Pho – Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup

There is a grace that permeates through every nook and cranny of my home when this pot is brewing in the kitchen. It is the thing that gives my body a sense of safety and nurture. It is the meal that I call home, and whenever I catch a whiff of the precious spices simmering along with the marrow bones, my neck instantly arches up and my nose points up into the air. “Yes, a fresh pot is brewing”. An engaged and knowing smile crosses my heart and I know I must give in to the temptation to what Vietnamese call Phở.

There must be some magical formula that causes the hard-working people of Vietnam to participate in the ritual of eating this morning, noon and night. It is too good to save for one time of the day, and if your cravings dictate when you eat, you too may find yourself huddling at a table, slurping away at the smooth as silk rice noodles first thing in the morning with your family.

There is also the never ending search for the ultimate broth. No matter how unapologetically perfect one’s broth has become… it could be better. Every chef or cook of a pho noodle house understands that no matter how good their broth is, they will never cease to make adjustments to find the ultimate, most succulent broth known to humans.

Then there are the rumours, perhaps pedalled along by non-believers, accusing that the addictive nature of this dish can be caused by either the copious amounts of MSG dumped into the soup, or that one of the secret herbs and spice is marijuana. pift. whatever.

I have attempted a few recipes from different cookbooks. This one comes very close to the taste of my mother’s broth. In fact, my mother’s pho is the best I have ever eaten. She somehow manages to make one of the clearest, most potent, heart warming, delightful broths I have ever come across. She makes everybody else’s taste like watery soup. I cackle whenever I witness her in the kitchen making one of these. When my mother makes pho, the entire neighbourhood comes for a visit. Therefore she uses a pot the size of a truck. I call it the “Jail Pot”. Mum is small in size and delicate in bone structure, it is one of the most humbling and humourous things to watch when she is stirring this mean-monster of a pot.

My best advice is to not cut corners. Do not buy ready made beef stock and simmer it with the spices, in the hopes that you will not have to deal with parboiling the bones and the long cooking time. Firstly, you will not get that hearty flavour that comes from hours of simmering the marrow bones. Secondly, even though you will be boiling this soup for almost 4 hours, you don’t need to be hanging around the kitchen for the entire time. It is a lot easier than it looks, and a home made broth from your kitchen will make you the talk of the town!

Recipe adapted from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen

Broth
2 brown onions, cut in halves
7cm (3 inch) chubby fresh ginger, sliced thinly
2 carrots, thickly sliced
2.5kg to 3kg (5-6 pounds) beef leg (marrow) bones and knuckle
6 Litres of water
600g (1.5 pounds) boneless beef chuck
2 tablespoons rock salt or sea salt
2.5cm (1 inch) chunk yellow rock sugar
1/4 cup Vietnamese fish sauce

Spice Bag
5 star anise
6 whole cloves
7cm (3 inch) cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon fennel seeds

Bowls
2kg (4 pounds) fresh small flat rice noodles (Bánh Phở’)
Cooked beef from the broth
500g (1 pound) lean rump steak, sliced paper thin
1 brown onion, sliced paper thin
2 spring onions, sliced thinly
250g beef tendon balls, sliced

Garnish
250g (1/2 pounds) bean sprouts (two large handfuls)
Basil
Fresh Chilli, sliced thinly
Hoisin sauce
1 lime, cut into wedges

MAKING THE BROTH
1/ Place the onions and ginger on a tray and under the grill (broiler), set the heat on high. When the onions and ginger are charred, approximately 15 minutes, remove from the heat and allow to cool.

2/ To achieve a clear broth, you must first parboil and rinse the beef bones. Put them in a 12 litre pot and add cold water just to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat and allow to boil vigourously for 10 minutes to release the impurities. Dump the bones into a clean sink and then rinse them with water. Scrub the pot clean and return the bones to the pot.

3/ Place the cinnamon stick, star anise, whole cloves and fennel seeds in a cheesecloth and secure with kitchen string (or tie together with a strip of the cheesecloth).

