Andrea Nguyen

Southern California's Little Saigon has some of the best Viet food around! But hey, there is the second largest population of Vietnamese Americans in the San Jose area so you might try some and make the comparison for yourself. The one Vietnamese restaurant of note that I've been to recently is called Miss Saigon (yeah, what a name) on 1455 Landess Avenue in Milpitas (408-942-1240). They have 7-course fish instead of 7-course beef. The food and service are nice and the prices quite reasonable. They own a sister restaurant in Saigon so there are a lot of transnational connections in the food. Some ingredients they bring over here themself. The food isn't cloyingly sweet as at most Viet restaurants and the owners are very friendly. Back at home, you should try Quan Hy on Bolsa Avenue. It's a lovely restaurant that's offering moderately high end Vietnamese food. It's hip and the food is pretty good. The food emphasis there is central Vietnamese so go for banh beo steamed rice pancakes and bun bo Hue soup noodles. For banh xeo, the crepe you mentioned, on Bolsa, there used to be spot called Thanh Vi in a strip mall. The woman turned out beautiful sizzling crepes. Have a good trip, Andrea

Yes, goi cuon literally translates into salad rolls in Vietnamese. Goi is the generic term for Viet special event salads and cuon means to roll or a roll of something. Glad to know that the rolls are being enjoyed all over the world! Andrea

I believe it is. There's been a pretty agressive push to spread Tiger beer throughout Asia. It's stronger tasting (I'm not a major beer expert) than Saigon or Beer 33. Then there's Halida and Huda, which are more like Tiger but not as intense. When it's hot and humid, Tiger beer can put you over the top too quickly, so some of the lighter style beers may be better. As for the Viet style beer being made in Gilroy, California, it's called Chau Tien. I got the pale ale and it's very good but not a lager. Apparently it was the idea of a Vietnamese man but he has other folks brew it for him. Right now, it's brewed by Coast Range Brewing Company in Gilroy. Coast Range is quite reputable. Now I'm really curious and will do just a little more investigation! Andrea

For Chinese Islamic, head to Fatima on De Anza; get the scallion bread or any of the knife cut noodles. The lamb isn't bad either. I've heard great stuff about their smoked duck. At Loon Wah down the block on De Anza, the northern style (Beijing) fare is great. My favorite pho joint is Pho Bang near the Lion Center near Tully off the 101 freeway. For Korean food, go to El Camino Real off the Lawrence Expressway. Palace Buffet offers all you can eat barbecue. The tofu place nearby is supposedly really good. There are Indian grocers on that street too. On Wolfe Road right off the 280 (heading toward SF, turn right when you exit), there's a shopping center that's loaded with Taiwanese joints. It's one of the many high-end spots for Chinese Americans in San Jose. A spiffy Ranch 99 market is in the same shopping center. Have fun! Andrea

Sun-ki, On the thing with the lamb and goat in Viet cooking, I was going through a Viet cookbook (written in Vietnamese) and found an entry for a lamb dish. This is something that's pretty rare so it made me wonder about the statement that I made about the lamb being a substitute for goat. Lamb is not widely eaten in Vietnam; my dad, who's in his 70s, enjoyed lamb only in the company of French militar officers. It's not regular people's meat. There's pork, beef, goat, deer... and I'll stop here ... but very very little mention of lamb. The cookbook I refer to above is a newer one, published in 2000. Nonetheless, I'm curious about how the folks at Bac Nam decided to include lamb chops on their menu. If you have the opportunity ask them. Andrea

Yup, 33 beer for a long time has been the Vietnamese export beer. It's not fully representative of Viet beers. In fact, if you travel in Vietnam, there's lots of beer to drink from. Some is fresh and airy -- perfect thirst quenchers. Some are heavier and more flavorful. By and large, they're not as dry as some of the other Asian beers. A little heavier in taste are Tiger and Halida -- my favorites. I think that there's a Vietnamese style beer being brewed out of Gilroy, California. However, they call it an ale and not a lager. When I find out more, I'll let you know... Andrea

Sun-Ki, You're very welcome. I only briefly stopped in Hawaii enroute to the mainland when my family came to the U.S. from Vietnam. Maybe soon, I'll go on vacation there and know that there's decent Viet food to be had! Thanks for pointing out the dish with the lamb. I really like lamb and will try making something Viet with it. Keep eating, thinking, and writing, Andrea

Part of the thing with banh beo is making the batter go up the side of the little saucers. I'm not 100% sure if grinding your own rice will do the trick. Rice flour is essentially soaked ground rice that's been left to sit out to dry. The fool proof method of adding a little starch to bind the batter really helps. That's why people buy the packaged mix. There's no guessing needed. Thank you. I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed that article. It was a nice piece. I'm working on a Viet cookbook right now that's sort of along the same lines. That explains why I'm lamely chimming in late nowadays! Thanks in advance for your patience. Andrea

