Happy Monday everybody!

Do you have a good Monday so far? As for me, I almost had a terrific Monday if only I could delete those horrified images I saw last night out of my head.

I have a tendency to check my Facebook feed for the last time before I sleep (who doesn’t, right?). So here was the story. Last night, as I scrolled down my feed, my eyes accidentally were caught on those scary, frighten, creepy, and terrified photos. I did not intent to see them whatsoever, however, they were so big that I could not avoid at all. I should’ve used my phone instead of laptop for midnight Facebook browsing, note to myself.

I wish I could tell you guys what I saw but I’m afraid it might offense some people because it’s a very sensitive topic. And the fact that I could not 100 percent share this horrified moment with anybody, it haunts me even more. I could not sleep last night, could not close my eyes nor could not open my eyes. If I closed my eyes, I would see those photos flying in my head and whispering into my ears “you’re next, you’re next”. But if I opened my eyes, I would continuously check on my body to make sure non of those things got on my stomach.

It was that scary, believe me.

There is an old saying says that: “What has been seen, can not be unseen”. And it’s definitely true. I want to do anything to delete or rewind that moment out of my life forever. But the truth is I can not. I have a feeling they will be stuck in my head for a very long time.

They did scare the bah-jeeez-sus out of me.

In my opinion, Facebook users should only post food, cats, dogs, squirrels, any kind of animal, insects, baby (with clothes) and more cats pictures on their account. Anything especially with too much skin exposed or too much dramatic graphic should be eliminated. Even it’s for good course or some kind of down-to-earth campaigns. If you really have to, then post a sign, a huge warning sign to let people know what they are getting into voluntarily.

My life is completely ruined up until this moment. I hope you’re happy. You, the person who posted those can-not-be-unseen pictures.

Well I’m better back to today’s recipe before I start to ruin the rest of your Monday. So as I planned to make this mouthwatering Bun Mam for my weekend’s feast, I ended up with a lot of left over fermented gouramy fish. Yes, my eyes were bigger than my stomach when I went for grocery shopping. Luckily I found a solution for them, this Vietnamese Steamed Meatloaf (Mắm Chưng) is a perfect match for the left over. This Mắm Chưng is a popular dish in Vietnam. It’s the best when eat with assorted Asian herb (mint, basil, and shiso), fresh cucumber, tomatoes and last but not least, a hot bowl of steamed rice.

If you’re not a fan of fermented fish, don’t worry, you can always substitute it for crab meat. With this version of meatloaf, it is usually served as a side of broken rice, grilled pork chop and pickled carrot with a compliment of a delicious fish sauce.

If you haven’t noticed, there is no other cuisine in the world love fermented fish as much as Vietnames cuisine. We love these stinky ingredients so much that we must add at least a tablespoon of fish sauce to whatever we cook on day-to-day basis. If it is the first time you cook with fermented fish, it’s quite hard for you to bare with its unique texture and smell. However, as soon as you pass this barrier, I promise you will fall in love with this dish before you even recognize it.

T.U

It’s Sunday again, time is passing so fast, isn’t it? Soon, this 2015 will be done in just a blink before I could finish all the resolutions that I was super excited to edit and carefully write down on Dec 31, 2014. If I remember correctly, I only finish half my 2015 resolutions. I’m better hurry or I’ll secretly add the rest to 2016 list. Nobody will know anyway (insert super loud evil laugh here).

As I am on the resolutions topic, one of the big bullet points that I sincerely need to do is to shop less cookwares and kitchen gadgets, and to buy more clothes. Don’t be surprised or doubt. Yes, I’m one of the rare females who barely has ‘a crush’ for clothes shopping. So last Thursday, I braved myself and went on shopping. It took a lot of preparation and courage, believe me. I must’ve spent more than an hour looking at many different tees and tank tops. However, I ended up buying only one tee because they were ridiculously expensive.

Do you know that each one cost $20 or more? And for God’s sake they were not even from brand name or something closed to that. At first I planned to buy 6 or 7 of them for upcoming hot weather, but as I was stepping closed to the check out counter, I could hear a terribly loud screaming of a yellow Le Creuset cast iron pan from the tallest floor of the Empire State building is about to jump down. Yes, I was going to throw away the most precious cast iron pan on the planet just by buying these teeny, tiny tees that might be shrunk half of its current size after two washes. My wallet and my dignity did not allow me to do such a horrible crime so that was why I went home with only one tee.

To be honest, I’m still recovering from that shopping trip as well as from writing the longest post in my blog. And once a gain, I don’t want to bore freak you out, but today recipe is long, very long. That’s why I try to minimize my wandering thought as much as possible so you can go straight to the cooking process. Or you can just scroll the page down as fast as you can, I knew it’s gonna happen. Just do it if it makes you happy. After all, you know that there is only one thing I sincerely want when you visit my blog that is for.you.to.be.happy.at.all.cost.

So today recipe, in my opinion, is the most exotic street food in Vietnam. It’s called Phá Lấu and made from pig or beef intestines or other weird parts such as ears and tongues. Yes, we Asian eat a lot of weird things if you have not already known that fact. Traditionally it’s from China and cooked in soy sauce liquid. But as it comes to Vietnam, we put a little twist on it and cook it in lightly flavored coconut milk mixture with the help of five spice. I said lightly because if you put too much coconut milk in your Phá Lấu, it might turn out to be curry instead. Furthermore, this cooking style is normally used for beef’s parts only, but I decided to mix in pork ingredients too, my Phá Lấu still turned out super delicious.

Just one more paragraph, I promise. The most time consuming part of cooking Phá Lấu is cleaning the ingredients. You have to spend quite a lot of time and effort to wash them in order to get rid of their weird smell. Heavily salted water with little baking soda would do the trick, so no need to worry. Just make sure you don’t skip any step in cleaning process (and a complimented tamarind fish sauce) then you should end up with a super flavorful and tasty pot of Phá Lấu.

T.U