Autumn has really come to Hanoi. If you’ve visited Hanoi during autumn time before, you might already know about one specialty of Hanoi when it enters autumn. It is the green rice flakes – or "com" as we call in Vietnamese. When you see hawkers at wet markets or walking along the ancient or small streets, you know that Hanoi and Hanoians are going to see the prettiest days of the fall.
"Com" – or green rice flakes – are made of young rice grains. These grains are harvested before they are fully matured, then gone under many processes until they become thin flakes with greeny color. Com, therefore, is regarded as a purely pastoral gift. To really appreciate this specialty, it is advised to chew a pinch of com slowly so that you can feel the stickiness of young rice grains and, at the same time, feel its sweet and fragrant taste.
Yes, you can eat "com" raw as it is. Besides, "Com" is used in many other special and seasonal dishes. And what I introduce this time, though simple, is one of the very popular ones. "Com" is no longer available when autumn ends, so it is also made into "dried Com" so that people can cook dishes with "Com" at anytime of the year. However, I always prefer fresh Com for the taste you can never describe well but eat the fresh ones at the right time, you’ll see how special it is.
So, remember, it is strongly recommended that you try some fresh Com if you happen to travel to Hanoi in autumn 
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Bitter gourd is my favorite choice for summer soup. Though the name indicates bitterness, when you are familiar with the taste and like that bitterness, you don’t feel it bitter at all because what you feel is a sweet bitterness.
The soup made with bitter gourd is often very mild and fresh. Small ones are our preference. I do not often cook with the large bitter gourd. The prawns in these soup not only add flavor to the soup but also the firm crisp texture as well. I do not use any fat in this soup, so the broth is very clear and gentle. During hot summer days eating too greasy food is not so pleasant to the mouths. Actually, I can have this soup several times a week without getting bored.
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If you’ve ever travelled to the Middle Vietnam, visiting the places such as Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An, etc. you may have come across these steamed rice cakes. The name in Vietnamese is "banh beo". They used to be the street food of ordinary people, but nowadays, they are served in the restaurants as well as a kind of regional specialities.
In Vietnam, there are a large variety of steamed cakes, most of which are made from rice flour, glutinous rice flour, or tapioca flour. They are either wrapped in green leaves such as banana leaves or steamed uncovered. These steamed cakes in particular have many versions, depending on which provinces they are originated from.
I made a trip to visit some Southern cities of Vietnam last December, and I got to eat these cakes twice, and of course they are different kinds. Mostly the toppings and dipping sauce make the difference. Instead of dried shrimps, fresh shrimps are used and made into sponge dried shrimp meat. The dipping sauce is either thin or thick, using either pure water or water from boiling the shrimps.
There are two common things. Firstly, these cakes are steamed in small shallow dishes and served in the dishes themselves. Unlike what you are seeing in my photos, because I removed the cakes from the dishes that I poured the batter in to steam. Why? It’s because I had only two such dishes, they are not exactly the type of dishes used for these cakes but somehow quite similar. So, each batch I could steam only two cakes. After that I had to remove the cakes from the dishes and started another batch. Secondly, the cakes are sometimes oily. The green onions are cooked in oil or ghee, then topped on the cakes. I tried to make a healthy version of the cake, so I didn’t fry the spring onion with oil but sprinkle them over the cakes only.
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