- 1 year ago
The Food Truck NZ - S03E13 - Easy Vietnamese
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00:00Chef Michael van der Elzen is taking to the streets of New Zealand for a tiki tour of
00:07taste buds.
00:08His goal, to transform some of the world's most popular fat-filled dishes into healthy
00:13gourmet truck food.
00:14This could go horribly wrong.
00:19This time on the food truck...
00:20Pho, bo, pho, bo.
00:24Michael grapples with Vietnamese.
00:26Crunchy.
00:27Runchy.
00:28Runchy.
00:29Runchy.
00:30Runchy.
00:31Runchy.
00:32And takes melt-in-your-mouth food to the next level.
00:34Oh, no.
00:36Can Michael take Vietnamese cuisine, make it healthier, tastier, and more affordable
00:42in a way Kiwis will love?
00:44Find out on the food truck.
00:47Fresh, herbaceous, and light, Vietnamese food is growing in popularity thanks to a growing
00:56number of Vietnamese immigrants in trendy restaurants, proffering tasty salads, hearty
01:01noodles, and fresh spring rolls.
01:04Vietnamese food is a really interesting hybrid of Southeast Asian cuisine and French influences
01:10from the colonial era.
01:11It's really quite unique.
01:13Unfortunately, it's often overlooked by Kiwis in favor of Thai.
01:18Michael's Vietnamese won't be tested on the Vietnamese, but it will need to compete with
01:22expert Asian food stall vendors when Michael parks up at the Glenfield Night Markets in
01:27Auckland, a touch of Asia right under the Glenfield Mall.
01:31But first, Michael must learn about Vietnamese food, so he's off to try it out, just like
01:36the sign on the restaurant says, if he can just work out how to say what he wants.
01:40So, just tell me, how do you pronounce this?
01:42Pho?
01:43Far?
01:44Far.
01:45Far.
01:46Far.
01:47Far.
01:48No.
01:49Far.
01:50Far.
01:51Kind of.
01:53Pho.
01:54Pho.
01:55Pho.
01:56Pho.
01:57Pho.
01:58Pho.
01:59You may be wondering what the pho is going on here.
02:00Pho is Vietnamese for noodle soup.
02:02The beef in Michael's beef pho is put into the soup raw, allowing it to cook at the table.
02:08Clever.
02:09And it just cooks ever so slightly.
02:13That's sensational.
02:14It actually feels healthy when you eat it, and I think that's what I love the most about
02:18Vietnamese food.
02:19There's no heavy, salty, creamy, rich dishes.
02:23It's all quite light.
02:24There's not many fast foods, you can say.
02:26I feel better for eating that.
02:28Speaking of featherweight food, here's something so light, you can hold it in two fingers.
02:34And that grunting is chef for I like.
02:37I think these are brilliant because people can just walk around, it just needs more flavour.
02:45To find some Vietnamese with venom, Michael visits the Takapuna market in search of what
02:50might be called a Vietnamese hot dog.
02:53Can I order one banh mi?
02:54Ooh, look at that.
02:56That looks great.
02:58Banh mi is Vietnamese for bread, and these delicious baguettes are one legacy of French
03:03colonialism in Vietnam.
03:05An ingenious combination of French flavours with Indo-Chinese herbs and seasonings.
03:10Look at the colours.
03:11Looks like you've got some pork there, carrots, some cucumber, pate maybe.
03:15No shortage of colour and no shortage of flavour.
03:18The flavour and the palm sugar and the lemongrass.
03:21It's great.
03:22It's only seven bucks.
03:24You can get a skanky old hot dog for seven dollars.
03:27I really want to try and find a way to serve my Vietnamese food in more of a street fashion
03:32way.
03:33And I think this is it.
03:34This is bang on.
03:35I've just got to figure out how they do it, and maybe they could show me.
03:40Now do you say pretty please in Vietnamese?
03:43They are packing up.
03:44It's the end of the day.
03:45But hang on, Michael.
03:47You can't just go walking into someone else's kitchen demanding recipes.
03:50Oh no.
