Blood Orange Gin and Tonic

We swear it wasn’t intentional to be missing from the blog for five weeks and return with booze. In fact, we had this recipe ready to share about seven weeks ago but a few things got in the way and blog life kinda came to a screeching halt. And secondly, we missed you all and want to let you know it feels good to be back. So this blood orange gin and tonic is indeed, a celebration to what lies ahead.

Here’s the latest news and biggest reason that distracted us from blogging recently, we’ve been working on some big changes in our studio. To be exact, there’s an additional 1,400 sq foot of change. We’re taking over the space next door to our current studio and are doubling our space! This is exciting for a number of reasons: we finally have more space for all our props, or expensive junk. What ever you want to call it, we’re just overloaded with dishes, textures, tables and chairs.

Secondly, we’re finally building our gallery to showcase our special photo prints. We have a special collection of prints that have never had their fair share of hanging time in the studio because quite frankly, they’d all be lost in the sea of props and photography equipment. Now, we can finally have a ton of extra space to build out or dream gallery that we’ve been wanting for so long.

So that’s where we’ve been hiding. Between juggling conversations on new construction, to design ideas, sourcing new furniture and everything involved with doubling our space, we’ve been behind on blogging.

But we’re back to full swing on blogging and if any of you by chance have any idea inspirations on how to design a white studio with lots of wood and black furniture, we’d love to hear about it!

In the meantime, have a few of these blood orange gin and tonics on us while there’s still blood oranges around. Gin and tonics are one of our go-to drinks and adding that seasonal-splash of blood orange juice really hits the spot. And best of all, it screams out to celebrate beautiful citrus while it lasts.

hugs to you all,

diane and todd

Yield: 1 Cocktail

Total Time: 10 min

1 1/2 ounces gin2 ounces fresh blood orange juicecouple dashes orange bittersabout 4 ounces tonic waterFill a highball glass with ice. Add gin, blood orange juice, and orange bitters.Top with tonic water and gently stir. Garnish with a blood orange slice and serve.

View the original article here

Blood Orange Buttermilk Pound Cake

It’s always around this time of year that we begin swimming in citrus and every meal (and drink!) has some splash of fragrant juice. You can call it a garden obsession, but we’re not far from being finished. Last week we planted another (our third) blood orange tree and it wasn’t in-celebration to grow more, but rather, to replace one blood orange tree that had completely died on us.

So this blog post has mixed emotions, both sadness for losing a beloved tree and joy of giving another tree life in our garden. We’re ready to move on and celebrate blood oranges.

Call it over-zealous gardening or perhaps too much attention to care which resulted in overwatering. After ten years, our beloved first blood orange tree completely died. We were in shock and speechless when it started to deteriorate after only 4 weeks of peaking out with hundreds of blood oranges. With still about one hundred pounds of blood oranges to pick, the tree quickly started to yellow and lose it’s leaves.

After many phone calls to nurseries, conversations with Master gardeners and hours researching online, the conclusion was that our tree was being over watered.

We killed our own tree? Did we really hurt it? After a phase of feeling guilt for nurturing the tree too much, we realized we shouldn’t be punishing ourselves for loving something too much. In fact, we saw it as a learning experience on how to care for older established trees and not baby-ing it like a toddler-tree.

As we said good-bye to our first blood orange tree for all the years of beautiful juice, zest, cocktails and love, we celebrated its contribution to our garden with this blood orange buttermilk pound cake. It’s delicious and beautiful, just like the tree that we loved so much.

We’re grateful for all the wonderful blood oranges that have graced our kitchen and hope you’ll enjoy this Seasons bounty of blood oranges too.

-diane and todd

Here’s some of our previous blood orange recipes you might enjoy:

Blood Orange Bars with Brown Butter Crust Recipe 

Blood Orange Margarita Recipe 

Blood Orange Pops Recipe

Blood Orange Ricotta Cookies Recipe 

Blood Orange Chocolate Chunk Cookies Recipe

Yield: 1 Loaf

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Adapted from Fine Cooking's Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake. Our pound cake is made with blood orange juice and zest but to really highlight the flavor of blood oranges we will serve this loaf with a quick and easy blood orange sauce either drizzled over top or alongside to dunk in.

