Trung Kho Recipe (Easier and Improved)

Trung Kho
11 eggs
1/4 c. nuoc mam (fish sauce)
3 large slices of ginger
1/2 tsp. sugar
2-3 c. water

Heat stove to medium high.

Caramellize sugar.

Add water, nuoc mam, and ginger. Add eggs. Simmer:


The yellow wedges are ginger.

Simmer down to about 1/4 c. sauce (or more or less depending on preferences).

The little brown marks are due to the pan being short so the surface of eggs was in direct contact with the bottom of the pan.

Voila, done!

Trung Kho (Braised Eggs)

Forget the chicken (ga). Forget the pork (heo). Who needs either of those when you could have the cheapest, easiest comfort known to man Trung Kho?

For those not in the know, this is a traditional, Vietnamese comfort food traditionally made with pork and eggs braised in fish sauce and sugar. These are the two main ingredients. Depending on the person, water or Coco Rico or coconut juice might be added to it so that the sauce mixture might gradually simmer down from covering the meat to half (or less depending on your preferences or how absent-minded you might be). There is no right or wrong way to go about this dish. It's easily customizable, since it has so few ingredients.

Not fond of pork? Trade in pork for chicken.

Imminently lazy and wanting a cheap comfort? Forget the chicken or pork. Just have eggs!

At home, FS will generally just eat the eggs regardless of whether chicken or pork is involved. The albumen of the eggs turn from white to a light brown, absorbing the sauce to a salty, fish saucy degree. 

(FS isn't the only one who likes this, Wandering Chopsticks published Carmen Cook's input of "...was really pleased with how it came out... I’m not a big meat-eater, and my favorite part of this dish were the eggs. While the meat was good – fall apart tender and flavorful – I would have been happy to just have the eggs.")

This is a great alternative to cooking eggs the usual way (sunny side up, scrambled, frittata-ed). FS probably isn't the only one whose eyes are drawn to one dozen or one and a half dozen carton of eggs under two dollars... and, yet, what to do with all those eggs? This is a conundrum for one family let alone one person. But voila! Trung Kho pops into being (or Ga Kho Trung or Heo Kho Trung).

In fact, the longer the eggs sit in the sauce in your refrigerator, the better they taste. The eggs absorb the sauce during the one hour to one and a half simmer, but also absorb the sauce further over the course of a week, bathing in the sauce and becoming all the more delicious because of that.

10 eggs dedicated to a numeric system based in 10ths.

Trung Kho

10-12 hard-boiled eggs

2-3 c. water

1/4 c. nuoc mam (fish sauce)

1 tbsp. sesame oil

1-2 tsp. soy sauce

1/2 tsp. sugar

Set stove at medium heat. (FS uses a stove with heat as numbers from 0-10 and chooses 7.)

Let sugar caramellize i.e. forget about the sugar on the stove pot until it smokes and turns dark brown. While this occurs, peel the hard-boiled eggs from their stubborn shell (trick: place them in cold water, the cold water will seep into the cracks of the egg shell introducing water pressure between the shell and the egg, making it easier to peel the shell from the egg).

Smoke! Race to pot and fill it half with water. Add in nuoc mam, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Add in eggs.

Simmer for one hour to one half hour. Add more water as need be (depending on sauce quantity preferences).

As evidenced by the picture below, FS forgot about the simmering eggs for quite some time. No biggie, as long as the sauce doesn't disappear complete and the eggs burn. 

Serve with rice.

Reuse your spaghetti sauce jars.

This is probably the habit of every cook: eat your own imperfections before people notice. So that broken egg with its gaping mouth speaks to the Food Scavenger. Eat me, the gash declares, eat me nooooow.

Good Pho in Downtown Los Angeles Chinatown

You know that odd time when you're out and about on the town for a specific reason and then you happen upon a wonderful oddity?

This is one of those times.

So Food Scavenger was in Chinatown for what else, but cheap, good Chinese food, when she happened to pass by a place from which the most pungent, heaven smell of pho was wafting from. Cue Food Scavenger's disbelief and reluctance to enter, because FS was here. In Downtown LA. In Chinatown. For Chinese food.

And yet. And yet. There was an ad in front of the store for Pho Filet Mignon for $5.50. And then there was that smell. That wonderful smell of traditional pho, of a broth that could take over both your stomach and mind.

It seems that this place used to be a cafe and deli. When Food Scavenger came, the place still retained the name of "Gigo's Cafe and Deli." Perhaps it'll change to something pho related. Although maybe not. People don't seem to be too distracted by this odd Italian name and the actual Vietnamese food inside and spotting the windows.

Gigo's Cafe and Deli (It's a Vietnamese pho place! Confused, yet?)
853 N. Broadway Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213.229.8889
Price range $5-6 for pho

Inside, the place is manned by the owner and a single server, both Vietnamese. The single server was an old man, whose age could be anywhere between fifty and seventy, and the owner, forty and fifty. Oh, the merits of aging among Asian people. It's a wonder.

