How I Wrote Vietnamese Vegetarian

I still can't believe that I am a published author

I had about 10 months to write Vietnamese Vegetarian which was a lovely way to spend the year. Every other day or so I would create a new vegetarian recipe for our family dinner or lunch and simply wrote it all down. Sometimes I would invite a friend or two to come along to polish off a feast.

I enjoyed myself so much during the writing process because I felt that I was really creating delicious recipes and it felt wholesome and the right thing to do. I loved the time that I had because I over created which meant I was able to choose the best recipes to include in the book.

Writing a book is a lonely and solitude experience. Locking myself away mentally and physically and being fully concentrated can be particularly tricky for me as I would say that I am definitely on some kind of spectrum. I find writing at my local and recently renovated library particularly pleasing with less distractions of the home because I am amongst other people who are reading, writing and studying. Concentrating.

The mid 20th century building consists of very high ceilings with full length windows, south facing with sunlight streaming in between the blinds. I love good light. There’s a gallery of desk space around the top of the floating stair case. I bagsie my own little desk and settle in for a few hours. I often take a break and go for a mental health swim then trotter back quickly stuffing a Dunn’s bakery sandwich before I reach the library's sliding doors. The food I enjoy from local bakeries or restaurants when I am writing is very satisfying. It truly feels like I am fuelling my body and mind as it takes so much energy to write. Having a drink of water is more quenching than normal and taking juicy bites from a ripe sweet plum tops me up.

I type down and decipher my notes, previously scribbled onto my food stained notebook. When not at the library I am sometimes under the duvet to keep warm (oh the glamour) or at my kitchen table. I write introductions and ingredients list in the order of the methods. Having written this book, I gained more experience and collected a few more items on ways to improve my work flow with future works. 

I’ve learnt that it is better to complete the entire recipe with intros because I am more present in the space to give more meaning and advice to the reader. It is done and dusted, filed away until I collaborate the entire manuscript at the end and send it to my editor. (Unless I like it so much I cook it over and over, and gain more notes for the recipe).

Recipe Testing

For this book, I had a bank of recipe testers from my Facebook page Uyen Luu’s Vietnamese Cookbook Club (feel free to join) who volunteered from all over the world to try out and present feedback on recipes. My goodness it was both a wonderful and stressful experience because I would be sending out recipes to a good chunk of people and this would take hours and hours of painstaking work because it all had to be the latest version with new changes. 

It was so nice when the regular testers emailed me with photos of their creations and any feedback on the recipe. It helped me to realise how easily people can obtain ingredients and how my wording translates to them without any illustrations (as it was pre-photography). I am so grateful to the many people who helped me with the recipes. I truly feel connected to some of my recipe testers despite never having met but just through the talk of cooking and the banter of flavours. 

What about the fish sauce?

In the kitchen, I was hard at work to recreate the important umami flavours without the use of fish sauce. It was really exciting and educational to find replacements for the fish sauce. Fish sauce is a staple and is commonly used instead of salt to flavour dishes but here I’ve found wonderful replacements like Yondu Umami seasoning which tastes like a cross between soy sauce and fish sauce, nutty and savoury nutritional yeast and a little sweet and little sour fermented tofu works really well as it has that slight pungent taste and aroma that replicates fish sauce really well. Then there is obviously soy sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce which enhances and delivers on maximum flavour. 

I also discovered that fish mint makes really good vegan fish sauce when brewed with garlic, chillies and salt and wanted to create a brand of bottled vegan fish sauce. (I told you I am on the spectrum).

Why I decided to write a vegetarian book

I am not a vegetarian but an omnivore, however I love vegetarian food so I proposed to follow up my pink book (Vietnamese) with Vietnamese Vegetarian. I dip in and out of being vegetarian because I love animals (and I care about our planet and the world we inhabit). In Western societies, why wouldn’t we eat dogs and cats and yet we are happy to eat a lovely cow or an intelligent pig? Why do we categorise farm animals differently as edible subjects? This philosophic question is thoroughly discussed in a very interesting book “How To Love Animals” by Henry Mance. Another interesting read is Michael Pollan’s book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”

I wrote the book for both full time and part time vegetarians. I am someone who needs to eat a little fish and meat because I would be unwell with deficiencies otherwise.

I decided that the best way to get around this is to eat 3 vegetarian meals out of 4 meals a day. (I am a hungry person. I need a little post lunch, pre dinner meal too). When I do eat fish and meat I need to shop responsibly.

The recipes work as entirely vegetarian spreads or one plate dishes or they could be additions to a sharing rice meal with a little fried fish. I have included many ideas on making the best noodle recipes and stunning broths. I’ve turned many traditional favourites into vegetarian recipes and I believe most are better as vegetarian/ vegan adaptations. I’ve filled recipes with plants and more plants.

As the Vietnamese table consists of so many plants regardless of it being a vegetarian meal or not, Vietnamese Vegetarian meals are a perfect way to enjoy beautiful flavours from such a marvellous cuisine and easily intake 30+ different plants a week. According to food scientist, Tim Spector, in his book “Food For Life,” 30 plants a week is the amount we need for a good gut and general health and well-being. This includes garlic, shallots, herbs, nuts and seeds too.

I did write the book before I knew this was a thing. It goes to show that the Vietnamese are streets ahead!

Why it is important to pre-order

In the last few weeks, we (me and my publisher’s publicist) have been working hard to get pre-orders. I have no idea how it is doing. I just know people have to pre-order especially if the intention is to buy it anyway because it shows interest in the book and alerts retailers to order the book in. It gets talked about and readers are then more aware of its existence, and then it lives on.

Because I am not on television, I don’t have a restaurant or see myself as a celebrity chef, preorders are really important to the work that I do because essentially I am an unknown author. Every day I try to squeeze into this very saturated cookbook market. I am terribly fearful that my hard work and love gets pulped. I try pushing through the social media sphere, playing against algorithms and hitting my head on the wall. It is a bit tough to juggle to be honest. I think I preferred being under the duvet.

My favourite things to write

I loved writing memoir like chapter openers for this book. I love to write and build a story, a memory, an environment and its atmosphere. The food I love cooking and eating mainly stems from my childhood where I was deeply rooted in well prepared, simple but the most delicious food from my mother. As it is a recipe book, I had little space and word count so could only throw a flash narrative.

I am so happy that I have discovered Substack so that I can write it here. 

Pre-Order

If you would like to pre-order Vietnamese Vegetarian, I would be most grateful. This smart link gives you a choice of several retailers to pre-order from. If you want to win a couple places at my supper club in the process, send your pre-order proof to the typeform here

Radio Shows

I will be talking about my new book on BBC6 Music with Cerys Matthews (not sure what time yet) and BBC London with Gaby Roslin (1pm-ish) on Sunday 28th May. I will be going into the studio. How nerve wracking!

Author Talk

I will be doing a talk at Waterstones in Crouch End on 30th May at 7pm - book tickets here. Come for a glass of wine and a chat. I had always dreamed about doing an author talk at a book store.