4/ Pour in the 6 litres of water, bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat to a gentle simmer. Use a ladle or a spoon to skim off any scum that rises to the top. Add the onions, ginger, carrots, spice bag and beef chuck. Allow the broth to simmer, skimming the scum every now and then. Leave the lid on, but slightly askew, covering 90% of the pot only.

5/ After 1.5 hours remove the beef chuck. Place it on a plate and loosely cover with foil, allow to rest. Allow the broth to continue simmering for another 1.5 hours.
6/ Remove the bones and spice bag from the broth. Add the rock sugar, salt and fish sauce. Allow to simmer for another 30 minutes.

ASSEMBLE THE BOWLS
1/ Cut the cooked beef chuck across the grain into thin slices. For the best results make sure that it is cold.
2/ Freeze the raw beef rump for 30 minutes, slice it across the grain into thin pieces.
3/ Ready the onions, spring onions and beef balls
4/ Arrange the garnishes on a plate and put on the table.
5/ To ensure good timing, bring the broth to a simmer over medium heat as you are assembling the bowls. At the same time, fill a large pot with water and bring to a rolling boil. For each bowl, place a portion of the noodles on a vertical-handle strainer (or mesh sieve) and dunk the noodles in the boiling water. As soon as they have collapsed and lost their stiffness (10 to 20 seconds), pull the strainer from the water letting the water drain back into the pot. Empty the noodles into a bowl.
6/ Top each bowl of noodles with cooked and raw beef arranging the slices flat. Place a mound of onion in the centre and shower some spring onions on top.
7/ Raise the heat and bring the broth to a rolling boil. Ladle approximately 2 cups of broth into each bowl, distributing the hot liquid evenly to warm all the ingredients. Serve immediately with the plate of garnishes.

Tips from the cookbookmaniac
* When pouring the soup from the pot into the bowls, use a fine sieve to catch any excess fat or marrow deposits.
* Do not skip the charring of the ginger and the onion. It is what gives the broth its colour and adds to the complex flavour.
* If you cannot find Yellow Rock Sugar then use 2 tablespoons of normal sugar instead.
* Do not allow the noodles to sit in the hot broth for too long. They will wilt and take on a tacky texture. That said, do not cook the noodles in the big pot of broth, it will ruin it. And do not overcook the noodles. Therefore, only assemble the noodles if it is be eaten straight away.
* This made enough for approximately 15 bowls. You can freeze the broth for later use. However, the herbal headiness of it will deteriorate.
* Call everyone you know – that loves beef – to the table. They’ll adore you.

Moon cakes

On 10 September 2001, Maximark Supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City's District 10 displayed the largest and heaviest moon cake (weigh 735 kg, diameter 2 metre, height 0.4 metre) ever created in Vietnam. Fifty workers at the Dong Khanh Food Company made the cake to serve some 10,000 customers as well as poor and disabled children from centers managed by Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Moon Cakes (Banh Trung Thu) are a sweet specialty found throughout Vietnam in mid-autumn. If a cake is perfectly made, one can finish the entire treat without feeling bloated. If not, then even one slice can seem too much. The recipe determines how delicious, rich of soft a cake is and how long it will last without spoiling.

Varied tastes, old and new

According to the manager of the Long Xuong Bakery in District 5 of Ho Chi Minh City, the first moon cakes in Ho Chi Minh City were made by Chinese people living around Cho Lon (Big Market). A traditional Chinese moon cake should taste sweet and fatty and should smell of therapeutic herbs. Some experienced bakes make the filling of these cakes with Chinese dried sausage, roast lean pork and fish fins, mixing the ingredients with herbs and spices, especially dried ginger, in a special formula that offers both salty and sweet tastes.

Moon cakes made in the north of Vietnam are also sweet but less rich than those from the south. Their fillings often smell of lemon leaves and madarin-orange and grapefruit peels. Deo (soft) moon cakes made in Hanoi are especially delicious. The fragrance of grapefruit flowers emerges as soon as you bite into the coating of sticky-rice paste.

