In Thanh Hang's kitchen / Happy_Cangtin

This week, Atma visited Thanh Hang, the super foodie behind the Instagram account:@happy_cangtin. Discover her cuisine and her favorite Asian dishes:🧡

Can you tell us a few words about yourself?

I'm Thanh Hang ("Pretty Moon" in Vietnamese), I'm 28 years old and I live in Paris.

I work in marketing xxxx. The part of my job that excites me most is content marketing: I love creating, writing, producing, and adding my own personal touch!

When I'm not working, I'm eating. Yes! You'll find me either behind the stove or at a restaurant. But what I love most is sharing all my culinary and taste discoveries. I'm lucky enough to be able to do this every day thanks to my Instagram account @happy_cangtin. My goal? To democratize and promote Asian cuisine through recipes and great Parisian spots.

For me, this account is a true think tank and a meeting place: it gives me the opportunity to create, test, and have fun with content, as well as to interact with food enthusiasts!

When do you cook?

I love cooking for my family and friends: in my opinion, a good meal is, above all, synonymous with sharing, conversation, and laughter... My greatest pleasure: seeing my loved ones enjoy themselves! It was my mom who definitely passed on her love of convivial cooking to me! She's an excellent cook, and one thing's for sure, I haven't found a Vietnamese restaurant that has managed to dethrone her to this day (in all objectivity!).

So, in short, I invite my friends over as often as possible. Otherwise, I try to always prepare delicious meals during the week. You can really make beautiful things in literally 10 minutes, so why deprive yourself!

What's your favorite recipe?

I have a weakness for noodle dishes! My guilty pleasure is udon, fairly thick Japanese noodles with a consistency that's both firm and elastic. Super easy for lunch when you're working from home, for example, I love making stir-fried udon with broccoli.

The recipe is very simple: sauté a little garlic in coconut oil, add the udon, previously cooked in water, and then the sauce (1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp mirin, and a pinch of sugar). Serve with broccoli, which you've baked for 15 minutes with a little olive oil, salt, and paprika. Simple, quick, and effective! Let me know how it goes!

If you had to choose just one utensil, what would it be?

Without hesitation: a good pair of chopsticks! I use them for both cooking and eating. What I love is that each Asian country has its own unique chopsticks: for example, in Vietnam, they're longer and made of wood, while in Korea, they're shorter and made of metal. My personal challenge: to bring back all these chopsticks from my travels.

I've also been making pottery for a few years now, and I love cooking with the small pieces (bowls, small plates, etc.) that I've lovingly designed and crafted for my everyday life! I use them especially in my recipe videos for @happy_cangtin. I find they add that little something extra!

What's your magic ingredient?

As you can see, I love concocting delicious Asian dishes! In my kitchen, you'll always find these essentials, which I consider essential, adding that "umami" touch to my dishes. Umami is the fifth flavor that complements the four other more well-known flavors: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. To define it, I would say it's a very mild, rounded flavor that's both salty and slightly sweet.

I find soy, oyster, and nước mắm sauces to be particularly rich in umami! A hint of these ingredients in your dishes will really make a difference.

I also really like mirin, this sweet Japanese sake, which has the gift of enhancing your sauces.

What are your favorite places?

I'm lucky enough to live in Paris, and it's very easy to find grocery stores where you can cook Asian food (almost) as if you were in Asia.

For Japanese or Korean food, I go to KMART. They sell different types of noodles (soba, ramen, udon, etc.) and quality condiments (soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin, kimchi, etc.).

For Vietnamese or Thai food, I usually go to Tang Frères. This place is a real treasure trove! Ingredients for bubble tea, aromatic herbs, Thai curry, etc. You're sure to find something you like.

A song that makes you want to get busy in the kitchen?

"Butter" by BTS. I've been a fan of Korean culture since I was little, and it's truly good vibes music! It instantly puts me in a good mood. Perfect for getting into the kitchen in perfect conditions.

What is your best culinary memory?

I had the opportunity to organize and participate in a "pop-up restaurant" as part of a competition whose objective was to reward the most innovative food concept. To decide between the four finalists, the idea was very simple: bring together the four concepts (raw, Brazilian, Australian, and locavore) in a single location in the heart of the Marais district to allow the general public and the jury, made up of renowned chefs, to taste each restaurant's signature dish.

It was a gourmet experience and a true moment of joy and sharing. I think it was this event that made me realize that food rhymes with conviviality and innovation.

What are your favorite Instagram food accounts?

For inspiration, I love the account @thesocialfood. We're taking a taste journey with them!

For baking or cooking, I really like the accounts @lesyeuxgrognons and @diegoalary.

I also follow other Parisian foodies such as @go_eat_the_earth and @le_palaisdenono who share their daily food in Paris with great spontaneity.

And to end this interview, tell us which restaurant you would you dream of going to?

I dream of one day trying the three-star restaurant "Kei" with chef Kei Kobayashi to travel and discover his cuisine, which blends French gastronomy with strong Japanese influences. The Kagoshima Wagyu beef particularly catches my eye!

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