1 3/4 cups (220g) all-purpose flour1 teaspoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt1/2 cup (113g or one stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature1 cup (200g) sugarfinely grated zest of 2 blood oranges2 large eggs, at room temperature1/2 cup (120ml) buttermilk1/4 cup (60ml) fresh blood orange juice3 tablespoons (45ml) fresh blood orange juice1/2 cup (60g) confectioners’ sugarPreheat the oven to 325°F. Grease a 8.5 inch x 4.5 inch loaf pan.Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt for 20 seconds or until well combined. Set aside.Beat together the butter, sugar and blood orange zest until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes in a stand mixer. Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat in the eggs, one at a time until blended.Mix in 1/3 of the flour mixture until just combined. Mix in the buttermilk and blood orange juice until just combined. Mix in the remaining flour until just combined, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl.Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 1 hour or until golden and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center. Let the cake cool for about 20 minutes. Gently remove the pound cake from the pan. Allow to cool completely.After the cake is completely cool, make the sauce. Whisk together the blood orange juice and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Spoon the sauce over the pound cake or serve alongside to dunk in.

View the original article here

Blood Orange Margarita with Bitters

Just as Diane has her prop collecting obsession, I have my own vice. Well, more like a double vice since most toss drinking into that classification. I am mildly bedeviled by making cocktails.

There is something exquisitely alluring in what has become a combination of ritual and swagger. A little James Bond, a dash of Esquire, and a jigger of Hemingway done up over ice. It may be a vice, but it is a savvy one for a man to have.

As far as my own style and ritual to cocktails, I aim to take care of the details without getting crazy about it. I care not about the newest and funkiest cocktail creations. Give me the classics added with a few sensible modern twists. I’m not going to infuse a batch of simple syrup with lavender or smoke for a cocktail I may make when the full moon happens to land on a Tuesday. But I do want someone to have one of our margaritas, sours or Sidecars, take a sip without any sense of great expectations, and then stop and stare in appreciation.

I want you to have one of my cocktails and be ruined for life knowing that unless you are somewhere that truly cares about its cocktails, you’ll never have another cocktail of that kind quite as good. Sometimes, nowhere near as good.

There is nothing secret or special about how I make cocktails. Like I said, I just take care of the details. Never being fully satisfied or full of my own knowledge, I am always learning or trying to be better at the things I love. Two years ago, I thought I made a mean blood orange margarita, as any guest to the house would concur, but compared to what I make today, they are not even in the same league. How is it better? The little details.

My biggest leap in cocktail making came after reading the book, Bitters. Once I started using bitters regularly in cocktails, any cocktail made without them seemed to lack depth. Combine that with using garden fresh citrus, now we’ve got a cocktail to light up the eyes.

The garden fresh citrus isn’t just for the romantic notion that homegrown it better. ‘Cause face it, sometimes homegrown is better, and other times “not so much”. Oh no, homegrown citrus is all about the oils in the rind. There are amazing flavor in those oils, however it unfortunately doesn’t take long after picking for those oils in the zest to be lost forever. But if you can get the fruit shortly after being plucked from the tree… Baby!  After squeezing them, the oils release to the surface and completely saturate the outside of the rind. It is just one of those little details.

Other little details I do?  Freezing my glasses. There is a shelf in our freezer solely dedicated to chilling a variety of cocktail glasses. A great cocktail should be very well chilled, and a frosty glass is ever so helpful. And I’m a little nutty about my ice. Between the three different sized round ice cube molds, two different square silicone ice cube molds, and the f*^&-ing swankest thing ever, a tray that makes clear ice blocks, I am obsessive with my ice. Its sexy and is has a star role in a good cocktail. Forget the swirly garnish to be tossed out of the way, give me a crackin’ piece of ice.

Finally, finish the cocktail in a glass that has some character. Whether that is from an old-fashioned glass made from recycled glass  to a throwback champagne bowl, serve up that proper cocktail in a glass worthy. While Diane is scrounging the thrift shops and antique stores for bowls and boards, I’m hunting for cool cocktail glasses. Don’t tell Diane but I’m hunting for the boards too, they’re swank.

That’s it. A little obsessive, but hopefully haven’t crossed the line to crazy. Bitters, good fruit, ice, and glass. The details to a great cocktail without pushing the line into becoming a “mixologist”.

