Soup Pho Bo - Vietnamese cuisine. Step by step recipe with photo

Soup pho bo Quite widely known and this wonderful first course is original and versatile, satisfying and healthy. Many professional chefs consider him ideal option allowing for a first acquaintance with national cuisine this country. The broth cooked with spices acquires a very unusual taste. By the way, you can prepare the broth in advance (as some Vietnamese do), and then the cooking itself will take no more than 15-20 minutes

Fo is the most famous dish vietnamese cuisine. It was invented at the beginning of the 20th century in the northern part of Vietnam by Chinese street vendors. Gradually, Pho soup became popular throughout the country. Now it's part of the culture national identity; Poems and philosophical treatises are written about pho. Every family, every restaurant has its own, special recipe pho. Thanks to the Vietnamese diasporas, pho is cooked all over the world. OMJ publishes instructions on how to make this soup at home.

Traditional Pho soup

There are many variations of Pho soup, but one of the most popular is Pho Bo, which has three main ingredients:

• pho noodles,
• meat,
• bouillon.

Pho in professional kitchens is prepared by hand, at home you can use ready-made noodles bought in a store. For Pho Bo - varieties of Pho with beef, that is, the most traditional version, - exclusively the muscles of the back leg of the cow are used, since in this part there are more tenderloins and the meat is softer.

Pho Bo soup is usually served with lemon, fresh pepper(or lychee sauce), bean sprouts and salad as an accompaniment.

Specifics of preparation and use

Like shchi for rgaspacho for a Spaniard, lagman for an Uzbek, and pho soup is the main first dish for any Vietnamese. A plate of soup gives energy and energizes for the whole working day (many Vietnamese prefer to eat this dish in the morning - but this is not important). It is served not only in restaurants, but also on the street - pouring portions from large pots.

According to statistics, the soup is one of the most bought in the world: the third place after miso and minestrone. And to cook it yourself, you need to buy ingredients available in any supermarket or market, which are inexpensive. Of the cooking features: they make the dish mainly based on beef, but some people cook pho soup with chicken. Beef, for example, can be either boiled or raw, cut into small pieces. the thinnest slices, which reach readiness, filled with boiling broth (cooked with anise, ginger, and other spices). Rice noodles are used for the dish. By the way, some seafood can also be used as additives.

Cook very tasty soup Pho bo Vietnamese recipe.

There are 3 types of similar dishes:

• Pho bo - with beef,
• Pho ha - with chicken
• Pho ka - with fish.

Today I bring to your attention the classic Vietnamese soup Pho, which is loved by all Europeans - with well-cooked beef. Classical northern recipe Vietnamese Pho soup is made from rice noodles with a large number green and onion and served with herbs and lime.

Pho soup, along with Miso and Minestrone, is one of the three most popular first courses in world cuisine.

The mysterious taste of rich and unusual fragrant dish conquered the hearts of many gourmets.

The history of the origin of soup goes back centuries and is shrouded in many mysteries and secrets. But, despite this, the dish can be easily prepared at home and surprise relatives with culinary knowledge.

Pho Soup - General Cooking Principles

The basis of the dish is a rich broth. IN classic recipe beef is used for its preparation. There are also several options for cooking Pho with fish, poultry and seafood. In Vietnam, the dish is often served with raw, thinly sliced ​​pieces of meat. But we will not take risks, and we will subject all products to heat treatment.

What else is Pho soup made of:

rice noodles;

Fish sauce;

Hot peppers;

Soy sauce;

Carrot.

Special attention in the Vietnamese dish is given to spices: different types pepper, coriander, cinnamon, cloves. Ideally used ready mix, which is also called Fo. But you can replace it with individual ingredients, ready-made sauces.

Recipe 1: Classic Beef Pho Bo Soup

Recipe classic soup beef pho. Ideally, in addition to meat, you will need an oxtail and a marrow bone for cooking. It is these ingredients that give richness to the broth - the basis of the soup.

Ingredients

800 grams of beef sternum;

500 grams of oxtail;

One brain bone;

2 onions;

20 grams of ginger;

One parsnip;

1 jalopeno pepper;

Spices pho (cinnamon, cloves, anise);

20 grams of Thai fish sauce;

Green cilantro, basil.

Cooking

1. We thoroughly wash the bones and the oxtail, fill it with water and boil for 10 minutes. Then we drain all the liquid, wash the meat again. Add beef brisket. Fill with water and cook for an hour.

