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Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam
Living in Vietnam for four years in the 1990s, Seattle native Kim Fay fell in love with the romantic landscapes, the rich culture, and the uninhibited warmth of the people. A decade later, she grew hungry for more. Inspired by the dream of learning to make a Vietnamese meal for her friends and family in America, Kim returned to Vietnam and embarked on an unforgettable five-week culinary journey from Hanoi to Saigon. Joined by her sister and best Vietnamese girlfriend, Kim set off to taste as much as possible while exploring rituals and traditions, street cafés and haute cuisine, famine and feast, and Communism and the legacy of war. Together, the three women discovered a society shaped by its ever-changing relationship with food. Every encounter serves up an enticing morsel, from uncovering the secret world of ragu in the French hill town of Dalat to bonding with the Julia Child of Vietnam in Saigon. Epicures and culture buffs will delight in markets, restaurants, farms, fisheries, and cooking classes as Kim assembles her dream meal and shares recipes such as banana flower salad and clay pot fish. Examining how we eat reflects who we are as individuals and as communities, A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam offers a feast for armchair gourmets, as well as a colorful guide for travelers hungering for their next adventure.
- GenresTravelFoodNonfiction
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
11 people are currently reading
252 people want to read
About the author
Kim Fay
13 books413 followersKim Fay is the author of the USA Today-bestselling Kate & Frida, the instant National Bestseller Love & Saffron, and The Map of Lost Memories, an Edgar Award Finalist for Best First Novel. She has also written a food memoir, Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam. She created and served as the series editor for the innovative To Asia With Love guidebooks, and was a Hotel and Travel Editor for the travel, food, and lifestyle website, Gayot.com, for thirteen years. She is currently the Managing Editor for The Animation Guild's Keyframe magazine and website.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 2, 2011
Enjoyed and still enjoying this wonderful read. A journey in my mind. Vietnam and all it holds seems so vibrant and dear to me now. Thank you for writing this for us! WOW! I will be sure to share it with friends and especially family from Vietnam. They are sure to become enraptured with your chapters like I have. I find myself reading it aloud to my husband. I like the look in his eyes when he to is carried away with her descriptions and tales.
You have also awakened my desire to travel and live in other cultures again.
WONDERFUL!
You have also awakened my desire to travel and live in other cultures again.
WONDERFUL!
June 4, 2012
Even though I have never traveled to Asia (let alone Europe!) Kim's book is written with such vivid description that it seems as though as readers we've seen and tasted the wonders of her beloved Vietnam. Sister Julie Ashborn's beautiful photographs enrich the reading experience even more! This is not a cookbook nor a travel guide, but instead a lovely way to take a trip to an exotic country without leaving home. I highly recommend this book and I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Kim's first novel, "The Map of Lost Memories"!
August 7, 2012
If you are like me and would love to travel to Vietnam but are unable to due to present circumstances, the next best thing is reading this book. Kim takes you there with her clear and colorful descriptions. While reading this book I experienced a trip to Vietnam and had the joy of meeting the Vietnemese people without ever having left home. Now I want to go even more!
May 11, 2012
I read this book from cover to cover in one sitting. I loved it, but I desperately wanted more recipes.
January 24, 2016
Beautiful stories... tasty recipes of the some of the best food on the planet and stunning pictures. Kim really captures what makes Vietnam so special!
April 30, 2023
Tough call on this book. I liked it, then it got bogged down, then I really liked it again. I don’t know if someone who has not been, or planning to go, to Vietnam would connect much with the content. I feel like I experienced a completely different Dalat than the author and I after reading the chapter on Phan Tiet I feel I must plan another trip. The history that weaves into the food conversations is really interesting. The Vietnamese openness in sharing how to shop, grow prepare, and eat the dishes is such a gift. I am a bit envious of Fay’s relationship with Bac Gai. How special to be daughter number four. It has got to be tough to write something personal when most everything has gone through an interpreter.