Here’s my re-make on our previous blood orange margarita after discovering the magic of bitters. We use a homemade tangerine bitter, but just about any orange bitters on the market are a great addition the the cocktail shaker’s concoctions.

-Todd

More Blood Orange Recipes: Luscious Blood Orange Bars ,  Lime Margarita with Bitters and classic Blood Orange Margarita
Yield: 2 cocktails

Total Time: 5 min

See the post for more cocktail details. Make sure to get the freshest blood oranges you can, and toss a rind or two into the shaker when mixing. To make simple syrup heat an equal amount of sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves completely. Store in the fridge for up to a month. Depending on the sweetness of the blood orange juice, you may need to slightly adjust the amount of simple syrup in the margarita recipe.

4 oz. (120ml) fresh Blood Orange Juice2 oz. (60ml) Resposada or Anejo Tequila3/4 oz. (22ml) Simple Syrup1/2 oz. (15ml) fresh Lime Juicefew dashes Orange BittersKosher or Sea Salt for rimming the glassRub the rim of two old fashioned glasses (or whatever glass you prefer) with an edge of a blood orange wedge or leftover rind. Swirl the rims through a small pile of kosher or sea salt to salt them. Add one or two large cubes into the glasses.Combine blood orange juice, tequila, simple syrup, lime juice, and bitters in an ice filled shaker. Add a left over rind or two from the blood oranges.Shake vigorously for 15 seconds, then strain into the salted glasses. Serve or drink immediately and with leisure.

View the original article here

Luscious Blood Orange Bars with a Brown Butter Crust

It’s this time of year that we start enjoying margaritas, particularly blood orange margaritas and meyer lemon margaritas. Aside from the fact that the holidays are over and our New Years celebrations have officially ended, we’re just beginning to relish in these wonderful cocktails. Why? Whats the occasion? Well, it’s peak citrus season in our neck of the garden-woods, of course.

Though it’s freezing outside and we often wake up to frost on our roofs, all our citrus are still hanging on firm to their branches. When the sun peaks through the clouds in the middle of the day, the citrus get their daily sun bathing sessions to sweeten up their juices and develop their flavors. And what we have before us are bucket loads of blood oranges, mandarins, juicing tangerines, limes and lemons that need to be juiced. Yup, we’re super spoiled. That’s what geeky-gardeners like to do: grow almost 20 citrus trees to feast on during January.

Now that we’ve gloated about our crazy citrus trees, really, what do with a ton of blood oranges? The flavors of these blood red oranges are so perfectly tangy/sweet. The drippy juices are sexy and luscious, so the first thing that comes to mind is making a variation off our meyer lemon bars using they blood oranges. We’ll… to be honest, it was the second or third thought. There were a couple cocktails which came to mind first. But back to the bars… The thought of making these bars with fresh blood orange juice sounded so wonderful and we were hoping that the results would go beyond our theory.

Fingers crossed, we were hoping this first batch would be the on the money because there’s nothing more sacrilegious than to waste 2 cups of fresh blood orange juice. This nectar is what the Greek Gods fought for! ( or at least something close to that mythology).

The results were incredible. What you see before you are some truly luscious, silky, delicious and amazing blood orange bars.

Make them.

Right Away.

If you can get your hand on a generous amount of blood oranges for juicing, this should be one of the first recipes you bake.

Valentines day is coming near and if you’re in a bind as to what to make for your sweetheart, these blood orange bars are perfect to show your love. Really, who needs chocolate? Well, ok, chocolate is a great offering. But mix it up a bit. Be daring, different and break some sweetheart rules and offer a platter of these lovely bars. Your love won’t be disappointed.

Next on the agenda is another variation on this curd for Valentines Day. Again, fingers crossed our next experiment will turn out equally wonderful. If not, we have some back up chocolate sauce to drizzle over what ever were making!

Happy January to you all.

Yield: 12 3"x4" Bars

Total Time: 1 hour

The recipe is enough to make the bars in a 1/4 sheet pan (9"x13") , however we know for most, blood oranges can be a bit expensive so a reduced recipe may be a better option. The recipe works perfect to halve it and make the bars in a 4"x14" tart pan (that is what was used in the photos) or made into individual tarts in 3" or 4" pans. Or you can always substitute in some tangerine juice for the blood orange juice. The color will pale more towards the orange side, but it will still be delicious. Promise. Also, make sure to taste the sweetness of the curd as you are making it. Blood oranges can vary quite a bit on their sweetness, so adjust the sugar quantities to your desired taste.

