. To finish the cooking, change the oven setting to broil and give it another 20 minutes for the skin to become fluffy and crunchy.

When the baking has competed, take the pork belly out of the oven and let it rest for 10 a few minutes for the juices to redistribute in the meat, then slice and serve!

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Homemade Rice Crispy with Peanut – 米通

A simple treat that is Chinese and very popular during the Chinese New Years would be Rice Krispies and often has peanuts.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup Roasted Peanuts
1 cup dried rice (I use less dried rice)
1/4 tsp minced ginger (optional)
1/2 lime (juiced)
1 tbsp butter
oil for frying
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar

If you’re wanting to make this recipe, be sure to start drying your cooked rice. I just leave my rice out of a plate, and turn it every once in awhile. It does take a few days to dry completely.

The first thing you want to do is roast the peanuts and then you can set it aside.

Next, get the oil up to temperature on a low boil. I normally turn my oil to medium until you hear the oil bubbling as it’s scorching hot. When it’s at that phase, I turn it down a notch. I then pour the rice in the oil in batches and scoop it out when it’s puffed. The rice is extremely hot and crispy at this stage and the rice will actually stay crispy from here on in.

Now that the peanuts are roasted, and the rice is “puffed”, mix it together in a large bowl – then it’s time to make the caramel! Simply in a pot, pour the sugar into the pot and then the water. Turn the heat on to medium and leave it there. It will begin to bubble, then the water will evaporate. The sugar syrup will begin to brown – and watch for this. From the browning stage it burns fast and there is no turning back after it’s burnt. I like to add the ginger, butter and lime juice right at the end to stop the caramel from cooking further.

When the caramel is ready, it’s important to work fast now as the caramel will cool, set and harden. Mix everything together and press into a dish. Let the mixture cool completely – then cut, serve and enjoy!

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If you really just want the treat without the labour, it is available in the bakery section of your Asian grocery store! 🙂 Of course, Chinese Rice Crispies aren’t the same when it isn’t homemade!