December 24, 2019
Preparing to visit Vietnam, and since food is one, just one, of my favorite things, Kim Fay's book was an enjoyable read. I appreciated the focus on food, but also the incorporation of some history & culture, and some sense of the people. I also appreciated the many short chapters & photos which allowed me to savor a small bite and then move away, returning later for a few more bites. It took me bit over a month to "devour" the book, but informed my upcoming travel in ways that neither the travel books, the history/current event books, and the art/literature books have done.
October 17, 2021
Want to try the Strawberry Wine, Bi Cuon Chay, and Julie's Banana Flower Salad recipes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 13, 2011
I always think that the planning and preparation for a big trip is half the fun, and Communion played a huge part in making my recent trip to Vietnam truly memorable. Kim Fay doesn't tell you about Vietnam, she takes you there. You can see it, smell it, taste it. I also bought the usual travel guides that told me what I should see, how to get there, and where to stay. Fay told me why I needed to go in the first place.
Fay's travels with her sister Julie and friend Huong are a quest for the real Vietnam, not the one in the travel guides. Since she had lived there before, she knew what she was looking for. When I was researching for my trip, Communion opened my eyes to so many unforeseen things. How so much of the traditional cuisine was being lost, and the valiant effort of some to keep it alive. How difficult it was for the "winners" of the Vietnam war. We came home and continued living the American dream. They were just beginning to realize how hard their lives were to be in their victory. She brings many people to life, sharing their struggles and triumphs after the war. She relates how significant food is to the average Vietnamese person - the choice of every ingredient in every dish is purposeful, meaningful, and personal. I consider myself to be a foodie but this was a revelation to me. This intimate relationship between people and the true nature of every ingredient. I will never just sit and eat again.
One of the main reasons for my trip to Vietnam was to go to cooking school. I did a lot of research on various schools but after reading Communion, I knew I had to meet Ms. Vy at the Morning Glory Cooking School in Hoi An. Fay's account of Ms. Vy was so compelling and interesting. After spending time in the kitchen with Ms. Vy, I can say that Fay's impressions of her were spot on. She was as delightful and amazing as Fay portrayed her. Thanks, Kim, for a great find!
The book gave me a great laundry list of places to go, things to do, people to see, and helped me compile the most important list - Things to Eat. And, for the most part, I did find and eat the wonderful dishes Fay recommended. Her descriptions were so good that when I finally did get to eat one of those much anticipated dishes, I didn't experience surprise, just a deeply satisfying, "I knew it would be that good."
The book is now on my cookbook shelf, a handy reference for some of the mainstays of Vietnamese cuisine. Only instead of just a recipe with a list of ingredients and directions, I know what it is like to struggle to make the perfect spring roll, having heard it first from Fay's own personal experiences in the kitchen with her adopted Vietnamese family.
One thing I regret about the trip was that I decided not to take the Communion book with me. I had read it twice, taken some great notes, but I always travel as light as possible. I was constantly wishing I had Communion with me to get Fay's take on something. Her account feels like a dear friend telling me about her trip, personal and intimate. It would be exactly the trip I would want if I could take my closest girlfriends to Vietnam.
If you are planning a trip to Vietnam, read this first. If not, read Communion, then head to the nearest Vietnamese restaurant. Everything you eat will taste amazing!
Fay's travels with her sister Julie and friend Huong are a quest for the real Vietnam, not the one in the travel guides. Since she had lived there before, she knew what she was looking for. When I was researching for my trip, Communion opened my eyes to so many unforeseen things. How so much of the traditional cuisine was being lost, and the valiant effort of some to keep it alive. How difficult it was for the "winners" of the Vietnam war. We came home and continued living the American dream. They were just beginning to realize how hard their lives were to be in their victory. She brings many people to life, sharing their struggles and triumphs after the war. She relates how significant food is to the average Vietnamese person - the choice of every ingredient in every dish is purposeful, meaningful, and personal. I consider myself to be a foodie but this was a revelation to me. This intimate relationship between people and the true nature of every ingredient. I will never just sit and eat again.