1/2 pound (225g) unsalted Butter1/2 cup (100g) Sugar3 cups (375g) Flour1/2 t (3g) Sea Salt or Kosher Salt1/4 cup (40g) Cornstarch1 1/2 cup (300g) Sugar1 t (5g) Sea Salt or Kosher Salt12 Eggs, beaten4 Egg Yolks, beatenzest of 6 Blood Oranges2 1/2 cups (600ml) Blood Orange Juice1/2 pound (225g) cold, unsalted Butter, cut into 1/2" pieces

Preheat oven to 350°F. Set aside a 9"x13" 1/4 sheet pan.

Make the crust. Put butter in a saucepan and melt over medium heat. Continue cooking the butter until it develops an amber color and begins to smell a bit "toasted nut-like". Remove from heat and stir sugar into butter until mostly dissolved.Put flour and salt in a large bowl. Stir in butter and sugar and mix until completely incorporated (it will be a crumbly texture). Press mixture into the 1/4 sheet pan, working the dough up the sides of the pan and evenly across the bottom.Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden.While the crust bakes, make the curd. Whisk together the cornstarch, sugar and the salt in a bowl. Mix in the eggs, zest, and juice. Place bowl over a pot with gently boiling water (cook over a bain marie).Cook over the bain marie, stirring frequently until the curd has thickened. Remove from heat and then, a few pieces at a time, stir in the butter until it is completely incorporated. Strain curd through a fine mesh strainer.Pour the curd into the cooked crust as soon as you take it out of the oven. Return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes or until the filling has thickened. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.Cut into desired pieces and serve chilled.

View the original article here

Blood Orange Pops from Bi-Rite Creamery Sweet Cream & Sugar Cones

Certain foods bring back fond memories of childhood and often times it’s simple sweet treats that trigger big smiles. These blood orange Popsicles bring back moments of summer days when we’d reach in the freezer for a cool treat. As adults these blood orange pops made us so excited to indulge in Popsicles again because they are so good!!

Seriously, this blood orange pop recipe is so simple with just 3-4 ingredients but it’s packed with bright flavor from the fresh squeezed juice.  The challenge with these pops is limiting yourself to just eating one pop.

This recipe is shared with permission from the newest Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones book that is released today! We’re excited to share this wonderful recipe with you from authors and owners of Bi-Rite Creamery, Anne Walker and Kris Hoogerhyde.

It was such an special treat to  work with the amazing Bi-Rite Creamery team and Ten Speed Press folks. Chef’s Anne and Kris make the best ice cream and  they’re sharing many of their terrific and special recipes in their latest book.

All these terrific recipes are made with love, great ingredients and local pride. The instructions and recipes in the book are so approachable, seasonally inspiring and great to share with your your friends.

We mentioned in a previous post about producing their promo video for their new cookbook.  If you missed it, we’re sharing it with you again. Enjoy the video and please make these blood orange pops. They are amazing!

Yield: nine 3-ounce ice pops

Total Time: 4 hours

Recipe from Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones. Re-printed with permission from authors.

1/2 cup 2:1 Simple Syrup2 1/4 c fresh Blood Orange Juice (@6-8 blood oranges), filtered through a fine mesh strainer1/8 teaspoon kosher salt@ 30 segments of blood orangesIf using wooden ice pop sticks, soak sticks for an hour in warm water before making pops (helps keep them from floating up when inserted into molds.)In a medium bowl (or large measuring cup) combine 6 tablespoons of simple syrup, blood orange juice and salt. Stir until well combined.Taste for sweetness and add more simple syrup if necessary (it should be a touch too sweet as it will lose sweetness after freezing.)Add 2 or 3 orange segments to the ice pop molds (don't add too many or it will be hard and icy - you should have room for more juice than orange segments.)Pour ice pop base into molds and insert sticks. Freeze for about 4 hours or until completely solid.Unmold before serving (run warm water around mold if necessary to help it release.)Slice the top and bottom off of the blood oranges. Set the fruit with one of the cut sides down.Using a paring knife, working from top to bottom slice off  a thin strip of peel, removing as much of the with pith as possible. Repeat all the way around until no pith remains.Set the fruit on its side or carefully nest in your non-cutting hand. Make cuts just inside the membrane for the first segment, freeing the blood orange segment. Repeat all the way around until all the segments are cut free.

