Vietnamese Beef Jerky

There is no bigger flavor explosion than Vietnamese Beef Jerky. My sweet babe of a friend Cathy Le had her parents bring this back from Vietnam, and kindly shared a whole bag with me. It's shredded, lemongrassy, sweet, moist, super spicy meat heaven. Don't be scared.

Thit Heo Kho Tau

Or Vietnamese Braised Pork Belly. This is one of my dad's favorite things to eat and the last time I went home he sighed and told me my mom is too tired to cook these kinds of meals anymore. He went on to say that one day he boiled 6 eggs in hopes of her coming home from work and seeing the eggs would think "Oh I can make this dish that Daddy loves!" But no,foiled, he told me he looked in the fridge and the eggs were gone. My little brother made tons of egg salad instead.

Our good friend Oanh made this one rainy day and I had forgotten how much I missed it. So using her super simple recipe, I decided to make it during the snow storm. The best part was the next day, we toasted up some french bread and made vietnamese sandwiches with them, YUM!

For an awesome version of this recipe see Tia Nguyen's foodblog.

Pho Saigon

Pho Saigon is my new pho haunt. But I need a car to get there, so anyone who reads this please invite me. I dont really need a car but its harder to get to then all the other ones near Washington.

What I love about this place is that it reminds me of California. Because all the good food in California are in strip malls, it's a given. So Pho Saigon is in a strip mall, it's super clean ( clean for the asian eating standards ) and it has slightly hilarious outgoing Vietnamese waiters. Which took me by surprise in Philadelphia. The vegetables and the meat taste really fresh, my beef comes out bright red rare in my Pho and they have the BBQ pork summer roll. They also indulged Jenni by giving her 2 eggs on her BBQ pork vermicelli bowl, genius, yes.

Pho Saigon
1100 South Columbus Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19147-5513
(267) 773-7305

Nam Son

Formerly the "other" Nam Phoung, I think this place finally changed it's name due to confusion with the other Nam Phoung.

Again I already talked about the hoagies. But the rest of the food in the restaurant is yums too, especially for summer a fresh bowl of "bun" is awesome.

I6th and Washington, in the Asian supermarket next to Duncan Donuts.

Joe's Birthday

On Wednesday it was Joe's Birthday, and Tim asked me to cook. Since it's been so darn hot we planned earlier in the week to have a light refreshing meal of summer rolls and Shrimp Katsu and make Vietnamese Noodle Bowls with them.


They were yummy! Next Party I will make my Fried Shrimp pops!

Vietnamese Deli

Vietnamese delis are great. Vietnamese hoagies to go, vietnamese coffees sitting and waiting for you to pick up and stir up the condensed milk at the bottom, and yummy strange jelly desserts for the taking.

I finally found one in Philly that I really enjoy. That's super nice and makes a great vietnamese hoagie and its only 3 bucks. They make there own mayonnaise which I also really enjoy. I picked up bbq beef, summer rolls, and this mochi rice dessert that's in this sweet ginger sauce and you pour coconut milk all over it. It wasn't as good as my grandma's but it was close enough. 

cheap and super good!

Nam Phoung ( in the supermarket corner of 16th and Washington )

1601 Washington Ave. 

Grandma In San Francisco

My Grandma lives in San Francisco. She has 13 ( that I know of ) grandchildren. She travels all around the world for weddings, babies being born, and for fun. Yet her greatest joy is sending all these grandchildren packages. Especially me, who she thinks is lost somewhere on the east coast without proper chinese/vietnamese resources. Here are the contents of her latest most amazing package.



Grandma's Package
3 rolls of Ritz crackers
1 can of lowfat Pringles
1 Vietnamese shredded dried beef jerky package
1 bag of spicy shredded cuttlefish
1 ziploc of dried cranberries
1 ziploc of strange dried fruit
1 ziploc of Haw Flakes
1 ziploc of Pork Fu ( the cotton candy of fried dried shredded pork)
1 ziploc of what seems to be Chinese Butterfingers
1 can of "luxury wafers"
1 instant Kim Chee Noodle
2 packages of Top Ramen

All stuffed in a random unmarked shoebox.