Vietnamese bakers used to make the most incredible baguettes with chewy crumbs and crispy, clover-honey colored crusts. They'd slit the dough just right so that the baguette would look like flexed arm muscles when baked. The aroma was amazing too. Over the years, rice flour has been mixed in with wheat flour for the dough. This explains why Vietnamese baguette has become so incredibly light over time. You're not the first to say that Corinne Trang's recipe doesn't work well. Don't feel bad. In Vietnam and in the U.S. you buy the baguette the day you eat it. It's so light that keeping it for more than 24 hours means the stuff will turn chewy and become hard to eat. You can't toast/warm it back to life. It's problematic if you don't have a local supply! I personally leave baguette baking to the pros. If you're blessed with a fine selection of baguette to choose from, select the lighter ones -- not the rustic kind with thick crusts. And no sourdough please. The bread in Vietnamese banh mi is merely a light, crispy shell for all the goodies inside. I often hollow out some of the core so as to cram more stuff inside. Don't fear that your sandwich won't be good without the "authentic" bread. It'll taste terrific. As an immigrants to the U.S., my family and I have adapted our foodways to make the most of what's available here. With regard to banh mi, it works out pretty well! Andrea

Sun-ki, How lucky you are. Bắc Nam sounds like a great restaurant that's making fine Viet food. From the name of the place, the owners are probably northerners. "Bắc" means north. Each region has great pride in its food, and northerners are extra boastful about the delicate flavors of their well-crafted foods. The central cooks are knowned for earthy, spicy, gutsy flavors. Southerners are wild and unrestrained; they live to eat, and love brash, bold foods loaded with varied color and texture. Northerners are known for dishes like bánh cuốn, which are steamed rice crepes/noodles along the lines of Chinese fun noodles, but thinner. Bắc Nam's filling is pretty much right on for the northern version. (BTW, your diacritical marks are all on the mark! I'm extremely impressed.) The addition of the steamed pate/pork roll is very northern too. The awkward menu translation of this dish is because in Vietnamese, the name of it literally is rolled doughstuff. Bánh is anything primarily made from a flour or legume (cakes, cookies, dumplings, noodles, crepes); cuốn, you may guess, means to roll. Not attractive sounding but it's one of our treasured dishes. The deep fried chả looks like it was cut off from a log of steamed pork paste, and then fried. Traditionally, you fried the entire thing (whether it's in a log or not) and then slice it. There's this yummy crispy crust that forms, a nice contrast to the soft center. The squid is a new invention of theirs. Normally, squid is stuffed and then shallow fried. It's sliced before serving. It looks like they conveniently stuffed theirs and perhaps steamed it first before slicing it and deep frying it? That's why it may have been too chewy. Is that panko on the outside? I like the lamb a lot. Lamb is not an indigenous meat to Vietnam. (It's too hot for them.) However, goat and various other 4-legged animals are eaten. The gaminess of lamb is similar to that of goat so the chops are a great idea. How ironic, about 6 weeks ago the New York Times had a recipe of Charles Phan (Slanted Door in SF) for lamb chops served with tamarind sauce. I like the sound of Bắc Nam's better. Their marinade is a pretty classic/standard Viet combination. The beef short ribs are definitely inspired by Korean kalbi. Nowadays, there's lots of mingling between Korean and Vietnamese folks. For example, both ethnic groups have enclaves and communities near each other in the north Orange County area in Southern California. So just as Koreans love pho, Viet people love kalbi. Maybe it's all for the love of beef? Anyway, there's lots of cultural borrowing going on and that dish is a good result of it! Now for those onions... Bắc Nam, like many contemporary Viet restaurants, employ lots of these crispy fried onions. It's essentially onion or shallot that's been fried to a caramelized, crispy state. I'm really surprised that the restaurant makes it from fresh onion because lots of places on the mainland prefer to use thinly sliced dehydrated shallot. Actually, lots of Viet home cooks do too. In my opinion, the shallot stuff is over used. It's sort of a cheap trick to enrich foods. It's like sprinkling canned parmesan cheese over food. Anyway, the fact that the restaurant fries the stuff using fresh onion or shallot is a really nice, old-fashioned touch. The flavor is also superior. Lá lôt resembles the betel leaf you described, but it's actually a wild betel leaf (Piper sarmentosum). Raw, it has an unusually cinnamon flavor that's a little medicinal. I've often been embarrassed to ask if a leaf is lá lôt and then get a response that the leaf is actually the betel for chewing. I've eaten at lots of bad Viet restaurants that make me embarrassed and sad. Many times, sugar is too liberally used to mask poor ingredients and bad technique. For those reasons, when I or anyone stumbles on a place that's good, I figure that that's special enough. You are very fortunate to have such a spot. Happy dining, Andrea

