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Day 53 & 54: Mexico and Vietnam

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Soft Tacos and Margaritas
After our normal Tuesday activities (Me: yoga. Jeff: guitar lesson), we had Tex-Mex style ground beef tacos, refried beans, and some really nice margaritas.  Turns out we used up the last of the Cointreau, so these had 1800 Reposado, lime juice, some orange juice concentrate, and simple syrup that was part of a housewarming gift from our friends Erica and Harold several years ago.  Good thing we didn't Kondo the syrup out our lives in the move!  It made things just right.

Bánh Xèo
When I decided to go to the Vietnamese grocery, one of the dishes on my mind was savory Vietnamese crepes, or Bánh Xèo.  I came across Hungry Huy's website when I was searching for a recipe, and I loved the depth of the explanations.  I entered the ingredients in to my shopping list and resolved to give it a try.

Despite what Huy says ("You don't make this dish for just one or two people"), we soldiered on.  We still had leftover pork belly from our ramen on Day 39, and I always keep shrimp in the freezer.  So it was just a matter of the herbs.  Green onions and cilantro are on my weekly list, so no problems there.  Mint has many uses. And Thai Basil is such a special herb that I get really excited when I am able to find it.  I trusted I'd find uses for the remainder of these items, so it wasn't too much of a challenge.  
But what was a challenge was that the half can of coconut cream I planned to use up here (from Kathleen's birthday cake on Day 26) turned out to be moldy.  Note to self: you can't keep an open can of coconut milk for three weeks!  In true Pandemic style, I improvised, replacing the coconut cream with almond milk and coconut extract.  I made half a batch of the crepe batter, which would have made about 4 crepes.  We ate three and called it a day.  And the first round (pictured below) was a little lighter than it could've been.  In round two, I let it cook much longer, until it got charred and crispy.  Perfection!
This dish really has it all: pork and shrimp, fried rice pancake, fresh and herbal flavors, sour and funky sauce, spicy from the bird's eye chili.  We tore pieces of the crepe, wrapped them with herbs in lettuce leaves (wrapping up a truly heroic hydroponic lettuce we've been picking at since Day 40), and chowed down.  New Recipe Monday?  Success!

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