One of the main reasons for my trip to Vietnam was to go to cooking school. I did a lot of research on various schools but after reading Communion, I knew I had to meet Ms. Vy at the Morning Glory Cooking School in Hoi An. Fay's account of Ms. Vy was so compelling and interesting. After spending time in the kitchen with Ms. Vy, I can say that Fay's impressions of her were spot on. She was as delightful and amazing as Fay portrayed her. Thanks, Kim, for a great find!
The book gave me a great laundry list of places to go, things to do, people to see, and helped me compile the most important list - Things to Eat. And, for the most part, I did find and eat the wonderful dishes Fay recommended. Her descriptions were so good that when I finally did get to eat one of those much anticipated dishes, I didn't experience surprise, just a deeply satisfying, "I knew it would be that good."
The book is now on my cookbook shelf, a handy reference for some of the mainstays of Vietnamese cuisine. Only instead of just a recipe with a list of ingredients and directions, I know what it is like to struggle to make the perfect spring roll, having heard it first from Fay's own personal experiences in the kitchen with her adopted Vietnamese family.
One thing I regret about the trip was that I decided not to take the Communion book with me. I had read it twice, taken some great notes, but I always travel as light as possible. I was constantly wishing I had Communion with me to get Fay's take on something. Her account feels like a dear friend telling me about her trip, personal and intimate. It would be exactly the trip I would want if I could take my closest girlfriends to Vietnam.
If you are planning a trip to Vietnam, read this first. If not, read Communion, then head to the nearest Vietnamese restaurant. Everything you eat will taste amazing!
July 10, 2013
Sometimes I think American women travel to discover the taste of good food and to rediscover “The Art of Eating,” as M.F.K. Fisher termed it in her classic volume of travel, cookery, and enjoyment.
When I first discovered that book, I carried it with me and read it every chance I got–waiting at doctors’ offices, at soccer practices, at traffic lights. A friend saw me with it and asked, “Doesn’t that title frighten you?”
She was a woman who was substantially overweight; I was a woman who was constantly on a diet, but M.F.K. gave me an inkling of what food and eating could be. I didn’t discover that art until I went to Thailand where eating was an act of pleasure, not one of guilt, shame,and fear.
Although I am sure that Kim Fay’s relationship with food was much less troubled than mine, it is quite clear from her book that she discovered how much immense pleasure comes from good food that is freshly prepared and eaten in the company of friends during her four years of living in Vietnam.
Missing this dimension to her daily life when she went back home to the states, Kim returns to Vietnam with her photographer-sister to explore that country’s food–its history, its preparation, its flavors, from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. The result is a wonderful mixture of travel memoir, food literature, and cultural history, served up with a generous helping of humor and a number of tantalizing recipes.
Kim and her sister Julie are joined by Kim’s friend Huong, a fashionable and opinionated woman with a stunningly healthy appetite and a talent for finding the best places to fulfill her ravenous desire for good food. The three of them roam through cooking classes and restaurants, from Vietnam’s finest hotels to roadside stands, learning to cook regional classics while enjoying other dishes that they soon want to learn to cook.
Talking to chefs and organic farmers, connoisseurs of fish sauce and women who learned the importance of food through experiencing past famine, Kim Fay is adept at illuminating a country through the food that it prepares. Her love for Vietnam is obvious and her skill at describing who she meets, what she sees, and what she tastes as she travels from one end of the country to another makes her readers love it as well.
Through her eyes, Vietnam is revealed in all of its colors and flavors and textures. from “the opal blue” of its tropical twilight to “the sweet seep of sugar cane’ that infuses the taste of ground pork, from the colonial splendor of the hillside retreat of Dalat to a cozy household kitchen with its “dented pots, daggerlike knives, and faded plastic spice containers”, from world-famous chef Didier Corlou to the “Julia Child of Vietnam.”
