Well hello there!

Oh boy — I’m late with this dispatch because our water heater pooped out yesterday. It was basically on its 10th birthday. We tried trouble shooting it and eventually called the plumber, who labeled it planned obsolescence. We’re switching to a top-of-the-line tankless Navein unit which he says is energy efficient and lasts a very long time so long as we do regular maintenance and repairs.

Before sharing today’s recipes, I’m spotlighting cool ideas from PTFSers!

PTFS community tips

I’m thrilled whenever you send me a great tip. Here are ones from this past week!

• and I are obsessed with artisanal Tin fish sauce from Vietnam. Its producer dates back centuries and the flavor is excellent — smooth and not too intense. My mom loves it too, not just because it’s from Phan Thiet, where my dad once served as provincial governor. If you’re in the Bay Area, Maia spotted it at the Costco on Almaden. It is imported by the Lee’s Sandwich people, I’m told, so I was also able to buy it at Lee’s Supermarket in San Jose after the local Costcos quickly sold out.

• used my Kewpie Dupe Mayo recipe to make a dupe of Duke’s mayonnaise! Duke’s is delicious and unavailable in many parts of the U.S. It’s got a cult following in the American South. Get Steph’s tips in the comment section of the Kewpie Dupe mayo recipe (🆓 at le blog!)

• shared an article about 10 must-Try Vietnamese foods. Bánh xèo (sizzling rice recipes) is on the list. Nina took my recent best bánh xèo class and commented that the crepe in the article did not look as good as the one from my recipe. ☺️ My response is that now, she’s making them better than many cooks in the world! 😉 I love being an enabler — especially whenever people make my recipe theirs.

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5 Cool Asian Noodles

Speaking of making a recipe your own, I recently test drove a cold soba dish that’s just sensational. It’s not the classic zaru soba, which always leaves me feeling hungry. This sesame soba is super satisfying yet light and special tasting.

It’s Goma Dare Soba (Cold Sesame Soba) — a cold noodle that’s served with lots of veggies and seasoned by an umami-rich, nutty sesame-soy milk broth. A pop of wasabi at the table enlivens the whole thing. It’s hearty but light. If soba isn’t handy, make it with different noodles or even a capellini or spaghetti (but change the name into something like “Cold Sesame Ramen”).

The recipe comes from Japanese Comfort Cooking, a great new book by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat. I made minor tweaks and took their cues to play with the toppings. The recipe uses dashi so you can now make more of the wondrous Japanese broth! Slurp up the 🆓 Cold Sesame Soba recipe at my blog.

Cold or Cool Noodles?

Ya know, such Asian noodle dishes are never served super cold or even coolish, though they are cooling. They are room temperature.

But compared to a steaming hot bowl of ramen or pho, Japanese goma dare soba and Vietnamese bún are ‘cold.’ If you’re dealing with diners who like to split hairs, stick with the dish’s native language name to avoid misleading them.

Or maybe is has to do with Japanese and Chinese cultures?

In Vietnamese, we don’t have the “cold” or “cool” notion of noodles like in other East Asian cuisines. Certain noodle dishes feature supple tangles of noodley carbs at room temp or slightly warm. If you chill rice noodles, they break! Identifying the temperature of the noodle isn’t important to identify a dish. We want to know what noodle is served. That’s why a ‘cold’ noodle dish like bún chả is just about the noodles and the other main feature.

With that in mind, we are deep in grilling season so it’s time to lean into Vietnamese bún rice noodles. They’re on repeat at our house for rice paper rolls and bún salad bowls.

Just last week, my mom served us Hanoi-style bún chả grilled pork and rice noodles. Southern California was having a minor heat wave and the noodles comforted us without adding to the heat of the day. Make my traditional bún chả recipe with pork or take the veggie path with my meatless version. Heck, combine the two, like I have!

Want to freestyle your bún bowls? Play with my bún rice noodle bowl template to create your own (lots recipes and tips included in the 🆓 post on my blog!).

That said, Viet people are not wedded to their noodle dishes. My mom requested the Taiwanese sesame noodles for her birthday luncheon last week! She made most of her 6-course meal but wanted me to add the noodles. In East Asian culture, noodles symbolize long life and she wants to stick around to eat more good food!

My grand nephew asked to help out with the cooking so I let him put on the final touches. He’s three years old. His parents took leftover noodles home for dinner.

My mom’s a formal lady and I was surprised that she was so smitten with these casual noodles from Taiwan. She loves them and so does the rest of our family. Make the Taiwanese sesame noodles for an easy one-dish meal, or include it in a party menu — present it on a communal platter and ask someone at the table to toss and serve! Along with other dishes, each batch will serve 8.

Meet me at upcoming Cooking Thai events!

Cooking Thai releases soon on August 25. If you haven’t checked out the book, the early assessments and praise by heavy hitters like Yotam Ottolenghi, Ruth Reichl, David Lebovitz, Dorie Greenspan, and Hetty McKinnon are stunningly positive. I’m thrilled, totally stoked.

Event-wise, things are unfolding and thus far, I’ll be joining Pim at these events:

• Wed, Aug. 12, 9am PT virtual talk, free and open to all, register to get the Zoom link

• Tues., Aug. 25, launch dinner @ Nari restaurant, SF, get details and tickets on Resy

• Wed., Aug. 26, 6:30pm book talk @ Omnivore Books, SF, pre-order your copy if you can’t make it in person

• Tues., Sept. 1, 7pm, book talk and tastings @ Bookshop Santa Cruz, pre-order your copy if you can’t make it in person

Coming next weekend for paid subscribers is a stupendous pandan roll cake that I’ve been tinkering with for months. It wowed my family at mom’s birthday party. My taste testers (the neighbors!) love it just as much. I hope you do too!