Sep 2025

Cuisine Mới at Michelin-Starred Ciel – Ho Chi Minh City

Ciel - Ho Chi Minh City

During my stint as an expat in Vietnam from 2007 to 2008, The Astronomer gifted me five “fancy” dinners for my 26th birthday. We were each earning $750 per month working for an NGO at the time, so this present felt like quite the splurge, even though the bill for the two of us was well under $100 in most cases.

Back then, the upscale dining scene in Saigon was largely composed of international restaurants. According to Gastronomy’s archives, my birthday dinners included a trio of old-school French restaurants (La Fourchette, Augustin, and Le Toit Gourmand) and a stop at the Italian restaurant inside the swanky Park Hyatt. My fifth dinner featured a modern Cambodian tasting menu in Siem Reap while visiting Angkor Wat.

Fast forward to 2025, and the Saigon fine dining scene is bursting at the seams. While there are still plenty of international dining options around, the rise of Cuisine Mới, or New Vietnamese cuisine, is an inspiring new development spearheaded by Vietnamese chefs bringing together contemporary techniques and trends with Vietnamese sensibilities.

Ciel from chef Viet Hong opened in 2024 in Thao Dien, an outer district popular among expats and accessible via the new metro system. The building that houses the restaurant — Scandinavian minimalism meets lush Saigon landscaping — was built from the ground up and reminded me some of the grounds of El Celler De Can Roca in Girona, Spain.

Before opening the restaurant, the chef staged at Noma in Copenhagen, Barcelona’s Disfrutar, and Sézanne in Tokyo. The influences from each of these stops in his culinary education are apparent throughout the 10-course progression.

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Aug 2025

It’s Damn Good to be Back in Vietnam

I didn’t mean to stay away from Vietnam for 14 years. Somewhere between work, play, and family, more than a decade whizzed by just like that. However, the moment I stepped back onto Saigon soil, it was as if no time had passed at all. The city’s singular rhythms came roaring back, from its chaotic traffic patterns to surprise afternoon downpours and constant beep-beeps of motorbikes punctuating every interaction. The energy that courses through the thành phố’s crowded boulevards and hidden corridors hooked me instantly. I couldn’t get enough.

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May 2025

Chinese Crystal Skin Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gow)

Hargow Recipe

The Astronomer and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary a month late this year due to being displaced from our Altadena home following January’s wildfires. Even though our homecoming coincided with our anniversary, we didn’t honor the occasion until our house was properly remediated from top to bottom. We’re responsible like that.

After getting our affairs mostly in order, we relived our wedding banquet at Five Star Seafood Restaurant in San Gabriel, and I prepared something delicious inspired by antiquated anniversary gifts, just like I’ve done for every anniversary since our first in 2011. Thus far in our marriage, The Astronomer has been gifted edible interpretations of PaperCottonLeatherFruit, Wood, Sugar, Wool, Bronze, Pottery,  TinSteelSilkLace, and Ivory.

Since it is customary to bestow crystal upon one’s beloved in recognition of the 15th anniversary, I prepared crystal skin shrimp dumplings using a recipe from Kristina Cho’s James Beard-award-winning cookbook, Mooncakes and Milk Bread. I have consumed hundreds, if not thousands, of dumplings in my lifetime. This was my first time making the delicate parcels at home.

While the filling was easy to assemble — just a combination of shrimp, bamboo shoots, garlic, and seasonings — the wrappers were far fussier, requiring a trio of starches and a deft hand to manipulate the gluten-free dough. Following months away from home, reaching for my trusty steamer and whizzing the shrimp in my vintage Cuisinart felt like a gift. The end results paled in comparison to what’s on offer at my local dim sum spot, but still, I was grateful to tackle the recipe in the comfort of my kitchen for the special celebration.

Here’s to more dumplings and fewer climate disasters, my darling Vernon.

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