Pho Ga (Vietnamese Chicken rice noodles soup)

Happy International Women' Day to all of you !! I would like to present this light and healthy noodles to all of you.


I like Vietnamese pho, i took pho for almost every lunch when I was in Ho Chi Minh last year. I try to cook this at home recently, also partly due to super hot weather here , I lost appetite to rice which serve in every dinner. As lime juice and fresh herbs are added to pho, so it is very appetite and refreshing.

At first, I was not too sure what spices added to the broth, luckily I found the Vietnamese beef pho recipe in Pig Pig's corner. I always have problem to buy beef in market here, so I changed beef to chicken, and omitted some of the spices..Thanks to Pig Pig's corner for kind sharing.


-From left, coriander seeds, cloves, cinnamon stalk, star anise

Pho Ga / Vietnamese Chicken rice noodles soup
(printable recipe)

The broth
4 Chicken carcasses
1 big onion (cut wedges)
½ tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp salt or to taste
4 whole cloves
1 whole star anise
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 cinnamon stalk
2.5 litres water

Ingredients
500g Vietnamese rice noodles (rinse in hot water)
500g whole Chicken breast (cook in the broth for 30mins, removed and shred the meat)
200g Bean sprouts (washed and tails pinched off)
Fresh basil leaves
Fresh coriander leaves
Fresh red chilli
Limes


1) To make the Chicken pho broth: Pan fried onion wedges till slightly brown. Place all spices (cloves, star anise, coriander seeds and cinnamon stick) in a cotton pouch. In a large pot, add in chicken carcasses,water, onion and spices pouch, bring to boil and simmer over low flame for 1hour. Season with sugar, fish sauce and salt, try to make it more salty as soup will dilute once added noodles. Strain the broth and discard the solids.

2) To make the bowl: Bring broth to boil, fill bowl with rice noodles and bean sprouts, and ladle the hot broth into bowl. Garnish with the rest of fresh veggie and shredded chicken. Serve hot.

Happy Cooking !!

Mushroom hotpot, Ashima Ho Chi Minh

When my husband said his counterpart recommended us to eat mushroom hotpot, my 1st reaction was " Can eat one or not? mushroom steamboat,no no, I still prefer to eat Vietnamese foods" , but last, I still forced to go Ashima mushroom hotpot restaurant and really had no expectations.

Luckily I go otherwise I will miss this interesting and delicious mushroom hotpot. You'll be amazed by how many different kind of mushroom offered on the menu, and it will be overwhelming. If you are 1st time here, you can ask for recommendation from the staff. We choose chicken & Chinese herbs broth, since only two of us, we just ordered beef, veggie and instant noodle (this is good).

After added all ingredients in the mushroom soup, the soup was super super sweet and delicious, this was the best soup I have ever had...

And the dipping sauce was great too...






- The staff recommended us to order " Yellow morel mushroom " and " Tigris Claw mushroom" as she said these are best to accompany with beef which we intended to order...

- Add some mushroom soup to this dipping sauce, yummy yummy....

-My camera run out of battery when i want to take these pictures, no choice, use my phone to take these....

Even mushroom is not your favourite , I still suggest you to give a try. Actually this is something similar to our steamboat here, but you can't get so many different types of mushrooms here. Strongly recommend you to give a try..don't missed it when you visit to HCM...

Ashima website: http://www.ashima.com.vn/

Shopping and Shopping, Ho Chi Minh

See what I bought during my Ho Chi Minh trip, all are food stuffs, nut, fish sauce, spring roll skin, instant beef noodle, tea leaves and candies..

- Just like to show these photos to those who love to bake, I took it in one of the bakery shop in HCM.

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- Beside foods, I just bought these cinnamon sedge sandals, heard that it keep cool for foot, prevent against the rheumatism, lungistis… The behind one I bought for my sister..I only found one shop selling this nice cinnamon sedge sandals (decorate with nice beads), other shops just sell very normal cinnamon sedge sandals..

At the end, I realized that this sandal was not made in Vietnam but China, hahaha...

Hoang Yen restaurant, Ho Chi Minh

My husband local counterpart was recommended us to this good restaurant in Ho Chi Minh, dishes served there are delicious and yummy..

- We like to eat this vegetable, can't find it here, and it has a nice name- Thousand miles...little tini flower vege..

-Thousand miles vege sauted with beef and garlic

- Salted chicken and spring onion, the spring onion is super sweet...

-pickled vege

-Vietnamese Fried spring rolls

- very nice vege plating

- this fried prawn spring roll is super delicious..

- I forgot to take note this restaurant address, but this restaurant is easily found as it just located at the same row of Renaissance Hotel..

- Too bad, we can't order many dishes as only two of us...

Walk and see, Ho Chi Minh

These were few shots I took during my walked in the Ho Chi Minh city....

-Wood crafts

-Drawings

-hand stitch

- Malaysia Dato Michelle Yeoh road safety advertisement

- Post cards

- The only Malaysian restaurant in HCM-the name of the restaurant is Halal Saigon..

- Opera House

Temple Club, Ho Chi Minh

For atmosphere alone, the Temple Club is a must-see in Ho Chi Minh. I love this place -the ambience is good - the remains of an old Chinese temple. The décor is upscale, so do for the prices but food is just okay..

-Foods that we ordered

Temple Club is located at:-

29-31 Ton That Thiep Street, Ho Chi Minh CityViet Nam+84 8 829 9244

General Post Office, Ho Chi Minh

The French had left behind a wealth of architecture in HCM. The 2 most prominent French legacies have to be the General Post Office and the Notre Dame Cathedral. If you happen to walk by Notre Dame Cathedral, then you should stopped by this Post Office, they are just side by side.

You can purchase postcard, writing and post it from here..It is a cool thing to be done in this very old post office.