Over the last two months, we've seen a lot fava beans at the farmers' markets. We both like fava beans, but for some reason (too much peeling) we haven't bought any. It wasn't until last week that we finally picked some up. Hungry Bear wanted to make a healthy pasta dish and created this shrimp, fava bean and zucchini pasta on a whim.

It was a simple pasta to prepare and required only sautéing the fava beans, zucchini and shrimp in a little olive oil and garlic. Since we both love angel hair pasta, we used it in our dish. In hindsight, we would have picked a tubular or shaped pasta, because it would have been easier to mix with the vegetables.

Sometimes the simplest food is the best food. It doesn't get any easier than fried eggs and shrimp (trung chien tom). Throughout my childhood, my mom made this dish, serving it with steamed rice. It was so simple, yet so satisfying.

This past Sunday night, I made fried eggs and shrimp for the SNDsters and Hungry Bear baked a carrot cake. We'll share the carrot cake recipe next time. In my family, we served trung chien tom on a bed of greens and tomatoes. Then we dunked it all in Vietnamese dipping sauce (nuoc cham) and ate it with jasmine rice. I'm not sure how normal it is to eat it this way, but it's ingrained in me and I'm sticking with it. Does anyone else eat it like this?

Vietnamese fresh spring rolls? Summer rolls? Salad rolls? What do you call these things? It's goi cuon in Vietnamese. The literally translation is salad (goi) roll (cuon). Whatever you call them, they are light, refreshing and delicious. Most restaurants serve salad rolls with nuoc cham, a fish sauce based dipping sauce, but did you know, it's ten times better with a spicy peanut Hoisin sauce.

A few weeks ago, Hungry Bear had a major craving for goi cuon after Nikki, a.k.a. Canary Girl, asked me to share my recipe. My version is a common shrimp and pork salad roll recipe that most Viet people make. As long as the ingredients are fresh, especially the lettuce and herbs, the salad rolls are going to be good.

I made goi cuon this past Sunday night as part of our Vietnamese/Chinese New Year celebration dinner with our SND friends. Every time I make a batch of salad rolls, I have more respect for my mom's ability to crank these things out. They are easy to make, but time consuming to prep and roll. My mom can probably roll 2 or 3 batches in the time I can make one. Next time, I'm just going to do the prep work and we'll have a salad roll rolling party.

Crispy spring rolls, egg rolls or imperial rolls, whatever you call them, it's cha gio in Vietnamese. My mom's cha gio was one of my favorite things to eat growing up. Nothing compares to my mom's crispy spring rolls. I know I say that about all of her cooking, but I really mean it. When I was younger and attended a lot of Viet gatherings and parties, I would always leave thinking my mom's cooking was better.

Cha gio comes in many different sizes and can be made with spring roll wrappers or rice paper. Traditionally, rice paper is used in Vietnam, but my mom has been using spring roll wrappers for as long as I can remember, so I'm partial to them. I grew up on pork and shrimp cha gio, but a few years ago, my dad became a pescetarian. So last month when I visited my parents, my mom made shrimp and crab rolls.

This past Sunday, Jane and Mark hosted Sunday Nite Dinner. For the main dish, Jane made Singapore rice noodles. The recipe can be found in The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen by Grace Young. From the cookbook...

"In Singapore, it is common to catch the intoxicating aroma of curry in the air. Almost every restaurant serves mai fun — rice vermicelli or rice sticks — stir-fried with curry powder, baby shrimp, scallions, celery and Chinese mushrooms, for this is one of Singapore's most famous dishes."

The Singapore rice noodles recipe serves 4 to 6 as a part of a multicourse meal. Since we were having the noodles as the main entrée, Jane doubled the recipe to serve five of us with leftovers to spare. As a side dish, Jane prepared stir-fried amaranth two ways. Amaranth (yeen choy) is a leafy vegetable that looks like red Swiss chard with red and green variegated leaves. The first amaranth side dish was a simple garlic and salt stir-fry. The second amaranth stir-fry can also be found in The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen and used garlic and wet bean curd (fu yu).