Andrea Nguyen
Author & Teacher
Send a message
My Books + AppFeatured in & reviewed by Martha Stewart Living, Serious Eats, Splendid Table, Tasting Table, Huff Post, Kitchen Arts & Letters & many others.
Asian Tofu
Jump to: Book trailer, ebook buying guide, sample content.
Available at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, IndieBound
Into the Vietnamese Kitchen
Available at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, IndieBound
Asian Dumplings
Info on e-book w/ videos!
Available at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, IndieBound
Asian Market Shopper
mobile app is here!
Available at iTunes store
new TWTR.Widget({ version: 2, type: 'profile', rpp: 3, interval: 30000, width: 'auto', height: 300, theme: { shell: { background: '#8f1414', color: '#ffffff' }, tweets: { background: '#ffffff', color: '#756875', links: '#8f1414' } }, features: { scrollbar: false, loop: false, live: false, behavior: 'all' }}).render().setUser('aqnguyen').start();Recent PostsTofu, Kimchi and Bacon Taco RecipeChinese Fermented Black Bean Magic (plus recipes)Fried Tofu and Egg Pancake Recipe (Tahu Telur)Mama Says: For Neat Spring Rolls, Use Chopsticks (video)New Rice Paper Gadget: Mr. Spring RollIs Tofu Healthy or Harmful?Ippudo Ramen in NYCGood Asian Eats in NYCSerious Eats Cooks up Asian Tofu (+ book giveaways)Can This Bag Save You from Stinky Kimchi?« New Rice Paper Gadget: Mr. Spring Roll |Main| Fried Tofu and Egg Pancake Recipe (Tahu Telur) »
April 24, 2012Mama Says: For Neat Spring Rolls, Use Chopsticks (video)Ten years ago I launched Viet World Kitchen. I wanted to create a hub for information on Vietnamese food, cooking and culture. There wasn’t much out there so I spent weeks working in Dreamweaver to build the site. Each page was constructed with very little automation, as is the case nowadays with platforms like Typepad and Wordpress.
I toiled without knowing about search engine optimization. I just focused on publishing information that may be of use to people. If someone liked it, they would email me and I would post their comment.
One of the Viet World Kitchen pages I made was called “Mama Says,” a repository for kitchen tips that were taught to us by someone older. Mine were primarily from my mother so I created a cute icon dedicated to her.
My mom continued to dispense her kitchen wisdom. Over the years, we began trading kitchen tips and food discoveries. She has even asked me for advice, which is how the tofu book got started.
A couple of weeks ago during Spring Break, she revealed her latest culinary gem. She’d set up a roll-your-own snack of bo bia beef and jicama hand rolls (for the recipe, see Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, page 30) as part of our dinner.
My dad, husband and I were doing our normal thing to make rice paper rolls when my mom declared, “I have a better way to roll bo bia firmly and neatly. Let me show you.” The she proceeded to efficiently wield chopsticks to create a lovely roll.
In response to Philip's comment below, here's is the theory behind the chopsticks: They keep the filling ingredients in place. Additionally (I just thought of this), they help to steady rolling up the rice paper. For consistently handsome rolls, use the same rice paper, use a moderate amount of filling, and place your filling strategically. This how to wrap summer rolls post should help.
I asked my mom to do it again, and that’s how this quicky iPhone movie came about. [I experimented with the "Ken Burns" effect here with a narration. Sorry if you don't like it but I'm sure you see what's happening.]
Mom was a little nervous with the impromptu filming and she wasn’t fully happy with the roll she came up with at the end. Sorry, no retakes this time around. We wanted to move on to the next course in the meal.
I don't think you need to see a beauty shot of the roll to get the idea. Try it out and see how you like her chopsticks approach to crafting a rice paper roll.
I’m curious about what Me Gia (Old Mother in Vietnamese) will think of Mr. Spring Roll when she gets her hands on it. I’m sure she’ll have plenty to say, in addition to dispensing more information for future “Mama Says” posts.
If you have culinary wisdom to contribute, add them to this post. If it’s something lengthy and/or if there’s a photo or video, email me.
Learn more:
Mother’s Day 2011 Tribute: Who’s My Mama? (it’s not too early to start thinking about May 13, 2012)Tips for Cooking Vietnamese Food (contains the original Mama Says tips from long ago)My Mother’s Kitchen Quirks (this is a fun post to revisit as many people have said that their moms use the dishwasher for storing dishes, not washing them)Mom’s Obsession with Ice Cream Scoops and Industrial CookingRelated Recipes:
Garlicky Pan-Fried Pork Steaks (thit cot-let chien is a fab recipe Mom shared in 2010)Vietnamese Rice and Pork Pyramid Dumplings (banh gio, there’s a video of her cool wrapping technique; this video is posted on Asiandumplingtips.com)Posted in Cooking Tips & Tools, Essentials: Rice Paper | Permalink | |
| TrackBackTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341ef22f53ef0168eaa057b5970c
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Mama Says: For Neat Spring Rolls, Use Chopsticks (video):
Comments Mama Says: For Neat Spring Rolls, Use Chopsticks (video)Ten years ago I launched Viet World Kitchen. I wanted to create a hub for information on Vietnamese food, cooking and culture. There wasn’t much out there so I spent weeks working in Dreamweaver to build the site. Each page was constructed with very little automation, as is the case nowadays with platforms like Typepad and Wordpress.
I toiled without knowing about search engine optimization. I just focused on publishing information that may be of use to people. If someone liked it, they would email me and I would post their comment.
One of the Viet World Kitchen pages I made was called “Mama Says,” a repository for kitchen tips that were taught to us by someone older. Mine were primarily from my mother so I created a cute icon dedicated to her.
Be Connected
Get news via RSS or email 
Get updates in Facebook
Join me on Pinterest
Follow @aqnguyen!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");
EventsDemo, Tasting & Signing
Sat., May 12, 1-2pm
Macy's Valley Fair
San Jose, CA
Tofu Cooking Demo
Sat., May 19, 11:30am-12pm
Asian Heritage Street Celebration
San Francisco, CA
Homemade Tofu Workshop
Tues., May 29, 7-9pm
18 Reasons
San Francisco, CA
Click for more . . . Viet World Kitchen | Copyright 2002-2012 by Andrea Nguyen | Privacy Policy
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js'%3E%3C/script%3E"));COMSCORE.beacon({ c1: 2, c2: "6035669", c3: "", c4: "http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2012/04/for-neat-spring-rolls-use-chopsticks.html", c5: "", c6: "", c15: ""});
No comments:
Post a Comment