Pho (Vietnamese Noodle Soup)

Since everyone at home like Vietnamese Noodle so much, I thought I should try to make it at home. Last month, I went scouring for the ingredients to make the beef broth and found them in a Vietnamese grocery store along Kingsway (near Main). The Beef Flavoured Pho Soup Base costs $8.99 and is used to make 20 bowls of soup!

IMG_4442_edited-1

The soup base had been sitting in the shelf for a long time because according to the cooking instructions, it takes over 2 hrs to make. Along with that, I was mulling over how is the family going to finish off 20 bowls of Pho soup. Anyway, I finally gotten down to making it over the long Easter weekend. I must say it was more successful than I anticipated. The soup was better than any we have tasted in Vietnamese Restaurants … well, according to everyone in my family anyway. We have chunkier meat which we felt tastes better than the thin sliced beef we were served in restaurants.

IMG_4468_edited-1

You know what is the bad thing about this? We have been eating this for three consecutive meals (yesterday’s lunch and dinner and today’s lunch!) and we have quite a bit left! 🙂 I am certainly going to make it again but I will think of how I am going to give away some to friends.

Here are some interesting facts about Pho on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pho

Ingredients

  • 3 – 4 lbs of beef flank (or brisket)
  • 1 lb beef tendon — since I could not buy them, I got the marinated/cooked ones from T&T
  • 1 bulb onion
  • 2 piecese of ginger

I also bought 1/2 lb of beef tripe since Norm and Marc likes them. I also bought 1/2 lb of beef balls.

Please note, you need to have a 2 gallon pot to make the Pho soup.

IMG_4441_edited-1 (more…)

Continue ReadingPho (Vietnamese Noodle Soup)

Sweet Potato Sweet Soup (Fun Shee Tong Sui)

I like Tong Sui which is the Chinese sweet dessert soup. There are many type of tong sui. Some takes a lot of steps and others are very simple. The sweet potato soup is very easy and fast to make — just took me 20 minutes.

Back in the days where I grew up in Malaysia, sweet potato are basically eaten by poor people. I recall my parents telling that during the second world war, people survived on these stuff because it was easy to grow. In Canada, sweet potatoes are referred to as yams.

IMG_4032_edited-1

Ingredients

  • 3 pieces of sweet potato
  • 1 brown sugar slab (for sweetness)
  • 2 pandan leaves (for flavor)

IMG_4011_edited-1 (more…)

Continue ReadingSweet Potato Sweet Soup (Fun Shee Tong Sui)