Where to learn how to cook Western food at weekends?

If you can cook some of the more complex Vietnamese dishes, Western cooking should be easy by comparison. 

Actually YouTube may be a good place to start.

THIGV wrote:

If you can cook some of the more complex Vietnamese dishes, Western cooking should be easy by comparison. 

Actually YouTube may be a good place to start.

Hi,

The matter is I don't know the taste of Western ingredients so cannot know which ingredients can mix well with each other. Usually, In Vietnamese foods, we can often season with salt, fish sauce, but with Western food - I don't know the flavors come from, even cannot guess what seasoning in them.

I watched some Youtube on this issues then follow to cook Beef Stroganoff but completely failed.

Hapiness1988 wrote:

THIGV wrote:

If you can cook some of the more complex Vietnamese dishes, Western cooking should be easy by comparison. 

Actually YouTube may be a good place to start.

Hi,

The matter is I don't know the taste of Western ingredients so cannot know which ingredients can mix well with each other. Usually, In Vietnamese foods, we can often season with salt, fish sauce, but with Western food - I don't know the flavors come from, even cannot guess what seasoning in them.

I watched some Youtube on this issues then follow to cook Beef Stroganoff but completely failed.

The problem is, "Western" includes many, many different regions, and many different techniques and ingredients used in order to cook different dishes in an authentic manner.

To cook "Tex-Mex" food from the American Southwestern States, you need to know about different varieties of chili peppers, and where to source them. You also need to know how to use the spice cumin.

To cook Italian food, you need to know how to properly prepare 'gravy' (an Italian tomato sauce) and how to work with oregano, garlic and olive oil (and where to buy them).

To cook Russian food (such as your Beef Stroganoff) you need to cook slowly, and know the 'secret' ingredients (if you didn't use genuine sour cream as a generous garnish, that may have been the problem).

Spanish food is definitely NOT Mexican food.

Irish food relies quite heavily on 'root' vegetables.

New England seafood and chowders use seasoning combinations and cooking techniques unique to that region.

American "Barbeque/BBQ" is best smoked and slow cooked, sometimes without sauce ('dry rub seasonings') sometimes with sauce that is applied with the same type of rag mop used to clean floors. Some sauce is sweet, some savory, and folks in The Carolinas ruin it with vinegar 

West Coast cooking is very different from East Coast culinary creations.

Probably your best bet is to create a new thread asking, "What Food That Your Momma Cooked Do You Miss The Most?", and then ask for recipies as well.

It's all about The Prep! 

Wow, you have the very wide knowledge in food of many countries.

You suggest a good idea of posting a new thread with the interesting title as well. (y)

Thanks a lot for your information.

P/s: Are you teaching cooking?

Regards,
Ni

OceanBeach described the situation well.
In general, I find internet recipes to be overly complicated.

When living overseas, I try not to try to replicate my "home" cooking. 
Additionally, In HCMC, it is difficult to find the variety of seasonings, plus what there is, is often older than it should be.

Even when I lived in Europe and wanted to cook "American", it was not so easy. Often, the cuts of meat are different, which is significant.

My suggestion would be to try some simple dishes, "pot roast" instead of beef stroganoff . Those ingredients are readily available here and you can start to get a taste of the combinations.
Once you do that, I think you will find that you can still tell what combines well with what. Food science doesn't change.

Now, having said all of that, in the last year and a half, since I've been here, I have made  some simple things I like, like an Italian pasta with mushroom, tomato sauce.
I've used Barilla pasta, just like in the past, and yet, it tastes significantly different.
Could be the water or just a combination of things.

For the first time in my life, my current girlfriend, cooks far better than I. in any case, it's a reminder to me to just eat like the locals and be happy.

Good luck.  Sorry could not help more.

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

... The problem is, "Western" includes many, many different regions, and many different techniques and ingredients used in order to cook different dishes in an authentic manner. .....
It's all about The Prep! 

If I may add to OceanBeach's excellent comment:

Manhattan chowder is an abomination, not a chowder. 

There's BBQ and there's BBQ.  Texas BBQ is different from Memphis BBQ, different from Kansas City BBQ, different from Kentucky BBQ, different from St Louis BBQ, and definitely different from the Carolinas BBQ.  I actually liked the Carolinas BBQ (cider vinegar really cut down the fat) after years of living on James Island in SC.  What I didn't understand at all was Alabama BBQ with white sauce.  Tried it, couldn't stand it.

Spanish food is definitely not Mexican food, but tapa, paella, and tortilla española don't exist in Mexican food.  From that reason alone, I prefer the former although I do like the latter.  One thing I've learned after decades of travelling: never eat Mexican food in Europe and Asia.  It's the same as eating Manhattan chowder and thinking it's chowder.

Yes, it's all about the prep, but the ingredients are even more important IMO.

Agree with Wxx3 on the overcomplication of Internet recipes, especially in regards to Italian food.  During the years living in Italy, I learned to cook Italian food from a dozen Italian grandmothers, and never once I was taught to use more than 3 ingredients in any dish.  In my experience and observation, the everyday Italian in Italy do not cook the way chefs or celebs on TV and Internet show us.

Hapiness1988 wrote:

Wow, you have the very wide knowledge in food of many  countries.

You suggest a good idea of posting a new thread with the interesting title as well. (y)

Thanks a lot for your information.

P/s: Are you teaching cooking?

Regards,
Ni

As one Italian friend said to me, "I'm-ah not-ah gonna show you how-ah to cook-ah; I'm-ah gonna show you how-ah to LIVE-ah!!"   

I would enjoy a walk through a local market with one or more friends, exploring what's available (with a great interpreter  ) and--when allowed--tasting what we buy. As you mentioned earlier, how can you know what to add to a food dish if you haven't ever experienced the flavors? As Ciambella observed, The Prep is pointless without the right ingredients. 

When I was in my teen years, I was fascinated by a television chef, Graham Kerr, known as The Galloping Gourmet. He wasn't the most-respected chef in the world, but he was the most-fun to watch. He inspired a 'Joy of Cooking' (not to be confused with a famous cookbook with that same name). It would be great fun to continue on from the market to someone's kitchen to share in the 'joy' of creating something delicious together.

Yes, I 'teach' cooking... 

@OceanBeach -- If you ever come to Vung Tau, we should meet up.  My cooking skill is only passable, but I've eaten my way through 55 countries to know how everything should taste.  (I would've been as big as a house by now if not for the Asian gene.)  Even if we cannot cook together, at least we can talk about food.

@Hapiness -- OceanBeach gave you an excellent suggestion for a new thread with the title that will absolutely strike a chord in every American heart.  I would listened to him if I were one who wished to know about American (Western in your mind?) cuisine -- which IMO is the most diverse/blended in the world, due to the fact that almost everyone in the US has ready access to the many cuisines that made up his/her world -- Mexican, Italian, French, Indian, Thai, Moroccan, Chinese, Vietnamese, Greek, Korean, German, Cajun, Cuban, Japanese, Caribbean, Spanish, Brazilian/Argentinian, Ethiopian, Mediterranean, etc.  (During the years I stayed on and off in NYC, I strongly believed that I could've lived my entire life there without tasting the same ethnic dish twice.)

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Ciambella wrote:

@OceanBeach -- If you ever come to Vung Tau, we should meet up.  My cooking skill is only passable, but I've eaten my way through 55 countries to know how everything should taste.  (I would've been as big as a house by now if not for the Asian gene.)  Even if we cannot cook together, at least we can talk about food.

Deal, Ciambella!