Hello! Welcome to The Tiny Stool Digest, tiny stool as in the type with four legs, not the brown kind; although i'm sure my bowels will feature at some point over next 3 months as i munch-cycle-munch-cycle my way down the length of Vietnam.
Vietnamese people are obsessed with food, when we're not eating it, we're talking about it, and when we're not talking about it, we're dreaming about it. My parents are to blame for my obsession, my mum in particular. Measuring in at 5 foot nothing she stands tall in her kitchen in north London where she taught me everything i know. I used to think she got her skills from my grandma, age old recipes that were passed down from generation to generation...erm, not so romantic i'm afraid. The truth is her mum wasn't a great cook at all, only knowing how to do the basic dishes. It was only when my mum got to England, having escaped Vietnam after the war in the late 70's where she borrowed a vietnamese cookbook from wood green library and taught herself an entire cuisine. I imagine this was an attempt at building a home from home and i think it demonstrates the importance of food as a part of our identity.
Anyhoo, i'm going to cycle down from Hanoi to Saigon and find out more about the streetfood and do what the Vietnamese do best! I'll keep you posted on the tasty treats i encounter, and if the tenders let me into their secrets some recipes too!
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