Happy Belated Birthday

October 2010 marked the 1,000 year anniversary of Hanoi as Vietnam's capital. A 1,000 years as the capital!! 1,000 years!!??? Are you are as in awe as we are? That's a long time!

For some perspective Christopher Columbus sailed the Atlantic Ocean looking for the New World a mere 518 years ago, that means Hanoi is twice as old as any major establishments in the US and Hanoi was not the original capital.

We were unaware of this millennium milestone, with little news, tourism PR or international focus on this birthday until we came across an article in The Economist blasting the government on its mishandling of such a monumental event. Vietnam is a communist country with strict governmental control over media and really messed up this one. The Economist article goes on to detail how poorly the government was in organizing and announcing events to mark the celebrations including a fireworks finale that left 4 technicians dead when a crate of fireworks exploded.

Looking deeper into the lack of governmental organization for the celebration showed how poorly the tourism boards are doing to attract foreigners to Vietnam. Very little special tourism packages could be found geared towards the celebrations and worse Vietnam Airlines did offer a promotion just weeks before the celebration, but only included flights out of Vietnam, but not into. Maybe the government is focusing more on the extensive flooding going on in Central Vietnam or maybe 1000 years isn't that old in these parts of the world.

The government estimates Vietnam receive 3.3 million tourist a year, but only manages 5% return rate compared to Thailand's 50%. To us that is heartbreaking considering Thailand was our least favorite country to visit. Direct flights from Asian hubs Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur have been canceled and now only a few carriers do semi-direct (1-layover) flights from the US West Coast. How sad is that? But to be fair Vietnam's tourism is very young compared to other SE Asian countries with it's borders only open to tourism in 1986 and only providing US citizens visas in 1994.

We love Vietnam and really enjoyed our time in the capital of Hanoi. So we would like to raise a glass and say "Happy Birthday Hanoi, may your future be bright with better infrastructure, more transparency and the positive attention you deserve."

Tamarind Squid

Summertime means lots of meals cooked and eaten outside. With our month long diet of only seafood/fish as protein we were more than happy to find other items to toss on the grill besides our usual hotdogs and burgers. We began looking for recipes and inspiration for some grilling ideas and immediately remembered two items we loved during our travels.

Phu Quoc, a tropical island off the southern coast of Vietnam near the border of Cambodia, has gained a reputation for it's famous fish sauce. The island is slowly gaining notoriety for its seafood and in particular the squid. All the squid we had eaten in Vietnam was tender and juicy compared to the often times chewy and unpalatable squid we get in U.S., making battered fried salted pepper squid the preferred method of cooking. While staying on the island of Phu Quoc we had such a memorable meal that we ended up eating the exact same meal twice! One of those memorable dishes we had was the tamarind squid. The whole baby squids were marinaded in a pungent tart and tangy tamarind sauce and pan fried.

While in Bangkok, Thailand we stumbled upon a make-shift food court outside of the Phetchaburi Market. A man was grilling all kinds of meats on stick and we were absolutely amazed by his butterflied squid skewers. We've hadn't seen anyone grill squid like this and we enjoyed the simplicity of the whole idea.

We decided we wanted to try and combine the tamarind squid we had in Phu Quoc with the interesting grilling method of Bangkok. We found some beautiful squids at a Korean grocery store and went home and quickly began cleaning out the squids for the marinade.

The most difficult part of this whole dish is cleaning the squid. First we removed head and the tentacles from the body. Then we removed the exoskeleton from the body. In Phu Quoc the exoskeleton was left in the squid, allowing the squid to keep its shape during the pan frying. We decided to remove the semi-hard pieces so we could split and have more surface area for the marinade. We scored the body pieces of the squid to give it more texture and so that the squid would curl up when grilled.

Next we prepared the tamarind marinade by simmering together raw tamarind pulp, light soy sauce, water, ginger smashed into chunks, garlic, fish sauce, & pepper. Simmer until combined and thick, we then strained through a sieve to remove the tamarind pulp, chunks of ginger and garlic. We let the tamarind sauce cool and then marinaded the prepared squid for a few hours.

Since we had cut up the squid and not left them whole, we decided laying them in a grilling basket would be the best way to grill them. We continued to apply the remaining marinade on the squid while grilling, which added to the tender and juicy flavors. We grilled the squid for only a few minutes on each side, flipping the squid only once. Cooking time was about 5 minute total!

We quickly plated up our squid and ate it in the evening sun with some sugar snap peas and rice. The super fresh squid and the acidic marinade made for terrifically tender squid that was tart and tangy from the tamarind, sweet and salty from the soy sauce and splash of fish sauce and a bit spicy from the ginger and garlic. This is a dish we'll be grilling up for the rest of the summer!

Buddha Bellies Tamarind Squid

For one pound of baby squid (cut and body slitted)

2 Tablespoons Tamarind Pulp with seed and any peel removed

1/2 cup light soy sauce

1/4 cup water

1 clove garlic smashed

1 large chunk of ginger smashed

1 tsp fish sauce

1 generous pinch black pepper

Simmer in a sauce pan on low heat until thick and thoroughly combined. Allow to thoroughly cool and place prepared squid into marinade and allow to marinade for at least 1 hour.

To grill place in grilling basket, foil, or on skewers and apply any remaining marinade to squid when placed on the grill and again when flipping the squid. Cooking time is very short so don't walk away. Should only take a few minutes on each side - a total of 5 minutes or less total cooking time. Enjoy with your favorite light summer time vegetables and rice!

This is our entry into this month's Delicious Vietnam Blogging Event, hosted by yours truly, Buddha Bellies. A food blogging event started by Anh of A Food Lover's Journey blog and Hong and Kim of Ravenous Couple.

Stay tuned all the entries for Delicious Vietnam Blogging Event to be posted right here shortly.