Bun Bo Xao and Flight F-I-N-A-L

This recipe was a Matt pick. He always orders this at Vietnamese restaurants and so why not try to make it ourselves? Well, because there are seemingly a million ingredients, that's one reason! But essentially, it is a salad, so of course you're going to need a bunch of veggies. I'm not one of these people who knows what's "in season" nor have we joined a CSA and had to figure out how to use up a month's glut of rutabagas, or whatever. I'm not choosey- if they sell it at the grocery store and it doesn't appear to be near death, I might cook it and I'll likely think it tastes just fine.

But just so you know I do have some standards, I was catching up on old seasons of Project Runway through the Lifetime app and they keep airing commercials for Golden Corral featuring Jeff Foxworthy and they were not tempting to me at all. No, not even the promise of chocolate fountains and Mr. Foxworthy could lure me. Did you know you can pay $2.99 extra and get a to-go box? Thanks to these ads, I know you can! Do Project Runway viewers and GC/Jeff Foxworthy fans have a lot of overlap? That I'm less certain about. But I am not besmirching GC from a place of snobbery, I have eaten there and left satisfied on more than one occasion. But I do prefer if I'm going to a huge, mediocre buffet, that it be at a casino where we've gotten some kind of discount because we've blown so much money gambling that they've taken pity on us.


We also got to utilize some ingredients we don't usually use. I'd never cut lemongrass before, I had to google how. Also, like the true idiot I am, I was surprised that it smelled like lemon! Despite knowing that "thai chilis" were hot intellectually, I balked at the recipe only calling for one and cut up three ("They're so small!") but before I threw them in the dipping sauce actually tasted a tiny bit of one and was like "One it is!" I also just bought too much of everything...I'll be eating shallots and chilis and garlic-I-have-to-chop-myself for a while. We actually did follow the recipe pretty faithfully aside from not using any shiso leaves because I couldn't find them at Ranch 99 or Whole Foods. Also, I don't think I got the meat cut quite thin enough because it was pretty tough just being lightly marinated and cooked quickly. I definitely want to try it when we're grilling because even the 15 minute marinade on the meat made it super flavorful. Matt did most of the epic amount of chopping but I was tasked with "rubbing the meat" which I weirdly enjoyed. I also tried frying shallots; they were supposed to sit in the oil for 15 minutes but mine burned right up in about 5. I do have a ton of shallots left over if I want to try again! It was overall very delicious and the first time I've eaten this dish in my pajamas. A.


It was my turn to choose the record and grabbed something called Flight F-I-N-A-L: A Dramatic Comparison to Death which isn't really music, per se, but rather a 1965 Christian record that tells the story of Jesus flying people to Heaven. It started with some very deep, somber singing that was a real bring down and I almost turned it off but I'm glad I didn't because soon the stewardesses were wielding swords and cutting off people's earthly burdens and an announcement from the cockpit boomed "I am thy captain." It was exceptionally weird but it did not really have a beat you can dance to. Of course, it seems pretty silly and easy to mock but I was looking online and it sincerely affected some religious people so that's nice, too.   B+

Here is a link to the recipe because it is too long to post the whole text here. We started with this NYT recipe because it was basically the first Google result but I took a look at a few others that seemed, maybe, posted by actual Vietnamese people just to see if there was anything else to consider. Also, my kind friend Julie chimed in with some advice because her dad makes this dish! Overall I give this edition of Records and Recipes a solid 4/5 Flights to New Jerusalem on Inter-World Airlines!