Friday Favorites: Vien Huong
I was born in upstate New York. While my parents were finishing up school, I lived with my grandparents in Taipei. In our neighborhood, there was a gwe-a diam, or “rice stick shop” in Taiwanese. These were common back in the early 80s, though sadly, I couldn’t find a single one on our recent trips to Taiwan. Gwe-a, similar to ho fun, but often roughly cut from a sheet of rice noodle, was my favorite food as a kid. I’ve always loved noodles, and rice noodles especially. I don’t know much about the Teochew diaspora, but a lot of Teochew / Chao Zhou / Chow Jew people ended up in…
Recipe: OMG mother, what were you thinking??
Sometimes when my mom visits, she’ll pick up groceries for my grandparents from the local Korean market. Ama mentioned that my mom had gotten them a bunch of spicy ramen, and she doesn’t have much tolerance for heat in her late 80s, so she cooked them without the spice packets and seasoned with other stuff. I was curious to see what my mom had purchased, because we love Nongshim Shin Ramyun and I would totally just boil tofu or veg in those packets — why waste amazing MSG-loaded flavor? So my grandma gives me a bag (Asians don’t throw away packets–you have a drawer or you stick them in your…
