WINTERPORT – Bich Nga Burrill’s life has all the elements of a movie script – drama, death, intrigue, a brush with the black market, deception, bribery, humor, romance and family ties. It also has all the elements of a great meal – sugar, spice, savory aromas and exotic flavors.

Burrill, a longtime Winterport resident and caterer who is a native of Saigon, gives the dish – and the dishes – in her recently published cookbook-memoir “Vietnam Memories.”

“This is a portrait,” Burrill said over a lunch of Vietnamese summer rolls with peanut sauce, spicy chicken soup, egg rolls, steamed meat buns and jasmine tea. “I painted a picture of what it’s like to be a woman living in Vietnam. This is a story so many people don’t tell.”

To the regulars at the Bangor, Stonington and Bar Harbor farmers markets, Burrill is like a Vietnamese Nigella Lawson – she’s at once sassy, sexy and motherly – and she’s one heck of a cook. Though she’s fit and petite, her presence is larger than life. So is her story.

The tale follows her from her mother’s kitchen to her glamorous life in Saigon, hobnobbing with celebrities. Later, she tells of working as a cashier at the Bien Hoa air base, where she cooked for American GIs in exchange for items at the PX. Everything from Ritz crackers to chewing gum had value on the black market, and Burrill worked it like a pro. She and a friend rented a big house, paid off the cops and set up an underground nightclub.

“The reason why we didn’t make money is because we let good-looking guys in for free,” Burrill said with a wicked grin.

Not surprisingly, she made plenty of friends, including a GI who introduced her to the American staple of pot roast. In the book, she shares her spicier version of the recipe. She also fell in love with a dashing pilot who wanted to take her to Hawaii to meet his mother.

But it wasn’t all fun and games. One of her closest friends lived a double life as a call girl and was killed in a hit-and-run that was no accident. A favorite cafe was vaporized by a bomb. And her pilot died on a flight mission.

“I remember the stories in my head – I still remember it like yesterday,” Burrill said, pointing to her photograph on the book jacket. “That’s the face of a Vietnamese woman who fell in love with America.”

Her love affair with America began before she even left her native country. A week before the fall of Saigon, she passed a truck full of dismembered bodies on her way back from a black-market delivery. The image remains burned in her memory.

A friend in the intelligence community told her if she could get out of the country, she should do it immediately. So she wheedled her way out of Vietnam with an expired visa, a little trickery and a lot of luck.

A cup of pea soup eased the transition – it sustained her when she landed in Guam, a pit stop on the way to the United States.

“It was my first meal away from Vietnam,” she wrote. “A cup of that hot soup, filled with the kindness of strangers, is something I shall never forget.”

Though the stories in “Vietnam Memories” are compelling, so too are the dishes that accompany them. For Burrill, aromas and flavors are as important as characters and events.

“Along the way, each recipe is a memoir of the trip,” she said.

East Meets West Meat Loaf, for example, marks her stay in Long Beach, Calif. There, she met her husband, Steve, a merchant marine from Maine. Meat loaf is one of his favorite meals, but Bich Nga (who pronounces her name bick-nah) has given it her own twist with soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili and garlic. The couple moved to Maine in the late 1970s, and it is here that Bich Nga’s story becomes a family affair.

“When I moved to Maine, I thought, ‘If I don’t cook, I’m going to go hungry,'” she recalled, laughing. “Thank God I know how to cook.”

Her cooking evolved with the birth of her daughters. Amanda, whom she calls her “little monster,” has her own Monster Soup. Sara Maie, the cook in the family, has the Princess Dessert. And Samantha, the youngest, gets Baby Love’s Chicken. Each dish blends elements of Vietnamese and American favorites.

The book, which has been in the works for the last eight years, is like a fourth child. The fact that it’s finished – and has thus far been very well-received – is the best Mother’s Day present of all.

“What a blessing, to be able to tell such a story and have it end up in such a satisfying way,” Burrill said. “This is a tribute to Vietnam. It’s a ‘thank you’ to Americans to give me this space to live.”

For information or to order “Vietnam Memories,” call Burrill at 223-4150, e-mail fareastcuisine@aol.com or visit www.trafford.com/05-1800. Burrill will also give a cooking demonstration and book signing at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, at Pairings in Winterport. For information or to register, call 223-0990.

East Meets West Meat Loaf

For meat loaf:

1 large onion, chopped and caramelized with 1 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 pounds 90 percent lean ground beef

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon granulated garlic

2 eggs

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

For glaze:

1/2 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons chili-garlic sauce

1 tablespoon Sriracha hot sauce (optional)

In a hot skillet with 2 teaspoons vegetable oil, saute the onion for 2-3 minutes. Add sugar. Stir constantly until the onion is nicely brown (2-3 minutes). In a large bowl, mix onion and the rest of the meat loaf ingredients. Shape into an oval loaf. Make a trench in the middle of the loaf for glaze and place loaf in a pan.

Mix glaze and pour into trench. Bake in 350-degree oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. Slice and serve.

Note: Oyster sauce, chili-garlic sauce and Sriracha hot sauce are all available in the Asian section of the supermarket or at natural foods stores.

Fresh Summer Rolls

Makes 4 appetizer-size servings (2 rolls each)

2 cooked lobster tails, shredded, or 8 ounces cooked shrimp

8 ounces cooked pork loin, sliced thin

1 head Boston lettuce

Handful fresh mint

Handful fresh cilantro

Handful fresh Thai basil

1 cup cooked rice stick noodles

1 package rice wrappers

Peanut Butter Dipping Sauce (recipe follows)

To assemble the rolls, dip rice wrapper into warm water. Lay wrapper on a plate. Layer with 1 leaf of lettuce, rice sticks, herbs, shrimp or lobster and pork. Roll up tightly.

Serve with peanut butter dipping sauce.

To cook rice sticks: You don’t need to soak the noodles, just drop the rice sticks in boiling water. When the water resumes a boil, set timer for 4 or 5 minutes. drain and rinse in cold water. Noodles should be soft and slightly crunchy, not mushy. Don’t overcook.

Note: This is a great dish for parties because you can lay out all the ingredients and let guests roll their own.

Peanut Butter Dipping Sauce

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

3 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 1/2 tablespoons rice or white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes (to taste)

1 tablespoon crispy shallot

1 tablespoon crispy garlic

In a blender, combine all ingredients. Garnish with fresh chopped peanuts, sliced chilies, fresh mint and cilantro.

To make crispy garlic and shallot, take 1 tablespoon thinly sliced shallot and 1 tablespoon chopped garlic and cook in canola or peanut oil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until golden brown (about 5 minutes). Be careful not to overcook. Remove from oil and drain on a paper towel.