- Washington Grown is made possible by funding from the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

And by The Potato Farmers of Washington.

Learn why Washington is home to the world's most productive potato fields and farmers by visiting potatoes.com.

[gentle music] - On this special season of "Washington Grown," we're following Washington produce around the world.

Here we go.

- I mean, there's just stuff happening everywhere.

- Breakfast, lunch or dinner.

- Yeah.

- I'm doing all the work over here.

- That's a Tomás Deluxe.

All good things are better shared, right?

- Cheers, my friend.

- Cheers.

- I can't even walk.

Hot digaddy dog.

- We got a lot to explore and a lot to do, so let's get to it.

- To Washington.

- To Washington.

- Washington.

- Hi everyone, I'm Kristi Gorenson and welcome to "Washington Grown."

Today we have a very special episode because this season we got to travel to the amazing city of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam.

Turns out our produce is pretty popular with people all over the world.

So today, we are taking you with us on our journey to Vietnam.

Tomás is visiting a Vietnamese night market.

[horn beeping] - Okay.

Oh, sorry.

Gotta get outta the road man, they will run you over.

- And I'm making a special salad at Ba Bar, a Vietnamese restaurant in Seattle.

What are you gonna do?

You gonna make me do all the work here?

You just pour, that's it.

Then we're trying some sweet treats at a bakery in Vietnam.

I cannot believe how many beautiful baked goods we have in front of us right now.

We're so lucky.

All this and more today on "Washington Grown."

First things first, getting all the way across the world to Asia is no easy task.

Suitcases packed full and cameras ready, we headed to the airport in the wee hours of the morning feeling tired, but excited.

I don't know who I am, and I don't know where I'm at, but I'm excited to go to Vietnam.

Once we met up with our team, we hopped on our first plane headed to Seoul, South Korea.

Here we go.

[guitar music] After that, it was time to hop onto another plane to our final destination.

- Now, we have arrived in Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam.

It's taken me 31 hours and three minutes to get here of nonstop traveling.

- After a good night's sleep, it was time to start the adventure.

Here's just a little taste of what we did in Vietnam.

- We've been in a lot of places all over the state of Washington, but this is not Kansas anymore.

- No, we are not in Kansas, we're not in Washington anymore, that's for sure.

Something's happening, what's happening?

They have, like, a whole pig that they were chopping and then all of a sudden they just moved really fast, not sure what happened.

We are going to go on a culinary adventure.

Don't take it all.

Oh, I thought you were.

- All right, here we go.

This is like a true game of "Frogger."

You just keep going, you don't stop.

- I've seen T-shirts around town that say "I survive Vietnamese traffic."

- Oh really?

- Yeah.

No one's got hit yet.

- No one's got hit yet, yeah exactly.

- We're okay.

- Mine's a little deep, isn't?

- Well, really narrow, sure.

- Yeah, it's for a big serving.

[both laughing] - Oh, we're getting five?

Oh, okay.

I think we just bought some cats.

- Did you?

- I didn't, bye.

- I think it's nap time now.

- You guys take a nap, I'll clean up.

- 1, 2, 3.

- Cheers!

- Love it.

- I love it too.

- But that's just a tiny taste of all the fun we had.

Stay tuned because all throughout this season we're going to bring you along on our adventure from Washington to Vietnam and beyond.

When I whisk, I throw things around.

- Yeah, try to keep it in the bowl.

- Pocket full of posies.

- Easy peasy.

You gotta have some fun, be a little messy.

Let's see where the next plane takes us.

- Yes.

Nope.

[Kristi laughs] [gentle playful music] [playful music] - Washington apples can be found all throughout Vietnam.

From the hustle and bustle of the cities to the calm and serene countrysides.

And tonight we're visiting the Nguyen An Ninh night market where customers come out from under the stars to buy produce from all over the world.

I've been to a Safeway over Thanksgiving, I've even been to a Walmart during Black Friday, but nothing can prepare you for the controlled chaos that is a Vietnamese night market.

- You come here busy time, it's like busy all night, you move around a lot.

You don't, forget about time, it's just gone.

Twan and his family work tirelessly to bring fruit into the night market.

And although their operation is near the city, the market serves customers from all over this part of the country.

- This is like the biggest, you know, wholesale market within southern province.

All the people from other province, they come in, they stack up their goods, they go in their, you know, back to their province, they sell in the morning.

- So, we're here and all of this busyness is happening at night, under the stars.

- Right.

- So why are we doing it now at night rather than during the day?