2. Peel the onion and ginger, cut into several pieces, add pho spices and heat in the oven or on the grill for 10 minutes. Then add to the broth in the pan and continue cooking.

3. After another hour, add parsnips and fish sauce. Stir, boil for half an hour. We take out the beef breast, catch the vegetables and leave the broth to cook for another 2 hours with the oxtail and marrow bone.

Wrap cooled beef in cling film and put in the refrigerator.

5. Cut greens, lime, pepper, remaining onion.

6. Strain the broth, salt and pepper. We pick the meat from the tail and arrange on plates.

7. Cut the beef from the refrigerator into large, but thin plates. Also put on a plate. Add pepper, herbs, lime slices. You can add some soy sauce if you like.

8. Pour hot broth over and serve.

Recipe 2: Pho Soup with Rice Noodles and Beef

This recipe calls for rice noodles to make pho soup. Do not try to replace it with regular pasta or spaghetti, it will turn out completely different.

Ingredients

1.5 kg of beef bones;

1.5 kg beef tenderloin;

700 grams of rice noodles;

½ hot pepper;

400 grams of soy sprouts;

5 cloves of garlic;

5 bulbs;

Parsley, lettuce, cilantro;

Soy sauce.

Cooking

1. Cook strong beef broth from meat products and 3.5 liters of water. Also add the chopped onion. hot peppers. Then we filter the broth, cut the pulp into pieces, return to the broth. Throw away the bones.

2. Put the broth on the stove again, season with soy sauce, spices, add chopped garlic and soy sprouts.

3. Dip the rice noodles in boiling water for 15 seconds, then rinse cold water.

4. Cut the lettuce and the rest of the greens.

5. Put rice noodles, greens, lime slices in a plate and pour broth with beef slices.

Recipe 3: Pho Ga Soup with Chicken

A lighter version of Vietnamese pho soup that cooks much faster classic version. It is advisable to use poultry or farm poultry, which will give a good fat. In addition to chicken, you can similarly use a turkey or other poultry, but not very fatty. The essence of the dish is in a rich, boiled broth without fat.

Ingredients

Big chicken;

Carrot;

A piece of ginger, the size of half a finger;

a pinch of cinnamon;

Soy sauce;

2 stars of carnation;

2 onions;

chili pepper.

Cooking

1. We wash the carcass well inside and out. Fill with cold water to just cover the bird. Add onions cut into 4 parts, carrots cut into large washers and cook for 30 minutes. When boiling, remove the foam, periodically get rid of the fat on the surface.

2. After half an hour, add chopped hot peppers, thin rings of ginger, cloves, cinnamon to the pan and cook until fully prepared about another hour.

3. We take out the bird from the broth, cool it, free the meat from the bones and arrange it on plates.

4. We filter the broth through a sieve to get rid of boiled vegetables and spices. Then season to taste with salt, soy sauce, cinnamon.

5. Pour chicken dishes with fragrant broth, sprinkle generously with herbs and serve. For spiciness, you can add more pepper, capsicum or ground. For flavor, put a slice of lemon.

Recipe 4: Vietnamese Pho Ka Soup with Fish

More precisely, with fish balls. For cooking national soup pho you can use absolutely any fish. But preferably one that does not have a large number of bones, as you will need to cook minced meat.

Ingredients

2 kg of fish;

200 grams of rice noodles;

Soy sauce;

2 onions;

Chilli;

green onions;

A raw egg;

Any oil;

Cooking

1. Cut the fish into fillets. We put the heads, fins, bones, ridge in a pan. Pour cold water, add chopped onion, pepper and boil for 50 minutes. Then we filter, season with soy sauce.

2. Grind the fillet with a meat grinder, add salt, egg. If the stuffing turned out to be liquid, then you can pour a little rice flour.

3. We form meatballs from minced meat, fry in oil in a pan.

4. Boil the noodles for 15 seconds, rinse.

5. Arrange on plates fish balls, noodles, add greens, a slice of lemon and pour the contents with boiling broth. Serve hot.

Recipe 5: Seafood Pho Soup

This soup conquers with its unusual aroma, and is popular in world cuisine. In Vietnam, it is prepared for breakfast and consumed early in the morning. It is believed that such a beginning of the day promises only good. From seafood you will need shrimp, mussels, squid, you can take an octopus.

Ingredients

400 grams of seafood;

150 grams of rice noodles;

A piece of ginger, the size of a little finger;

Hot peppers;

Green onions and cilantro;

5 peppercorns;

Carnation asterisk;

Bulb;

2 cloves of garlic;

Carrot.

