Food Colourings
The colour of Vietnamese food comes from natural ingredients.
- Red: usually from beetroot or by frying annatto seed to make oil (dầu điều)
- Orange: for sticky rice, comes from Gac
- Yellow: from turmeric
- Green: from pandan leaf or katuk
- Purple: from magenta plant (lá cẩm)
- Black: of gai cake is from ramie leaf (lá gai)
- Dark brown: for stew dishes, using nước màu or nước hàng, which is made by heating sugar to the temperature above that of caramel (170 °C).
Colourings can be absorbed by mixing ground colourings or colouring liquid or wraping before boiling to get the extracts. When colouring dishes, the tastes and smells of colourings must also be considered.
Read more about this topic: Vietnamese Cuisine
Famous quotes containing the word food:
“There is no instant of time when one creature is not being devoured by another. Over all these numerous races of animals man is placed, and his destructive hand spares nothing that lives. He kills to obtain food and he kills to clothe himself; he kills to adorn himself; he kills in order to attack and he kills to defend himself; he kills to instruct himself and he kills to amuse himself; he kills to kill. Proud and terrible king, he wants everything and nothing resists him.”
—Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821)