View the original article here

Pork Blood Pho: Is it True or New?

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October 20, 2011Pork Blood Pho: Is it True or New?

This is my typical bowl of homemade beef pho noodle soup. I can’t imagine eating it with cubes of congealed pork blood. But maybe that is something going on these says.

Have you heard of or eaten pho with pork blood? During the past several weeks I’ve read about it twice, most recently in The Globe and Mail, a newspaper from Toronto, Canada. In “You eat meat, so why not blood? Chefs strive to warm up diners to the red stuff,” journalist Chris Nuttall-Smith reports on uses of blood in hip, modern food. The article was focused on Western chefs, such as Rene Redzepi of Copenhagen's famed Noma, who marinates vegetables in blood according to photos he posted.

I was looking for mention of blood-laden Asian foods, expecting to see classics like Filipino dinuguan blood stew and Korean sundae (not a dessert). Instead, my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when I read the last three words of this paragraph:

To be sure, this is nothing new to most Europeans – from black pudding to morcilla to Poland’s duck blood soup, the continent has almost too many blood recipes to count. Blood dishes are also common across South and Central America, Africa and most of Asia; you can find blood tofu in many Chinese grocery stores in Canada; some Vietnamese restaurants also offer pork blood pho.

Whoa! I have not seen pork blood in pho before and wondered if it was a new Canadian thing.

Over the years, some Vietnamese cooks have taken to adding cubes of congealed pork blood (huyet or tiet) to brothy noodle soups, such as bun bo Hue (spicy beef and pork noodle soup), bun rieu cua (a crab-based noodle soup), and bun oc (round rice noodles with snails). The addition of the pork blood lends extra nutrients and texture (it’s kinda like minerally-tasting jello). Vietnam is a protein-poor country with a large population. It makes sense to apply that kind of head-to-tail-and-gut rigor to cooking.

Do note that the old school preparations of the three noodle soups described above do not include blood. In fact, my mom once ordered a bowl of bun bo Hue at a Hue restaurant in Little Saigon. When the bowl arrived and she saw the huyet blood cubes in there, she pointed to the blood and asked the waiter, “What is this? It does not belong there.” (Don’t mess with my mom.)

He sheepishly responded, “It’s what people want now so we have to make it that way.”

That said, the Vietnamese practice of adding the pork blood to noodle soups has not [yet] spread to pho. But has it? If you’ve had menu sightings or tasted pork blood pho, please let us know.

Nuttall-Smith may have mistaken pork blood pho with bun bo Hue. It’s hard to tell because there is no detailed description of the dish in the article. Many pho restaurants offer bun bo Hue but the former is delicate and nuanced while the later is spicy rustic, making more simpatico with the blood.

Other bloody Viet fare

In case you wonder, the Viet repertoire includes some bloody good dishes. My favorite is Vietnamese blood sausage (doi or doi huyet), which includes fresh herbs to cut some of the richness of the blood. The Ravenous Couple blog has a Vietnamese blood sausage recipe here. Vietnamese blood sausage is terrific grilled or fried and enjoyed as a nosh with herbs such as Thai basil and mint.

From Wikipedia

The Viet sausage is also great with a bowl of creamy rice soup (chao in Vietnamese, aka congee/jook), which may have other offal parts and be called chao long (gut rice soup). Sometimes, the congealed cubes of blood are simply added to chao with pieces of fried Chinese crullers for chao huyet.  

There’s also Vietnamese blood soup, tiet canh, typically made of slightly congealed duck blood. I’ve not eaten that dish because I’m not keen on the metallic and minerally quality of pure, raw blood and a few garnishes. The blood can be mixed with the cooked meat of the animal and that seems a bit more appealing.

Here's an eating tip: If you’re averse to the notion of eating blood in Viet food, look for “huyet” or “tiet” on a menu or street vendor’s signage. Avoid those foods or order your food without it.

Overall, don’t get grossed out. If blood is mixed with other things or used with a light hand, it’s barely noticeable. A great example is the Taiwanese street snack of sticky rice with blood and peanuts. My friend Sara Lin introduced me to it last year in Taipei. It was delicious. Scroll down this page for a photo of it. You won’t turn into a vampire.