Cooking

1. We clean the onion, ginger, carrot and raw shrimp.

2. Cut onions, carrots, ginger and fry in a pan. Put in a saucepan, add shrimp shells and boil for 30 minutes. We filter.

3. Put all the seafood, peppercorns, chopped spicy pod, cloves into the broth and boil until tender.

4. Boil the noodles separately, arrange on plates.

5. We take out the seafood, send it to the noodles. We filter the broth, salt, pour the contents of the plates.

6. Sprinkle the soup with chopped green onion, cilantro. Garlic and put a slice of lemon. You can use lime in the same way.

Recipe 6: Pho Soup with Fried Fish

Another variation of pho soup with fish. For cooking, you will need two types of product - selected pieces of fish for frying and non-liquid parts for broth. The broth will turn out to be more saturated if you use heads, tails, fins.

Ingredients

2 kg of fish for broth;

500 grams of selected fish for frying;

150 grams of rice noodles;

A piece of ginger;

green onions;

spice mix;

Fish sauce;

Flour for breading;

Cooking

1. We wash the fish pieces for the broth, pour cold water, boil for 2 minutes. Drain the broth. We wash the fish well again, pour clean water, add onion, ginger and cook for an hour.

2. Strain the broth, salt, season with pepper, fragrant spices and fish sauce. We pick the pulp from the bones, add to the soup.

3. Boil the rice noodles, rinse and arrange on plates.

4. We cut selected pieces of fish in small pieces, about 3-4 cm. Then salt, you can sprinkle with any spices, roll in flour and fry in oil in a pan. We also arrange on plates. For each serving 3-4 pieces.

5. Add chopped green onion, slice of lemon or lime.

6. Fill with hot broth.

Recipe 7: Pho Soup with Rice and Sprouted Beans

To prepare Vietnamese pho soup, it is not necessary to use noodles, you can put rice. It is better if it is unpeeled and long. You will also need sprouted beans, which are often used in the national cuisine of Vietnam. To prepare, you just need to pour the washed beans with water, stand for two days until sprouts appear.

Ingredients

900 grams of beef;

100 grams of sprouted beans;

150 grams of rice;

2 onions;

20 grams of ginger;

Chilli;

Green onion;

Bay leaf;

Peppercorns;

Cinnamon, mint, lemon - to taste.

Cooking

1. Fill the beef with water, add the whole onions, 5 peppercorns, ginger and cook for 2.5 hours. Then we put Bay leaf ik and turn off. We filter the broth, cool the meat.

2. Boil separately long rice, rinse well, drain the water. Divide into bowls.

3. Grind the chili pepper. You can simply cut or scroll with a blender, put in the broth, salt and mix.

4. Cut the chilled beef into slices, put in a bowl with rice.

5. Add sprouted beans.

6. Chop green onions. If desired, add a mint leaf, a circle of lemon, a little cinnamon. We send to other ingredients.

7. Fill with broth and you can serve.

Recipe 8: Pho Soup with Mushrooms

An exotic first course using Vietnamese tree mushrooms. But with a shortage, you can take any other, pickled or fresh. It turns out great with champignons, oyster mushrooms.

Ingredients

1 kg of beef;

400 grams of mushrooms;

Bulb;

Soy sauce;

20 grams of ginger;

Carrot;

Spices, herbs.

Cooking

1. Cut the onion into 4 parts, ginger and carrots in circles. Fry in a pan for a minute and throw into the pan. Add chopped beef, pour water and cook a rich broth. Then we filter, cool the meat and put it in the freezer.

2. Cut the mushrooms into slices, fry in a pan until almost cooked. If a pickled product is used, then this step can be skipped.

3. Add salt, fried mushrooms to the broth, boil for 10 minutes. At the end, add other spices: pepper, coriander, bay leaf.

4. Take out the frozen beef, cut into thin slices, put in plates. Drizzle with a teaspoon of soy sauce.

5. Put the chopped greens, pour the broth with mushrooms and serve. If desired, you can put a slice of lemon, basil, cilantro leaves and mint.

To prevent a rich broth from becoming cloudy, do not let the soup boil actively. You can also cook a dish on the second and even third broth. To do this, the main product is poured with water, boiled for 10 minutes. Then the liquid is drained, pure boiling water, spices are added and the broth is prepared according to the recipe.

Greens intended for soup dressing can be pre-mashed with hands or a pestle along with lemon juice and salt. Such a fragrant additive will make the dish even tastier.