03:51Another white man tries to colonise the Vietnamese.
03:54Hi, how are you?
03:55Michael.
03:56Hi, my name Marlee.
03:57Marlee.
03:58Pleasure to meet you.
03:59That banh mi was so good.
04:03Can you show me each step?
04:05Sure.
04:06I can teach you how to do it.
04:07Please.
04:08Yes, first of all.
04:10And cut through there.
04:13Any reason why you use scissors, not a knife?
04:15Scissors, it's faster.
04:16You wouldn't know it with me doing it.
04:18Vietnamese butter.
04:19Vietnamese butter?
04:20Yes.
04:21We make it yellow egg, vinegar, sugar, and salt.
04:24So it's like a hollandaise.
04:25Yes, but in Vietnam we call it butter.
04:27Okay.
04:28This one is chicken liver.
04:29Yeah, so that's the pate.
04:31Yeah, with onion, garlic, and salt, and sugar, that all.
04:35And very secret too.
04:36Very secret?
04:37I don't want to tell you.
04:38Okay.
04:40The bun is warmed in order to give it a crispy finish, allowing us time to fry up some filling.
04:46So what is this meat marinated in?
04:48Fish sauce, soy sauce, lemon juice, and sugar.
04:52We have sugar in here, we have sugar in the butter, we have sugar in the pate.
04:56Is there a lot of sugar in Vietnamese food?
04:58No.
04:59No sugar?
05:00Just enough for flavor only.
05:02A little bit of flavor?
05:03Yes.
05:04Okay.
05:05So what sort of meat is this?
05:06Pork.
05:07Pork, okay.
05:08So health comes through a lot in the way that you cook.
05:12Yes.
05:13Speaking of health, there's one healthy ingredient no one can argue with.
05:17Why do you pickle the carrots?
05:19Because it makes it crunchy.
05:22Crunchy?
05:23Crunchy.
05:24Crunchy?
05:25Crunchy.
05:26Crunchy?
05:27Yes, very crunchy.
05:28Crunchy, raunchy.
05:29Crunchy, raunchy, or raunchy, the carrots are topped with cucumber.
05:33You put the meat in the top.
05:34Okay, meat.
05:35Vietnamese ham.
05:36Looks like luncheon.
05:38Intriguing.
05:39You put the coriander.
05:41Yes, the coriander make more flavor.
05:43More flavor?
05:44Yeah.
05:45It's all about fresh?
05:46Fresh.
05:47This one is the fish sauce with tomato and a little bit of sugar.
05:51Sugar again, eh?
05:52Yeah.
05:53That word.
05:54In a matter of minutes, Michael's banh mi is ready.
05:57All it needs now is a bit of gift wrapping.
05:59Okay, how do you say thank you in...
06:01Cám ơn.
06:02Cám ơn.
06:03No, not this again.
06:04Cám ơn.
06:05Cám ơn.
06:06Cám ơn.
06:07Yes, correct, thank you.
06:08Cám ơn.
06:09Yes.
06:10Yeah, yes, there was a bit too much salt.
06:12Yes, there was quite a bit of sugar.
06:14And I'm not sure about that luncheon sausage.
06:16But at least I've got the foundations.
06:18Everything was fresh.
06:19And I can work with fresh.
06:21That's so exciting.
06:26Chef Michael van der Elzen is trying to get his head and his mouth around Vietnamese cuisine.
06:31Phở.
06:32Phở.
06:33Phở.
06:34Phở.
06:35No.
06:37Michael is making his appearance at the Glenfield Night Markets
06:39where he'll be taking on a raft of slick Asian food vendors
06:42inside one of Auckland's most popular street markets.
06:46But first, Michael hits the road in search of guinea pigs.
06:49Not for his menu, for his menu testing.
06:52Today, he's chosen Auckland's Botanical Gardens in Papakura
06:56where he's hoping to find inquisitive nature lovers
06:59who are open to a taste of Vietnam amongst the flowers.
07:03I have one mission today.
07:05And that is to make a healthy Vietnamese sandwich.
07:08I want to make it from beginning to end.
