Welcoming in 2012

     I am very eager to welcome in 2012. Goodbye 2011, and good riddance. To properly welcome in 2012 it only feels appropriate to recap my accomplishments of 2011, few as they may be!

     Going in to 2012, my expectations for what I am going to accomplish on this list are not incredibly high. If I were to write out my list of what I hoped to accomplish on this list, however, it would look something like this:

#7- Have a Child. If this didn't happen in 2012 I would be awefully concerned.

#16 & #18- Grow my hair so that it touches the top of my buttocks and then cut it and give it to a hair charity. It should be plenty long enough by the end of 2012, and hopefully by then I can just chop it off and have it short for a while

#10- Graduate from College. Again, would be very concerned if this didn't happen

#46- Get in to Graduate School. Here's hoping!

Honestly, anything else will be a bonus. Low expectations for 2012 as far as quantity, but for sure the quality of what I expect to be crossing off my list this upcoming year is superb :-).

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Complete- Drop #25: Cook Bun Mam

     Once I got past the fact that this recipe does not exist in English, and varies so much in Vietnamese, I think I was finally able to figure out how to cook this thing! With that said, I am pretty sure this is the only English recipe for Bún mắm. I'm not for sure if this is the way it's typically done, or how close it is to the actual taste it's supposed to be since I have never actually eaten it elsewhere, but it passed the taste test.


     For the Soup:

Pork Bones
Mam Tom (a very stinky, purple shrimp paste)
Catfish
Squid
Shrimp
Aubergine (not pictured)
Pork Belly
Lemongrass (6 stalks did the job)
Garlic (however much. I used 4 large cloves)

Rock Sugar

MSG (Optional)

  Parboil the pork bones. Rinse, heat up a fresh batch of water, and put bones back into the pot. Heat to boiling and skim top as needed. Cut the bulb off the lemongrass, smash, and add to broth. Skim periodically. Add the Mam Tom (maybe about a quarter of the container... I put a bit more than half and it came out really strong... You can add more later) to the broth. After a few hours of cooking chop/food process the remaining lemongrass stems until very small. Do same with garlic. In a frying pan, put some oil in the pan. Cut up one of the pork belly, add to the hot pan, and fry up with the lemongrass and garlic. Once cooked, add to the pot. 
     When you think you're getting close to being done (you can let the soup boil as long as you want) get your seafood ready while you're frying up a whole strip of the pork belly. Slice the fried pork belly the same was as before, and set aside. Cut the aubergines so that the slices are circular, about 1 and 1/2 inch thick, and cut those in fours. Throw in the soup. cook until tender, then remove.


     Strain the broth, and remove the bones, lemongrass etc. Reheat the broth, and cook the seafood. While doing this, start your noodles (bun rice noodles)


Toppings:

   

Bean Sprouts
Culantro (similar to Cilantro but stronger...)
Ngo Om (Rice paddy herb)
Rau Den (Chinese Spinach)
He (Type of Chive)
Ong Choy (Water Spinach, stems only)
Bac Ha (Taro Shoots)
Thai Basil
Banana Flower
Scallion
Lime


     I found I had to pickle the banana flower after cutting it into thin rings in order for it to keep color, so don't slice this until you're just about to serve. The only other odd prep for the toppings is to remove the stems from the water spinach and to cut them in long, thin strips. Keep them in cold water so they curl.


     Put noodles in bowl, ladle broth on top, throw on culantro and scallions. Serve with the plate of herbs and a spoonful of the mam tom on the side, and you're all set!

     The smell of the soup, I have to be honest, was not pleasant. Once I was able to push past that, the broth itself was pretty good! Again, I'll have to check it's authenticity to another one (once I find it), but I am considering this a success!

Drop #25: Cook Bun Mam

     Apparently, Bun Mam does not want to be reproduced...

     From what I can gather, this is quite a unique soup originating in- and not straying far from- South Vietnam's Mekong Delta. It is not in any of the cookbooks I have searched in, and it seems as though restaurants do not make it in this area. The recipe is unGoogleable in English. However, if I go to google.vn and search, I can find the recipe in Vietnamese. When translated, the ingredients are:

- colorful fish sauce
- Flexible fish sauce
- catfish (or snakehead fish)
- bacon
- fresh squid
- Shrimp silver card
- open water, chili slice
- delicious sauce
- pork bones
- fresh rice noodles
- a private branch of fingers
- minced garlic, cilantro
- banana cells, stem cells guns, vegetables and basil plants, vegetables, coconut, sprout.

http://my.opera.com/Norah-Nguyen/albums/showpic.dml?album=725762&picture=9803043#bigimg

     Where am I going to find a private branch of fingers?

      Regardless, I am determined to make this soup. All in all, it doesn't seem to be so difficult. The challenge is going to be figuring out exactly what is in this stuff, what it's supposed to taste like, and what the hell are all this new, crazy herbs that are supposed to go on top of it? Any insight from a random passerby would be greatly appreciated at this point.