Happy New Year! Vietnamese pork bowl with pickled daikon, carrot, and Japanese onion

There's something special about this time of year - the holidays are coming to an end, we have consumed more calories than we care to admit, and somewhere deep inside us a restlessness brews for what the new year has in store. Personally I am extremely excited for the new growing season.  I have spent the past year building the farm and putting all the necessary pieces into place. Now it's time to focus on building the soil and producing even more amazing food for Ronin restaurant. 

This year I decided to partake in a healthy New Years Eve celebration. I figured it would be a little more productive to set goals, and dream big dreams, while completely sober with a nice farm fresh meal as my inspiration. So I traded in the booze for some Topo Chico instead and I headed out to the farm to harvest some fresh veggies for dinner. I knew I had plenty of daikon at the farm so I decided to go with an Asian recipe. I gathered some daikon and carrots and then headed to the herb garden.  A quick glance around and I knew exactly what I wanted to make.  I grabbed some Japanese green onions, Japanese wild parsley, and some cilantro and I headed to the kitchen.

From left to right: cilantro, daikon, mixed carrots, Japanese green onions, and Japanese wild parsley.

First off, I would like to preface this recipe by saying that even though I am obsessed with Vietnamese food right now I actually don't know a lot about it.  Thai food used to be my go-to style when it came to Asian food, but lately Vietnamese food has won my heart.  I will admit that this recipe is probably not 100% authentic.  I guess you could also call it a fusion recipe since I am using soba noodles (soba is actually the Japanese word for buckwheat). I found it to be delicious nonetheless and I hope you enjoy it.

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Pickled daikons for a tangy topping

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Final product. Yum!

Vietnamese Pork And Noodle Bowl