Some moon-cake producers-such as Kinh Do, Dong Khanh, Ai Hue, Hy Lam Mon, in Ho Chi Minh City - also add mixtures of coconut and milk, taro root and milk, durian, green bean and cocoa of hazelnuts. A few local bakers add whisky to give their cakes' Ho Chi Minh City even makes diet moon cakes that are cholesterol-free and taste less sweet.

Other cakes bear influences from beyond Vietnam. The Equatorial Hotel makes Malaysian-style cakes from red beans and sesame oil, or lotus seeds and sweet-smelling leaves with a coating of chocolate. Hong Kong's Saint Honore cakes also come in many flavours, including soybeans with orange flavour, white lotus, black beans, lotus seeds with tea.

Most moon cakes are either round of square. However, some are shaped like pigs of fish.

Best time to eat moon cakes

Traditionally, a moon cakes in served three days after baking so that the oil in the filling can seep into the coating, making it soft and creating a delicious, rich taste. Newly baked cakes tend to be dry and hard. Today, however, according to Luu Lap Chanh, owner of Hy Lam Mon Bakery in Ho Chi Minh City, modern technology and new recipes allow the oil to seep into the coating in just twelve hours, although this makes the cakes less tasty than the traditional three-day method.

Packed with sugar and calories

Moon cakes.

According to the Kinh Do Confectionery Company in Ho Chi Minh City, a 200-gram cake filled with green beans contains as many as 700 kilocalories, whereas an adult needs about 2,000 kilocalories a day for basic health. A moon cake has all the ingredients for putting on weight: starch, fat and sugar. Sugar accounts for between 40 and 60% of a cake's weight. Thus, an average 200-gram cake may contain more than 100 grams of sugar. Cakes that are high in sugar, roast pork, fatty meat and oily filling provide even more calories.

Keeping your cakes

Moon cakes kept in normal weather condition can last fifteen days. Some vacuum-packed cakes, those packed in airtight boxes with humidity of oxygen absorbers and those treated with ultraviolet rays may last longer, but they still should be eaten within one month. Consumers should be careful about cakes that are kept in normal conditions yet seem to last several months as the producer may have used an anti-mould agent, which is believed to be harmful to health.

Banh Mi Thit – Vietnamese Pork Rolls – Miniature version

I grew up in a small suburb in Sydney called Cabramatta. It is a thriving, family-oriented Vietnamese metropolis. Taking a stroll through the shopping centre can be best described as, “a cleaned up version of Saigon.” The streets are lined with bakeries, sweet shops, tiny restaurants, grocery shops and many other places touting to make the best vietnamese products outside of the motherland.

When I was in primary school mum use to walk my sisters and I home almost everyday. There were two different routes that we could take. One was a quick walk through suburban streets and the other was a longer walk through the shopping centre.

I always secretly hoped that we would walk through the shopping centre. It gave me ample opportunity to put on the desperately-hungry-act so that I could weasel a few dollars out of mama’s wallet to buy whatever sweetie that took my fancy. I would almost always buy the vietnamese baguette roll called Banh Mi – pronounced bun-mee.

Banh Mi is a sandwich that is a product of french colonialism in Indochina. It has a combination of french ingredients (baguette, pate, mayonnaise) and vietnamese elements (fresh coriander, pickled vegetables, chili). The meat portion consists of slices of cha lua (also known as vietnamese devon) and thit nguoi (best described as vietnamese ham). However these fillings vary according to personal taste and can even include barbecued meats.

To this day I still crave a roll of banh mi as an after-work snack. It is also a very affordable at just under $5.00 (price depending on the vendor and perhaps how many hats the chef has).

Pizzaboy and I had a lot of fun making these. I realised that these would be fantastic at large gatherings. You can prepare the ingredients and assemble the baguettes an hour or two in advance.

