Delicious Vietnam Blogging Event

We are so excited and happy to announce little ol' Buddha Bellies blog will be hosting July's Delicious Vietnam Blogging Event. The brainchild of Anh of A Food Lover's Journey and Hong & Kim of Ravenous Couple. The goal of Delicious Vietnam is to promote and explore the diversity of Vietnamese cuisine.

Heres's how it works -

Anything related to Vietnamese cuisine can be accepted. Such as a spin on a traditional dish or even step by step blog about your favorite Vietnamese dish. Got a favorite Vietnamese restaurant? Write a review. Any culinary experiences in Vietnam you would like to share? That works too. This event is a means to express, explore and share your love of Vietnamese food.

Sounds fun? Here are the rules:

#1 Entries to Delicious Vietnam must be written specifically for this blog event only. Of course, do submit your photos to photo sites and events.

#2 Please make sure your post contain the phrase Delicious Vietnam with a link to this blog (www.buddha-bellies.com) and to the founders - A Food Lover's Journey and Ravenous Couple. If you use Twitter, please include the tag #deliciousvietnam in your tweet.

#3 The logo is optional in your post, simply right click image at the top of this post and save.

#4 Details, updates, previous Delicious Vietnam entries and complete rules/guidelines can be found at A Food Lover's Journey.

#5 Entries must be in English

#6 If you don't have a blog, never fear, simply email us your entry and we will create a blog entry for non-bloggers.

To join the July Delcious Vietnam Blogging Event, simply write up your post and send to Anne&Mike at buddhabelliespdx@gmail.com by 7pm Pacific Time Sunday, July 11. In your email please include:

-Your Name -Your Blog Name/URL

-Your Post URL

-Your Location

-One photo (300 pixels wide)

We are so happy to be a part of something that will provide insight and share the joy of Vietnamese cuisine without need of a contest, sweepstake or prizes. So if you love Vietnamese food as much as we do we invite you to join!

Looking forward to all the entries! Hope you get out and try some Vietnamese food soon!

Can you imagine anything more foodie than an Italian marrying someone Vietnamese? By the amounts of food and variety their kid eats, we can't. She even eats spicy foods and squid salad - what kid eats squid salad? At another fabulous dinner we had with said friends we were informed of a Korean Grocery Store where they carry the small whole squids used in the salad for a reasonable price.

I'm sorry, what was that again, Korean Grocery Store? Yes, and a big one at that. Having taken over a Haggens Grocery Store, H-Mart is a Korean Grocery Store and a very impressive one. After having the incredible Koi Fushion Korean BBQ tacos we wanted to take a stab at making our own version at home. We were also craving kimchee and needed to replace the Korean chili paste we snagged from our flight from Seoul.

As we walked into the store the first thing we came upon was the "hot food" area. You know the area with the long glass deli case and steamer trays. Except this deli case had a mindblowing assortment of kimchee items. Just to name a few from memory - traditional cabbage kimchee, green onion, tofu, zucchini, garlic, carrots, daikon, asparagus, cucumbers and the list goes on. Oh did we mention on the weekend these kimchees are set out for sampling?

We selected a few small containers of traditional cabbage, green onions, tofu and cucumber kimchees. Surprisingly each vegetable kimchee tasted completely different, with the green onion being really pungent, the tofu mild and somewhat sweet, the traditional cabbage was spicy, somewhat bitter and the cucumber refreshing, tart with a nice spicy kick.

As we made our way pass all the samples and kimchee we came upon the fresh produce. Yes, Asians do love their greens and fresh vegetables, but this was impressive. This is just the fresh greens aisle.

There wasn't anything too exotic or extraordinary in the produce. The impressive aspect came from the sheer variety. From large bok choy for pickling to baby bok choy to use in soups and stir fry, large leafy greens to baby varieties, including this impressive regular green onions verses jumbo green onions.

Since kimchees seems to be the national dish of Korea, there was a great selection of cabbages. We never knew there were so many varieties.

And if spicy pickled kimchee vegetables aren't your thing, there was a huge selection of traditional and pressed pickled items available also. Mmmmm - terrific with curry.

