vietnamese brunch

Today was my first day off in a week . Comfort food was in order so we headed to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Pho 97. We started out with soft spring rolls and papaya salad with beef jerky. My husband order pho ga, chicken soup. I must have been feeling protein deprived because I ordered a rice dish with shredded pork skin, egg and pork loaf and a perfectly cooked crispy on- the- bone pork chop. The plate was accompanied by a superb fried soft egg and pickled vegetables. The sauce was nuoc cham. I washed it all down with iced coffee and have been feeling great all day. Do any of you have an ethnic comfort food that makes you feel better when you're somewhat down?

I loved iced coffee from any Thai or Vietnamese place. That alone is an uplifting thing, but foodwise I especially like Chicken Satay with peanut sauce. Sooo good.

Dearfolk,
It's hardly "ethnic" by most standards, but when I need a pickup, I venture over to Little Italy on North Lumpkin Street here and order either an Italian Special Sub with extra garlic if it's reasonably warm out or a Sausage And Cheese Sub with double extra sausage and extra garlic if it's cool out. Either thing, with the addition of some crushed red pepper and a little parmesan from the available shakers, fills me to the brim and warms my soul besides. If only they had clams....
I'll doubtless have another answer for this thread in a week or so. As they say on C. N. N.: "Stay tuned: the news continues."
RepOrt.ing Back, Ort. Carlton in 30601-Central.

To both Carltons, That is just what I was talking about! I'll eat peanut sauce on just about anything. And an Italian sub is very comforting. Many people here wouldn't even think about venturing out for something so flavorful when they are down. It just does my heart good to eat those kinds of soul foods. Even if I have to eat celery sticks later that night. I will stay tuned...Keep me informed.That also does my heart good!

Another peanut sauce lover.I don't feel so alone!

as i've mentioned on other threads.. I've become a hummous junkie... other than that, my other new passion is Korean short ribs..

We discussed this topic in my kitchen at work today. Everyone had their favorites. The common denominator was heat. About 90% said something spicy, like Thai Curry or Sichuan food. Or mexican food with a very spicy habenero salsa. Must have something to do with the chile rush. The other 10% or so seemed to favor soft or creamy things, like hummus, lo mein, rice dishes or their nonny's spaghetti. We had fun talking about it. Beat's listening to Dr. Laura.

After a long week of catering (7 days straight) the last thing I wanted to do was come home and cook! We head straight for our local Japanese restaurant for awesome sushi and sashimi (extra wasabi). I know the sushi chef so I just tell him, "Make me whatever you want!"

Originally posted by lleechef

After a long week of catering (7 days straight) the last thing I wanted to do was come home and cook! We head straight for our local Japanese restaurant for awesome sushi and sashimi (extra wasabi). I know the sushi chef so I just tell him, "Make me whatever you want!"
[/quote/
Knowing the sushi chef is always a good thing. Leave it to the professionals.
We had Vietnamese yesterday because it was a toss between pho, com or sushi. Our favorite Japanese restaurants are quite a drive into the suburbs, so we settled on vietnamese. But wasabi does the same thing as chiles. It seems to be restorative. Our next day off will more than likely be sushi and sashimi. And maybe a cauldron of soba noodles. How can something be so light and so complex at the same time?

quote:

Originally posted by zataar

We discussed this topic in my kitchen at work today. Everyone had their favorites. The common denominator was heat. About 90% said something spicy, like Thai Curry or Sichuan food. Or mexican food with a very spicy habenero salsa. Must have something to do with the chile rush. The other 10% or so seemed to favor soft or creamy things, like hummus, lo mein, rice dishes or their nonny's spaghetti. We had fun talking about it. Beat's listening to Dr. Laura.

Ok- I so love a big bowl of Pho Bo- for some unknown reason though, there are NO vietnamese restaurants on Long Island leaving me to stand at the stove looking at oxtails in a giant pot for 14 hours and wondering what I'm doing wrong! Comfort food- well Pho is one thing, but I also love Kasha Varnsihkes with pot roast gravy, rice pudding, broad noodles with pot cheese, cinnamon and sugar, (not all together, of course!), homemade chicken soup with Matzoh balls....

Danmel, I totally forgot about kugel! True comfort food. When I was a little kid, my mother would make knish and kugel. I'd eat those for breakfast. No one here makes a decent knish. I make kugel with poppy seed pastry filling. It's great with roast chicken. We aren't Jewish, but my mother passed on a love for other cultures and their food to me. That's why many different ethnic foods, such as pho, make me feel great. There is a very good product for pho base that I can't remember the name of. When I remember, I'll post it. It's as good as oxtail stock that I can make, and much less labor intensive. It also comes in chicken, seafood and maybe straight beef.

quote:

Originally posted by zataar

Beat's listening to Dr. Laura.

