Yum, yum, yum!

Over the weekend, we got together with old friends in Portland and shared seven of our favorite dishes. Kathleen Bauer, a food blogger and writer, and Motoya Nakamura, a photographer from the Oregonian were with us all day to capture the event for an article in the Oregonian's Food Day Section.

We served Trout Salad with Vermicelli Noodles and Sweet and Tangy Sauce, Stuffed Tofu Soup, Grilled Beef Larb, Grilled Chicken with Hmong Barbecue Sauce, Stir-Fried Bitter Melon Vines, Stir-Fried Yard Long Green Beans, Coconut Gelatin with Tropical Fruit and fresh steamed (the Hmong way) Jasmine Rice.

Our job now is to make sure the recipes we pass along to the newspaper are accurate representations of the food we served. As is always true with Hmong cooking, we let creativity be our guide, and some of the dishes had touches that are not exactly what are in our book. So... back to work!