After we got our kimchee and fresh vegetables we headed straight towards the fish/seafood area. We were here for maybe a whole fish, some seafood and whatever was in season and reasonably priced. Did we mention Koreans eat a lot of fish? Well it was evident in the seafood area of the store.

There was an area for fresh and frozen fish, an area for fresh and frozen seafood and they even sold dried fish, beautifully displayed.

We admired the interesting looking dried fish varieties and then made our way to the whole fish counter. Average prices, but a great variety is what we found. We settled on a well priced tilapia, which was iced and bagged for us. Later we discovered it was already gilled, gutted and scaled. We were actually looking forward to dissecting our little tilapia, you can always tell how fresh a fish is by the color if its gills, but the messy part was done so we practiced our filleting skills instead.

The impressive seafood had it all - fresh crabs, the most beautiful looking oysters, squid, shrimp, scallops, mussels, etc.

We thoroughly walked down each aisles, including a whole aisle dedicated to chili powders and pastes, but we found most were heavily sugared, with corn syrup being the first or second ingredient. We left without buying any. We came away from H-Mart with a great mass of groceries, some we were unfamiliar with, but we were ready to get home and experiment!

H-Mart Korean Grocery Store

13600 SW Pacific Hwy

503.620.6120

www.hmart.com

The Original Dinerant

Is there anything better than a leisurely Sunday afternoon with nothing to do and no rush to do it, including eating? Some Sundays we're so busy doing nothing and enjoying it that we suddenly realize we should get something to eat. That's where Sunday happy hours come in. Usually served all day in most bars in Portland. Sunday happy hours in many ways has replaced Sunday suppers.

So when when we were invited to happy hour at the Original Dinerant downtown on a sleepy Sunday afternoon when there are no crowds, no need to pay the parking meter and we can continue to leisurely enjoy our meal in the same leisurely manner we've been enjoying our leisurely day, we accepted the invite.

Part of the Sage Hospitality company, the Original Dinerant is a "modern, urban diner" hence the name Dinerant. Part diner, part restaurant. The sleek modern interior looked more cafeteria/diner than restaurant/diner, but a hip sleek cafeteria/diner.

To our surprise the Original Dinerant had an interesting and appealing happy hour menu. There were your typical diner inspire and happy hour staples of burgers, chicken wings, fries, and token side salad. The Original Dinerant bumped it all up a fancy notch with some interesting items, such as poutine, a Canadian dish consisting of french fries, cheese curds and gravy; meatloaf sliders with caramelized onions; and mini milkshakes and fries.

We started off with one of their housemade sodas. We decided on the ginger mint soda with Makers Mark and citrus lemongrass with Tangeray. These were delicious, by far the best sodas we have ever had. Just yummy! Housemade does come with a stiff cost so we sipped and savored every drop of our drinks.

Soon all our food arrived. First thing we tried was the short rib and carmelized onion perogie. Truth to be told if there is a perogie anywhere on a menu we will order it. It's hard to resist the potato dough ravioli. More texture than short rib and carmelized onion, if there was more than just two to an order we could have enjoyed it more, but it was gone before we knew it.

Same goes for the Kobe frank pig in a blanket, served with cheddar fondue. The two small bites that came per order were insufficient enough to be memorable in anyway. They looked pretty though.

We also ordered the lamb meatballs. These were good, but again so small and insignificant that there wasn't much to recall unfortunately.

The one item that was fairly memorable was the frito pie, presented in a frito chip bag. The chili was tangy and the cheese sauce was silky and smooth. But like the other items we ordered the presentation made our stomach rumble more than the food itself.

Even though the food wasn't that memorable, the whole experience was worth the leisurely Sunday afternoon meal. The restaurant was interesting looking and the housemade sodas are definitely worth it.

Photos are courtesy of our old, barely can hold a charge cell phones, not bad huh?

The Original Dinerant 300 SW 6th Portland, Oregon 503.546.2666 Happy Hour: Monday - Sunday 4:30pm - 6pm Their late night diner menu looks good too - open until 4am Fridays and Saturdays

Redemption

Recently we entered a blog contest for a Paella Starter Kit from the Gastronomy Blog which asked What's the Tastiest City and Why? Well immediately we jumped on this one and threw our hats in for Portland. It was actually a really easy entry to post with the abundance of goodness in Portland, but we were not chosen. Claire's reminiscing of Singapore's culinary scene won and well we can't really compete with Singapore. Although we did get honorable mention and a close second shout-out!