As would a root canal, IMHO.


I once had a horrific archaeological experience. No, seriously. I was doing a field visit to an abandoned burned-out stone ruin in the woods, and became lost on the way back. I wandered for ages through thorns and poison ivy as the sun was ominously going down, threatening to leave me out in the pitch dark with no way to call for help and nobody knowing I was even out there. (This was before the wonderful world of cell phones.) I finally made it out of the woods, and staggered across a pick-your-own field as the sun was just setting. I climbed into the van and found a phone, let hubby know I'd be late and was fine. When I got home I found he'd made a wonderful Thai peanut shrimp dish, thickened with crunchy peanut butter and spicy spicy spicy. It's still my favorite today.

zataar wrote: "There is a very good product for pho base that I can't remember the name of. When I remember, I'll post it. It's as good as oxtail stock that I can make, and much less labor intensive. It also comes in chicken, seafood and maybe straight beef."

Hi, zataar, did you remember yet? I love pho, can eat it any time of day. In fact, I eat left over carryout beef pho for breakfast, loaded with chiles. My attempt at making pho took a lot of time and ingredients and still wasn't very good. The stock was the problem -- that is KEY. If the flavor isn't there, forget pho.

I just bought oxtails to try to make a stock because oxtail stock is flavorful. Have never tried cooking with oxtails, tho, so goodness knows what will come of this.

A pho base sounds great. I use chicken and beef base but have never seen pho base.

I have remembered the Pho base. It's by a company called Quoc
Viet Foods. The bases come in a small square box with the jar of base inside. In my area all of the flavors run about $6.99. It makes several gallons, so it's quite a bargain and very high quality.

quote:

Originally posted by ditz

zataar wrote: "There is a very good product for pho base that I can't remember the name of. When I remember, I'll post it. It's as good as oxtail stock that I can make, and much less labor intensive. It also comes in chicken, seafood and maybe straight beef."

Hi, zataar, did you remember yet? I love pho, can eat it any time of day. In fact, I eat left over carryout beef pho for breakfast, loaded with chiles. My attempt at making pho took a lot of time and ingredients and still wasn't very good. The stock was the problem -- that is KEY. If the flavor isn't there, forget pho.

I just bought oxtails to try to make a stock because oxtail stock is flavorful. Have never tried cooking with oxtails, tho, so goodness knows what will come of this.

A pho base sounds great. I use chicken and beef base but have never seen pho base.

Oxtails will give your pho broth a very silky quality. Blanching them and soaking them over night will result in that wonderfully clear, clean taste that Pho Bo has.

quote:

Originally posted by zataar

quote:

Originally posted by ditz

zataar wrote: "There is a very good product for pho base that I can't remember the name of. When I remember, I'll post it. It's as good as oxtail stock that I can make, and much less labor intensive. It also comes in chicken, seafood and maybe straight beef."

Hi, zataar, did you remember yet? I love pho, can eat it any time of day. In fact, I eat left over carryout beef pho for breakfast, loaded with chiles. My attempt at making pho took a lot of time and ingredients and still wasn't very good. The stock was the problem -- that is KEY. If the flavor isn't there, forget pho.

I just bought oxtails to try to make a stock because oxtail stock is flavorful. Have never tried cooking with oxtails, tho, so goodness knows what will come of this.

A pho base sounds great. I use chicken and beef base but have never seen pho base.

Oxtails will give your pho broth a very silky quality. Blanching them and soaking them over night will result in that wonderfully clear, clean taste that Pho Bo has.

Thank you, zataar. I was finally able to Google up two pho soup base products and wondered whether one was the one you said was good. I may be able to find that locally. I hope. I would prefer a less labor-intensive approach if it makes good pho.

BTW, I read that Mai Pham makes a refrigerated pho base, marketed thru Campbell's, but it's not sold retail -- only commercial, industrial, restaurants, etc.

May I ask you a dumdum question about the oxtails? I am not an experienced cook. I only love pho and want to be able to make it myself, so am venturing further into the kitchen than usual! LOL. Boy, what we won't do for good food!

Would I do literally what you said -- put the oxtails briefly into boiling water, pour that off, cover oxtails with fresh water and put it in the fridge overnight? Then pour that off, and start my stock? I have found several recipes, so will have to pick one.

