On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:31:50 -0600, Arri London >
wrote:

>
>
>On another note, had a cookbook about Vietnamese food out of the
>library. The American author only ever specified jalapenos where green
>chiles were called for, rather than the thin green chiles which would be
>more typical. Talk about two different tastes!

that's a little strange. was it an older book, assuming maybe the
proper chiles were too hard to get? (though usually such books note
that this would be a necessary substitution, not optimal.)

your pal,
blake

blake murphy wrote:
>
> On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:31:50 -0600, Arri London >
> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >On another note, had a cookbook about Vietnamese food out of the
> >library. The American author only ever specified jalapenos where green
> >chiles were called for, rather than the thin green chiles which would be
> >more typical. Talk about two different tastes!
>
> that's a little strange. was it an older book, assuming maybe the
> proper chiles were too hard to get? (though usually such books note
> that this would be a necessary substitution, not optimal.)
>
> your pal,
> blake

No...copyright 2006.
Quick and Easy Vietnamese by Nancie McDermott.

The right sort of chiles have been available in Chinese/Vietnamese shops
for many years, so there's no excuse really.
She also advocates using tinned sugar cane for 'sugar cane shrimp/pork'.
The tinned variety tastes awful and fresh is normally available anywhere
one can buy decent fish sauce.