Pho

I love soups, quick soups especially. Pho is not a quick soup, well the process is not quick unless you use a pressure cooker. Steamy Kitchen's Pho or Steamy Kitchen's crockpot Pho I have found that using a pressure cooker takes about 5 hours off the process. Does it taste as good? Yea it's not bad, slow cooking is the best, but crockpots are never big enough!

Banh Mi, and Thit Nuong

Banh Mi is the Vietnamese fast food staple. Americans have fast food burgers, this is the Vietnamese version. Banh Mi is really simple. Using the thit nuong recipe with sliced pork, you've got your meat filling. There are way too many fillings that go in a Banh Mi, that I haven't tried yet. The ones I like happen to have pate, grilled pork or chicken and veggies in them. Vietnamese sandwich shops have the best demi baguettes. The rolls have a thin crisp crust and sweet and tender crumb. The rolls are sliced halfway through, mayo is spread on the bread, the meat is placed along with pickled daikon, and carrots, matchstick cucumbers, thin slivers of onion, cilantro, and jalapenos. I know there has to be more in them, but I never pay too much attention to what as I'm too busy stuffing my face. When I first started eating them, I would buy 5 and get one free, and they were only $1! Gee, that was 10 years ago. Now they go for as low as $2.50 upwards to $4 depending on where you are. Oh and you will need breath mints when you are done eating.
I haven't found any decent Vietnamese bakeries close to me, so I'm stuck with sub par baguettes from my local Kroger or Publix. One of my next projects will be to make demi baguettes.

A Vietnamese dinner

I totally have a craving for Vietnamese food. Now this is a shameful story to tell you. I grew up eating Cantonese, and plain American fare. Typical American fare would be spaghetti, pizza, lasagna, and hamburgers. I branched out when I got married and worked on my french bistro, Tuscan, and Northern Italian dishes. I have enjoyed Indian food, but alas curry is not something my husband likes. In the past 6 years we've expanded our palate to Thai, and Vietnamese food. The shame of it all is that I didn't experiment with these cuisines until I was in my 30's, and now I find living in the suburbs of Atlanta, there isn't a large variety of Asian cuisine. (The ubiquitous brown or white sauced entrees were never in my Mom's repertoire.) Oh and by the way, what the heck is the big deal about the white sauce at the hibachi restaurants out here?