| 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…
how to make pho
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…
How to Host a Pho Party!
My family regularly had our own pho party on Sunday mornings, but when I was growing up, I didn’t realize it. We’d attend 8 a.m. Mass, eat the little communion wafer, and our tummies would start to rumble. “Join us for doughnuts and coffee in the hall after service,” someone would announce but I knew…
Pho Spice Blend Recipe
Imbuing pho broth with whole spices is to be expected but when you want to define as well as reinforce the pho imprint, use this spice blend. I formulated it for The Pho Cookbook to give cooks a tool that could help them make something more “pho-ish”, to help it say, “I am pho-like!”…
Pho Lessons from My Mom
When my mom came to America in 1975, she faced challenges like starting a new career, negotiating a foreign society, and raising five kids with my dad. She also wanted to feed herself and our family good food. On the trip from Vietnam, she packed a small orange notebook of hand-written recipes of foods that…
Pho Spice Primer
Without doubt, spices play a major role in defining pho. They contribute lots of aroma and flavor to create a multi-dimensional broth. They are subtly there to help express that something is pho-ish. Typical pho spices are warm and sweet, but each has its individual personality. If this sounds odd, consider the spices that go…
Pho Garlic Vinegar Recipe (Dam Toi)
Seven years ago I was in Hanoi on assignment for Saveur magazine. My task was to explore Hanoi-style pho for a column called “Classics.” I’d done lots of reading and research and knew about ingredients like peanut worms (sa sung), which are used for umami in pho. I arrived in the capital thinking I’d…
Vietnamese Online Cooking Class Preview and VWK Price
You may be thinking of watching Super Bowl Sunday but I’m thinking of brewing “souper” bowls of pho. Ha(!), pun intended. It’s the season for restorative, warming soups, as well as the time for Lunar New Year reboots. It’s a period for fresh starts and explorations of new ideas. Given that, launching the new Vietnamese…
Pre-Launch Giveaway: Online Vietnamese Classics Class
Great news! Next Tuesday on January 28, my second online cooking class with Craftsy launches. “Vietnamese Classics: Pho, Noodles & Beyond" is a fun class that covers a number of favorite go-to Vietnamese dishes, things that I make at home, order out at restaurants – foods like goi cuon rice paper rolls, chicken and beef…
Instant Pho Spice Cubes: How good are they?
A while back, I posted about instant pho kits and someone commented on how he loved a quick bowl made from the contents of the little boxes of pho bouillon sold at Vietnamese markets. I’d seen them but never went near them. They are typically stocked at the cash register or shelved in the spice…