This is an original recipe from cookbookmaniac.com

Ingredients
500g Vietnamese Cha Lua (Vietnamese devon usually found wrapped in banana leaves)
500g Vietnamese Thit Nguoi (Vietnamese ham usually found wrapped in a layer of fat)
250g pickled carrots and white radish (you can buy these at your local Vietnamese grocer)
100g Vietnamese Pork Pate or French Pork Pate
2 medium cucumbers, sliced thinly
1 bunch fresh coriander
3 stalks spring onions
a dozen dinner rolls
Maggi Seasoning
Salt and pepper
chopped chili (optional)

1/ Prepare ingredients as pictured above

2/ Turn the grill on and heat the dinner rolls until they are golden and crunchy.

3/ Wait until the dinner rolls have cooled down and slice them in half, still leaving the length of it intact.

4/ Coat the bottom layer with the pate

5/ Layer the meat

6/ Add the pickled vegetables, coriander, spring onion and chili. Sprinkle on Maggi seasoning and salt and pepper.

Tips from the cookbookmaniac
* This is a very basic and lazy recipe. I live near a Vietnamese grocer that stocked everything that I needed. If you want to make the baguette from scratch you can get the recipe from Secrets of the Red Lantern by Pauline and Luke Nguyen. It is one of my favourite cookbooks and has a wonderful stories about Cabramatta.
* There are many ingredients that I am missing. Vietnamese mayonnaise, head cheese etc. But the beauty of a sandwich is that you can add and subtract things according to your personal taste. I have never really been a fan of the vietnamese mayo and therefore excluded it.
* Pizzaboy ate 6 of these in a row which is the equivalent of 3 normal sized baguettes. He is a piggy. oink oink.

“Mua Vu Lan” – Mother’s Day in Vietnam

Westerners have Mothers’ Day to be proud of, the Vietnamese treasure their seventh full moon of lunar calendar ("Mua Vu Lan") as a time to express filial piety to their parents, especially their gratefulness and appreciation to their mother.

Annually, Vietnamese children honor their parents and try to help the lost souls of their ancestors find their way back to earth.

“Mua Vu Lan” is closely connected to the Asian tradition of ancestor worship and filial piety. It is also known as the Buddhist holiday, a traditional event in praise of motherly love held solemnly once a year in Vietnam.

What does the legend really mean?

The legend behind the festival dates back to the earliest of Buddhism. One day when he was meditating, Muc Kien Lien, one of the Buddha's ten principle disciples, saw his late mother suffering the tortures of hell, condemned because of the evil deeds she had committed during her life.

He saw that his mother was starving, but she had nothing to eat but fire. Muc Kien Lien summoned all his spiritual powers to bring her a bowl of rice - but the food was burnt to ash before she could bring it to her mouth.

When he arrived back in the physical world, he asked for the Buddha’s guidance to help his mother and fulfill his duty as a pious son. The Buddha advised him to collect a gathering of monks and devotees and get them to pray together on this day (which this year falls on August 15 in the Western calendar).

The combined prayers proved to be so powerful that they achieved the release not only of Muc Kien Lien’s mother, but also for countless other souls. Ever since, on the festival of Vu Lan - Wandering Soul’s Day- the gates of hell are believed to be thrown open to give the tormented souls 24 hour holiday.

A solemn sharing

“Mua Vu Lan” is believed to be the spirit month in Vietnamese culture as a way of honoring the dead. On this day, souls are believed to return to their former homes.

From this assembly, many Buddhist countries developed the custom of offering food, clothing and other items to hungry spirits in the month when the realms of Heaven, Hell and the living are open.

The object of this ceremony is to feed the hungry ghosts and to pray for their salvation. This ceremony is a way for people to meet their compassionate filial duty. During the ceremony, offerings are made to rescue up to seven generations of ancestors from whatever misery they might be suffering. During the month, every family can choose a day to present a feast and burn joss paper and incense in front of the house to invite the spirits to eat.

