Vietnamese Omelets

When I look back over my many years of living in dorms, sorority houses and too-small undergraduate apartments, I realize that all of my roommates have affected the way I cook, and perhaps more importantly, eat. My first roommate, Angela, taught me to appreciate a good bowl of mac and cheese, and that nothing goes as well with a movie as popcorn and chocolate. My next roommate, Liz, helped me discover that the most delicious 2am food is a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. With my suite-mates Lauren, Anita, Shweta, Liz and Kasena I discovered that you can cook almost anything you need in an electric hotpot (including a delicious passover sedar). My next roommate, Van, and current roommate/partner-in-crime, Anita, have perhaps taught me the most about cooking. Since most of you had already had the pleasure of reading about mine and Anita’s cooking adventures, I’d like to take this post as an opportunity to tell you about Van.

Van and I first started living together during our Junior year of undergrad. We, along with 2 other sorority sisters, spent our first year as roommates living in the “four pack” of our sorority house. Given the success of this first living situation, we then decided to remain as roommates and move into a small apartment in Little Italy with Van’s fiance Jon and our friend Lauren. We were lucky enough to spend 2 years living in that apartment…scratch that…we were lucky enough to spend 2 year EATING in that apartment. It was during those 2 years that Van introduced me to some of my absolute favorite recipes. It is because of her that I am obsessed with Sriracha, fish sauce and pho. In fact, I’m not sure I had ever tasted Vietnamese food before living with her…man was I missing out! The recipe I’m describing today is one of a few Vietnamese dishes Van taught me to make, and that I will be sharing with everyone via Braised Anatomy. This dish is one of my absolutely favorite meals. It’s my “go to” dinner when nothing else seems appealing, and I something that never leaves me feeling disappointed.

Before proceeding to the recipe I need to warn everyone about one of the ingredients in this dish…Fish Sauce. If you’ve never tried to cook an Asian dish, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ve ever heard of fish sauce. Now don’t be afraid (or grossed out), but fish sauce is really nothing more than fermented fish and salt. I’ll admit that it doesn’t have the best smell in the world, but it will add a complex saltiness to dishes that you can’t get from adding salt alone. If this is your first time cooking with fish sauce, I recommend going to a local asian grocery store and picking up some “Viet-Huong Three Crab Fish Sauce“. I’m not sure if this is really the most well known fish sauce, but it’s the one I first used so I guess I’m a little brand loyal. Try not to be scared off by the smell when you first open the bottle. I promise the smell will disappear when you cook the food. Okay. Now that you’ve been sufficiently warned, we can move on to the recipe.

What you need (makes 4 servings):

• 6 eggs
• 2 medium sized tomatoes, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2-3 tbs fish sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2-3 cups rice (I prefer brown rice)
• Sriracha
• Spicy Mayo
• 1 Cucumber, sliced

What you need to do:

1. Heat the 2 tsp of sesame oil in a non-stick frying pan.
2. Add the onions, wait a few minutes then add the tomatoes (you want to give the onions a few minutes to soften).
3. Beat the 6 eggs in a bowl and mix in the fish sauce.
4. Pour the egg/fish sauce mixture into the frying pan and let it sick for about 6-8 minutes on medium high.
5. Flip the omelet so it cooks on both sides. Now I’m sure there’s a “pretty” way to do this, but I just break the omelet into sections and flip each individual section so I’m sure everything is cooked through. Cook the other side for 3-4 minutes.
6. Serve the omelet with rice and fresh cucumbers (I usually add at least a third to a half of a cucumber to my place), and top with spicy mayo and sriracha.
7. Enjoy!

Photos taken by Myles Nickolich (http://nickolich.shutterfly.com/)

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