07:10So that's the roll.
07:11That's the filling.
07:12That's the topping.
07:13That's the whole cot chebougal.
07:14Cot and chebougal.
07:16Only Michael knows what that means.
07:18But it's bound to taste good.
07:20Beginning with the baguette.
07:22To make up our baguette mix,
07:24we start off with two cups of organic flour.
07:26Two tablespoons of grape seed oil.
07:28That's going to give me my elasticity.
07:30Teaspoon of salt.
07:31One teaspoon of sugar.
07:32Rapadura sugar, which is a natural, organic cane sugar.
07:35Water and yeast are added,
07:37along with fine wholemeal flour for extra fibre.
07:40Look at that.
07:41Beautiful.
07:42I love making bread.
07:43Great for the kids.
07:44Makes heaps of mess.
07:45After a bit of kneading,
07:46Michael puts his dough aside for 20 minutes
07:48while it doubles in size
07:50and is then ready for rolling.
07:52What we want to do now is actually form the classic baguette shape.
07:56Fold the bottom into halfway,
07:58top down to halfway,
08:01and from this point,
08:02with a baguette,
08:03you need to keep it in that tight, round circle.
08:05After 20 minutes and some last-minute decoration,
08:08Michael's baguettes are ready for the oven.
08:10250 degrees, super hot.
08:12Oh, and one more thing.
08:14Just before you shut the door,
08:16throw some water into the bottom of the oven.
08:18That steam is going to superheat the outside of that crust.
08:21It's going to caramelise the sugar and the gluten
08:23and give us our crunchy bread.
08:25While Michael's bread is steam baking,
08:27he turns his attention to the flavouring of his meat filling.
08:30He's chosen chicken
08:31and is going with lemongrass
08:33for that classically South East Asian note.
08:35So this is going to be a lemongrass paste
08:37which I'll then cover my chicken with.
08:39Garlic, shallots and sesame seeds
08:41are combined with peanut oil to form a base.
08:45So now we need to add something salty.
08:47So I'm going to add some Thai fish sauce to this now.
08:49For sweetness, Michael throws in a little of his cane sugar.
08:51Which also has an awesome caramelised flavour to it.
08:55OK, so there's our marinade.
08:57The chicken needs only an hour
08:59to acquire the flavour of the marinade.
09:01Plenty of time for Michael to whip up
09:03the banh mi's other essential ingredient.
09:05Every banh mi requires
09:07a pate on the inside.
09:09But pate itself is not actually that good for you.
09:11So I want to try and make a healthy pate
09:13and it's going to be vegetarian.
09:15Onions, carrot and garlic are sautéed.
09:17Parsley and rosemary
09:19provide the pate's herb notes.
09:21Just roughly chop these up.
09:24Water beans are mashed up as a base
09:26and avocado adds the fat content
09:28that any pate needs.
09:30Avocados are super duper.
09:32They're full of monounsaturated fats
09:34and they actually help the body
09:36to lower its cholesterol.
09:38And that's it.
09:40Delicious!
09:42So I want to make a pickled carrot
09:44to go into my sandwich.
09:46For his pickled carrot, Michael sautés
09:48some red onions and simply adds
09:50red wine vinegar, water and spices.
09:52A little bit of salt, a little bit of white pepper
09:54and then two tablespoons of honey.
09:56After boiling the dressing,
09:58baby carrots are thrown in for a fast-tracked pickle.
10:00Cook our carrots until they're just tender.
10:02Let those carrots take in that pickle
10:04and then we pull them out
10:06ready to go.
10:08Michael's baguette has finished baking.
10:10A little bit of baker's percussion
10:12confirms it.
10:14If they sound hollow
10:16they're ready.
10:18Smells delicious!
10:21The pate goes on first
10:23followed by the lemongrass chicken
10:25pickled carrots and cucumber, some lettuce
10:27then a garnish of minty herbs
10:29and a squirt of lime to top it off.
10:31I just want to eat the whole thing.
10:33Looks fantastic!
10:35All that baking and cooking makes a man hungry.