Rice noodles can not be boiled, but simply poured with boiling water, let stand for 3-4 minutes, then rinse under cold running water and drain excess liquid.

Instead of salt, you can add pho to soup soy sauce. With it, the first dish will be tasty, rich, the broth will get a dark color.

Appearing in the 20s of the twentieth century in a colonial country, Pho soup changes its specifics by region. In the north they serve with noodles wider, big amount green onions and a minimum aromatic additives, southerners prefer sweeter - with fresh herbs (basil, mint, cilantro) and bean sprouts.

In addition to the option on the broth with pieces of beef or chicken, Pho soup is boiled with fish, seafood, and rice flour noodles are also added. Let's take the risk of trying overseas food at home, especially since grocery chains contribute to this. vietnamese soup Pho, the recipe with chicken, is sure to make the list of favorite and cozy homemade soups.

Cooking time: 90 minutes / Number of servings: 3-4

Ingredients

• chicken (parts with bone) 600 g
• rice noodles 300 g
• ginger root 30 g
• chili pepper 1 pc.
• celery root 30 g
• garlic 1/2 pc.
• carrot 1 pc.
• onion 1 pc.
• lemon 1/2 pc.
• cilantro, green onion to taste
• star anise, cinnamon, salt, fish sauce to taste

How to make Pho Chicken Soup

In Asia, broth - beef or chicken - is boiled for a long time, about six hours or more. Together with the meat, all offal is thrown onto the bones. Pho tails with veins, offal are boiled for maximum concentration and rich aroma of soup. In my adapted recipe chicken thighs and drumsticks. If only use lean fillet birds, the desired richness will not work. Therefore, in boiling about 1.5 liters of water, we lower a clean carcass, cut into big chunks or quarters, then we load the roots - carrots (whole or diced, like mine, strain anyway at the end), a fragment celery root, garlic cloves, spices (star anise and cinnamon stick), ginger and onion, several branches of fresh cilantro, you can bay leaf. I read that in some regions, cut ginger root and onion are pre-charred. It gilds the brew and additionally flavors. My onions and ginger spent 15 minutes under the grill in a hot oven before being boiled and then were thrown into the broth.

With a low boil, cook chicken broth for Pho soup for at least one and a half hours. Indeed, spices and charred additives impregnate not only with a strong smell, but also color. During this time, the chicken meat itself separates from the bones, and shiny puddles of fat float on the surface. Salt, pepper if necessary, drip fish sauce, try. We catch the chicken and disassemble the soft, sprawling meat, put it in a separate container or immediately distribute it into portioned bowls. Before pouring, be sure to pass the hot and tasty-smelling liquid through a fine sieve - filter and remove all debris.

15-20 minutes before the end of cooking chicken broth we are engaged in parallel rice noodles. Read the instructions carefully, there may be discrepancies in the preparation technology or recommendations. In any case, the rice flour noodles are first dipped in cold water, I kept 10 minutes, as indicated on the package.

Drain the cold water and transfer the slightly swollen rice noodles to boiling water(not into the broth!, another pan). Boil the recommended 4 (for me) minutes. We discard in a colander, like other pasta, rinse, shake well - let's get rid of excess moisture.

All difficulties behind. It remains to fill the plates. It can be mixed, it can be laid out in segments - part is occupied by tender chicken meat, part is given to snow-white rice noodles. And then rich fragrant-spicy-spicy strained broth, pour it.

Then we act according to our own taste - we squeeze as much lemon juice, as much as we want and love, pour directly into Pho soup, cut off a couple of circles of lemon for decoration, chop fresh cilantro, feathers of a juicy green onion, a little hot chili.

Serve homemade soup Pho to the table is good warm or hot. Bon appetit!

Calories: Not specified
Cooking time: Not indicated

In Vietnamese cuisine, there are several varieties of Pho soups. Pho bo - with beef, Pho ha - with chicken and Pho ka - with fish. Today we will cook the classic Vietnamese soup Pho Bo, which is loved by all Europeans - with well-cooked beef. A classic northern recipe at home with a photo of Vietnamese Pho soup is made from rice noodles or vermicelli, with the addition of a lot of herbs and green onions, served with lime. Also pay attention to this one.