There's a quaintness to the place. Paintings or bric-a-brac photographs line the cream walls. You have your fruit still lifes, your blue and white schematic of a building on the walls. Lining the middle of the wall is a single intertwined vine of leaves - the kind of wallpaper reminescent of the old-timers of pho places in Houston, where Food Scavenger spent much of her formulated pho-childhood. There's a cafe-like atmosphere to the place, where families and bachelors and the young and restless all fit in alike. An appreciation of good pho, after all, is universal.

Customers flit in at all times, because pho can be eaten morning, afternoon, and evening depending on your wont. FS's family stopped by at the odd time of three in the afternoon to escape the heat and follow their noses to some place delicious. The pho dac biet and pho filet mignon were ordered and quickly consumed. The dac biet contained calf tail and bo vien and filet mignon, etc. The filet mignon as FS's brother told her was perfect, soft and chewy and more intensely flavorable than the usual slices of beef in pho tai. He pretty much inhaled the bowl's contents and then looked around for more (sometimes, for a late breakfast, he'll consume two large bowls of pho tai).

Oh, for love of pho, FS must visit this place again.

Homemade Waffle Recipe (Banh Kep)

The Food Scavenger under the guiding, mouth-watering auspices of the Waffleizer had caved and purchased a waffle-maker. Did the Food Scavenger predict the next month of inspired waffle-making and waffle-eating? No, no she did not and yet, there it was, an entire month gone to a waffle-bloated belly to arrive at a basic recipe that could be tweaked in ever so many ways. 

It could become a chocolate-chip waffle, a banana waffle, a pandan coconut waffle, a durian coconut waffle, a cacao waffle, and last but not least, remain itself, a plain waffle to be enjoyed with an assortment of toppings.

It was in every way... perfect. 

Basic Waffle Recipe (Banh Kep)

Whisk dry Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 cup sugar (less if planning to eat with syrup - Food Scavenger eats waffles in all their variations plain, so... more sugar in batter for Food Scavenger)

Whisk wet Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1/8 cup oil

1 egg yolk

Fluff Incorporated (begin beating after mixing wet and dry ingredients):

1 egg white beaten until stiff peaks are formed

First, plug in waffle-maker.

Then, follow directions above, whisking wet and dry separately.

Form a hollow in the middle of dry. Pour wet into dry. Fold and rotate bowl until wet + dry incorporated into a lightly lumpy, but mostly homogeneous mixture. Set aside for baking powder action (mixture will begin to have bubbles). 

Then, begin to beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. When you lift your whisk, the egg whites will plop back onto the mixture, but retain their shape.

Now, begin to fold in the egg whites into bubbly, waffle mixture. The mixture will lighten and become smooth. Food Scavenger likes to use spatula to slice down middle and then fold, while rotating bowl to incorporate egg whites and smooth mixture.

With that done, pour 2/3 of waffle mixture into waffle maker to make one waffle. For Food Scavenger's waffle maker, 5 minutes for soft waffle, 6 minutes for lightly crispy waffle, and 7 minutes for dark, crispy waffle.

Makes four waffles.

Food Scavenger's Notes on Variation:

The Food Scavenger has used unbleached, all-purpose flour for the most part; the baking powder has been double-acting; the sugar has varied between white granulated or light brown or dark brown or turbinado cane sugar depending on the flavor of the waffle with still good result; the milk generally fat-free; and the oil has been grapeseed.

Pandan or Durian Coconut Waffle (Banh Kep La Dua or Saurieng): Replace milk with coconut milk (Food Scavenger likes Chaokoh). Incorporate 1/2 - 1 tsp pandan (also marketed under the name screwpine) or durian extract into wet ingredients.

Food Scavenger's family put the thumbs down for pandan (in Vietnamese la dua), but thumbs up for durian since the durian extract smells less like actual durian and more like a fragrant sweetness. Pandan i.e. la dua just smelled weird to them in the context of a waffle.

Chocolate Chip Waffle: 1/3 + 1/6 cup waffle mixture + handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Fold, until mixed. Then pour evenly into waffle maker. Makes one waffle.

Banana Waffle: 1/3 + 1/6 waffle mixture + 1/2 to 2/3 banana (depends on size). Dice banana pieces with spatula. Fold until mixed. Then pour evenly into waffle maker. Makes one waffle. 

As can be seen, a plain waffle mixture can become many different types of waffles. Food Scavenger likes to make two banana waffles and two chocolate chip waffles, whenever she makes waffles. When cool, chocolate chip waffle is wonderfully chewy and soft with still melt-y chocolate chips. Yum. Food Scavenger no longer needs chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip waffles are too awesome, quick, and wonderful in comparison to cookie. Also, instead of Reese's pieces, which Food Scavenger finds too sweet, Food Scavenger prefers cacao waffle with crunchy peanut butter spread on top. Mmm...

