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Papaya Salad Rocks My Socks

Free yoga mat giveaway! (And hot sauce discount.) Now: Papaya Salad. Papaya salad is in both Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. My favoritefavorite is the Vietnamese version of papaya salad, but I suppose this is kind of a mix of both.

I love papaya salad. So much so that I had it for dinner 2 nights in a row.

Ingredients and Method

  • green papaya
  • tomatoes
  • shrimp, sauteed in peanut oil with soy sauce and chili powder
  • dressing: fish sauce, vinegar, peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, hot sauce
  • topping: PB2
  • MIX

To slice the papaya into such tiny strips (which is the only way to enjoy green papaya), I first used my mandoline to slice the papaya in thin strips. Then I just cut up the strips. It didn’t take long at all.

Papaya salad is a good reward and a great way to celebrate…

Celebrate finishing my wedding invitations that is! Almost all of them were mailed out today.

I know I owe you that explanation for why I suddenly have more time. The truth is, I don’t really have that much more time. I cut back to part time at my job and I am taking a class in the evenings, but the class ends up taking up 4-5 hours of my night… so I have about the same amount of free time as I did before. But I love the class. It’s a linguistics class.

Have you ever taken a class after you graduated college? Do you like papaya salad?

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Vietnamese Food Favorites

Two huge things happened this week.

One: I finally got over the flu.

Two: I have more time to blog again. Maybe daily. And maybe even comment on all of your beautiful blogs.

Anyway, I’ll explain more later. Here are my eats for the day (this first picture is from last summer’s juice days):

Breakfast was a green juice with lemon and ginger from The Health Nuts. Yes, this juice is $5.99 (a large), but that’s actually cheap when you consider the fact that The Blueprint Cleanse is about $75 per day (6 juices – one of which is simply water, lemon juice, agave, and cayenne pepper).

After breakfast I did a killer kickbox workout from Netflix (you can work out when you’re sick as long as the cold is just in your head – this made me feel better). It’s called 10 Minute Solution – Kickbox Bootcamp. The workout was good, but I didn’t like the instructor that much.

After I did this one I did a few minutes of Crunch: Super Slimdown which I really liked. I’ll definitely finish it tomorrow. It’s a combination of yoga and pilates (so far). This instructor, Ellen Barret, had a gorgeous figure.

Both of these videos are free with Netflix streaming. We have an XBox hooked up to the television so I can stream them right to the tv. We don’t even get cable anymore because Netflix is easier and cheaper. (And cheaper than a gym membership.)

Lunch was a salad ordered out from Cafe Metro: romaine base, smoked tofu, egg whites, avocado, peppers, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumber, grapes, mandarin orange, mushrooms, onions, roasted peppers, sliced beets, and sprouts. I got it chopped with dressing on the side – Chipotle Ranch. It also came with a whole wheat bun, which I had a little later.

Lunch dessert – these chocolate powerberry things from Trader Joe’s. Just a handful. Or two.

For dinner we went out to Thai Son in Chinatown, which is actually Vietnamese. I got the papaya salad – green papaya, shrimp, peanuts, and the Vietnamese dressing with fish sauce. I had some of Bobby’s beef pho as well. This is my ultimate favorite meal.

Dessert – Chinatown cherries. Two pounds for $3. Now they are gone.

My brother is coming into the city tomorrow to get lunch so that should be fun. I also scheduled a facial now that I’m over the flu.

If you had to eat one meal forever, what would it be? Mine would be papaya salad. I don’t even think this would be a hardship for me.

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Recipe: Fresh Vietnamese Rolls (Spring? Summer?)

I served these on Sunday night (according to my menu plan) alongside the Vietnamese Shrimp Salad. It was a lovely Asian meal… better than in a restaurant, and cheaper too. These rolls are a great compliment to any meal, not just a Vietnamese one! Making these rolls (wraps) with rice paper is a really fun activity – might be a good project for kids who want to learn how to cook.