- First of all, the temperature, it's easier on the fruit.

Also, nighttime because of outer province, they take time like around- - Okay.

- You know, evening time they drive here like around four five hour.

- Right.

- By the time they get here around, you know, eight, nine, already, they pick up their food.

By morning time, like six in the morning.

- They're back in their place again and they sell again.

- There you go.

- And it's fresh.

- One of the produce managers explained that although they get some apples from other places, most of them are from Washington state and the US.

What do you think about Washington apples and Washington products?

[speaking Vietnamese] Couldn't said it better myself, that's awesome.

Thank you man.

- Thank you.

- I grew up in this market.

- Okay.

- And just been selling apple my whole life.

- Calvin has worked his entire life to make sure that Washington apples are fresh and ready for the customers.

Now traditionally, apples aren't grown here in Vietnam or not many?

- There are some kind of small apple like jujube, right?

- Tell me how these apples differ from the ones that you get here in Vietnam.

- Oh, so these apple are juicy, and tasty, and crunchy.

- Do you get a really big bulk of stuff from Washington state?

- Mostly, Washington state for sure.

They got cherries, they got apples.

I mean that's, you know, when the season come, apple is the main thing.

- Next, Calvin took me across the market to his cold storage where Washington fruit is kept fresh and ready to be sent throughout the provinces.

And with the market being so busy, you better watch your step.

I mean, there's just stuff happening everywhere.

[horn beeping] Okay.

Oh, sorry.

Gotta get outta the road, man.

They'll will run you over.

- So I have all the US apples ready here.

- So how would I say apple in Vietnamese?

- Tao.

- Tao?

- Tao.

- Just that simple?

- It's a premium.

You gotta look at this, premium.

- So what makes it, what makes this different from a ordinary gala?

- It's just more color and very hot and crunchy and the firm texture is very strong.

- So it sounds like the color that's the big deal here.

- Exactly.

- Like you wanna see it first with your eyes and know that's awesome.

- Exactly.

People buy with their eyes here.

- All right, let's take a look inside.

All right, come on, let's check this out.

Holy moly!

All right, woo!

When you gotta beat the heat in Vietnam you come in a big, huge refrigerator with Washington apples, that's how you beat the heat.

While I was chilling out in a nice cool freezer, Kristi and the rest of the crew were navigating that crazy traffic and that humid Vietnamese heat.

- Not sure how we... [playful music] - Everyone follow me.

- Tomás?

- What?

What?

- How did you?

How did you get in here?

- Hey, I looked for the coolest place I could find and sure enough I would find you here too.

- Of course.

Well, I'm carrying your stuff.

Here's your water.

- Thank you, Kristi.

- Hollywood.

- This is pretty cool, huh?

To come all the way to Vietnam to see all of our Washington products.

- Stemilt, yeah.

- So if you could say something to all the farmers back in Washington state who are growing these apples, what would you say to them?

- So I would say I'm very thankful to all the apple growers out there in Washington.

Without your apple, we don't really know how to celebrate Chinese New Year or Vietnamese New Year, so very meaningful, thank you.

- Last year, we featured a special Vietnamese street food restaurant that absolutely blew us away.

And since we got to visit Vietnam this year, we thought it was only right that we come back here at the Capitol Hill location of Ba Bar, owner Eric Banh is making sure that the flavors he knew growing up in Saigon are made here in Seattle with only the best local ingredients.

- When I first came to Seattle 26 years ago, I fell in love with this place.

This is the place to make amazing food.

- Although Ba Bar's Vietnamese Street food is amazing.

There's a whole different side to the menu that's just as good.

As your name suggests though, cold drinks, it's not just the great food that, but you have cold drinks.

- Because in Vietnam nobody drink warm drink.

Nobody.

- Right.

- It's so hot.

- Today I am getting a special demonstration on how to make a famous Ba Bar drink with their beverage director, Rob.

I know nothing about cocktails, I like cocktails.

I don't have the skills.

- Oh, let's do it.

- You have to show me.

- Happy to show you.

- Okay, what do we need to do first?

- So, we're making the Mary Morter here.

This is one of our class- - Mary Morter.

- Yes.

- This is one of our classic cocktails.

Been on our menu since we opened Ba Bar 11-ish years ago.

- And we have Washington grown mint.

- Correct.

- Right here.

- Yep.

- That's awesome.

So that's a little garnish.

We start by adding mint to some ice, then add one and a half ounces of gin, some special simple syrup, a half ounce of lime juice, and an ounce of celery juice.

Next comes a fun part.

- Basically these are meant to be just sealed with a quick pat, like that.

There you go.

And then you can just flip it around.

And then the key is you wanna just kind of hold both of the bottom and top tins with both hands and then you just shake.

Try to look really cool when you're doing it.

- Oh, sorry.

I was making a weird face, I think, when I was doing it.

There.

- There you go, you're a pro.

- Okay.

- And then to open these up, you just kind of crack, they call it crack the eggshell.

- Oh, that was easy.

- It opens it up.

- There we go.

- And that's that.

- Last step is to strain the drink and then try our creation.

Oh, that's really refreshing.

- Get like a little bit of herbaceousness from the mint in there.

- Yeah, the mint just tastes amazing.

And I wouldn't like taste it and say, oh wow, there's celery juice in there.

- I know, I know.

- It's just kind of really nice and fresh.

Come to Ba Bar for some great cold drinks, right?

- That's what we're known for.

- And find Rob.

Coming up later in the show.

I'm making a special Vietnamese salad with Washington Granny Smith apples and mint.

What would you call this salad?

- Ba Bar Washington green apple salad.

- Love it.

I love it.

- I know.

- That's perfect.

- Amazing.

[gentle playful music] - We're back at Ba Bar on Capitol Hill.

With such incredible food and drinks, there's so much to love about this restaurant, but don't take my word for it.

- Everything is very fresh and I think that makes a difference on the taste, the quality.

- Every single bite you take just is full of flavor.

- They have mint, they use basil in dishes that I'd never think of.

Sometimes you don't even see it, you're just biting and you're getting all these flavors and it's just amazing.

- Just high quality ingredients made with love.

- Full belly, content heart.

- Frankly, Kristi, I don't invent anything.

I just repackage and use the best ingredient that we can buy, good ingredient is the key.

- Ba Bar's owner, Eric Banh has a deep love of Vietnamese street food and his hope is that his customers will find the same love from his menu.

- When we opened Ba Bar I said, I want people to experience what I used to eat growing up in Vietnam.

You come here, you eat, and you can get a piece of that experience.

And when you go, you come back, you'll realize we are legit.

- Absolutely.

- Every bite, the flavor just explodes your mouth like it really does.

- The flavors are terrific.

Obviously, they're fresh.

- It's always just a fun place to come, an you know the food's gonna be good.

- No matter what dish you get, it just.

- What are we gonna make today though?

It's a salad with some Granny Smith apples?

- Yes.

Granny Smith apple with dried shrimp, pork with some fresh mint and rau ram.

And I'm gonna show you how to make a mother sauce called Nuóc châm.

- I'm Excited.

- Let's do it.

- You hear a car zooming by?

- Yes.

- We in a patio.

For the spirit of street food- - Yeah.

- You hear ambulance siren, you hear police car zooming by.

- Garbage truck.

- And I say, okay, you want street food?

Here we go.

- Here we go.

- So today, we're gonna do star fruit salad, but instead of star fruit, we're going to embrace and celebrate Washington green apple.

- I love that.

- Yes.

I'm gonna have you do Nuóc châm, it's the mother sauce of Vietnamese cuisine.

- Nuóc châm?

- Literally means dipping sauce.

- What are you gonna do?

You gonna make me do all the work here?

- You just pour, that's it.

- I got the easy job.

We start by mixing up some fish sauce, water, vinegar, sugar, and fresh lime juice.

Then add Thai chilies, jalapeños and garlic.

Now I learned on our trip to Vietnam that apples are called, it's táo, right?

- Táo.

- Táo?

- Táo.

- Táo.

- That's northern Vietnamese.

- Táo?

- Growing up in Saigon, I'm from the south.

- Okay, yeah.

- We call it bom, pomme, just like French.

- Pomme.

- Yeah.

- Oh, okay, yeah.

Next, we sauté some rehydrated shrimp jerky with garlic and shallots.

Meanwhile, we cut up some Washington grown Granny Smiths and carrots into slivers.

While, I was taking a nap.

Eric was hard at work, chopping.

[Eric laughs] Chopping all of this.

Now it's time to assemble a salad, starting with our apple and carrot slices.

Next, we rip up some mint and an herb called rau ram.

Finally, we pour on our Nuóc châm, add some pickled shallots and peppers, our shrimp jerky, then it's onto the protein.

This is not- - Just this alone, it doesn't look Vietnamese.

- Okay.

- But with the shrimp on there.

- Okay, yeah.

