PHO

Pho, actually pronounced something like "fuh", is a Vietnamese peasant soup sort of the equivalent of what we in Alabama, in my youth in the 1950s would have called hash house grub except that the Vietnamese were light years ahead of the Alabamians when it came to sophisticated flavors so while the Alabama grub would be often of little interest the Pho would blow your mind as you ate something that was basically a beef broth flavored with the most elementary and seemingly undesirable parts of the cow or ox such as knuckle bones and shins and flavored up with all sorts of spices and made into a soup with all sorts of meats and a fine thing it was and is and in the Oakland I lived and worked in the the 1980s Pho joints were all over what Oaklanders called "Chinatown" and a finer lunch at virtually no cost was not to be found anywhere but here is what I am trying to say. You can make pho here at Lakeside and all the ingrdients to make an authentic pho are available here.

Last night we served up our first attempted pho offering to our friends from Teotitlan del Valle,. Oaxaca and this is what blew us away. We have eaten in Teotitlan many times. Our Zapoteco friends have never ever eaten Vietnamese food in threir lives yet they recognized pho as similar to a Zapoteco dish from their home town in Oaxaca state.

You meet people from other cultures and you walk away way smarter than you walked in.

Is this a hot spicy soup? Did yours turn out like you have tasted before?

[quote="CanuckBob"]Is this a hot spicy soup? Did yours turn out like you have tasted before?[/quote]

Quite similar. This was a soup I normally ate in Oakland´s Chinatown and, most recently, in Paris which has a large Vietnamese population. This is the first time we´ve made it at home and, while,it was no precisely the same, it was delicious and as goofd or better than we have enjoyed in pho joints. Eating pho in a pho joint like drinking "cafe express" in an espresso cafe in Paris with the frenetic activity will always be different from eating or drinking at home. Places such as that are social activities in urban atmospheres and that is half the fun. Ain´t gonna happen in Ajijic but I´ll take it here anyway.

The nice thing is we discovered we could get all the ingredients needed to make great pho at Lake Chapala so no need to freeze our buns off in France.

So what zapotec dish does it resemble?

How about posting a recipe for this nectar. I make a mean hot and sour soup and would like to give this a go.

CanuckBob wrote:How about posting a recipe for this nectar. I make a mean hot and sour soup and would like to give this a go.

I never knew the name of it until recently but first tried it in the home of a Vietnamese friend and co-worker back around '81. He told me it was the south Vietnam recipe because it was made from beef, and the northern recipe was made with pork. I don't know what else was in it just that it was good and sounds like what people call pho.

If you really want poor taste there's the southeast Asian cookbook, "101 Ways to Wok Your Dog" by Som Duhm Phoc.

Peter wrote: "101 Ways to Wok Your Dog" by Som Duhm Phoc.

Now that made me LOL. Nice one.

CanuckBob wrote:How about posting a recipe for this nectar. I make a mean hot and sour soup and would like to give this a go.

Umm, what about your hot and sour soup recipe?? I have made quite a few and am always on the lookout for more recipes - still trying to replicate the soup from the Golden Noodle restaurant on Spadina, just south of Dundas in Toronto..... have never been able to, sob...

This is the recipe I use. You can add or reduce the amount of crushed chillies you use depending on how hot you like it:

Ingredients

750ml (1 1/4 pints) chicken stock
100ml (4 fl oz) water
200g (7 oz) sliced fresh mushrooms
50g (2 oz) bamboo shoots
3 slices fresh root ginger
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed chillies
500g (1 1/4 lb) skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets - cut into strips
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 spring onions, chopped
handful chopped fresh coriander (optional)
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons cornflour
1 egg, beaten

Preparation method

1. In a saucepan, combine the chicken stock, water, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, root ginger, garlic, soy sauce and crushed chillies. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer while you assemble the rest of the ingredients.

