Mrs. Suong Thi Bui as a judge in the 2014 Golden Spoon Contest. Photos: Cat Khue
We
interviewed her and it was an interesting interview so that it was described as
“an unbelievably delicious dish” and we realized that there is certainly more
than meets the eye behind such creations.
Please keep its original
version
* Many people who went
with you to the Northwest region of the Golden Spoon contest have talked to
each other that there is a dish in Lao Cai province which isn’t easy to eat,
but you did compliment it. What is it?
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Many years
teaching about cuisine
Mrs.Suong Thi Bui, food artisan and vice chairman of Saigon Professional Chef Association,
was born 1952 in Go Cong, Tien Giang province.
She has been
teaching about cuisine for 35 years, and has been an invited judge for national
food contests in 1997, 2002 and 2010 organized by the Department of Tourism. She judged during the Cuisine Festival in Dong Nai, Vung Tau, Khanh Hoa, Ninh
Thuan, Binh Thuan, Ben Tre, Dong Thap, Ho Chi Minh City, and was a judge of the
2013 and 2014 Golden Spoon contests.
Suong Thi Bui was
nominated as a Folk Artist in 2009. She published two books: Pho and other soup
dishes; elite Vietnamese rolled dishes.
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It
is “Thắng Cố” dish. It wasn’t the first time I know this dish, because when I
was following Mr. Martin Yan in the show called “Explore Vietnamese Cuisine,” I
was in Lao Cai, Sapa and Bac Ha. When I went to Bac Ha market I was strongly
impressed with so many local people sitting around a big pan containing all
various parts of a horse, cow or buffalo such as the bones, organs, skin, blood
and meat together. This is “Thắng Cố”.
I
couldn’t see the full preparation process, but just saw how it was cooked at
the market. It was cooked with many spices like cinnamon, anise, lemon leaves,
and Clausena indica leaves have an especially good aroma; helpful in an
environment like the Bac Ha market. I could only taste a little bit the soup.
I
haven’t tried it properly until the Golden Spoon contest (a food cooking
contest with professional chefs from all over the country organized by Minh
Long I Co.Ltd in coordination with Center of Business Study and Assistant (BSA)
as of 2013,) when chefs brought this dish from hotels. I think that it could be
safer from these places because the preparation of the food could be done
properly and ensure food safety, but also still keep its defining taste.
* Talking about folk and
rustic dishes, there were many arguments that our ancestors may not clean some
ingredients when cooking traditionally, believing that it adds to the overall
flavor of the dish. What do you think about this?
I
think everyone has their own expectation about food presentation as well as its
flavor, but I have to admit that our generation has more diversity and an
abundance of choices. In older times it was difficult to find products that
could help to improve our beauty, so some people believed that the “oil” found
in a chicken’s bottom - which has very bad smell - will be good for your
hair. So they kept it when they cooked
chicken. However, nowadays we have so many products that can support our beauty
so we don’t need to keep it, but take it out to make the dish smell and taste
better.
I
still remember “dé bò” dish in Tay
Son, Binh Dinh province. “Dé bò” is
made from the small intestine of a cow; “dé”
is a liquid inside the intestine that is kept in the dish and tastes a bit
bitter. Tay Son people cook “dé bò”
with river-leaf creeper and if they want it to taste bitter they will add a few
more drops of the bile. I tried it and its taste is quite strange, but it isn’t
too difficult to eat. This is a very old and traditional dish make by Tay Son
people, but I think it is difficult to replicate in another region because
people won’t be able to adapt to its very special taste.
* In books about
international cuisine people usually keep the utmost respect to authentic
dishes that keep their origin, pure flavor and typical features to attract
tourists, even if they taste only once. According to you, do we need to warn
people about the difference in such traditional flavors?
I
think we should have a reminder (or warning) about this. Because I see that it
is different with dishes from the central region, and I’ve just mentioned the
dishes in the North are less changed than others. Many people said that the
northern people are quite conservative, but it has become necessary in this
case because it can help to maintain our traditional cuisine culture so it
won’t be transformed.
Or
when we are talking about southern dishes I am impressed with “Trảng Bàng” which has special shrimp
salt, “bánh tráng phơi sương,” a
special rice paper made of two layers; special rice called “Nàng Hương,” which is considered the
best rice in Vietnam, therefore its air bubbles are small. This rice paper was
dried not only by the sun, but was also moistened by the dew in the early
morning, so it is clammy and good for rolling. When Trang Bang people cook the
pork leg for the thick rice noodle soup you will see it is exactly the same as
when Hue people prepare “Bún bò giò heo,”
- which is rice noodle with beef soup - but served with pork leg. They cook the
pork leg in the cold water until boils, but before the meat is fully cooked
they take it out and put back into the ice water before cooking again. In the
pork there is blood, so when you cook with cold water there is enough time to
allow the blood to melt into the soup. And when it is done the pork keeps its
white color, also looking delicious. By doing this the pork leg will also be crunchy
without using salt or chemical that made the meat crunchy. You just use the
method of temperate shock to keep the meat soft, but not too much. If you can
follow that technique then the dish is already good enough.
Hanoi styled spring roll in Movenpick Hotel- Photos: Huu Khoa
Vietnamese cuisine
promotion is still sporadic and scattered
* You have shared in your
book that you love cooking because it is a passion that your grandmother gave
you. What dish from your family do you still love to do and remember all of recipes?