To shake off the feeling of defeat we decided to go for a walk and remind ourselves why we like Portland so much. Something we needed to do with the horrible, cold, gray, rainy weather we have been having. The minute the sun came out, we jumped to our feet and went for a stroll. Within minutes we were reminded why Portland is tasty in so many ways.

The Nightmare - we're not sure what this is about, but the stickshift knob is a wooden carved tiki figure. Check out the Italian flag-colored raised spoiler!

A few blocks later we came upon this interesting sight - wouldn't that be great to have fresh honey?

So the sun doesn't shine here nearly enough and it could be warmer most months out of the year, but we love you Portland in spite all that.

World Oceans Day

Did you know last year the United Nations officially declared June 8th as World Oceans Day? A special day to pay tribute and reflect on the value of our oceans. Especially right now with the BP oil disaster in the gulf of Mexico and our decision of only eating fish/seafood for the month of June, we felt it was appropriate to dedicate a blog post to our oceans and thank the oceans for all it has done for us.

Oceans, we greatly appreciate your continual patience with everything that comes your way.

Dramatic Oregon Coast

Seal Rock, Ecola State Park - Oregon Coast

Hwy 101, California Coastline, Monterey Bay

Andeman Coast - Phuket, Thailand

We thank you for the endless hours of recreation, reflection and fun. Who doesn't love a day at the beach?

Parasailing in Nha Trang, Vietnam

Sanur, Bali

A day at Bondi Beach - Sydney, Australia

Oceans, we love you so much we builds cities around you and places to reflect on your beauty.

Sydney Harbor and Opera House from Luna Park - Sydney, Australia

Bungalows on the beach - Ko Phangan, Thailand

View of the ocean from Park Central Hotel - Miami, Florida

Promenade Des Anglais - Nice, France

Puerto Penasco, Mexico

Woman walking on the beach - Portland Parish, Jamaica

Oceans, please know we thank you for your abundance and life sustain ways.

Fishermen - Sanur, Bali

Parrot Fish - Maya Bay, Thailand

Thank you Oceans for just being there. All is right with the world when the ocean waves are crashing.

Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

Ko Samui, Thailand

And lastly, thank you for your beautiful sunsets. We promise to be more careful with you and know that we do love you.

The Great Fried Rice

We love fried rice. And a damn good plate of fried rice will definitely served at our wedding. Until then we are a quest to make the perfect fried rice. We never plan to make fried rice, that's the whole point of fried rice. It's suppose to be a mash of leftovers into a tasty, hearty treat.

The trick to fried rice is the rice, the rest is just the cherry on top! Not too mushy, not too gummy, not too dry, not too overcooked, not too undercooked, just perfectly cooked to where the rice soaks up the flavors of everything it's cooked with, while adding texture and carb-goodness. We like to use rice made a day ahead which is dried enough to instantly absorb the flavors of anything its cooked with.

There are a few other tricks to fried rice, like a nice thin omelette that is cut into strips and added at the final stage of cooking the fried rice. Sometimes we like to get fancy and make a traditional green onion omelette, but we are learning the thinner the omelette the better.

Fried rice is one of those great dishes that you can continuously "perfect" because the ingredients are endless. Every time we have made it the vegetables vary and we even tried our hand at pineapple fried rice. And we never tire of the fried rice leftovers. Here is mom's basic fried rice we use as the general base for our fried rice. I see lobster fried rice in our immediate future. Enjoy!

Mom's Fried Rice

1 cup peas

1 cup cubed carrots

1/2 lb fresh shrimp

2 cups diced ham or barbecued pork

1/2 cup sliced green onions, thinly sliced

4 eggs, beaten

3 cups jasmine rice, steamed

2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce

1 Tablespoon Sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cooking Oil

In a non-stick wok or pan, heat 1 teaspoon of cooking oil. Pour beaten eggs into a thin layer in pan, cook until firm. Remove from pan and slice into thin strip about 1 inch long.

Over medium heat in the same pan, heat 1 Tablespoon of oil and add diced ham, shrimp, peas, carrots, sliced egg, sugar, salt, and 2 teaspoons of the soy sauce. Stir fry for about 4 minutes. Remove from pan onto a plate.

