Here is an interesting thing of my
own oddness. Occasionally, I eat a Vietnamese crepe and they are the perfect marriage
between French and Vietnamese food. All you need to eat it is a pair of
chopsticks, a bowl, and fish sauce. Why make it so complicated when it already
is? Through the magic of the Oxford English Dictionary, in any term of defining
what the combination is, it is bánh xèo which means sizzling cake. Sizzling is
defined as to make a hissing sound by some sort of cooking (Oxford English
Dictionary). Cake has the wonderful definition of “A baked mass of bread or
substance of similar kind, distinguished from a loaf or other ordinary bread,
either by its form or by its composition” (Oxford English Dictionary). Basically, it’s a baked mass of bread produced
by a hissing sound.
Traditionally, people eat bánh xèo
by cutting a portion of the food carefully to keep it intact. Then, placing on
top of a lettuce leaf. Mint and basil are then added on your wrap. Then you dip
your wrap in to a sweet, sour, and salty fish sauce. This is the holy trinity
of taste. There are crunchy, crispy, chewy, salty, fresh, sour, sweet, savory,
and rich flavors that titillate the taste buds. It’s always a party in your
mouth or in this case my mouth. Yet occasionally, I don’t do any of that.
1.
I just put the “cake” in a bowl, and rip it up a
little. This allows for the food to absorb the lovely sauce.
2.
I may put some of the lettuce, mint, and basil
on top and mix it all together for equal distribution of flavor.
3.
Then I just pour some fish sauce on top of it
and its done.
4.
Just enjoy eating it with whatever choice utensil.
5.
There is not a haggle with any sort of carefully
constructing the wrap.
This may represent a tendency to
either being a rushed person as I can not take the time to fully enjoy the wrap
experience, or it may also represent a tendency to be a slob. I can assure you
with as limited bias one can have when talking about himself; I like to
deconstruct my food. What do all the flavors really come from? Is it from the
vegetables, or the spices in the meat? Can the bean sprout be contributing a
fresh taste after every bite? Why all the questions? Why not? "Why" is a wonderful question for curiosity. For example, I love talking to
people and just learning about them. It’s more than just a “hi, how are you?”
It’s a new experience talking to someone who may just need to have a person to
chat with. Why just sit in silence with
a random person, when you could have a conversation of philosophies, sciences,
hobbies, headaches, or life in general.
Solid job. I like that you combined several dictionary definitions to give a more thorough picture of your dish!
ReplyDeleteWatch out for awkward phrasing (particularly in your first paragraph) and word choice (e.g. in number 5 of your list). Also, you have a sentence fragment in paragraph 2.
I'm also not entirely sure how your last four sentences relate to the rest of the post; if you were to revise, I would advise cutting those sentences, or doing a better job of transitioning into those sentences and then tying them back into the theme/topic/tone of the rest of your post.
Grade: Check