Vietnamese feast at Tam and Rick's

Jude got to be a lucky eater tonight, too! We have been looking forward to this all week: our good friend, Tamy, really outdid herself in putting out an incredible spread of Vietnamese dumplings, buns, and various deliciousness for her dinner party this evening. We have known Tam for many years--we all met in college--and have had the good fortune of eating her delicious cooking on many occasions. She has a fantastic food blog, A Little Bit Burnt, about her adventures in cooking in her little Brooklyn kitchen with an electric stove.

Tam went all out for this meal--making the doughs (some with rice flour, some with tapioca, etc.) from scratch and experimenting with various fillings and dipping sauces. My favorite was the tapioca dough filled with pork and shrimp! Tam warned us that her husband, Rick, was taken aback at first about the chewy texture of the tapioca dough, but we really liked it. Tam's take was that this is what it's supposed to be: "It just is what it is." And, in my opinion, "what it is" happened to be delicious.

What an incredible treat! I cannot imagine how much work went into the preparations for this shindig! Tam said that, growing up, she had always helped her mom (they are from Vietnam) make all these things in their kitchen at home. Yesterday was the first time she attempted the feat alone and she said it was a lot of work!

It was a lovely evening--great food, great people, great fun. Ruby was there, too, and behaved like a champ!

You can read about how to make all of this stuff on Tam's blog post about the evening, chosen for Foodbuzz's 24-24-24 spotlight this month:

Dim Sum Classics and Vietnamese Dumplings