A girl dream for Vietnamese cuisine to reach out to the world

“Just passion, everything is possible”, said Nguyen Khanh Vuong Anh, a Vietnamese student in Australia recently launched a YouTube channel to introduce Vietnam’s tourist spots and dishes from many regions.

Nguyen Khanh Vuong Anh.

With love and passion of Vietnamese cuisine since childhood, Vuong Anh had made a journey to discover Vietnamese specialty through her YouTube chanel named Vuong Anh’s Cooking Journey.

Accessing her channel, viewers have opportunity to "travel" to many beautiful Vietnam’s places. The videos of Vuong Anh depict breathtaking views from the hidden charm and tranquility of the northwest uplands to the marvelous Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, showing daily life of local people and special cuisine of different regions. Each video is released on July 7 and her YouTube chanel currently has 16,214 follows.

JUST HAVE PASSION

Studying cooking art and hotel management in Sydney (Australia), Vuong Anh always wish to organise similar programs abroad to introduce to everyone to beautiful places and good foods of the world.

To her, studying everything at school seem too boring. She wanna to make a real discovery and experience the cuisine in every places. That passion is never stopped burning in her.

Vuong Anh initially materialised her intention by learning Vietnamese ‘s cuisine. She traveled to the northwest of Vietnam to learn two well-known spices locally known as mắc Khén (Zanthoxylum rhetsa) and hạt dổi (Michelia tonkinensis) to enrich herself with knowledge of food. But the beautiful natural landscape made her come up with the intention of recording a short video capturing the beautiful scenery, unique local culture and the dishes she prepared right here.

Vuong Anh reveals that the topics for her clips are quite spontaneous, as she will capture any beautiful venue without pre-arranged intentions. Therefore, sometimes she makes a clip a day, sometimes two, and sometimes none. So are food specialties, which she prepares with available local ingredients whenever she feels an interesting urge.

At each destination, Vuong Anh will give instructions on how to prepare a special dish from ingredients endemic to the locale that she purchases at the markets she drops by. Such specialties include duck salad in orange garden at Cao Phong in Hoa Binh province; Moc Chau grilled pork and calf roll in Moc Chau Plateau, grilled quail in Tua Chua of Dien Bien province, black-boned chicken stewed with veggies in Lai Chau province, and hotpot of sturgeon in Sapa... all are recorded naturally and casually.

The young chef only wishes to let the world know about beauty spots and essenses of good foods of Vietnam. Besides, she also wants to remind and encourage young people to pursue their passion and go to explore when possible.

ALWAYS REMEMBER VIETNAMESE CUISINE

Vuong Anh says she inherits the spirit from her mother, Culinary Artist Doan Thi Thu Thuy. Known to have reached the Top 3 in MasterChef Vietnam 2014, Thuy is not only an inspiration but also a person to keep her daughter‘ s passion on fire. When knowing of daughter’s intention to visit the Northwest, she encouraged Vuong Anh to make a fully-fledged program with video clips in English to introduce Vietnam to the world.

Vuong Anh shared, while reading her mother book Hanh Trinh Mon Viet (Journey of Viet Foods) which introduces delicious dishes from the South to the North authored by my mother, I was inspired with a strong intention to make a pan-Viet journey to study the country’s cooking art.

Been through many places in the world, enjoying many unique dishes, but with Vuong Anh, Vietnam’s cuisine is always number one. She said that Vietnamese ‘s food is often associated with family love.

In particular, while living abroad, she began to miss Vietnam’s food. She often cooked her own dishes to cure homesickness when so far from home.

"My grandmother is also a good cook. Her signature dish is Hue-style beef vermicelli soup, a dish that I always want to eat anywhere," she said.

Regarding her long-term plan, Vuong Anh says she not only wishes to let the world know about beauty spots and essenses of good foods of Vietnam, but also having a dream to open a chain of Vietnamese restaurants abroad. She wants her little food to play a part in helping Vietnam’s food reach out to the world./.

Translated by Van Anh