Chúc mừng năm mới, everyone! We’re taking a quick break from our One Week, Three Cities series to wish you all a very happy Lunar New Year. It’s the year of the dragon (my zodiac year!) and we are looking forward to a fantastic 2012! Lunar New Year is also known as Chinese New Year, which is a bit of a misnomer since many Asian cultures celebrate this time of year with their own festivals, traditions, and customs. This past weekend, we visited my parents for an early celebration of Tết, the Vietnamese word for Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year from Nom Nom Cat!
January 23, 2012
Uncategorized chinese new year, family, holidays, lunar new year, tet, vietnamese, vietnamese traditions 1 Comment
Steamed Fish with Scallion-Ginger-Soy Sauce
December 16, 2011
Main Noms chinese, family, fish, recipe, scallions, soy sauce, vietnamese 2 Comments
My dad is a master at sampling dishes at restaurants, deciding he could do it himself, and going home to replicate (and most times, improving on) said dishes. I’d like to think that I got that culinary gene from him, but in the meantime, at least I get to benefit from the magician finally revealing his secret (recipe, that is!).
Steamed fish fillets, swimming in a ginger-soy sauce and topped with bright julienned scallions, is a prime example of a simple yet intricately flavored dish found on the menus of many Chinese restaurants. There’s just nothing quite like spooning the sweet and salty sauce over a bowl of white rice and flaking apart the tender fish with my chopsticks to make me feel right at home.
NomCat tip for the ingredients:
The Fish: Costco. My parents love to keep it easy, and once they introduced the frozen, individually vacuum-sealed tilapia loins from Costco to us, we never looked back. It’s easy to pull as many (or as few) fillets as you need, thaw them in the sink, and have dinner on the table in 15 minutes, which works perfectly for us coming home from a long day at work. They are packaged by weight, so one $14 bag will have about 10-12 fillets.
From frozen fillet to this in just 15 minutes:
Classic French-style (Herb Roasted) Rack of Lamb
December 2, 2011
Main Noms family, french, rack of lamb, recipe, thanksgiving, vietnamese 1 Comment
This year, our family decided to save a turkey and go a nontraditional but still festive route for our Thanksgiving meal. Everyone gathered in our tiny, humble apartment and the NomCats prepared the dinner for six. A highlight of the dinner was the classic French style racks of lamb served over com do (Vietnamese tomato red rice) — the epitome of the beautiful fusion of French-Vietnamese cuisine.
NomCat tip for the ingredients:
The Lamb: We bought ours from Costco. They are sold as full racks, vacuum-sealed, trimmed, and ready to go – all for less than $20 a rack of 8 chops. If you’re looking to avoid the holiday rush, these packages freeze well and defrost just in time if you remember to move them to the refrigerator one full day in advance. (Or if you have trouble with clearing out your freezer like we do, the packages are well-marked and dated. We recently cooked a rack after months in the freezer, and it was still tender and delicious!)
Without further ado, here’s our recipe for pulling off one of these beauties:







