Growing up in a busy Vietnamese home kitchen, I never knew what a food processor was. My childhood memories of crushing, mashing and grinding never came from the ease of a button. Instead, my parents took advantage of my free child labor and put me to into the involuntary sous chef station at the mortar and pestle.

Usually made of heavy stone, wood or even porcelain, this kitchen tool is found in almost every traditional Vietnamese home kitchen. The mortar, or the bowl, usually holds the ingredients and the pestle, the heavy pounding implement, crushes the ingredients to the desired texture and size.

My memories of pounding, pounding and more pounding with the pestle are all too vivid and heavy! We never had the small, lightweight mortar and pestles often found for use in pharmacies. My parents only valued the large and extra large granite monsters that weighed what seemed like a ton and that worked my biceps to bodybuilder status at age 6.

But even to this day, I can’t imagine my cooking without it. The mortar and pestle is a fantastic kitchen tool for crushing and breaking down essential Vietnamese ingredients such as garlic, ginger, chilies, lemongrass and other spices. The mortar can not only mash your ingredients, but it will release and retain the highly prized and aromatic juices and oils. When scooped out with a spoon, your end results will be extra flavorful and moist, something that a food processor can’t provide.

For Vietnamese cuisine, using a mortar and pestle is essential for achieving certain textures that modern kitchen conveniences are unable to duplicate. Usually found in most Asian markets, Asian restaurant supply stores, specialty kitchen stores and even online, mortar and pestles are very accessible. Investing in a quality stone or wood mortar and pestle will heighten the flavors of many of your dishes, sauces and give you a feel of what it was like in the old days, before kitchen tools had buttons on them.