I fell in love with a Vietnamese restaurant, and with Clay Pot Pork. Chateau Saigon is a gem of a restaurant in the mecca of multi-ethnic eateries that line Buford Highway. Restaurants in this area of Atlanta are mostly in shopping centers and strip malls, alongside pawn shops, thrift stores, and car dealerships. In other words…not the trendy area of town. However there is a lot of good food tucked away there, and often the most dive-y looking spots are the most authentic. I don’t know much about Vietnamese cuisine to know if Chateau Saigon is “authentic” or not, but the restaurant is clean and filled with light, the service is elegant, and the food is beautifully presented and delicious. If you’re looking for a new and different dining experience in Atlanta, give it a try!
The Clay Pot Pork is an intensely flavored dish – served at Chateau Saigon in a heavy, piping hot pot. The meat is tender and is bound with a deeply rich sauce that has cooked down to the sticky essence of all its ingredients. Wanting to make this at home, I browsed through several cookbooks and the internet to find recipes. This recipe is modified primarily from Weave a Thousand Flavors – a blog that drew me in with mouth-watering photography and beautifully detailed instructions.
Using a good quality fish sauce is probably essential to this dish, since there is quite a bit of it in the recipe. I like Red Boat Fish Sauce because it is 100% pure, first pressed, high-protein fish sauce – made in Vietnam with only 2 ingredients: black anchovy and sea salt. Looking for “umami”…here it is! It is available in some stores (see their website), but you can also order it from Amazon.
You don’t have to have a clay pot – a good Dutch oven or braising pot (with a lid) would work. I used our Tagine
Ingredients:
- 3 pounds fatty pork shoulder (Boston butt), cut into cubes
- 5 to 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
- 1/2 cup (heaping) shallots, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
(or more if needed)
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha hot chili sauce
- 1/3 cup Vietnamese Fish Sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 to 4 scallions
- fresh ground black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
Preheat oven to 325F. Melt the coconut oil in the clay pot (or Dutch oven) over medium heat for a few minutes. Turn the heat up to medium-high, then add the pork in small batches and brown on all sides. (This will take several batches. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan or the meat will steam instead of brown.) When each batch is done, transfer the browned meat to a bowl. Add more oil if necessary.
Turn off the heat and add the sugar to the pan. Stir well to combine, then turn the heat back on to medium. Stir the sugar constantly until it melts and starts to separate from the oil (it will glob up, bubble and look pasty…don’t worry).
Add the shallots, garlic, and ginger to the sugar. Saute for a few minutes, until fragrant. Stir in the fish sauce and Sriracha sauce. Add the meat and all the accumulated juices to the pot. Add water and ground pepper. Stir well, tossing the meat until it is well-coated with the gravy. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
Cover with a tight-fitting lid and place in the oven. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the pork is caramel in color and tender, and the sauce is thick. Add more water if needed during cooking to keep the sauce from drying out.
Note: None of the recipes mention it, but I found that a lot of fat accumulated as the pork cooked. I spooned off excess fat near the end of the cooking time, reserving some to saute the green onions (next step).
While the pork is cooking, trim off the root and any wilted green parts from the scallions. Wash and dry with paper towels. Slice the white part of the scallion in thin pieces, and cut the green parts into ~1-inch segments. When the pork is almost ready, briefly saute the scallions in 1 tablespoon reserved oil from the pork (or coconut oil), until they are glossy and fragrant.
Serve the pork with Jasmine rice, topped with scallions.
Now that was tasty! The same can be said for our musical guests…Little Feat! One of America’s greatest bands, led by Lowell George, they served up some of the greatest tunes you’ll ever come across. Such as on Sailin Shoes
Waiting for Columbus 
, but would work equally well in any baking dish. We enjoyed the saucy chicken with roasted vegetables; it could be served over noodles or rice as well. The grapes are only heated until warmed throughout, so they add a fresh burst of clean flavor that contrasts well with the rich mushroom cream sauce.
before his untimely death in 1979, but its a honey. From his take on “I Can’t Stand The Rain” to his “20 Million Things”, this is a romping exercise in soul.
from Bobby “Blue” Bland is 
presents this legendary art clear of most of the clicks, pops and background noise that hampered previous versions, and finally you are close as you’ll ever get to sitting in that Dallas hotel room beside Johnson as he sang into a microphone in the corner. “Crossroads”, “32-20 Blues” and even the throwaway novelty number “They’re Red Hot” literally sound like a symphony. You hear his guitar in spacial clarity for the first time, and his vocals will chill your bones. THE blues disc of the year- if not the last 100.
is a great place to discover one of the most influential and enjoyable bluesmen ever.
was one of the final recordings by Alberta Hunter, who performed into her 80s, but she never lost a step along the way. Hers is the definitive “Nobody Knows You (When You’re Down and Out)”, apologies to one E. Clapton. And when she gets salty, as on “My Handy Man Ain’t Handy No More” you’ll be surprised an 83 year old woman can make ya blush. Sing it sister! 
. Every couple of days I try to cook something different in it…not only because it is a great new vessel to cook in, but also because I don’t want to figure out where to store it when it’s not in use! Every cabinet and flat surface in our house is overflowing – but not yet to the point where intervention is required. Right, honey? Honey? 
, both the Turks and the Greeks claim to have created stuffed vegetables, which most likely developed as part of a court cuisine meant to impress the rich and powerful. These stuffed peppers are impressive looking, especially considering they don’t take a huge amount of effort to prepare. 
from Rosanne Cash. This isn’t her best period sonically, since it was mostly from the ’80s and and despite then-husband Rodney Crowell’s best effort, it still sounds like MTV music. But the songs are great: “Seven Year Ache” and “My Baby Thinks He’s a Train”…Johnny’s daughter does good.
from K.D. Lang. Produced by Patsy Cline’s producer Owen Bradley, this collection of honky tonkers and weepers showcases Lang’s gorgeous voice almost as sweetly as pecan-stuffed dates! Yum! 
by Ghillie Basan and 
, which features Toumani Diabate and Ballake Sissoko from Mali, performing on a 
