You are learning cooking methods: you will read the scene it happens in, take apart the pattern behind them (cooking method vocabulary), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.
Reading a Vietnamese menu. The cooking method characters are the key to understanding what you're ordering. Knowing nướng, hấp, kho, chiên, xào unlocks every Vietnamese menu.
The server has ordered for them: four dishes. First arrives: gỏi cuốn (fresh spring rolls) — rice paper, vermicelli, shrimp, fresh herbs, no cooking involved. He points: 「Món này nấu như thế nào?」 She laughs. 「Không nấu — cuốn sống.」 Not cooked — rolled fresh.
Second: cá kho tộ (fish braised in a clay pot with caramelized fish sauce). Dark, lacquered, fragrant. 「Kho — tuyệt vời! Đậm đà lắm!」 She explains: fish sauce, palm sugar, ginger, caramelized slowly in a clay pot. The technique his grandmother would use.
Third: rau muống xào tỏi (water spinach stir-fried with garlic). Hot from the wok. 「Xào — thơm phức!」 The garlic smoke still rising.
Fourth: hấp cá với gừng hành. Steamed. Pure. 「Tươi ngon nhất!」 The freshest and best.