Although she generously provides clear instructions on how to prepare claypot fish, banana flower salad and fresh spring rolls, along with lesser-known dishes, Kim Fay has written far more than the usual food memoir. She has infused the art of eating in Vietnam with its history, its culture, and more than a few damned good stories. Read her book, laugh, and then book your own culinary odyssey to Vietnam, with your copy of Communion tucked securely into your suitcase. Bon appetit!
When I first discovered that book, I carried it with me and read it every chance I got–waiting at doctors’ offices, at soccer practices, at traffic lights. A friend saw me with it and asked, “Doesn’t that title frighten you?”
She was a woman who was substantially overweight; I was a woman who was constantly on a diet, but M.F.K. gave me an inkling of what food and eating could be. I didn’t discover that art until I went to Thailand where eating was an act of pleasure, not one of guilt, shame,and fear.
Although I am sure that Kim Fay’s relationship with food was much less troubled than mine, it is quite clear from her book that she discovered how much immense pleasure comes from good food that is freshly prepared and eaten in the company of friends during her four years of living in Vietnam.
Missing this dimension to her daily life when she went back home to the states, Kim returns to Vietnam with her photographer-sister to explore that country’s food–its history, its preparation, its flavors, from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. The result is a wonderful mixture of travel memoir, food literature, and cultural history, served up with a generous helping of humor and a number of tantalizing recipes.
Kim and her sister Julie are joined by Kim’s friend Huong, a fashionable and opinionated woman with a stunningly healthy appetite and a talent for finding the best places to fulfill her ravenous desire for good food. The three of them roam through cooking classes and restaurants, from Vietnam’s finest hotels to roadside stands, learning to cook regional classics while enjoying other dishes that they soon want to learn to cook.
Talking to chefs and organic farmers, connoisseurs of fish sauce and women who learned the importance of food through experiencing past famine, Kim Fay is adept at illuminating a country through the food that it prepares. Her love for Vietnam is obvious and her skill at describing who she meets, what she sees, and what she tastes as she travels from one end of the country to another makes her readers love it as well.
Through her eyes, Vietnam is revealed in all of its colors and flavors and textures. from “the opal blue” of its tropical twilight to “the sweet seep of sugar cane’ that infuses the taste of ground pork, from the colonial splendor of the hillside retreat of Dalat to a cozy household kitchen with its “dented pots, daggerlike knives, and faded plastic spice containers”, from world-famous chef Didier Corlou to the “Julia Child of Vietnam.”
Although she generously provides clear instructions on how to prepare claypot fish, banana flower salad and fresh spring rolls, along with lesser-known dishes, Kim Fay has written far more than the usual food memoir. She has infused the art of eating in Vietnam with its history, its culture, and more than a few damned good stories. Read her book, laugh, and then book your own culinary odyssey to Vietnam, with your copy of Communion tucked securely into your suitcase. Bon appetit!
April 22, 2011
This book gave me an insider view of a country I knew little about. It's a personal travelogue narrated by someone who loves everything about Vietnam – food, cooking, history, culture, geography, people and the mingling of scents in the air. I didn't see any of the "remorse" mentioned by the previous reviewer. Maybe there was a touch of nostalgia (the writer is returning after an absence), but I liked the perspective this brought to the story. I viewed this book as an invitation to join the author and her friends on a personal exploration – which is what the photographs reflect. For this reader, they were very enjoyable and knowledgeable company.
May 3, 2011
I have not been to Vietnam. As I read through this book I felt some connection to a place and people I have yet to encounter. The warm and richly detailed narrative of Communion illustrates what we have in common regardless of traditions or circumstance. The descriptions of people, foods, recipes, and climates in the different regions of Vietnam are as inviting as the vibrant photos throughout. Until I can make my way to Vietnam, I’ll be on the look out here in Los Angeles for com hen and other dishes that Communion introduced me to.
July 27, 2010
Terrible photography combined with middle aged white woman pretentious self remorse.
January 15, 2014
I'm hungry.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews