conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide a description for a book titled Vietnamese Home Cooking about div, Cucumber, h4>Featured with the genre: Cookbooks, Food & Wine, Regional & International.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: <div class="aplus"> <h4>Featured Recipe: Sichuan Cucumber Pickles</h4> <div class="rightImage" style="width: 208px;"><img alt="Sichuan Cucumber Pickles" height="300" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/rando-ems/SichuanCucumberPickles-208-._V389250652_.jpg" width="208" /></div>
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the first five paragraphs for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Vietnamese Home Cooking
  A Vietnamese meal, unlike a Western meal, is rarely just a single dish. More often, it's a collection of dishes—some served hot, others cool—that contain a mixture of textures and employ a variety of cooking techniques.
  At home, I might pair a steamed whole fish or a clay pot with some stir-fried greens, or maybe some fried chicken wings. Rice is often served with the meal, but noodles usually come at the end, because they are so filling that eating them at the start of the meal would ruin your appetite. And though some dishes are served hot—like soups and braises—other things, like noodles, rolls, and dumplings—are perfectly good at room temperature.
  For more on Charles Phan and his cooking inspiration, visit: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cw40YdWKBA> (2:11)
  I can still remember the menu: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, gravy, cranberry sauce, and an apple pie. It was Thanksgiving 1978, and I had just cooked my first major meal in my family's small kitchen. I was fifteen years old and our family of ten—my parents, five siblings, and my aunt and uncle—had been living in America for only eleven months. We had left Vietnam three years earlier, in April 1975, just before the fall of Ho Chi Minh City. From there we went to Guam, where we spent two years before finally making our way to the United States.
  I was the oldest of my siblings and the only one who spoke some English, so I set about trying to assimilate our family to our new life in America. There I was, a kid who had never even seen Brussels sprouts, attempting to create the most American of American meals for my Vietnamese family in our rental apartment in San Francisco's Chinatown. Thanksgiving didn't mean much to me, since I didn't know what was being celebrated, but big family feasts were familiar. I saw cooking Thanksgiving dinner as a way of fitting in, which as a poor, immigrant kid in uncool clothes who barely spoke English I desperately wanted to do. I'd gotten my hands on a copy of Gourmet magazine that featured a Thanksgiving feast and decided to make the entire menu, cooking it all on our white double-oven Wedgewood stove. My family didn't like the dinner. I remember them saying, "We'd rather eat Chinese food any day." Thank God I'd cooked rice to go with the gravy.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide another paragraph.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: In a large clay pot or heavy-bottomed pot, heat 2 tablespoons of the reserved fat over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the ginger, scallions, and sauce mixture and cook for 2 minutes more.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the last four paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Often labeled "vegetarian oyster sauce," this is a vegetarian alternative to traditional oyster sauce, with shiitake mushrooms standing in for the oysters. It is deep brown and has a rich, savory-sweet flavor. Check the label before buying; lesser companies often boost the flavor of their sauce with MSG. Once opened, it will keep, refrigerated, for many months. See also oyster sauce.
  Friend and photographer Eric Wolfinger not only has a fantastic eye and patience, he also has an iron stomach, which was put to the test when we traveled together in Vietnam.
  Of course, many thanks to my family, starting with my wife Angkana and my children, brothers and sisters, in-laws, and mother and father.
  Charles Phan is the executive chef and owner of The Slanted Door family of restaurants. He received the James Beard Award for Best Chef California in 2004, and in 2011 was inducted into the James Beard Foundation's list of Who's Who of Food in America. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and their three children.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Swap the first and the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: He lives in San Francisco with his wife and their three children. It is deep brown and has a rich, savory-sweet flavor. Check the label before buying; lesser companies often boost the flavor of their sauce with MSG. Once opened, it will keep, refrigerated, for many months. See also oyster sauce.
  Friend and photographer Eric Wolfinger not only has a fantastic eye and patience, he also has an iron stomach, which was put to the test when we traveled together in Vietnam.
  Of course, many thanks to my family, starting with my wife Angkana and my children, brothers and sisters, in-laws, and mother and father.
  Charles Phan is the executive chef and owner of The Slanted Door family of restaurants. He received the James Beard Award for Best Chef California in 2004, and in 2011 was inducted into the James Beard Foundation's list of Who's Who of Food in America.Often labeled "vegetarian oyster sauce," this is a vegetarian alternative to traditional oyster sauce, with shiitake mushrooms standing in for the oysters.