Inspired by Vietnam

Had a meeting today with the Center for Asian Culinary Studies of Chef Gene Gonzalez (Cafe Isabel) for a partnership. I was thrilled because I am going to meet Chef Gene in person for the first time and also because I have been nurturing this passion for cooking and am contemplating on taking up culinary arts.

After the meeting, Chef Gene let us try a prototype of a Hershey's Reese cake that Hershey's commissioned him to develop and it was so heavenly we ate the whole slice before realizing we forgot to take a photo. :P

We were given a tour of the facilities and we were invited to sample the Vietnamese dishes the students prepared in their class. " Yummy" is the word to describe them, having been inspired when the CACS management team went to Vietnam to sample authentic Vietnamese fare.


Initially, I tried the noodle soup or Pho, made with flat rice noodles (similar to sotanghon), beef, pepper corns, cilantro, basil, etc. Since I have sworn out meat, the noodles and soup itself was more than satisfying for me -- I could taste the herbs, especially the fresh basil.

The soup worked up my appetite and so I proceeded to eat the salad. The combination of shreded red cabbage, cucumber, carrots , yellow squash, chicken bits and peanut sauce made one heck of a flavorful party inside my mouth.

Finally, I gave in to the vegetarian spring rolls -- two versions of them, fresh and fried. I dipped the fresh spring rolls in peanut sauce while the fried ones were perfect with honey vinaigrette.

There was dessert of some kind, Vietnamese version of sago-gulaman, but I was too full to eat anything more and just went home with a big smile on my face and thoughts of one day visiting Vietnam.