Simple as it is, this dish is never out of fashion. I cook it when I need a quick meal with enough proteins to provide me more energy. I cook it when, at the end of the week, I nearly run out of ingredients in my fridge and this is a good choice as there are only two main ingredients. But now, it is not the story because I have come back and start my new life again in Vietnam, where I can shop for fresh ingredients everyday. 

In the early morning, I go to the wet market near my house, buying things I need for lunch. Sometimes I buy stuffs for dinner as well, but this market opens in the afternoon too and new fresh foods are brought to sell. So, almost anytime I can buy new and fresh ingredients, which is really a big privilege for me as compared with before when I had to shop at weekend for the whole week. 

This dish is best to be served with steamed rice. 

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Many believe that egg is a good choice for a quick meal when you are busy as cooking with eggs often takes less time and you still have a nutrious and palatable meal. 

Fried egg is a very basic dish in almost every cuisine. The Vietnamese way is also very simple. Many people, especially teenagers and young adults who don’t know cooking at all or who are not confident about their cooking skills, still can claim they can make a good fried egg dish. 

Cooking fried eggs – Vietnamese way – requires only two additional ingredients: fish sauce  (of course) and green onions – to mix in with eggs. If the cooks are not skillful, and not finical about their food, they can just fry the eggs until done on both sides. Some prefer to roll the eggs, doing more sophisticated work so you can serve this dish even when there is guest visiting home. 

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When I went shopping and saw the sea bass was just brought out of the water, I was so eager to look at them and see which one jumped the highest, then I supposed it was the strongest and freshest one. Sometimes such fresh and live fish are avaible at the supermarket, however, not anytime the price is affordable to me. 

This time I was lucky as the price for one live sea bass was reasonable. So I grasped one and quickly cooked this dish. I filleted the sea bass, used the fillets in this dish and made the fish stock with the head and bone, then saved the stock for later use. Live fish like this always brings out great taste and flavor. Many people in my country, if heard about this, would think it strange because, there, when you go to the market, you only buy live fish, except for those caught from the ocean. The fish which are raised by people or caught in the rivers, the ponds must always be alive, otherwise no housewife will bother leaving an eye on them. 

In this dish, the sea bass fillets are pan-fried first until just cooked. After that, the ginger, garlic, chili are fried to release the fragrance and combined with soy sauce and spring onion. This sauce mixture will be drizzled or poured over the fish. Cooking time is very short. Cooking method is simple. Ingredients are basic. Yet you will see clearly how live fish really taste like. 

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I still have some bread left, so I cooked this soup to finish it since I didn’t want to keep it longer on my dinning table.  It is very simple and quick to make this soup – the soup with Asian flavor by using soy sauce to season. 

Moreover, crab sticks are quite popularly used in Asian dishes. Though i do know that crab stick contains just a small percentage of crab meat and crab flavor, I could not afford to buy crab meat to use. So, if possible, you may use crab meat for more authentic and deeper flavor. 

I was thinking, while eating the soup and the bread, which was actually the Cuban bread I made days ago, about the combination of the East and the West flavor in one meal like this. Very interesting. 

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