Fried fish in sweet and sour spicy fish sauce (Cá rán giòn sốt chua cay ngọt)

Taste description: This Vietnamese dish is a simple yet true specialty. Best served with rice and a bowl of vegetable soup in dried shrimps or minced meat, it is perfect both in taste and texture. The delicate tanginess from lime juice and sweetness in the tender meat together with the pleasant spicy salty combination of chilli and fish sauce in this dish will make it hard not to crave for more. You can try replacing fish with chicken wings and removing ginger from the recipe for a variety and the taste will be just as good. But do remember to mind the oil as you fry. Food improperly dried can cause serious damages.

Ingredients (serves 2):
- 1 whole fish of around 500g (sweet-water fish of around 2.5cm to 3cm thickness in this case)
- Frying oil
- 100ml fish sauce
- 50ml lime juice (from around 1 juicy lime or 2 normal limes)
- 50g sugar
- 3-4 chillies, finely chopped
- 4-5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 10g ginger, finely chopped

Procedure:
- Fish is washed then dried using kitchen tissue paper.
- Heat oil on a dry pan for around 2 minutes (oil reaches the thickness of around 2cm in the pan). Fry fish over medium-high heat (for the crispy skin and soft meat) till both sides are golden. Turn only once.
- At the same time, mix all the other ingredient well into a sweet sour spicy sauce.
- When the fish is cooked, quickly drain all the oil then still on high heat, pour the sweet sour spicy sauce on top. Then immediately take out the fish to a plate. Pour the sauce on top and serve.

Stewed chicken in pate (Gà nấu patê)

Ingredients (serves 2-3):
- 500g chicken, cut into pieces or 5 whole drumsticks, cut into 4 pieces each
- 2 medium potatoes, cut into 4-6 pieces each
- 2 carrots, cut into slices of 1-1.5cm thick
- 100g straw mushrooms
- 100g pate
- 1l coconut water
- 3 onions, 3 garlic cloves
- A fine amount of red food coloring
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- Salt and pepper to taste
- (1tsp of corn flour / tapioca flour / multi-purpose flour for thickness)

Procedure:
- Season chicken pieces with onion, garlic, salt, sugar, pepper and red food coloring. Keep for 15-20 minutes.
- Mix pate well with coconut water.
- Stir-fry seasoned chicken in a pot over medium heat until color is changed. Pour coconut water and pate in. Wait for the pot to boil and then lower the heat.
- Throw in cut potatoes and carrots. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes or until the meat and potatoes and carrots soften.
- Throw in mushrooms and cook over low heat for another 5 minutes. Mix 1 tsp of flour with 50 - 75ml of cold water and pour in the soup for thickness.
- Adjust flavour if necessary. Add pepper and serve.

Note: Pork liver pate and chicken liver pate will give different tastes. Cook chicken longer if kampong chicken is used.