Today I was browsing Vietnamese cookbooks at the Half Price
Bookstore. I've recently decided that I need to return to my "I'm
going to adopt a more Asian diet" initiative. The one I abandoned
last spring when I discovered that the Japanese pretty much don't cook
anything. There were exactly four* books. In one of the books
(actually three, see below) mentioned marinating strips of beef, then
storing them uncovered on a wire rack in the refrigerator for 2 days
to dry them out. In hotter seasons, you can do the same in the sun.
The result is like beef jerky, except you still have to cook it first.

I didn't know you could do that!



*Books: There were four books. One book didn't refer to any of the
recipes or dishes by its native name, or even mention it; i.e. "Spring
Rolls" instead of "g�i cuốn", and had a lot of recipes that the author
admitted to fabricating for her restaurant in SoCal. It also had no
recipe for Phở of any sort.

The other three books were three different sizes, had three different
titles, and had three different cover types, but were all identical on
the inside, to the page. Recipes, pictures, text. Odd.

I bought neither, for now. The nearby Barnes and Noble had "ethnic
cooking, alphabetical by nation" but their section only went to
"Spain".

-J