- A little bit of pork belly.

Then people say, oh, now that's Vietnamese.

- That's Vietnamese.

- Yeah.

We add some fresh shrimp and some pork that's been boiled with herbs.

Then we mix it up and finish it off with some broken rice powder.

- Xin mòi.

- Xin mòi.

- You please, bon appétit.

- Oh, thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Little bit salty, sour, sweet.

- The richness from the pork.

- Everything you want in a good hot weather salad.

What would you call this salad?

- Ba Bar Washington green apple salad.

- Love it.

I love it.

- I know.

- That's perfect.

- Amazing.

- It is.

That's delicious.

- No, it is amazing.

- How do we say thank you?

Cam on?

- Cam on.

- Cam on.

- Cam on.

Cam on, Kristi.

- Cam on, Eric.

To get the recipe for Ba Bar's Washington green apple salad, visit wagrown.com.

Coming up, we're trying some sweet treats at a Vietnamese bakery.

I cannot believe how many beautiful baked goods we have in front of us right now, we're so lucky.

And we're in the kitchen at Second Harvest trying Chef Laurent's Vietnamese apple rose cake.

[gentle playful music] When you think about Vietnamese food, what you're probably thinking of is a delicious savory soup, but I bet you didn't realize you're missing out on Vietnam's sweet treats.

Here in Ho Chi Min City, ABC bakery is making some of the best baked goods ever.

And leading the charge is the very talented Chef Kao Sieu Luc.

You're quite famous.

- Really?

- Chef Kao believes that everything his bakery makes needs to be just right.

And in order to make that happen, only the best ingredients make the cut.

- I believe quality.

Quality is important for us.

I believe Washington, the products may be the first choice for us.

- The first choice?

- Yes.

- Well we love that.

Chef Kao took me around the bakery where his employees were training with Washington ingredients in order to make the perfect baked goods.

So these are from Washington, I can tell just by looking at 'em.

- Yes.

We use Washington pear and Washington apple.

This one also Washington.

- Yeah, the red potatoes.

- Very nice color.

The apple, we use Washington apple.

And then we drop the small pieces put in the water.

Then we ferment about seven day.

This is a natural yeast.

- Yeast, okay.

- Yeah.

- That natural yeast is then used to make some amazing sourdough.

Everything smells so good in here.

That's gorgeous.

I love how ornate it is.

Before we left, Chef Kao treated us to a baked good or maybe more than one.

I cannot believe how many beautiful baked goods we have in front of us right now.

We're so lucky.

- I'm a little overwhelmed with the amount of goodness sitting here.

- Now comes our favorite part.

- Oh.

- Oh, that's so pretty.

- Sorry, Lady first.

- Thank you.

- Oh man.

- Are you okay?

- It's so good, it is so good Chef.

And there you are.

- Yeah, me.

- You're so cute.

Before Chef Kao rolled us out of the building, we tried a special treat made with Washington potatoes.

And who better to try it with than the Director of the Washington Potato Commission, Chris Voigt.

You don't get the whole thing, Chris.

- Sorry.

- This is like breakfast, lunch, and dinner all combined into one pastry.

- This is really, really, really delicious.

- I think it's nap time now.

- You guys take a nap, I'll clean up.

- It's a long trip from Washington to Vietnam.

So, how does our farm grown food arrive here so fresh and delicious?

Ports like Cat Lai in Ho Chi Minh City play a huge role in bringing Washington fruits and veggies to Vietnamese consumers.

- Cat Lai Port is the feeder terminal.

- Okay.

- We connect with Intra-Asia.

- Bui Van Quy is the Executive President of Saigon Newport Corporation.

After Washington products go to a larger port, they are shipped here to be sold in Vietnam or sent to another market in Asia.

With so many ships coming and going, this port is very busy.

- Every month we are receiving 90 vessel.

- During our visit, we were treated to a very special tour.

[guitar music] - We import a lot.

From US and Washington State, we import a lot of meat, milk, vegetable, some other seafood as well.

- Fruits are very, very popular here, so Washington cherries and Washington apples are incredibly popular here.

- Benjamin Petlock is the senior agricultural attaché with the Foreign Agricultural Service.

He's lived in Vietnam for over eight years, working to help improve Vietnamese and US agricultural trade.

How would you say that the relationship is between Vietnam and the United States as far as trade?

- You know, it's really great 'cause I kind of feel the trade relationship is a perfect snapshot of how the United States and Vietnam have become closer since we normalized relations in 1995.