The most distinguished feature of the ceremony is the “offering snatching.” After the incense burns down, the neighborhood children are allowed to grab the food. No one will stop them as it is believed the spirits may be angered if they do so. The ceremony is also a great chance for people to express their gratitude to their parents.

One more tradition of this day is for people – Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike – who wish to express their gratefulness and appreciation towards their mothers, to go to a pagoda, often wearing a rose. Thousands of people flock to pagodas wearing red roses if their parents are alive or white roses if their parents have passed away. The rose has been a symbol of love and sharing among parents and their children regardless of social background.

Modern view

“This festival is a chance for guilty homeless spirits to be pardoned. People worship ghosts and release animals, such as birds or fish,” said My Ngoc, a university student living in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City. I am going to the pagoda this year to pray for my mother because we are miles apart. My mother is living in my hometown in the central province of Binh Dinh. I always think of her,” Ngoc said.

“Although nowadays the youth live faster and are becoming more unfamiliar with traditional values, they still deeply love and respect their parents,” visitor Duc Phong said as he strolled around Vinh Nghiem Pagoda, the most famous Buddhist temple in Ho Chi Minh City. “That’s why many youngsters visit pagodas and present their parents with flowers on this day,” Phong said.

Visitor Minh Thuan said: “The festival is no longer exclusively for Buddhists but an occasion for everyone to express their love to their parents. This cultural trait has not faded over time but become more and more diversified.”

The diversity of “Mua Vu Lan” can be seen throughout the country with many different activities.

My favorite food in Hanoi

"Vietnam is the land of heat and noodles". That is what an American friend wrote to me in an email when he said he missed Vietnam. While in English, there may be only some words "noodles", "vermicelli" or "noodle soup", in Vietnamese, we have various names "Phở, Bún, Miến, Bánh đa, Bánh canh, Mỳ" to describe our noodles.

The Vietnamese noodles have different colors (white, red, yellow), shape and thickness, depending on the types and regions. Each of the said noodles has one more word next to it, like beef, chicken or other material, or name of a location to emphasize their specialty. For example, Phở gà (noodles and chicken), Phở bò (noodles and beef), Bún bò Huế (Huế city's beef noodles), Mỳ Quảng (Quảng Nam province's noodles) etc.

We often eat noodle soup, rice porridge, sticky rice or bread for breakfast. The major meals are lunch and dinner, when we eat rice, meat or fish, vegetables and soup. Vietnamese people love to eat freshly cooked food and mostly don't like freezing food. We go to markets to buy food on a daily basis. Women are always busy thinking about what to cook today and tomorrow for their families.

Bún thang Noodle soup with chicken, fried egg, pork and mushroom.

I found this paragraph on a website about food and wine. I agree wholeheartedly with the comment made by a foreigner, when he said about our food culture:

"I loved a lot of things about Vietnam and the Vietnamese people, but what struck me most was their obsession with food, cooking and eating. I was reminded over and over again of Italy, where the same obsession obtains. Conversation with strangers doesn't revolve around discussions of the weather, but just like Italy revolves around food - what I ate today, what I'm going to eat tonight, what I'm planning to eat tomorrow. The Vietnamese are a bunch of Asian foodies."

I have never eaten fast food in Vietnam. I've never cared about fast food, because Vietnamese food are so good. Sometimes I ate fast food when I traveled abroad, just because of their convenience. I also ate noodles in other countries, like Japan, Thailand and Laos, however the noodles in Vietnam are the best noodles I've eaten.

Bò cuộn nấm (beef and mushroom)

The photos in this blog are my favorite food in Hanoi. When we eat them, there are also some special sauce or vegetables. Some of them are not the food thatwe eat everyday at home, as our major food always is rice. However, we change our food very often by going to the restaurants or cooking them at home (but it may take more time and not so good like at the restaurants). The photos express only 30% how delicious the food could be, the remaining 70% of quality are your taste when you see them in reality.