I’ve long contended that China influenced Vietnamese pho big time, but it wasn’t till this week that I got a clear sense of what Chinese beef pho is actually like. Yes, it exists, and I found a recipe in my friend Georgia Freedman’s new book, Cooking South of the Clouds, which focuses on the cooking…
Essentials: Pho
The Pho Cookbook Won a James Beard Award!
You read that right. I can barely believe that I got to type that. Last Friday in New York, in front of about 600 people, The Pho Cookbook was awarded one of the culinary world’s highest accolades, a James Beard Foundation Award for Excellence. Who is that man on the medal? The late James Beard…
Phorrito Recipe
My husband and I were both skeptical, but for the sake of pho, we went to try the phorrito at Komodo in Los Angeles. It was December 2016, a couple days before Christmas. I posted a photo of myself eating the unusual noodle soup wrap on Instagram. There was curiosity, some disbelief, and a…
Have Your Own Super Bowl: Host a Cookbook Club Pho Party!
Meet Kristin. She’s sitting in front of four (4!) bowls of homemade pho. How did she manage to score that kind of jackpot? She and her husband Eric, along with a group of friends, have a private cookbook club. “Most of us went to college together so it’s a great way to stay connected,” she…
The Year in Pho: Recipes, Cooking Tips, and Family Stories from 2017
| Wouldn’t you know it, there was a lot of pho fervor this year, especially at Viet World Kitchen! Instead of doing a year-end summary of the most popular recipes on the site, I decided to round up all the pho-related content that published during the past twelve months. I published tips, tricks, and recipes…
Homemade Hoisin Sauce Recipe
Love hoisin sauce with pho and in other Asian dishes? Make it yourself! I didn’t think it would be easy, but for the sake of excellent pho and the desire to offer a gluten-free hoisin recipe in The Pho Cookbook, I experimented for about two weeks to come up with an excellent recipe. Now, you…
Day-After Thanksgiving Turkey Pho Recipe — Pressure Cooker and Multicooker Edition!
Do you cook during the holidays with leftovers in mind? I do. There’s so much involved in pulling off a holiday meal to feed a crowd that I love to bank my efforts by repurposing ingredients and using up scraps. Many Americans make soup from the leftover turkey carcass and vegetable, but what about…
MSG in Pho and What to Do about It
There was a group of women squatting around a giant soup pot in Hanoi’s old market. They appeared like old friends gathering for a morning snack. Of course, I had to get closer to figure out what was going on. They were visiting and enjoying steaming bowls of pho. The pho vendor joyously poured a…
Make Instant Pot Pho from The Pho Cookbook!
Excellent old-school pho requires a long simmer in a stockpot. Much of that work is passive cooking but it is a half-day project for a home cook. How can you make good, from-scratch pho fast? Use a pressure cooker. They’re called nồi áp xuất in Vietnamese. I’ve seen them online for purchase in Vietnam but…
Instant Pot Chicken Pho Recipe
If you want to make pho from scratch but do not have time for a long simmer in a stockpot, use a pressure cooker. This recipe goes with the post I wrote about how to use the Instant Pot to make my pressure cooker pho recipes in The Pho Cookbook. Note a few things before diving…