Have you prepared or eaten food prepared with blood before? How did you like it? Or, what is your general take on dishes made with blood? And, if you know about pork blood pho, chime in!

Related posts and sites

My Beef Pho Noodle Soup recipe Ravenous Couple’s Vietnamese blood sausage recipe Gastronomy Blog’s post on chao long in VietnamNoodle Pie’s post on tiet canh blood soup in VietnamKorean blog's lowdown on sundae blood sausageCasa Veneracion's pork dinuguan recipe

 

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In Australia there are plenty of Vietnamese eateries with blog in their pho on the famous Victoria St. It seems the norm.

Posted by:Ed |October 20, 2011 at 05:25 PM

True Malaysian Curry Mee (noodles) has pigs blood cubes and cockles in it. Along with chicken meat and other bits and bobs. When we make that here in Canada, we must go hunting for steamed/cooked pigs blood. I do draw the line at cockles, though since peeling cockles are a real pain but my dad insists, for authenticity.

Mum also makes a dish of pigs blood and chives (sauteed with some shallots and garlic). I am sure this is a chinese style preparation.

I also have a perchant for black pudding (english blood sausage) so I guess I really like pigs blood, despite the metallic taste. I try not to think to hard about it.

Posted by:Diane |October 20, 2011 at 06:28 PM

The first time I ate real pho in a Vietnamese restaurant, my wife ordered the chicken pho because she thought it would be "safer" (no offal). It had these big dark red cubes in it, which by the taste and texture we assumed was some different variety of tofu. After the meal we chatted with the chef, who informed us that it was in fact congealed chicken blood. He made it himself from scratch and was very proud of it. My wife now eats beef pho exclusively.

Posted by:ThaiCurious |October 20, 2011 at 06:51 PM

Hi Andrea,

My bf loves blood cubes for its texture, but I don't know how to cook it. I was ready to cook it with his favorite noodle soup, bun rieu, but I chickened out. Also, I didn't find any blogs or recipes on how to cook blood cubes. Can you help me out? My parents don't cook it--they only eat it at restaurants in bun bo hue or bue rieu. Thanks!

Posted by:Tuyet N. |October 20, 2011 at 07:20 PM

@Ed: That's so interesting. My time in Melbourne was but a few days and I went to Victoria Place but alas, I didn't get pho there. I got a Southern Viet snack of banh khot. It was a nice street to visit.

Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |October 20, 2011 at 08:44 PM

@Diane: There are those blood cockles... Picking out the flesh of cockles is definitely a group activity! Thanks for sharing your love of blood-laden dishes.

Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |October 20, 2011 at 08:48 PM

@ThaiCurious: How very interesting. That's a resourceful cook for you. I bet that he killed the chicken too. That bowl of chicken pho must have been quite good -- the broth and all.

Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |October 20, 2011 at 08:49 PM

@Tuyet: Like your parents, I'm not a major blood cooker. (Sounds weird to type that.) But with many recipes that I've seen, you just cut up the block of congealed pig blood (tiet lon, huyet lon) into smaller cubes and add it to your food -- like a garnish.

For noodle soups, I would warm the cubes up in the water that you reheat the noodles in. Otherwise, they'll be too hard in your food.

For rice soup (chao), just add the blood cubes to the pot of soup and warm it up. You want these types of foods to be at the same temp so warming is important. Hope your make your BF happier!

Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |October 20, 2011 at 09:03 PM

I really enjoy blood cubes!
Reading this blog actually rekindled a craving for bun oc with huyet in there.
Unfortunately i live in Perth, Australia and the vietnamese restaurants here don't serve bun oc, but i fell in love with bun oc when i went to vietnam a few years ago.

Posted by:Simon |October 20, 2011 at 09:36 PM

@Simon: Can you get bun oc in Cambramatta or Melbourne? Funny that it wouldn't be in Perth. Australia has so much terrific seafood that I bet there's a great local substitute for the escargot-like oc snail.

Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |October 20, 2011 at 09:41 PM

Per Mark Lowerson @StickyinHanoi on Twitter:

huyet only in pho ga and only if requested by customer

it's common for customers to request blood, hearts, giblets, tubes etc in their pho ga in addition to normal portion of chicken

Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |October 20, 2011 at 09:46 PM

Andrea, I've never yet seen any Pho on the East Coast being offered with blood, but I also might overlook that on a menu - I know what I like and I order only that. :-)

Even so... there are Viet households here were folks are great fans of blood, and I've not seen any of them putting blood cubes into Pho.