10:37Michael has every confidence
10:39in his Vietnamese banh mi
10:41if only he had every confidence in his Vietnamese
10:43pronunciation.
10:45I'm making a Vietnamese
10:47style sandwich called a banh mi.
10:49I am struggling with saying Vietnamese
10:51but I'm not struggling with the sandwich.
10:53Is there enough flavour?
10:55I can taste mostly the pickle.
10:57Too much pickle?
10:59No, I love pickle but I can't taste the chicken.
11:01It probably needs a bit of a kick.
11:03Interestingly, the one Vietnamese
11:05ingredient Michael has ignored
11:07turns out to be conspicuous by its absence.
11:09Is it missing anything?
11:11Maybe a little chilli.
11:13Just a little bit of heat?
11:15Put chilli in there.
11:18Like some chilli?
11:20Got a nice mixture of flavours
11:22and a clean sort of taste too.
11:24Healthy.
11:26I'm not particularly familiar with Vietnamese food
11:28but I would eat that happily.
11:30That is very delicious.
11:32Not everyone is au fait with Vietnamese food
11:34but everybody knows what a good baguette should taste like.
11:36So, how does Michael's shape up?
11:38Nice and crunchy.
11:40Crunchy bread?
11:42It's really yummy and fresh.
11:44It's quite filling too, even that small piece.
11:47What I always find with Vietnamese food
11:49is a lighter, healthier, refreshing tie
11:51so that's kind of what I'm trying to achieve.
11:53Yeah, well I think you've succeeded.
11:55Beautiful.
11:57I've never had that one before.
11:59I think everyone today
12:01actually really enjoyed the banh mi
12:03but the thing is, nobody had ever had one before.
12:05They didn't really know what to expect.
12:07But overall, they all loved it.
12:09Maybe a little bit more chilli.
12:11I could pop them into the carrots and the pickle
12:13that would be great.
12:15Now I've just got to figure out
12:17everything else I've got to serve on game day
12:19but I'm still not getting any better at saying
12:21Vietnamese.
12:23Vietnamese.
12:25Vietnamese.
12:27Vietnamese.
12:29Michael takes the night off
12:31to dream up at least two more Vietnamese dishes
12:33with just hours to go before game day.
12:35That's not a lot of time to refine his menu
12:37or work on his troublesome pronunciation.
12:39So I want to try and take on a
12:41pho
12:44pho
12:46Let's just call it soup, shall we?
12:48I want to do a seafood one.
12:50So the base for my seafood soup is going to be
12:52the prawn. Look at that beauty.
12:54By using
12:56prawn, Michael gets both a source of
12:58protein and a sauce.
13:00What I want to do is go through, peel all the prawns
13:02and then use the shells as the base
13:04for my stock. We're keeping all this
13:06flesh. This is flavour.
13:08But we don't want all the flavours
13:10so Michael has a little trick for extracting the part
13:12he won't be needing. Just use a skewer
13:14just pop it in maybe half way down
13:16and then just gently pull
13:18pull pull pull pull
13:20and that brings out
13:22your little
13:24gut sack. The base
13:26is made from the prawn shells, sautéed
13:28onions, garlic, ginger, cinnamon
13:30star anise, pepper
13:32bay leaves, fennel seeds
13:34chilli powder, a little bit of Thai fish sauce
13:36and some saffron.
13:38Once cooked, the resulting prawn bisque
13:41is strained and the fresh prawn is added.
13:43And while that's heating, I'll get the rest of my soup ready.
13:45Rice noodles, snow peas
13:47spring onions, cozz lettuce, chilli
13:49a touch of shallot and bean shoots
13:51fill out the soup. And just as with the beef
13:53version of this dish, Michael is adding
13:55raw fish to cook as the soup is served.
13:57I've got a little bit of fresh trevally
13:59I'm going to slice the trevally
14:01super thin, place that on top
14:03pour the hot broth over the top
14:05and that will sear your fish.
