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 four more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pork belly and cook for about 5 minutes, until the water returns to a boil. Drain the pork and, when cool enough to handle, prick holes all over the skin using a fork or a pronged tenderizer. Rub the skin side with 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce.
  In a large, deep Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the pork belly, skin side down. Decrease the heat to medium, cover the pot partially to protect yourself from oil splatters, and cook for about 10 minutes, until the skin is golden brown and crisp. Carefully flip the pork over and cook for an additional 3 minutes on the second side. Remove the pot from the heat, transfer the pork to a bowl, and pour the fat that has accumulated in the pot into a small heatproof bowl. Set the fat aside.
  Add cold water to cover the pork and let stand for 30 minutes. The skin will bubble up and soften. Remove the pork from the bowl, discard the water, and cut the meat crosswise into ¾-inch-wide strips.
  While the pork is soaking, make the sauce. In a small bowl, combine the bean curd, oyster sauce, the remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce, and the sugar. Mash the bean curd with the back of a spoon, then stir until the sauce is smooth. Add the star anise and stir to combine.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the last three paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: 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.
  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.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.