Favorite ethic comfort food? Does New-Mexicanized Soul Food qualify as "ethnic"? <grin> Starches of all kinds are high on my comfort food list. They calm me. (stupefy me?)

High on my refuge list is heart-attack-waiting-to-happen mashed potatoes made with real cream (not milk), generously dotted with butter, with healthy dribbles of the sauce from Mazzetti's Olives in Hot Habanero Sauce. Get same comfort from mac n cheese and liberal dribbles of that sauce. Am I dead yet?

Next on the comfort food list is Tex-Mex food. I'll even suffer chain restaurants for it.

Vietnamese beef noodle pho isn't so much a comfort food as an addiction.

Ditz, If you're using bones with your oxtails blanch those as well or simply soak them overnight in water. You can blanch the bones and the oxtails by pouring boiling water over them in a large colander. Then run cold water over them to remove more impurities that will cloud your broth. Put them in clean water over night. Drain and start with fresh cold water to make the pho broth and skim it often.

Thanks for taking time to help me, zataar. Unfortunately, my pho broth turned out downright crappy, and I don't know what I could have done to change that outcome. Followed recipe, even charring the onions and ginger first. $15 worth of oxtails and beef bones and hours of cooking, only to get broth that tastes like dishwater! I am so disgusted. I can't believe there isn't more flavor in that pot! Doggone it.

I may try adding a bit of Bovril in there to see if it perks up the flavor a bit -- or makes it worse -- before actually putting it in a soup bowl with noodles and whole nine yards of other stuff. I've shoved the broth in fridge for overnight to let the fat harden on top for easy skimming off of most of it. Not all that eager to eat the stuff, obviously.

I'll definitely be trying the pho base next time. I don't mind spending $$$ if I get good food out of it, but to blow $15+ for dishwater is disheartening.

Found a store today that had some Viet pho bases. Shopkeep says QuocViet on order, to come back next week (yea). Meanwhile, I figured I may as well try the other two she had. One is Cot Pho Bo Vietnamese Beef Flavored Soup Base, cost about same as you said for the Quoc Viet. The shopkeeper opened the box to show me two foil packets inside, said to use those if I was making pho; otherwise, just use the base. I assume those are additional seasonings for beef pho, and the base is otherwise just a beef base to add to anything.??? Also bought a jar of PorKwan Pho Vietnamese Flavour Paste for Vietnamese Noodle Soup. Only $1.45 for that one. hmmmm.

Just call me ONE really disappointed cook. Had lovely Thai Basil and all the other accoutrements all ready for this pho. I need some comfort food -- RIGHT NOW!!!!

hey ditz, I wanna' know what your dishes for "New Mexicanized soul food" are. Can you share?

quote:

Originally posted by bill voss

hey ditz, I wanna' know what your dishes for "New Mexicanized soul food" are. Can you share?

Oh, sure, I can tell yah some dishes ... but it's more the spirit of the thing I'm thinking about. You take near about any kind of comforting soul food -- greens cooked down to nubbin with lots of pot likker (oh, chile), black-eyed peas, potatoes in all their glorious variations, buttermilk cornbread, hush puppies, grits ... whooeee... you get the idea -- and you marry their deep comfort to some rousing fire of chiles of choice (nah, not just those from New Mexico, but any heat from mild nip to blow-out-your-brains, according to tolerance) and hot sauces and salsas. There you go! New-Mexicanized Soul Food (I suppose you could also call it Tex-Mex Soul Food, but I think the end result is usually closer to New Mexico cuisine style myself.)

At the time I wrote that post, I was thinking of mac n cheese and mashed potatoes mostly. Mac and cheese -- soul food, if ever there was any -- liberally laced with New Mexican green chiles, assorted pepper powders, and the like, is awfully satisfying. My southern cornbread dressing (no sugar, please) has been similarly invaded at times. Cornbread may get not only chiles, but cheeses. And might even be eaten with salsa or green chile pork stew instead of with great northern beans or with milk, as my Dad liked his cornbread. I tried using blue corn meal, too, but found I prefer my good old southern yellow cornmeal in my cornbread -- even if I do decide to add chiles and cheese and such to it. Take your favorite southern fried-chicken batter, and add chile powder (from the wide variety available, such as New Mexican, pasilla, guajillo, jalapeno, aji, even hab if so inclined) or perhaps some fine chopped chiles. Puts a nice bite into that southern fried batter. Creamy mashed potatoes, served with fried chicken cream gravy was a frequent and much loved food when I was growing up. Then one day, I tried those taters with flavorful green chile verde sauce ladled over them. Equally lip-smacking. If there's no cream gravy or chile verde at hand, there's always a bottle of hot sauce of choice to make that creamy potato goodness sit up and talk! When it comes to hot sauce, though, I leave New Mexico & Texas & Lousiana (no tobasco for me) behind and look to Jamaica --- I prefer scotch bonnet habanero most of the time.