Wipe clean pan and return to heat and add 1 Tablespoon of oil. Add the green onions and 1/2 Tablespoon of soy sauce. Stir fry for 1 minute until combined. Add cook rice and stir fry for about 3 minutes or until combined.

Add the previously stir fried vegetables and meat back to the pan with the rice and stir fry for about 5 minutes until meats are thoroughly cooked through.

Taste and decide whether it needs more soy sauce or sugar.

Koi Fusion

We joke about setting up a hawker center as the catering for our wedding and which of our favorite food carts would be there, but unfortunately our wedding site has strict guidelines on catering. That doesn't stop us from dreaming of what our wedding hawkers center would have and Koi Fusion's Korean Truck would be on that list!

Korean tacos are the currently all the rage. Bon Appetit magazine did a feature on the Los Angeles inspired trend and numerous international food guides have highlighted the marriage of Korean tangy, spicy bbq meats with tortillas.

Just as in LA, Koi Fusion started, not as a food cart, but a full on food truck. Here is an image of one of their trucks at the annual Eat Mobile event we attended.

Greatly blogged and featured all over Portland, Koi Fusion gained notoriety for jumping on the twitter bandwagon and tweeting their daily locations. Not too long ago we were scanning the restaurants for rent ads and a bar in the Pearl District was looking for someone to take over the kitchen and we soon found out Koi Fusion had stepped in to take over the kitchen at 1 Lounge. As with most establishments in trendy Pearl District, 1 Lounge was once some other restaurant or bar, and we're thinking with a nautical themed from the looks of the decor. Hopefully Koi Fusion will bring some of that sleek Asian style to their new bar, it's pretty ugly right now. We checked out the simple and straightforward menu and placed our order. First to arrive was the sweet potato fries, what can we can we say, it is a bar.

A contender for the best sweet potato fries to date and we've had our share from restaurants all over the city. Not greasy, crispy and sweet, the deceptively large portion was a great start. We couldn't even finish them, especially after the rest of our food arrived, which is a rare thing for us.

We decided on the three taco combo. The three tacos we ordered were the Bulgogi BBQ beef, spicy pork and spicy chicken. All three were topped with tomatoes, cilantro, cucumbers and bean sprouts. Outstanding is all we can say, the tangy Bulgogi beef was tangy, savory and smokey - fantastic. Ingeniously accompanied by the fresh crisp vegetables, everything popped. The spicy pork and chicken were just as flavorful, holding their own against the specialty made tortilla and vegetables. Kudos to Koi Fusion, we have officially found our newest obsession!

We had to order the kimchee quesadilla made with Koi Fusion's famous Korean short ribs. We love Korean short ribs and love going to Korean restaurants with the hibachis in the middle of the tables, so we knew this was going to be good. How good? Incredibly good, going back to regular quesadillas will never be the same. The short ribs, cut on the bias and deboned was tender, smokey, savory, a little sweet and tasted phenomenal with the spicy, tart kimchee. We talking food revolution here, like the fabled day the Earl of Sandwich slapped a bunch of meat between we pieces of bread and called it a sandwich!

Between getting our sweet potato fries and tacos/quesadilla a plate of fried chicken was delivered to a table behind us and we immediately stopped the waiter and placed an order.

When we visited Seoul, South Korea back in February we were hoping to get our hands on some Korean fried chicken, doused in tangy sauce, but it was not to be. So we were excited to see them offered and ordered up a 5-piece. All 5 pieces were drumsticks. Yes, dark meat! Moist, crunchy and flavorful. The coating was simple and reminded us of dad's fried chicken.

To top that off one of the owners, Bo came out from the kitchen and chatted us up on the concept, where to find the taco trucks, and some new adventures they were cooking up. We found out two days a week the taco truck is parked only 4 blocks from work! No need to muster up the energy to go into the Pearl District to get our hands on this fantastic Korean BBQ treat!

Koi Fusion at 1 Lounge in the Pearl District 1300 NW Lovejoy Thurs-Sat 4pm - 2am Sun - Wed 4pm - 10pm

Truck locations are tweeted on Twitter @Koifusionpdx