14:07And in this case, it also sears Michael's
14:10Oh no
14:12We just need a stronger container
14:14Take two
14:16proves tasty
14:18That is more than enough flavour
14:20Michael's third dish is a simple spring roll
14:22of a slightly unseasonal one
14:24So instead of doing a summer roll
14:26I want to make a autumn roll
14:28That would explain this collection of large
14:30and not very Vietnamese vegetables
14:32which includes blanched pumpkin
14:34butternut, kale and silverbeet
14:36as well as a number of raw ingredients
14:38Cucumber, some shallots
14:40pumpkin, my butternut
14:42a little bit of mint, and I've got my
14:44multicoloured silverbeet, a little bit of coriander
14:46my chicory, some endive
14:48my pears, and then finally
14:50my toasted walnuts
14:52So there's my mix. Beautiful colours
14:54Yeah, all the colours of the autumn
14:56This vegetable medley is the easy part
14:58The rice paper wrappings are more tricky
15:00You've got to work really quickly
15:02otherwise you're going to lose the stickiness
15:04of your spring roll. The stickier it is
15:07The tighter you can roll it
15:09the more you can get in there
15:11The perfect summery accompaniment to his
15:13autumnal feast is a simple homemade
15:15plum sauce
15:17Dip that in
15:19God I love these things
15:21It's hard to get them wrong
15:23Really, I think it is
15:25I hope these go down like an absolute treat
15:27because they are beautiful
15:29Chef Michael van der Elzen
15:31is putting the moves on Vietnamese food
15:33They're ready
15:35Game day has dawned
15:37and Michael's own Vietnamese
15:39is keen to please
15:41But Michael's had a late-breaking
15:43change of heart
15:45Well, a change of species actually
15:47So I'm going to change my chicken
15:49for turkey, because it's just slightly healthier
15:51And with the turkey
15:53comes an all-new avocado and mayonnaise emulsion
15:55So I'm going to start with the avocado
15:58So I realise my banh mi was a little bit dry
16:00So what I've done is I've made an avocado emulsion
16:02So it's like a healthy mayonnaise
16:04Michael's drafting in extra help
16:06to prepare for tonight's expected onslaught
16:10I think tonight's going to be carnage
16:12Heaps of people
16:14Lots of food
16:16Chaos!
16:18So what I've done is I've come into the garage early
16:20and I'm actually going to try and prepare as much of my food
16:22here and then take it out pretty much already done
16:24With his prêt-à -manger menu on board
16:27the food truck heads into the battle zone
16:29The suburban mall
16:31come Asian bazaar in a car park
16:33that is the Glenfield Night Markets
16:35Before I lock down my prices
16:37I want to have a little wander around
16:39See what everyone else is selling it for
16:41Because there's so much competition
16:43I think it's going to be quite cheap
16:45The competition is an international smorgasbord
16:47of exotic delights
16:49Teriyaki chicken dog
16:51There's the usual suspect
16:53as well as the unusual and possibly suspect
16:55And it's all cheap
16:57Spring rolls, three of them for $5
16:59That's cheap
17:01Michael's autumn rolls might be a different season
17:03but they're the same price
17:05So I'll price this as good as I possibly can
17:07for what I'm serving
17:09The fowl is perfect fowl
17:11but price conscious at $8
17:13as is the banh mi
17:15There's going to be thousands of people here
17:17but at least now I'm ready to go
17:19and I just need to hand the food out
17:21so I don't need to talk much
17:24Which is probably easier said than done
17:26even accounting for Mike's straining voice
17:28Here we go people
17:30One of everything please
17:32Rice paper rolls please
17:34Awesome rice paper rolls
17:36Perfect, good choice
17:38Hope you enjoy it
17:40We're excited
17:42I think this is by far the smoothest start
17:44that I've ever had
17:46Just cranking through
17:48Thank you
17:50The autumn rolls make an immediate impression
17:52Or should we say awesome rolls
17:54I'll just have the awesome roll
17:56I've been to Vietnam before
17:58so it's a lot better actually
18:00Tasty but however the colour and shape
18:02does remind me of something
18:04Yes, the autumn roll does look a lot like
18:06a spring roll
18:08Very good