Stevea, I've tried all the techniques you've mentioned and yeah, it's disappointing. Fresh, unrefrigerated rice noodles are a rarity, even in Northern California where I live. I don't rinse the noodles. I just cut them (if necessary) and gently pry them apart, breaking them into 4-inch lengths. For a dish like beef chow fun, here are the general concepts that I follow to deal with the rice noodles: 1) Don't try to cook a ton of noodles at a time. If you're cooking with a 14-inch work or 12-inch skillet, use 1 pound of rice noodles. Too much gets in the way. 2) Use a little oil but lots of heat. For the quantity above, use 2 tablespoons of oil. Heat it up over high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the noodles and here's the key -- SPREAD them into a layer. Go up the side of the wok if you have to. Cook them UNDISTURBED for 1 minute, or until they're slightly crusty. Flip them over and do the same if you want extra crustiness. 3) Now add the other goodies (which you may have already stir-fried), the sauce elements, etc. to finish the dish. Restaurants have the benefit of high butane burners and they're not afraid of using tons of oil. Following the steps above, I've more or less been successful with dealing with the rice noodles. One thing though, restaurants often have thickish rice noodles whereas the ones sold in Asian markets tend to be thin. They'll always have something over us so that we remain their patrons... Good luck! Andrea

Noel, That's a shame that the Mai Pham recipe failed you. She's suppose to be fairly reliable. Dishes like banh beo are often left to the master vendors of Vietnam who've developed their trade secrets. From Pham's recipe, it seemed as if she'd deciphered some tricks of the trade. If it's any consolation, there's a lot of really bad banh beo out there being sold at Viet delis where the shrimp has been turned a hideous day-glo orange by food coloring. The pancakes themselves may be as hard as tiny frisbees. So if you're determined, keep trying. Andrea

The glutinous rice cakes are called banh day (bun zay). It's handy, stick-to-your-ribs food. I like it for breakfast. The pork sausage you ate is called gio (yaw). You can stick all kinds of Viet charcuterie in between the banh day. Sometimes it's the cinnamon flavored one, then there's the crispy fatty one. Whatever suits your mood. Typically, I dip banh day (the hamburger concept is great) in a little pool of fish sauce. The banh are tasteless and there's only so much flavor the meat can contribute. Vietnamese is full of odd and charming culinary concepts. Banh is certainly one of those. The term denotes savory or sweet foods made using flours and grains. That may be a cookie, cake, noodle, crepe, bread, or dumpling. In the Viet collective consciousness, it's all banh to us! Andrea

Banh mi thit nguoi is essentially "the works" version of a Viet baguette sandwich. To make it yourself, get a light (not the rustic, chewy kind) baguette or petite baguette. Split it open and warm it briefly in a toaster oven. Take it out and let it cool for a few minutes. Now fill it up. Here are some guidelines: 1: Smear and drizzle Smearing of whole-egg mayonaise on one side Smearing of pork or chicken liver pate (avail. at Viet delis) on the other side On the mayo side, drizzle in a little soy sauce or Maggi Seasoning sauce 2: Layer in the meat Layer in your thin slices of cold cuts: head cheese (that's the crunchy stuff); gio (pork or chicken steamed pate); and some of that garlicky pink stuff (avail. at Viet delis) 3: Tuck in the veggies Now, tuck in a few slices of cucumber, some daikon and carrot pickle that you've bought at the Asian market, a few thin slices of jalapeno pepper, 2-3 sprigs of cilantro 4: Close the sandwich, cut it in half and eat. That's it. At home, you don't have to add all the various meats. It's too hard to get all the stuff together. If you've got some leftover roast chicken, beef, pork, lamb or even seared tofu, put it in the sandwich. The key is that the protein element should be boldly flavored. That is, salty, garlickly, etc... Have fun, Andrea

Noel, Sorry for the typo in the first graph. I'm tired from working on a writing project. I meant to say that it's a pretty good recipe that Mai Pham has, not I need some sleep! A.

Hi Noel, Try the recipe in Mai Pham's cookbook "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table" (Harper Collins 2001); she doesn't have Vietnamese names indexed in the back but the recipe is on page 105. It's not a pretty good recipe. What you're thinking of in terms of the stretched fabric steaming thing is banh cuon, steamed rice crepes that are filled with pork, mushroom and shrimp. Banh beo are like little flying saucers of steamed rice flour. Adding tapioca starch (not flour, though it looks like flour) gives it a firmness, which is required to set it up in the saucer. Use small, shallow porcelain dipping sauce bowls (the cheap ones) as your molds. Banh beo are a little time consuming to make so have some beverage and company with you. Also note that you don't have to make them tiny. Get the larger dipping sauce bowls and things can be sped up. Also, you can use make them central Vietnamese style using rice bowls. Keep them in the rice bowl for serving. For these shallow dishes, a good place to get them is Kamei kitchen store on Clement in San Francisco. Finally, make the dipping sauce a wee bit on the sweet side. Sorry, I don't have a personal recipe to give you at this time.

