what happens when a food writer experiences a shift in appetite? for andrea nguyen , a midlife decision to eat less meat and more vegetables ended up bringing her full circle. she tapped into her vietnamese heritage and food culture to help her live a sustainable life — both in an environmental sense and her ability to keep it up in the long-term.
the year 2019 was a busy one for the james beard award-winning author and cooking teacher. nguyen had recently published her sixth cookbook, vietnamese food any day , which kept her travelling. this was a good thing; she saw her packed schedule as a sign that her decades-long culinary career was blooming.
advertisement
as much as we might like to draw neat lines around our food choices — gravitating toward labels such as keto, macrobiotic and paleo — an adaptable approach is on the rise. the number of flexitarians is growing in canada and elsewhere as people choose to eat more plant-based foods. (meat consumption in germany, for example, is at a record low .)
advertisement
nguyen’s easygoing attitude toward vegetable-forward cooking is in line with the more than 3.5 million canadians who identify as flexitarians.
seaweed contains the chemical compound glutamate, umami’s driving force. nguyen uses it in unconventional ways throughout the book, grinding nori into dust and using it to flavour her oven-fried tofu wontons , soaking wakame and kombu for a hit of briny flavour in her vegan fish sauce.
advertisement
there’s a tendency to define dishes by their protein element, she adds, from chicken pho to meatball banh mi. but when you peel back the layers, the important role plants play is clear. pho noodles are made of rice; baguettes rely on wheat. spices and aromatics, fresh herbs, chilies, pickled vegetables and other plant-based components are essential.
advertisement
our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our cookbook and recipe newsletter, cook this, here.