Mind, I'm not advocating these chilified dishes OVER the plain soul food. Ohhh no. That's sublime stuff in its own right. I eat both.

So, what do you think? Actually, you can find some forms of these dishes in some restaurants now, but they don't credit the soul food origin of the dishes. That's just wrong. <grin>

I like your style, Ditz. I was taught in Arizona to put Red Potatoes in
Green Chile Stew, It sounds great on top of Mashed potatoes too. Sometimes I don't even use Pork, just chiles, tomatillos, onions, and peppers,

The line between green chile sauce and green chile stew can get fuzzy for me, Bill. On mashed potatoes, I use a simple chile-onion-broth sauce. But you're right, full-fledged stew probably would be good,too! They taught you well in Arizona, I'm thinking. Potatoes in green chile stew is a good rib-sticking dish. I like the stew without pork, too, but have to admit partiality to the taste of pork slow-cooked in chiles.

Sounds as if you make the good stuff, with tomatillos, not just chiles. I cooked with tomatillos for the first time recently, trying out a green corn soup. Sticky little suckers, aren't they? But made for a good soup. <grin> You reminded me, I still have tomatillos in the fridge. I may try my hand at making chile verde with tomatillos, esp as I have a fridge full of peppers ... and given I won't be eating that pho, after all.

Have you tried this method?
Roast or broil the tomatillos in the husks on a broiler pan in the oven, water in the bottom, or as an alternate method, in a hot cast iron frying pan with a tiny bit of water and covered. This precooks them and gets rid of most of the stickiness.
They will steam in the husks, then you hold them by the stem and squish the pulp
out.

Broiler idea appeals greatly. I didn't know how to cook them, so I plopped 4 or 5 into a saucepan with a tiny bit of water on bottom and cooked, covered ... half-cocked trying to steam them! LOL. Forgot about them and overcooked. They were starting to carmelize a bit on the bottom. I like the idea of being able to hold by stem and squish out of husk; wasn't that easy the way I did it. ;-) Thanks, Bill!

Oh, wait, do you mean literally the "husk"? That papery outer sheath? Broil them in that? Won't it catch fire? LOL. (see what a pro cook I am?) The tomatillos I bought were already "shelled" & plastic wrapped, from a Latino market, though I can also find them with that outer shell on them. So I was cooking them in their "skins," where they look like tomatoes. I don't know the terminology for the anatomy of tomatillos!

I indulged in some Tex-Mex comfort food today. Had lunch at Chevy's, which is fairly decent, so far as Mexican-food chains go. Had the dinner version of the habanero steak fajitas, with full complement of goodies to build the fajitas. Yum. The margarita was a little sour today, so stopped at one. Just as well. The fajitas, salsa, and chips were excellent! The smokey salsa was really fresh tasting; tomatoes may have been canned but onions, cilantro, etc were fresh. I want to learn how to make that sweet corn thing they serve.

What do ya know? I have a recipe for that Chevy's corn dish I like. It is in their cookbook, called "Sweet Corn Tomalito."

quote:

Originally posted by zataar

We discussed this topic in my kitchen at work today. Everyone had their favorites. The common denominator was heat. About 90% said something spicy, like Thai Curry or Sichuan food. Or mexican food with a very spicy habenero salsa. Must have something to do with the chile rush. The other 10% or so seemed to favor soft or creamy things, like hummus, lo mein, rice dishes or their nonny's spaghetti. We had fun talking about it. Beat's listening to Dr. Laura.

To speak of Nonny's Spaghetti, it just so happens that I am making a dish called "Nonny's Favorite, Want Some?" It's made with broccoli soup and chopped up spaghetti boiled with a tablespoon or 2 of extra virgin olive oil and a nice twinge of lemon. It takes about 2-3 pounds of broccoli boiled along with a pound of spaghetti but must be chopped up into little bite size pieces. Smash most of the boiled broccoli but leave a couple of branches to eat on the side with lemon and olive oil. It's a great Italitan dish.

It's a great Italian dish. (I made a typo in the past post), <b> Italian