Vietnamese Food

Typical Vietnamese food varies from one region of the country to another. In the north, spices are mild and no used often. In central Vietnam, food is much spicier, and uses ground chilies often. Foods in the south often include spicy seasonings such as curry. Tropical fruits, stir fries, rice, and soups are eaten all over.
Rice is the main grain for the Vietnamese people. It can be served plain, sweetened, stir fried with meat or vegetables, added to soups, made into rice cakes, or into flour to make rice noodles or thin rice paper. Rice paper is often seen wrapped around meat, vegetables, and noodles, and then fried to make Vietnamese egg rolls. Rice is eaten at almost every meal.
Beef and other meats are uncommon; they are too expensive and spoil easily without refrigeration. Instead, the people of Vietnam eat seafood, eels, frogs eggs, and the occasional duck, chicken, or pork. In the mountains, they hunt birds and other animals, and eat or sell the meat they obtain. Vegetables, grown on plots near the house when possible, include onions, soybeans, bamboo shoots, yams, and other roots. Common fruits include bananas, mangoes, coconuts, and other tropical fruits. Tea, soda, beer, and rice wine are the main beverages. A common sauce is nuoc mam, a fish sauce used to flavor many things, including rice.
Dishes of meat, vegetables, seafood, and rice are placed in the center of a table. People choose what they want, and mix them with their bowls of rice. Soups, also with mixtures of meats and vegetables, are also popular. The Vietnamese eat with chopsticks, and raise their up off the table to eat.

For breakfast, people often eat a soup called pho. This soup can contain whatever the cook wishes to put in, but usually includes rice noodles, beef broth, onions, seasonings such as ginger, and bits of meat. Street vendors sell snacks and meals at all times of the day. As people go to or from work or school, they can pick up a bowl of pho, rice cakes, tiny meatballs, noodles with sauces, candy, or any number of other treats.

Copyright: http://library.thinkquest.org/25734/data/culture/food.html

Beth Dooley: "Get Changed! We're Going Out!"

By Beth Dooley

Dining at Rice Paper is a Zen pause in a hectic week. Its sour, spicy Vietnamese and Thai specialties (many vegetarian) are light and healthful. The tofu puffs in spicy peanut sauce are the best thing that’s happened to tofu, and we’re hooked on the song huong beef (grilled, leaf-wrapped beef rolls). There’s a thoughtfully chosen wine list, several beers, and exotic green teas (try the artichoke). The historic brick building with pale green walls is serene and intimate, evoking the era of Linden Hill’s streetcars and bonhomie—but did they eat this well in 1947?

Copyright:  Article

Featured Article

Rice Paper

The healthiest restaurant in the Twin Cities—bigger!

By Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl

Photo by Todd Buchanan

Restful, graceful little Rice Paper has always occupied a special place in the Twin Cities restaurant scene: It’s the favorite Vietnamese restaurant of yoga retreaters, trail hikers, anti-toxin fasters, gluten avoiders, and other ultra-healthy members of that class of svelte people who wear bamboo clothing from Denmark. So when owner An Nguyen announced plans to move her vest-pocket restaurant from cozy Linden Hills in Minneapolis to the bustling diamond-handbag district of 50th and France in Edina, everyone wondered: Would her legion fans follow her?

Boy howdy, they sure have! And they’ve brought everyone they know. A recent visit to the restaurant found lines out the door and half the menu sold out: Want the signature gossamer-light spring rolls or the perky grapefruit-and-Vietnamese-mint salad? Too bad for you. I mean, too bad for me.

Once I got over my disappointment, I found that the new Rice Paper offers lots to love: loads more tables than the old location; a tidy, affordable, and well-chosen wine list; a nice, new sake program; good Belgian beers; a cute, new version of their signature photo mural of bamboo; and food that is just what Rice Paper fans want—fresh, lively, full of herbs, and healthy as a week at Canyon Ranch. The Cloud Nine tofu appetizer is typical: delicate tofu topped with cucumber matchsticks in a zesty ginger-and-scallion sauce. The Song Huong grilled beef lettuce-wrap platter is presented with two sorts of fresh mint, two kinds of lettuce, bean sprouts, and cilantro, and as you enjoy bite after bite you might notice that you’re doing just what your doctor asked of you—namely, eating your meat as a garnish on a big plate of fresh plants. If you put in six hours on the Stair-Master earlier in the day, follow your meal with toasted-coconut ice cream. If not, know that you’ll leave Rice Paper feeling as healthy as if you’d spent your day deep-breathing with professionals. And if you’ve never heard of Rice Paper but are reading this from a cucumber-scented bath as sounds of Enya surround you, please pay attention: Your new favorite restaurant beckons.


Copyright: 
http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Minnesota-Monthly/December-2010/Rice-Paper/

About Our Company

An Nguyen left her beloved homeland of Viet Nam in 1970. Upon settling in Minneapolis, she was responsible for introducing Minnesotans to the true flavors of Vietnam in cosmopolitan settings—first, a vanguard establishment in the Warehouse District, later in Linden Hills, and now in a larger, more accessible locale in Edina’s 50th & France entertainment/shopping hub.

Guests are invited to relax in a calming setting that evokes the tranquility of a Vietnamese village, surrounded by cool and shadowy bamboo groves. Bamboo leaves cross over one another as if composing the Chinese character for An – her name – which means “tranquility.”

This reflection of personal history is further heightened by the menu’s offerings.  Traditional recipes have been stripped of the fat and salt common to Asian cooking, in favor of steaming and grilling to further An’s desire for healthier, lighter fare that celebrates bright flavors above all.  Tastes, textures and aromas showcase the contrasts that pique the palate: sweet and sour, soft and crunchy, hot and cold.