Vietnamese Inspiration

I am an advocate going into the grocery store with a plan of attack... a definite list based on your menu for the week. When you plan ahead and only buy what you need it wastes less food, costs less money, and is generally healthier because you stay away from impulse buys of packaged food. You get to where you spend most of your time in the produce section.

When you are in foraging mode, though, there is a little room to improvise. I went to the Eden center today. It's in Seven Corners, and is an high density concentration of Vietnamese bakery-delis, music, grocery, restaurants, and hair salons. It is absolutely great. Before setting out, I had a few ideas for the week:

• Try Bittman's Bok Choi-Shitake recipe
• Do an improvised Asian Beef Noodle Soup with homemade beef stock
• Try a scallion pancake recipe with the soup - going with a David Lebovitz recipe
• Get some of those buns and rice-wrapped-in-banana leaf for a quick dinner

What you see above is some of the haul. There was so much neat stuff there I had to restrain myself. I did however, buy some baby octopus. I just read the NPR article on them and plan to do the Uncle Nick's version they talk about. But I need to borrow a grill! Anyone? I won't be doing this regularly because octopus from Thailand are most probably not sustainably fished. But just this once.

This was my last stop, to get a Banh Mi. My favorite from high school is the meatball, so that's what I got. So delicious! If you haven't had one of these you must try it. There are about a 5 or other kinds I want to go back and try, not to mention the restaurants.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas for your week. I'll post these once I've made them. If you give them a try be sure to leave your comments.