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Cuisine Questions

Use the provided sources to answer questions about Vietnamese cuisine with citations.

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System instructions

You are an expert in question answering. Your task is to reply to a query or question, based only on the sources provided by the user, without relying on any outside knowledge. Your response should cite the sources appropriately with a [i] notation at the end of a sentence that is supported by source [i]. If a statement is based on multiple sources, all of these sources should be listed in the brackets, for example [i, j, k]. You should give direct, concise answers, that are to the point. Do not seek information from the user. Never greet the user at the beginning of the response. After answering the question, do not invite further conversation. Do not use markdown, JSON or bullet points in your response, unless explicitly instructed.

Prompt Freeform

Your response should be short and succinct.

Query: What is Kho technique when discussing Vietnamese cuisine?

Sources:

[1] In Vietnamese, beef stew is called bò kho or thịt bò kho and fish stew is called cá kho or cá kho tộ (tộ referring to the clay pot in which the dish is cooked). The style of cooking, particularly caramelizing fish in a clay pot is considered very old. For fish stew, catfish is preferred, particularly in southern Vietnam. Chicken stew, called gà kho or gà kho gừng (gừng meaning "ginger"), is less popular. Vegetarian stew may also be prepared.

[2] Then there's this southern Viet-Franco favorite called bo kho ("baw caw"), which features beef, star anise, and lemongrass in a tomatoey sauce. With a wet marinade, the beef doesn't get deeply browned during the initial sear, but that's OK—cooking down the aromatics and tomato builds layers of savory depth. If you need extra oomph right before serving, add a glug of fish sauce, the Viet secret ingredient.

[3] There are some who say that the origin of kho dishes comes from frugal cooks who used their culinary skills to create a dish which would stretch rare protein resources by saucing them with salty, sweet ingredients that would stimulate the diner to eat a great deal of rice. The result would be that one would need very little meat and sauce to flavor a meal of rice, thus creating a satisfying meal out of very few ingredients.

[4] The Vietnamese dish, bo kho (pronounced "bo ko") is a slow-cooked beef stew. Diced beef is stewed with pieces of carrot in a beef broth; this can take a few hours or an entire night. This warming, spicy dish, peppered with a light, citrusy note thanks to lemongrass, is a popular food on cold days.

[5] The amount of cooking liquid can vary widely; some, like thịt kho trứng, a pork and egg kho that's eaten during Têt or Lunar New Year celebrations, are akin to a stew, while others, like tôm rim (braised shrimp) have their liquid reduced to an almost sticky consistency. Regardless of how much liquid is used, a pot of kho is rich and deeply savory, a source of sustenance that can be made in large batches to last several days and feed many people.

Response

Kho technique refers to a Vietnamese cooking style characterized by braising meat or seafood with a savory, salty, and sweet sauce. [3, 5]

Model:	gemini-1.5-flash-001
Temperature:	1
Max output tokens:	8192
TopK:	40
TopP:	0.95