This week our guest, Andrea Nguyen, takes us to Vietnam for a look at the culture and lore behind a cuisine that began 4,000 years ago with a prince from the sea. Andrea leaves us her recipe for Chicken and Cellophane Noodle Soup from her gorgeous book, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors.

The Sterns' penchant for prison gift shops led them to some great hush puppies and shredded pork sandwiches at Hocutt's Carolina Barbecue. It's right across from the big house in Moundsville, West Virginia. We have the obscure but excellent in holiday mail order gifts from Francine Maroukian, author of Chefs' Secrets: Insider Techniques from Today's Culinary Masters; then, we flip to inside a food mail order warehouse — Zingerman's — where the rush reins and it's all about controlled chaos.

Ray Isle, senior wine editor for Food & Wine magazine, reports in with his favorite wines and spirits of 2006, including a knockout red for $7.00! Dan Oko ponders the doggie bag dilemma (the original commentary appeared in the November/December issue of Mother Jones), and Lynne shares some olive oil picks, passes along the recipe for Ernie Crippin's Lefse, and takes your calls.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

December 9, 2006

The Vietnamese Kitchen