BB, You'd think that oysters would have more flavor than scallops, so I'm curious as to why the scallop extract sauce is more aggressively flavored. Like many of the folks in this thread, I've never seen scallop sauce. But then...this may be something new from Asia. When making Chinese dishes, I always mitigate oyster sauce with a little sugar, rice wine and other things to take the edge off it. In Vietnamese cooking one of the interesting things to do is combine oyster sauce with fish sauce. The nuoc mam brings out what brininess there is in the oyster-flavored sauce. May I ask how much you paid for the bottle? And, how large it is? The price is often times the indicator of the quality of an Asian food product! Andrea

In the U.S. too. The noodles is a little personal flair that the NJ cook added. There are normally no noodles in canh ca chua.

It was actually a young person who mentioned the poor man's version of pho with the crullers, which traditionally are eaten with rice soup (chao), a practice derived from the Chinese who invented them. I suppose that recent to me is anything post reunification. As with many Vietnamese dishes, you can have pho your way and that means it's hard to pinpoint a definitive version of it. Andrea

Pieman, Thanks for your compliments. I ordered the extra special bowl at that joint in Hanoi. Maybe they were charging a higher price for tourists? My husband and I were the only non-locals. In any event, it was dirt cheap and delicious. I had no complaints. Additionally, thanks for the links. I just added to my pho page links to your blog, the saigon.net page on Pasteur street and the London Observer piece. Food from the Cultural Revolution days became popular in Beijing several years ago. I suppose it reminds people of their resiliance and ability overcome hardship. It's hard to find good pho in Saigon. The Hanoians do it really well and there's that Hanoi pride too! I never got to Pho Hoa in Saigon on my last trip. From your blog, it sounds like Pho Hoa there is like Pho Hoa in the U.S. -- mediocre and for the masses. Do you find that lots of people eat the Chinese donuts (you tiao gui in Mandarin; you chao quay in Vietnamese) with pho? I was very surprised to see that practice because it was completely unknown to me. I've heard that it's a recent development and a poor man's option since that person can't afford the cost of a bowl with meat. The evolution of Vietnamese food and cooking happens at a such rapid pace. Vendors are super entrepreneurial and competitive. Home cooks want to out do one another. It's so Vietnamese! I suppose it's just fun to keep up with all the changes! Andrea

You're very welcome! It's nice to have validation from eGulleteers.

Whoa, does that mean that pho has really "made it"? I look forward to getting your take on that!

Oh, I'm so glad that you read and liked the story. (For those of you who want read "The Evolution of Pho," a 6/9/04 San Jose Mercury News "Food and Wine" section story, I've posted it full text at my site. There is lots of info, including its history, tips on how to cook and eat pho and a recipe.) I think that at most pho joints in the U.S. , they make their broths from scratch. If you're the Viet owner of a pho shop, your name rests on your broth and people will judge you by it. But be forewarned that there are many bad broths out there (too sweet, bland and watery), just like there are lots of terrible hamburgers, burritos, etc... On the other hand, products like the StockPot Inc. broth may be making their way to larger, commercial chain restaurants and other mainstream eating outlets. The broth is made from chicken and not beef. Discerning pho eaters will know the difference, but the "flavor profile" universally appeals. StockPot concocts the broth from scratch. The final broth is reduced to a concentrate and refrigerated. When you use it, you dilute with water and bring it to a boil. So to answer your question, yes, the mom-and-pop pho shops in the Bay Area are making their own. Whether or not they're good, that's a horse of a different color! Happy eating and cooking, Andrea

Ben, that's reason why China called itself the Middle Kingdom! In Chinese, Vietnam (Yue Nan) means further south -- sort of like a southern extension of China?! Jschyun, we're in the same boat. I'm an eternal optimist but an unfortunately disappointed 50% of the time. Authenticity is both evolving and elusive. We continually chase after it when perhaps all we're looking for is a good bite! Andrea

Yup, the David Thompson book is the Thai cookbook of the moment. But check these out ... Real Thai by Nancy McDermott is excellent and authentic. It's over 10 years old but she's totally right on. She was a Peace Corps volunteer for years and writes with lots of heart. The book is organized by region. Additionally, try books by Oakland, CA based Kasma Loha-Unchit, It Rains Fishes and Dancing Shrimp. She's often got interesting perspectives on the health benefits of various Southeast Asian ingredients and is very thoughtful in her approach. Since she's in the States, her instructions are geared for American cooks. Have fun! Andrea