2. Place the chicken strips into a bowl and toss with the sesame oil to coat. In a separate bowl, stir together the cornflour and vinegar, and set aside.

3. Increase the heat under the stock to medium-high, and return to a rolling boil. Add the chicken. Return to the boil, and then drizzle in the egg while stirring slowly to create long strands of egg. Stir in the vinegar and cornflour. Simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through and the stock has thickened slightly, about 3 minutes. Serve garnished with spring onions and coriander.

Enjoy

Peter wrote:

CanuckBob wrote:How about posting a recipe for this nectar. I make a mean hot and sour soup and would like to give this a go.

I never knew the name of it until recently but first tried it in the home of a Vietnamese friend and co-worker back around '81. He told me it was the south Vietnam recipe because it was made from beef, and the northern recipe was made with pork. I don't know what else was in it just that it was good and sounds like what people call pho.

If you really want poor taste there's the southeast Asian cookbook, "101 Ways to Wok Your Dog" by Som Duhm Phoc.

Cute, Peter:

After the previous day of insurgent interposition upon the ordinary citizens of Michoacan may I presume that, at present, venturing about this ancient, if sparsely populated redneck kingdom should be undertaken with prudent regard for the notion that continued existence on the planet dictates the thought that venturing about said mountainous, hillbilly enclaves may entail more risk than warranted when there are other, likewise beautiful places in which to venture without risking the excision of one´s gonads.

Maybe the next time we get together would be better served by your venturing over here to Lake Chapala unless, of course, we are next as a war front.

Are you referring to the recent troubles in Morelia Mr. Dawg? Maybe Peter can fill us in on some details?

What I know of what went on here is what I saw on the new, read online, and an endless chatter on Twitter. Tere walked the four blocks or so to her nightly dance and exercise class and said the streets seemed relatively deserted which is unusual for this part of the Centro. I haven't had the need or desire to venture out, though that is not because of anything going on on our outskirts but that I'm just enjoying being lazy and unambitious.

This time last week we were just coming back from a few days in Zihuatanejo. My biggest concern is that if this kind of thing were happening while on the highway I could get tied up in traffic for quite awhile - which could cause me to miss a favorite TV program or something equally important. The chance I could be the unlucky one at that time getting my car torched seems very remote, though not non-existent.

I would say it would be wise for a little while to avoid certain towns like Apatzingán, which I have driven through and even stopped in on various occasions. The autopista doesn't bother me, besides for the entryways into Morelia. I usually pull off the autopista at Nueva Italia/Quatro Caminos at my favorite place for birria de chivo - the tierra caliente recipe is more tasty than usually found in Morelia or Pátzcuaro - but somewhere just on the other side of the glorietta in Quatro Caminos is where they blocked off the road to Apatzingán. However, if the traffic is not backed up clear out to the autopista I would still stop for my birria there.

A slight anomaly that was mildly unsettling on our Zihuatenejo trip was that the toll caseta by Ziracuaretiro was not collecting toll but you still have to slow or stop there. On the way to the coast some group was there taking advantage of the slowed traffic and asking for donations - I gave them the toll money I had ready and drove off. the caseta, though, was manned but just waving people through. No one asking for donations on the return trip. That is the second of three casetas in very near proximity to one another and always seemed superfluous, though it was was worth a few extra pesos to them, so why not? A Pho-ney stop - just to keep this on-topic.

Perhaps I may catch you at Lakeside before your departure date, if you're not coming this way and bringing me some more of Bubba's bread n'butter jalapeños. A nice mountain drive past Zamora to take you to the autopista near Uruapan will let you by-pass Morelia if you still intend to drive the coast. Possible something could erupt in those cities but the rest of that mountain drive is not a hotspot. I probably will not be ready for Lakeside quite that soon though, maybe when our second box of Bisquik runs out in about two months. Maybe sooner.

Okay, Guys....knock yourselves out.

Pho

Well, here's a whole bunch of them.

More Pho

uj