Hell, if we’re allowed THAT much drift, then the best soup is a porterhouse steak rubbed with garlic, black pepper, olive oil and anchovy paste, grilled medium rare, with a nice baked potato, sauteed mushrooms, and creamed spinach on the side.
I love Asian hot and sours soups, whomever they are made by. I haven’t tried them all yet, but that’s just another life’s pleasure to look forward to!
I love soup in general. I’m a total soup person. I have a bowl left of potato and leek that I made this weekend, which didn’t turn out to bad (my first try). But I love to try out different soups.
Anyone have an exotic soup recipe? The pho sounds interesting, I may try that!
Okay, a quick and dirty pho, one you can make in half an hour with stuff you can get from any supermarket.
The broth
Small 375ml liquid chicken stock
Small liquid vege stock
Same amount of water
put in large pot, bring to boil, then add
1 peeled shallot (i.e small brown onion)
4 cloves of garlic, peeled, then smashed
large piece of ginger or galangal, peeled, scored with knife
piece of lemongrass (preserved is fine)
some coriander roots (I think you call this cilantro?)
2 or 3 whole star anise
Simmer for half an hour.
The rest
1 packet of thick noodles. Flat rice noodles are best, but hokkien will do fine. Rinse in boiling water, distibute throughout bowls.
On top of this put pieces of very thinly sliced raw steak. If you prefer, you can swap for chicken which you should poach for ten minutes in the stock, then shred.
Sprinkle with fish sauce. (A product made from fermented fish and salt. If you are unfamiliar with it, go easy with at first. Smell it - don’t worry, it’s not off, and you will come to love the smell)
Add some vegetables: bok choy is ideal, spinach would be fine; bean sprouts for crunch etc etc.
To serve
Remove solids from stock, pour over noodles. Add coriander leaves, Thai basil, sliced green onion and fresh chilli peppers. Squeeze a little lime juice over the lot, or serve with lime, chilli and salad vegetables on the side.
Suggested beverage: beer.
picmr
picmr: Make mine Saigon beer, ice cold, and go heavy on that Thai basil! A good shake of Szechwan pepper livens things up, too. Can anyone tell by now that I am a blowed-in-the-glass foodie?
Lordy, I’m hungry. I came here to vote for split pea soup but see Ukulele Ike beat me to the punch with the second post! My secret: I add lots of shredded carrots.
One of my favorite soups takes a little time to make but it’s unusual and delicious. I got it from Vegetarian Times a couple years ago: Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup
picmr, I have to disagree with your recipe there. Chicken stock is unusual for pho (at least in the San Jose area). Try making your stock with oxtail, which is how they do it. The stock by itself should be thin and clear - noticable but not overwhelming beef flavor.
For my pho recommendation in the Bay Area - Pho Xe Lua probably has the best stock, but Pho Hua has the best meat quality.
Avumede, where in the bay area are they located?
One of my coworkers just let me know that a Pho Xe Lua used to be right past the Korean BBQ place we eat out at every other month or so on Able. He thinks it is in the Beryessa area now.
I’d probably vote for Wor Won Ton, Hot and Sour Soup, or Sizzling Rice Soup.
Not quite up that high, but a soup that I still do like is split pea soup. Not noteworthy in and of itself, except that I HATE peas in “plain form”. I mean, hate 'em. Hate the taste, hate the texture. And the smell? It often makes me retch. (If there were a “barf smiley”, I’d use it now)
But I do enjoy split pea soup? Anyone else experience this?
Avumede said:
Absolutely. I used a chicken/ vegetable mixture here as a quick and dirty option. If you are making your own stock, I’d use shin of beef. In my experience packaged beef stock is pretty ordinary.
picmr
Pho Xe Lua has 4 locations in the Bay Area - I only know the one on Moffet & Middlefield (in Mountain View), though. Pho Hua is on Castro st (also in Mountain View). It’s also in Chicago…
These are just my favorites though. There are so many Vietnamese restuarants that there probably are better places for pho… but I haven’t been in one yet.
I’ve never had pho. Gonna have to find a Vietnamese place now…
I like Tom Kha Gai (I think someone else mentioned it too). Nothing like that coconut milk and lime juice. Getting hungry just thinking about it.
Also a corn chowder fan. And cream of asparagus. And gumbo, although that doesn’t really count. And french onion. And baked potato soup, with the cheddar cheese and green onions and sour cream and bacon bits. Or tomato soup, made with milk.
But Tom Kha Gai is the best.
This thread stuck in my memory for quite a while. Recently I was able to try Pho for the first time. I am now officially a “Pho Addict.”
I go to meetings twice a week.
They serve Pho.
I thought I was the best soup.
Funny, I almost went out for pho today! There’s a great little place just down the street.
***** Fish Sauce Warning *****
Whatever you do, don’t use the fish sauce that comes in bottles! It’s just nasty. It tastes rancid. (And yes, I’ve tried it in a couple of places.) The only good fish sauce is the stuff the restaurant makes itself.
IMO.
What a strange feeling. All memory of this thread had vanished from my mind. I was reading this thread saying “this is an interesting thread. I bet I could contribute to it. I could talk about Pho Xe Lua and Pho Hua”. Then I continued reading, and I saw that I in fact did respond, and said pretty much what I was thinking of saying. It’s almost like I was traveling through time, and now I can hold a nice conversation on Pho with my younger self.
BTW, now Pho Xe Lua is called “California Noodle House”. How times change.
Pho is great, the king of soups. But where are your tripe, your tendons, your Chinese Five Spice?
How can anyone not talk about the joys of eating bird spit, I mean, nest soup? Something about the little bird lugies floating around in there…mmmmmmmMMMMMM!!!
I used to supervise a Vietnamese interior restoration crew. After bringing in real Mexican one week (“Wow! This is so different from Taco Bell!”), they brought in some homemade Vietnamese the next.
The soup’s name is spelled something like bein reiu (without the proper diacritical marks).
This is one of the finest soups I have ever had, bar none. It had a perfumed chicken stock tinted with the citric note of tomato. In it were cubes of a shredded pork and egg omelete and some crab meatballs.
During my regular visits to their home I would make my Philippine skewers and other dishes for the family. One time I asked the mother to please make the soup again. This time she went all out and tarted it up with white asparagus and the like. Sadly, all the extra ingredients only obscured the brilliance of the simpler recipe.
Anyone ever hear of this fabulous concoction? Anyone ever had it? I stand by my claim that it is amazing in its delicacy and straight forward flavors. The rice paper spring rolls are another minor addiction as well.
A good bowl of Pho should take up your entire place setting at the table. An overflowing plate of basil, bean sprouts and vegetables, some lime wedges a ceramic spoon and chopsticks should all bracket your bowl of steaming broth. And please do not forget the fish sauce. Even if you keep the fish sauce in a bowl on the side, be sure to dip into it once in a while. The complex flavor complements the pure flavors of the soup. A dollop of the firey red chili sauce rounds out the fight card.
I like the nascent French influences upon Vietnamese cuisine and therefore prefer it to Thai. A good sizzling rice soup with all five delights is one of my very favorite but its hard to think of a soup I don’t like. We shall ignore what Queen Victoria had to say:
“Dinner should not begin with a lake!”
Back in the day, there used to be a restaurant right next door to the El Macambo, in Toronto, it was called Pho.
Zenster described the soup they served to a tee.
It was a most wonderful thing.
I wonder if it’s still there? I haven’t had this soup for years and years.
My mouth is actually watering as I write this.
You are sooo right, count my vote as best soup: Pho !