Cacao Waffle: Add 1/6 c. cacao powder to dry ingredients. (Reese's Pieces style: slather on peanut butter, while cacao waffle still warm. Yogurt style: slather strawberry yogurt onto cacao waffle.)


Update from the Food Scavenger 7/7/2011:

Raisin Bran Waffles: For dry ingredients, replace flour with 2/3 c. whole wheat flour + 1/3 c. bran. Toss in 1/2 to 1 tsp. of cinnamon with dry ingredients. Soak raisins in hot water until they bloom (become soft and squishy). Toss out water. When putting on waffle maker, fold in handful of raisins (or more depending on your preference) with 2/3 c. of waffle mixture. Makes 3 waffles. 

Ca Kho Recipe

"I'm going to make Ca Kho today."

"But it's so salty." And sweet, the Food Scavenger thought, but she didn't say it aloud. "You usually don't like such salty things."

"I don't. That's why I'm going to make it myself."

It took the Food Scavenger three times to arrive at a recipe that was just right. And how right it was. The pot began to smoke a little, the Food Scavenger scurried forth and flipped the fish, whooping over the caramellization, and added a little water to aid in caramellizing the other side of the fish.

The next day (the Food Scavenger was patient, allowing the fish maximum rest and soaking in caramellized sweet and salty juices), the Food Scavenger dug into a bowl of rice with the most amazing, well-balanced of sweet and salt ca kho ever. But of course her love was short-lived, the recipe set to the side to be immortalized till the next time it was needed (the next week and the next and the next for the Food Scavenger's mood held a deep, abiding love for ca kho - ca kho today, ca kho tomorrow, ca kho every day).

The Food Scavenger being a rather a big-mouthed person picked up the phone and proclaimed to any who picked up her triumph. Her phone was not amused.

"But what is ca kho?" The phone would say (or rather, the person on the other end of the phone line).

Words failed the Food Scavenger. How to explain a staple of Vietnamese food? Were there any equivalents in English? Lamely, the Food Scavenger threw words such as "caramellization" and "fish sauce" and "soy sauce" and "marinade" (not even knowing if she was using this word right).

Suffice to say, both the phone and the Food Scavenger were perplexed.

"And this is supposed to be good?" The phone would finally say.

And the Food Scavenger, heart in mouth, stomach flopping at her feet, would say, "Yes." Yesyesyesyesyes!

Ca Kho
1 salmon, cut longitudinally into two inch thick pieces
2 to 3 tablespoon brown sugar (can be increased to a 1/4 cup depending on taste preferences, Food Scavenger prefers ca kho more salty than sweet, hence only a few tablespoons of sugar)
1/4 c. sesame oil (Lian How Brand Jasun Style Sesame Oil)
3 tbsp diced garlic (Jarred SpiceWorld garlic preserved in water and citric acid where 1/2 tsp = 1 clove, since 1 tbsp = 3 tsp = 6 cloves, the equivalent would be 18 cloves. But Food Scavenger loves garlic.)
1/4 c. fish sauce (i.e. nuoc mam, Food Scavenger used Tiparos Fish Sauce)
1/4 c. soy sauce (Mekong Seasoning Sauce, Soya flavor)
Pepper (lots for Food Scavenger who sneezed many times, but felt cheered by the sight of her ca kho dusted with the black and white shimmer of pepper)
5 jalapenos (sliced and laid onto the fish)
Water

Add sugar and dashes of water to pot (Food Scavenger has heavy pot passed on from grandmother, who'd also made ca kho in it - pot is heavy, scratched up, and able to be a weapon at any time). Heat on low, using a silicone spatula (Food Scavenger loves silicone. Silicone is her baking and cooking friend. Life is easier, because of silicone) or any other spatula or spoon on hand to mix sugar and water. Caramellization will begin: the beginning of an amber syrup will form, then bubble.

Add oil. Stir to incorporate caramellized sugar more evenly in oil. Then, add garlic. Stir until garlic browns. Then add fish sauce and soy sauce. Stir all until evenly incorporated and slighly thickened.

Add fish. Liberally pour pepper onto fish. Place slices of jalapeno onto fish, between spaces of fish. Cover and simmer on low heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until smoky smell wafts through kitchen and sets off fire alarm. Occasionally (every 15 minutes) during this 45 minutes to 1 hour, uncover and spoon sauces onto fish side not submerged in sauce (this part is optional, but here for the antsy and paranoid cook, who needs something to do).

After 45 minutes to 1 hour, uncover and flip fish. Add water if sauce thickened and burning. Then, cover and simmer again until sauce beneath very thick.  

Ca Kho as can be seen above is rather forgiving. It involves much eye-balling and examination of one's preferences. So there you have it: Ca Kho.