So, in 1995, Vietnam was our a 102 largest market for US food and agriculture products, it's now our eighth largest market.

- We see that a lot, the potentialities between two countries that we can be reached higher especially a lot of product from US can be coming more and more into Vietnam.

- What would you like to say to Washingtonians?

- First of all, come to Vietnam.

It's a great country.

There's a lot of excitement here.

The Vietnamese love to meet people, they're some of the warmest people I've ever met in my entire life.

I would say the relationship between United States and Vietnam is the best it's ever been.

So when you put all these factors together, the amount of opportunities for US agriculture, it just increases every day.

[upbeat music] - We are in the kitchen at Second Harvest Food Bank in Spokane.

And Wa Grown went international.

- Oh boy, did we ever- - This year.

Yes.

- New season.

- New season, I know.

And here we are together once again.

Chef Laurent Zirotti.

- So good to see you.

- And Tomás.

Where we get to taste some wonderful food with some recipes developed- - Yes, this- - By Chef Laurent.

- We decided to create our own recipes, right?

- And develop them and share them with you on wagrown.com.

- Yeah.

- Well, in the true spirit of international, you're an international- - Yeah- - Culinary- - Yes.

- Teacher.

- Well, the accent only is international, that's about it.

We have culinary everywhere, different spices, different flavors, everything that unite us around the table, around the dish.

And I wish you would've taken me with you guys.

- I know, we- - In your plane trip.

- Vietnam, Mexico.

- Mexico.

- We've had the opportunity over the past decade to really explore a lot of the nooks and crannies of our state.

And now, to be able to given a plane ticket and say, now let's see where our produce goes.

- And how it's used in other countries.

I mean, what a delight it was this season to be able to do that.

- And that was eyeopening.

- Yeah.

- It's a super wonderful season that we've got in store of great food.

What are we gonna make today?

- Well, we're gonna make a very traditional Vietnamese cake.

- Okay.

- With apple from Washington.

Red apples.

I won't pronounce it in Vietnamese because already English is not my forte, so imagine Vietnamese, right?

So, it's a Vietnamese rose apple cake.

- Okay.

- Very simple to make.

You can find the recipe on wagrown.com.

I think it's a great recipe you could make with your kids.

- Awesome.

- 'Cause it looks so great.

- It looks so beautiful.

- So beautiful, exactly.

- Okay, let's see how you make it.

- Let's look at it.

[guitar music] - So that was like magic with the- - I mean- - Look at this.

- With the sugar coming down.

- We've heard it many times before you eat with your eyes first.

- Yes.

- And when you see something that beautiful.

- Yeah.

- How could you not be impressed?

- Let's dig in.

Is it better just to pick it up and... - Oh, just- - Just pick it up, okay.

- Just pick it up.

- Here we go.

- All right.

Puff pastry is like also one of my favorite things, so- - It's the butter.

- Apples and- - It's the butter- - Puff pastry, so good.

- That is a fun way to have apple pie.

- Easy, you know.

Maybe you put them on a skewer and make a bouquet of apple roses.

- Oh, you could, how fun.

- You could do that, you know at a party.

- That's a great idea, but like you said, it's kind of fun for like maybe you and your children to try.

- I think it's such an easy recipe that.

And that looks something different, you know?

It looks like a rose really.

- Impress your guests.

- You're making this to impress the in-laws.

- Totally.

Exactly.

- I was thinking about my children, but you know, if you want the in-laws- - It can may be my book club ladies might- - Oh, yes.

- And you use that apricot jam, and if you have a little bit of leftover apricot jam after, you melt it again and you brush it over your cake and it makes it shiny, you know, like in your pastry shop.

- Oh, yeah.

You know, on our travels we learned, you know, international wise, like they love, like in Vietnam especially, it's very artistic.

- Yeah.

- Everything they make is like so artfully created.

- Yep.

- So this kind of definitely reminds me of that.

- It makes you go, ooh, when you see it.

Ooh, look at that.

- And this does too.

- This is as well.

- Ooh.

- Ooh.

- Well, I'm gonna stop looking- - Thank you Laurent.

- I'm gonna stop looking at it.

- Yes.

So give it a try.

You'll find the recipe on wagrown.com.

To get the recipe for Chef Laurent Zirotti's Vietnamese apple rose cake, visit us at wagrown.com.

From the fields and orchards right here in Washington to Asia and other markets all around the world, our state really does shine producing the best food out there.

That's it for this episode of "Washington Grown."

We'll see you next time.