Are you hungry? Even if I were full, looking at the picture above and thinking about the crispy Vietnamese bánh tôm (sweet potato and shrimp fritter) make my mouth water. Well fret no more, it is actually one of the easiest things in the world to make. I’ve seen more complicated recipes out there, but I’m going to give you the simple one that works just as well:
Bánh Tôm
Ingredients:
*2 cups julienned sweet potato
*1 cup unbleached flour
*1/3 cup water
*1 cup medium deveined shrimps (you can leave shell on). Pat the shrimps dry with a paper towel.
*Lettuce, cilantro, mints, and cucumber, all washed well and set aside to dry.
Directions:
*In a large bowl mix flour and water together until it’s a sticky paste. If it’s too dry, add a teaspoon of water at a time. Batter should not be too wet.
*Add sweet potato to the mix.
*Fill a frying pan about halfway with canola oil (any kind of oil is ok but canola is healthier) and put it on medium high heat. Don’t put it on too high or it will burn too fast, but don’t put it on too low either or the fritter will not get crispy.
*While you are waiting for the oil to heat up, cover a large frying spoon or spatula with a thin layer of the sweet potato batter. Don’t layer it too thickly or it will be soggy; you just sort of have to test a few with your particular fryer and stovetop heat.
*Add some shrimps over the batter:
*When the oil is hot enough (test this by putting one wooden chopstick into the oil; if it bubbles, it is ready), slowly slide the batter into the oil. Be careful of the splashing oil as water from the shrimp may cause this. Here’s a video of how to prepare then fry the fritter–my best advice is to stay calm!! If your heat is not super high, you will have enough time to move from one fritter to the next without too much stress:
*The higher the heat, the crispier the fritter. Leave the fritter in the oil until the shrimp is cooked and the batter is a nice golden color. Put a paper towel on your serving tray to soak up any excess oil when you remove the fritter from the frying pan. This dish is best served hot and fresh!
As you can see from the first photo, the bánh tôm is really an appetizer or snack food. It is served with a melange of lettuce (any kind), cilantro, and mints as well as the nước chấm, or fish-sauce based dipping sauce, which you can see here:
Enjoy! I know I said it’s a snack food but if you eat ten of these fritters you’ll fall into a food coma.
So I’m in Dallas visiting my parents again, and as you all know by now, I get spoiled with food whenever I am home. Love registers most loudly through eating in my parents’ home, and sometimes when I’m really lucky, my trip home coincides with certain fruits in season. The picture above is of the tropical fruit chôm chôm (rambutan), possibly my favorite fruit in the whole world. It looks prehistoric on the outside, and if I think about it too much I can’t really touch these…well, hairy balls. But I crave them so much that on one trip to Singapore, I went directly from the plane to the market to indulge in a kilo of these fruits. That’s a whole kilo just for me. And I’ll do it again the next time I’m there.
Today I’m going to blog about another favorite fruit snack of mine, the Vietnamese ô mai cam thảo, which consists of (preserved) dried fruits flavored with licorice and tamarind.
Ô Mai Cam Thảo
Ingredients
*3 pounds dried fruits (today we’re using strawberries, cranberries, apricots, prunes, apple, and candied ginger)
*6oz wet tamarind
*1.5 cups water
*2 tablespoons Splenda (or sugar)
*3/4 cups licorice powder
Directions
*Cut dried fruits into small pieces and place in large pot, layering prunes at the bottom.
*Mix well tamarind to water and then strain it; set the tamarind juice aside.
*Cook the fruits on low heat, stirring from time to time for ten minutes. Then add sugar and tamarind juice. Stir well then cover the pot for another 5 minutes.
*Remove pot from heat and let it cool. Pour the content into a porcelain mixing bowl so it cools off faster. Wait about 5-10 minutes.
*Stir well licorice powder into the mixture and let cool completely. The more licorice you add, the drier the candy becomes–it’s a matter of personal taste. Of course, it is easier to eat when it’s not so sticky.
Store in glass container at room temp; should be good for two months. Alternatively, you can also wrap them in cellophane or candy wrapping paper as bite-size candy. My Ô Mai, is it yummy…it’s every fruitarian’s dream!
Note that the candied ginger can also be substituted with fresh ginger (though this tends to make the mixture even more moist).
Note also that if you really want to challenge yourself, you could buy licorice in its dried form…
then mince it in the coffee bean grinder, which is extremely handy in VN cooking. Doing so gives the candy more texture than using licorice powder:
Tags: ô mai cam thảo, Dallas, dried fruits, licorice
Someone told me once that if I liked things in black and white to go into science, and if I had the gumption to work through the grays then stick with the law. Turns out I might have missed my calling in medicine (it would be sooo handy to be able to prescribe botox myself!) and the main thing I’m practicing most days now is how to defy the laws of gravity.
But from a fashion perspective, I love nothing better than working with the grays. I believe they make the best neutral in a wardrobe because they are shades of shadows, serving as the perfect backdrop to your accent pieces:
Gray is not as severe or arresting as black,
yet it’s more pronounced than the other neutral, the beiges…
It doesn’t steal the thunder from other colors that are used with it…it’s like the perfect political spouse, always appropriate and complementary:
So imagine my thrill when I find nail polishes in shades of gray here in Dallas:
But my favorite gray ever is a different kind of arm candy 
:
I’ve not fallen off the face of the Earth. I’m preparing for an upcoming trip so have been a bit nutso with activities. But my goal is to post at least one FIMTSO (wow, remember those episodes?) entry before I hit the road.
Please stay tuned and do send me requests for future FIMTSO challenges!
So from Blankenberge I hop off at De Haan, which will be my only other stop before heading back to Oostende to catch a late train. Right away I know I’ve come to a fun place because there are pedestrians everywhere. I follow the crowd because based on their clothes and picnic baskets, I figure they are all heading for the water. So we all meander around the residential neighborhood…
that leads to the beach:
And it’s right here near the boardwalk that you can rent these contraptions built for 2, 4 or more:
You know me and anything that might go fast–I can’t resist. So from my front seat, here are some shots of this charming town:
Cute street signs, non?
If you think it’s easy to tour the town in one of these human-powered transports, wait till you have to pedal uphill while navigating oncoming traffic! So after 90 minutes of this workout, I go to the first friterie I run into and load up on carbs (best fried fish sandwich ever, I might add):
To fend off the imminent food coma, I head back out to the beach, which by now is emptied because of sprinkling rain…
But the sea winds are fantastic as they blow through my hair, so I keep walking on the sand…
and walking…
for at least 10 kilometers or however far it takes me to get me back to Oostende. Rain clouds turn into blue skies so I do not even feel tired. During this walk I pass by numerous beaches, including a nudist beach where I really wish I don’t have my contact lenses in. I’m no prude but I already have enough hangups about the aging process; I don’t really need to see the effects of gravity on a nude beach, too! Let’s just say I much prefer seeing bunkers and lighthouses on the beach…
So that’s pretty much my tour of Europe this time around. I’ll go back to my fashion series in the days to come!
Tags: Blankenberge, De Haan, Oostende
