Category: Home Cooking

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Various different ways How to make BBQ Char Siu Vietnamese homemade style by Thong Tran recipe

bbq char siu xa siu xiu won ton quang thanh noodle soup
bbq char siu xa siu xiu won ton quang thanh noodle soup

It’s quite simple actually. I bought a package of Char Siu (xa xiu, sa xiu, xa siu) from a Vietnamese or Chinese Asian store they all have it, then add 1/2 cup of warm water, let it sit aside, then cut the pork meat in 1-2 inches slice, and marinade for an hour, then preheat your oven or char coal or gas grill to 150 degree then grill it for an hour, use a pan of water put it inside the grill to get the moisture into the meat or keep it moist other wise it will be dried :), well that’s my way of cooking. The direction is also on the the Char Xiu ingredient package. It’s kind of sweet, if you don’t like too sweet, add a little bit of fish sauce during marinading. There are many ways to eat Char Siu with, see below pictures various ways preparation. For me I love Sa Siu with Quang Thanh or so call Won-Ton noodle soup, um yummy. I’m making this today 🙂

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Vietnamese Pho noodle soup is everywhere and it’s good all year round

vietnamese pho beef noodle soup the best
vietnamese pho beef noodle soup the best

Now a day when we go to any Vietnamese restaurant, chances are, they have Pho noodle soup. Pho is one of the best soup there are for the Vietnamese community. Some restaurant does cook it much better than others, some cook with natural ingredient, some with pre-made ingredient, kind of difficult to tell the different, some even say adding a little bit of MSG will make it taste better, hmm maybe that’s the secret ingredient , but too much MSG not good for one’s health, so stay away from too much MSG, a little bit MSG is fine. For me cooking home Pho especially at home, never taste the same as the restaurant, 1st I live in the East Coast and don’t have all the herb vegetable including the bean sprout readily available, so even if I cook the soup good and has the meat ball and beef but missing those herb vegie doesn’t make it taste as good. The best I at are Pho Ha and Pho Hoa in Philadelphia PA, those are good and closest to me, 45-60mins drive, worth the drive but hec the parking is crazy, like new york, you could be going around in a circle for 30mins without finding a parking space on a weekend.

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Vietnamese vegetable Rau Vap Ca strange name but it’s part of the herbal Vietnamese vegetable

rau vap ca - vietnamese vegie
rau vap ca - vietnamese vegie

The correct name in Vietnamese is “Rau vấp cá!” does it have an english name? I don’t think so, and is Vietnam the only place that have this vegetable? I’m not sure, maybe it’s all over the tropical equators countries but I doubt that many countries would eat this vegie. One – many people doesn’t like the taste if it eat raw, but if you dip with fish cause or little bit of rice vinegar and sugar, it taste like salad, so it depend the way you prepare it. To me, I prepare this Rau vấp cá  by slice it up small and use it raw in the Vietnamese Goi Vit, Goi Ga, ect … or use the big leaf raw in a spring roll and dip with fish sauce, other than that I’m not what else can it be use beside dipping it with fish sauce with banh xeo and so on. Continue reading “Vietnamese vegetable Rau Vap Ca strange name but it’s part of the herbal Vietnamese vegetable”

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Lau canh chua Thai Lan homemade

Just finished cooking Lau Thai Lan also known as Thai Hot Pot soup or something like that. Umm it’s good eat while it’s cooking or boiling. When it start boiling put meat fish balls whatever, then wait for it to boil again then can eat 🙂 make sure it is thoroughly cooked, because some people like to eat it raw, I think that’s just taking the risk of getting sick, but yeah sometime it taste better just lightly cook 🙂 then just drink the Voka or strong wine whatever to kill all the germs if any exist 🙂 hehehe. This remind me of my last visit to Vietnam we eat all kind of food then afterward either a beer or Voka 🙂

canh chua thai lan
canh chua thai lan
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Vegetarian for 6 weeks catholic people?

Well my wife told me we need to eat vegetarian for 6 weeks, well 6 weeks every friday not, everyday ahahahha. So still good, I’m not eating meat today, but accidentally ate a piece of pizza meat ball from my daughter Nyla, she feed me and I didn’t pay attention and when I realize it’s meat, I had already swallowed it 🙂 oh well, I didn’t mean to, so I think it’s forgiveness. So look like every Friday for six weeks starting this week, I need to eat vegeterian, probably need to buy a lot of Tofu this week after the circus show this Sat. for the kids. Today I ate shrimp noodles, boiled egg, rice and fried eggs, I’ve seen vegetarian people look healthy and young, but I don’t think they’re strong though not as muscular, I’m not sure, doesn’t look like it, what about those Shaolin monk kung fu, I thought they’re vegetarian, they look pretty strong to me 🙂 hehehehh maybe just for show. Anyhow, give back to the god when you can.