guppymo

Jason, It's a French-influenced Vietnamese dish I think, basically it's beef cooked in short amount of time at extremely high temperature. Most of the styles called for some or all of the following ingredients: soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, black pepper, garlic, shallot. I like to eat this either with rice or French baguette

My home-made version of shaking beef

LindaK, cool ! Another Bostonian. By the way the 88's at South Bay Mall has more products than the one in Allston.

Growing up to Vietnam I used to eat free range chicken all the time, the meat was so flavorful and the texture was so superb. Sadly there's an avian flu there and people are staying away from chicken. I have not found any place that sells free range chicken in Boston

Hey, thanks Mnehrling. I've just gone downstairs to find a bottle of fresh springroll sauces and luckily I still had one left. Here is the picture of the sauce I've just taken. See if you can find this in your local Asian (or Vietnamese) supermarkets. P.S. I love this site, I did not know that I could request to have my account upgraded to post and respond to posts here

Thank's all for your hospitality. I am new here but I think this forum is very great. As for the filling I used vermicelli, basil, mint, pork, and shrimp (nothing fancy here). I think the secret to make this type of spring roll is to have 2 "stations". By saying station I mean dipping the rice paper into hot water then set it on one large plate, then dip another rice paper and set it on another plate. Next start working on the rice paper on the first page - by then the water would ideally moist the paper hence it can be rolled around effortlessly. Once finished with rolling the first roll, don't forget to soak another rice paper and set it on the plate, then move the the other plate to work on, and so on.. As for the sauce I am fortunated to live in Boston where Asian supermarkets (88's) and Vietnamese markets in Dorchester (Truong Thinh) sell ready-made dipping sauces for fresh spring rolls call "Tuong Goi Cuon" (I will try to take a picture of the bottle and post later). I usually poured the whole bottle onto a pot, cook on low heat for 5 minutes, add a little of the chilly sauce (Spiracha), a table spoon of sugar (optional, the raw sauce tends to be a little salty), a squirt of hoisin sauce. Next I would pour it into a bowl and sprinkle the sauce with some ground peanuts. Hoisin and Spiracha mixture is also ok for dipping sauce.

I used some Asian chive for decoration and added taste

Pho is good with squeezed lime wedge, a bunch of bean sprout (I like to ask for my bean spoout steamed), a couple of branches of basil leaves, make sure you pick the leaves out instead of dumping the whole branch in. There's another must authentic herb you have to eat with Pho is "Ngo Gai", I only see this as a few restaurants in Boston, most other places do not offer this in the US. Oh, never try eating pho with plum sauce. Get the chilly sauce (spiracha) and hoisin sauce. If you don't want you beef to be overcooked and dried, ask for the rare beef separately on its own plate, you can dip the beef into your bowl right before eating, the hot broth will cook it just right. Enjoy !