Posted by:Simon Bao |October 21, 2011 at 04:33 AM

Hi Andrea,
I don't have a blog but I always read ours.
In the Philippines we have dinuguan. we call it chocolate meat here in the US.

Posted by:Luc faminiano |October 21, 2011 at 07:33 AM

I have only seen huyet in bun bo hue or banh canh in Ho Chi Minh City, not in beef pho. I enjoy eating Korean sundae, a great snack food. I have had blood sausages in Vietnam but not sure what type of blood they used, but the meat itself was chon.

Posted by:Jen |October 21, 2011 at 09:43 AM

Simon Bao -- Usually, the blood is suppose to match the meat in the dish (if there is meat, that is). That's the more high-class approach, I suppose. Pork blood in beef pho doesn't seem right.

However, I once spoke to a cook in Hanoi who admitted to combining pork and beef bones in her broth. She put no blood in there, though.

Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |October 21, 2011 at 11:40 AM

Luc: I LOVE the fact that Filipinos refer to the congealed blood as "chocolate meat." It reflects lots of humor and playfulness.

Here's a tweet from Mari Uyehara (http://fedification.com)

@aqnguyen Thai dishes called nam tok (soup or meat) are typically made with blood. It means waterfall, a ref to pouring blood in, I'm told.

Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |October 21, 2011 at 11:44 AM

@Jen: Typically, it's pork blood in the Viet doi huyet. Pig casings + pig blood is a resourceful way to use up the animal that you've harvested. It's a responsible way to eat.

Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |October 21, 2011 at 11:48 AM

i wasn't a fan of our filipino "dinuguan" until recently discovering my fix: now i buy it from take-out places but i add a LOT of vinegar and chopped pickled little green peppers called "labuyo". i eat it with a spongy steamed white bread called "puto".

i had a most delicious bean soup with lots of blood sausage slices at a spanish restaurant, Patio Español in san francisco .. it was a buffet but i could not get past the soup course!

Posted by:maluE |October 21, 2011 at 12:25 PM

MaluE: What's Filipino food without vinegar??? :) Thanks for the tip on the bean and blood soup at Patio Espanol in San Fran.

Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |October 21, 2011 at 01:47 PM

Hehe, this topic hit home for me. I loves me some dinuguan but I'm not too fond of the restaurant versions. Most of my other Fil-Am friends strayed as far away from it as possible, I gobbled it up. Oddly, I've never really developed a taste for it in bun bo Hue. On the other hand, my Viet husband looooooves it in his bun bo Hue and will gladly take the cubes I pick out of mine but he won't come within a foot of dinuguan. HA!

Posted by:Michelle |October 21, 2011 at 04:58 PM

I love that everyone is bringing up dinuguan. It was one of my favorite dishes growing up, and I was one of the few kids who didn't have to be tricked with the "chocolate meat" line. :)

Posted by:Jonathan |October 22, 2011 at 04:00 AM

Blood sausage is pretty common across the globe ... I eat the Estonian version at Christmas. Yum!

Posted by:Krista |October 22, 2011 at 08:53 PM

Actually I had no idea that bun rieu typically doesn't have the blood cubes because this is the way I've always had it since I was a kid! My mom and dad's family have each always made it this way. Actually my mom's recipe comes from her grandmother. I love it!

Posted by:Charlene |October 25, 2011 at 04:22 AM

Yes, There is a restaurant in Boston that my Vietnamese friend recommended that has this kind of Pho and my fiance ordered it. I have to say the blood didn't really do anything for me. I found it pretty tasteless and to me therefore seemed pointless. He liked it a lot and reminded him of a Colombian soup he grew up on.
Love your book and your blog!

Posted by:Ashley |October 26, 2011 at 01:35 PM

hi, andrea:
yes, we filipinos do tend to bring sourness into our food - whether from vinegar, citrus, tamarind, guava, green mango, even tomatoes - probably to cut thru the grease in some of our dishes. .. i de-grease as much as possible and always have a bright citrusy side.

Posted by:maluE |October 26, 2011 at 06:34 PM

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