Maggie’s Fresh Vietnamese Rolls

Ingredients

  • rice paper (large or small circles) (I used small this time)
  • bean sprouts
  • green beans
  • cooked noodles (I used ramen leftover from my salad)
  • cilantro, chopped
  • iceberg lettuce, chopped
  • anything else you want! – shredded carrot, shrimp, crab, pork, pickled radish, etc…

Directions

  1. Prep all the ingredients – lay them out so they are easily accessible.
  2. Soak a rice paper in a bowl of water for 10 seconds. Lay the paper on a clean towel. Stuff with the goodies (put them in the middle). Wrap up like a burrito. Repeat!
  3. Dip in…

Dressing (per 1 serving)

  • 1 tablespoon peanut butter
  • 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar

Mix dressing ingredients together with a fork. Adjust ingredients to your liking (I usually add more peanut butter). Dip the rolls in the dressing.

I made 3 rolls with the noodles and 3 without. I prefer them without, but with the noodles it is easier to burrito-wrap them. I guess it’s a tradeoff.

What’s your favorite kind of wrap?

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Recipe: Vietnamese Shrimp Salad

For vegans, sub in tofu for the shrimp. Yes, it’s that easy.

(Instead of eating out last night according to the plan, we ate in.)

After this meal Bobby said, “I guess we don’t have to go out for Vietnamese anymore.” This meal was better than most Vietnamese restaurants we have found in the city. It cost about $5 for everything (that’s overestimating), which is much cheaper than eating out in New York.

As an alternative dressing you can add on a peanut sauce – mix together peanut butter, hoisin, rice vinegar, and fish sauce – heavy on the peanut butter – and you will have a really fabulous topper. We used that in addition to the dressing below because I prepared the peanut dressing for a side dish.

Maggie’s Vietnamese Shrimp Salad

Ingredients (serves 2)

  • 1/2 head of iceberg lettuce (romaine is fine too), chopped
  • 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
  • 3 scallions, thinly sliced
  • 2 servings Asian noodles (I used ramen – real ramen, not the dorm food) (vermicelli are great too)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
  • 1.5 cups frozen cooked shrimp
  • 1/2 large onion, chopped

Dressing ingredients

  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons grapefruit juice
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice (or lime)
  • 1-2 teaspoons sugar
  • ground pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Make the dressing by stirring all dressing ingredients together until the sugar dissolves.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a pan on high heat. Add the garlic and onions; saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the shrimp and saute for another minute or 2. If the shrimp is uncooked, cook until they are done through. Remove from heat.
  3. Cook the noodles as directed on the package, then rinse with cool water until they are room temperature. Drain, but not too much (sometimes noodles can dry out depending on what kind you used).
  4. Mix together the lettuce, cilantro, scallions, and noodles; top with the shrimp mix. Add the dressing.
  5. Eat!

I served this with spring rolls (recipe will come tomorrow). Here is my old spring roll recipe.

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Review: Savor Saigon (Fairless Hills, PA)

In the heart of Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, is a mecca that Bobby and have trekked to twice. It’s Savor Saigon, and it is the best Vietnamese food that I have found on the east coast.

You all know that I have an obsession with Vietnamese food – papaya and/or lotus root salads in particular. Here are some of my past papaya and lotus enjoyments:

This time my sister and I decided to split two (vegetarian) dishes so that we could sample more things. We also got some appetizers for the entire table…

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First up: fresh vegetarian summer rolls (served cold). These are fried tofu, vermicelli noodles, mint, lettuce, and carrot wrapped in rice paper. They come with a peanutty dipping sauce. We each had half of a roll. They were good…

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But not as good as the fried spring rolls! These were not vegetarian – they had pork and other random things inside. I dipped them in the standard Vietnamese dipping sauce (fish sauce, sugar,water, vinegar I think). They were awesome. My vegan sister passed on them.

Julia and I split a lotus root salad with fried tofu (vegetarian/vegan). It had lotus root, carrots, and fried tofu. Very yummy.

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We also split the very yummy Vietnamese Pad Thai (vegetarian):

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This had noodles, tofu, egg, broccoli, mushrooms, and other veggies I am forgetting. It was a little bit different from regular pad thai – less peanutty, but still very good. It was topped with peanuts though!

My picks of the night – the lotus root salad and the fried spring rolls.

What’s your favorite cuisine? Mine is most definitely Vietnamese! I’m looking for a good (cheap) place in New York now… ideas/tips? I can’t find anything as good as the California Vietnamese places.