It
is “Cơm rượu Gò Công” which is
different from “Cơm rượu” made in
other provinces. It is cut into beautiful square shapes and carefully pressed.
I still remember every time my family had a feast; everyone gathered to
remember someone on their death anniversary, and my grandmother would usually
ask me when I will make “Cơm rượu”
and “Xôi vò” - sticky rice cooked
with green bean.
“Cơm rượu” has to be made three to four
days in advance. The sticky rice has to be special rice called “Nếp ngỗng” which is long, has a milky
white color and is not too old. After that we will clean the rice and dip it in
warm water for three to four hours. We put in the water a little pandan leaves
to have good smell. After that we will steam the sticky rice twice. The first
time we have to cook the rice only about 80% done. Here the rice seed becomes
transparent, but it still hard. The rice is then wrapped with a piece of
fabric, then the bundle is dipped into salty water, then spun with a chopstick
until the liquid leaves the rice. You continue to reduce until the water in the
rice has nearly dried then, put it back into the pot and cook until well done.
It is then compressed by a heavy object on a flat and square surface for two
hours. Then you put yeast rice on top of the sticky rice, which should be
produced in Sa Dec province - considered as the most suitable to make this
dish.
The
knife used to cut the sticky rice must be dipped in very concentrated salty
water. After cutting into small and square pieces you will use banana leaves to
wrap them then put them into a steamer. It must be closed very tight. My
grandmother sometimes used a new blanket to wrap the whole steamer to make sure
there no air escapes or enters, and put the wholes steamer and blanket into our
family’s rice store. After three days we take the steamer out and it has an
incredible aroma. Then we take the sticky rice out and put them into a ceramic
bowl and pour the accompanying juice into the bowl, where it is kept another
day before eating.
At
that time I didn’t know about the yeast rice, but after I went to university I
knew that yeast rice doesn’t work if it comes into contact with air. That is
why we have to put the whole steamer into the rice store, and it is important
to have a constant temperature. If not the process of turning sugar into wine
won’t be done properly. I also often wonder how our ancestors knew how to use
microbiology to make “Cơm rượu” or
fish sauce, soya cheese, etc. though they never studied at any school or
university.
*In your career as
a professional chef do you have any memory about any dish that you remember the
most, which is not only interesting but also worth for us to think of as useful
lesson?
It
is about the trip to Hong Kong to cook in a 5-star hotel, the Marco Polo
Gateway Hotel. I went with Chef Sang, deputy chef of De Nhat hotel and Mrs.
Trang, head chef of Ky Hoa. Because we carried so many things I decided not to
take sticky rice with me, but thought to buy it there. Although I was worried a
little bit because when you fry sticky rice you need to select the sticky rice
carefully. If it is too new then sticky rice won’t be full-blown, and if it is
too old then sticky rice will be hard when you fry it.
We
didn’t check the list of 60 dishes which will be divided to cook per day until
we have arrived in Hong Kong. Although it is still not yet the day of making
the full-blown sticky rice, but we practiced first to ensure no accidents. I
asked Chef Sang to try to make it and check if it could be done properly with
the rice that we bought in Hong Kong. We didn’t inform anyone about this and
intended to do within our team, but finally everybody knew and brought their
camera to record what we were doing. Fortunately the sticky rice was
full-blown.
When
we were in Vietnam the sticky rice was full-blown about 80% but it was 100%
when we did it in Hong Kong. All the guests were there at that day gave us a
big clap. I went to check the store and saw that it was a bag of sticky rice
imported from Thailand. Normally Thai sticky rice is very clammy, but
fortunately this bag must be old and so it had less sticky liquid within the
rice. After that the organizing committee and Marco Polo Gateway Hotel decided
not to cut the ribbon for the opening ceremony but we made four sticky rice
balloons, then put the ribbon around the balloon and the organizing committee
cut the four sticky balloons to start the food festival week.
* In your opinion, what
should we do to improve Vietnamese cuisine in the point of view of
international tourists or visitors and up-grade the position of Vietnamese
cuisine on the international map?
Our
cuisine has strong nutritional value, which is good for our health. There are
four groups of food that considered as good for health and all of them are
already included in Vietnamese food. Our advantage is having diverse weather
and a long coast, so seafood resources are very abundant. There are many ethnic
minorities, so there are many unique and interesting combinations of food among
these regions. Other chefs from other countries used to tell me that Vietnam
should have a government sponsored promotional program like Thailand has done.
The
promotion of Vietnamese cuisine is still sporadic currently. When I introduce
food I see that most diners are very surprised. Why? Because they know only two
dishes like “Phở” and spring-roll. The food presentation is also very important
because if we want to present at the international level the dish should be
simplified and convenient to eat, but also has to be appealing. Chefs also need
to be trained officially and professionally; not only learning from experiences
of previous chefs, at home or at the shop where they are working. I find it a
pity that Vietnam doesn’t have a Food Institute to display and preserve all
typical dishes of the 54 ethnic groups.
Mr.
Philip Kotler, father of world marketing used to say that Vietnam won’t become
a kitchen of the world. It has been five years already since he had a comment
about Vietnamese cuisine, but we haven’t done a museum for Vietnamese folk
cuisine. We just need to collect cooking tools or kitchen equipment and recipes
of all ethnic minorities. Many other countries have done this so is it really
too difficult for Vietnam to follow?
Theo Cat Khue
Tuổi
trẻ