Book excerpt: Real Vietnamese Cooking is your ticket to a new world of Southeast Asian tastes and flavors--from the traditional to the modern. On this vibrant culinary tour, visit the food stalls of Vietnam's bustling urban centers, pull up a kitchen chair for a family feast, and then--in one of the cookbook's most unique forays--sit down in a mess hall with the hungry soldiers of the Vietnamese Army. Real Vietnamese Cooking combines the collective culinary wisdom of three intrepid food explorers who spent many years training with Vietnam's best chefs while scouring the countryside in search of tastes few foreigners experience. The trio appear throughout the cookbook, in caricature form, serving as guides, teachers and food ambassadors. This cookbook introduces readers to local takes on classic dishes, as well as lesser known favorites--all delicious and accessible, made with easy-to-find ingredients. The more specialized, including rice paper wrappers and rice flour, are readily available in all major American grocery chains. Street eats, food stall favorites and home-cooked delicacies that savvy travelers could once only find on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and in the cafes of Hanoi are gathered here for the first time. This one-of-a-kind cookbook opens a new culinary window on contemporary Vietnam, exposing the full range of sweet, salty and savory tastes previously unavailable to the home cook. Dishes include: Shrimp-stuffed spring rolls Classic Pho