18:10The plum sauce is really nice
18:12but it's something I wouldn't expect with Vietnamese food
18:14Tastes delicious
18:16I love how the sauce sort of offsets it with a bit of zest
18:18Definitely want some more
18:21Reminds me of my mum's summer rolls
18:23Like his rolls
18:25Michael's prawn pho is selling like hotcakes
18:27Can we get three prawn pho's
18:29and I'll just have the prawn
18:31Everyone's ordering that
18:33But Michael is not prepared to take all the credit
18:35I think it's actually
18:37the weather, it's a little bit chilly out there
18:39and this is the only hot thing I've got on the menu
18:41so they're going for the hot items
18:43but I haven't had much feedback
18:45so I'm not sure what people are thinking of the soup
18:47It's beautiful
18:50It's really good
18:52If you were in my face I'd be chowing it right down
18:54Most of the stuff that we get in the market
18:56is quite greasy
18:58Obviously it's not very healthy in most cases
19:00but when I see this it's really good
19:02I think the best thing about it is it's so fresh
19:04It's beautiful
19:06It's full of flavour
19:08It's fantastic
19:10I think I've chosen the dishes really well
19:12because they're all fast, they're all fresh
19:14Look at that, it just looks great
19:16It may be as pretty as a picture
19:18but it's just possible people don't know
19:20what a turkey banh mi is
19:22which may be why they're not selling
19:24Too salty, too crunchy
19:26I think it could be done a bit better
19:28I think it can be a bit more spicy
19:30Better look next time
19:32With few people ordering the banh mi
19:34Michael decides to order it for them
19:36Go for the turkey roll
19:38Don't order this
19:40Turkey roll, pizza
19:42I want to order this one
19:44But there's a much better way
19:47to get the banh mi moving
19:49and that's to sell out of everything else
19:51Sorry people, sorry
19:53They were popular
19:55So I've got two soup left
19:57I've still got 26 turkey to get through
19:59and I reckon I will sell them
20:01just through the pure fact
20:03that I'm selling out of everything else
20:05This is the last soup
20:07You got the lucky last
20:09I hope you enjoy it
20:11Suddenly the turkey banh mi is looking better than ever
20:13Sorry, I only had the turkey left
20:15With some rolls now gone, the crowds have also disappeared
20:17Look at it
20:19People attract people
20:21When there's lots of people here
20:23People's like, wow, what's going on there?
20:25It must be good
20:27When there's no one here, they're kind of looking at it going
20:29What is it? I'm not sure
20:31Michael is soon feeling lonely
20:33With only his remaining turkey to keep him company
20:35But he's not giving up yet
20:37I only have turkey banh mi left
20:39It's getting towards the end of the night
20:41I don't want to drive home with anything
20:44I'm going to reduce
20:48Half price banh mi
20:50Banh mi's people
20:52Half price banh mi's
20:54People are just looking now
20:56Because it's like, you've got two items that are sold out
20:58And then the other one is half price
21:00Everyone's like, what's the matter with that?
21:04With the price barrier removed
21:06The banh mi's start to shift
21:08It's really tasty
21:10It's got lots of seasoning
21:13It's a little bit unexpected
21:15Which is interesting, it's good
21:17Everything's so fresh
21:19You start on the top, you just can't stop eating
21:21Oh yeah, very cool
21:23I actually forgot to write the price up
21:25So it just says half price banh mi
21:27And everyone's like, how much is that?
21:29You could just write half price
21:31And still charge them the same
21:33That would be a very Dutch thing
21:35Thankfully, Michael has no need to resort to
21:37National stereotypes, good or bad
21:39Because before long
21:41He's got his two favourite words
21:43That's it, sold out
21:45Vietnamese
21:47Vietnamese
21:49I still can't say it
21:51But god, I enjoyed it
21:53Overall, I think it's been a pretty amazing mission
21:55And I've loved doing it
21:57As hard as it's been
21:59The challenges I've been put up against
22:01But overall, I'm pretty happy to go out
22:03On a pretty awesome night
22:05I love Vietnamese
22:07Vietnamese
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