- beef ribs- 800 g,
- beef meat - 300 g,
- rice vermicelli- 200 g,
- onion - 1 pc.,
- large carrots - 1 pc.,
- bay leaf - 2 pcs.,
- hot pepper- 1-2 pieces,
- star anise - 1 star,
- cardamom capsules - 3 pcs.,
- coriander beans - 1 tsp,
- peppercorns - 6-7 pcs.,
- cinnamon stick - 1 pc.,
- salt - to taste,
- ginger (root) - 2 cm,
- fish sauce - to taste,
- green onions - 1 pc. per portion
- parsley - 1 bunch,
- cilantro - 1 bunch.

Recipe with photo step by step:

Try to choose beef ribs with meat and bone, then the broth will turn out delicious. Boil water, put beef ribs in boiling water. The fact is that if you put the beef in cold water, when it boils, it will begin to release too much dark foam, and if you put it in boiling water, the protein will immediately curl up and you won’t have to collect the foam for a long time. Let the meat boil a little, collect the remaining foam.




Peel carrots and onions. cut carrots large pieces, chop the onion crosswise. Add vegetables to the meat, put bay leaves and ginger in the pan. If the stems of parsley and cilantro are long, cut them off, tie them with string, and put them in the pot as well. Boil the broth for 50-60 minutes.




Put the spices in a pan, heat them over low heat, as soon as it goes delicious flavor- Add spices to the pot.




Put the chopped beef fillet into the pan. Cook the broth over low heat for at least 1.5 - 2 hours. Salt the dish to taste, add hot pepper.






When rich, thick and fragrant broth is ready, boil rice noodles or vermicelli. As a rule, according to the instructions, 3 minutes. Throw the vermicelli in a colander and rinse with cold water, the vermicelli should not stick together when serving.




Taste the broth to see if there is enough salt.




Catch the meat from the broth, disassemble into fibers. Strain the broth, put on a quiet fire. When serving, the broth should be boiling.




Cut the green part of the onion very finely, cut the white part of the onion lengthwise into thin strips.






Put rice noodles or vermicelli in a deep bowl, add meat, green onions and chopped parsley and cilantro. I also think that you will want to cook.




Pour everything with boiling broth, add fish sauce to taste and lime.




Incredibly tasty, very fragrant soup, be sure to cook, I recommend.

Rice-based noodles have long been one of the main ingredients for soups and side dishes for main courses in Vietnam. In the 20th century, they began to produce noodles from wheat flour and other types.
Vietnam has become one of the world's largest producers various kinds noodles. Here in Lately Investors from several countries rushed in due to the profitability of this production.

There are two large varieties of noodles according to the source material: wheat and rice. In the east, rice is more common. Noodles fast food refers to the first variety, that is, to wheat. A third, less common variety is made from starch, the so-called "glass" or "cellophane" noodles.

There is a version that noodles came to Europe from China along with Marco Polo. In Asia, it existed from the 1st century BC.

instant wheat noodles

Wheat noodles happen traditional look, but, more famous are instant noodles (in Vietnamese - Mì ăn liền) in various packages. It is correctly referred to as pasta fast food." The words “vermicelli” or “noodles” are added to this main name, and what taste it has is also indicated. For example, with the taste of chicken or with the taste of beef, bacon, mushrooms, etc. These noodles come in handy when there is no time to make soup or a side dish. In urban slang, they even unfairly called them “bum bags” or “beach bags”, probably with a hint that a decent person should not eat these “quick noodles”.
This product not only does not lose its popularity all over the world, but also increases it, constantly improving its quality. The turnover of manufacturers is steadily growing by 10-30 percent per year.

Instant noodles are packaged in plastic bags, as well as in heat-resistant plastic glasses and plastic bowls. To brew noodles from bags with boiling water, you need dishes, and those in heat-resistant glasses and bowls can be brewed in the same vessels. The average time from pouring boiling water to readiness is on average 5 minutes. thin noodles comes to the condition faster than a thick one.

A typical ingredient list for instant noodles in a small cheap bag is: wheat flour, palm oil, water, salt, egg powder, thickener (eg guar gum).
In a very small bag inside a larger bag is a soup base. It usually contains salt, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, flavor enhancer - monosodium glutamate, garlic powder, chopped dried vegetables, ground turmeric, spice mix, natural dyes. The content of carbohydrates significantly exceeds the content of proteins and carbohydrates.
In more expensive bags or glasses, you can additionally find small pieces of dried chicken or beef meat, as well as the sauce, also in dry form, which soaks when boiling water is added.

Vietnamese instant noodles in Russia compete with Korean ones, but occupy a slightly different niche. It is cheaper and includes standard set fewer ingredients. In addition to a small block of dry noodles, it includes a bag of dry broth and a bag of oil. In Korean sets, you can often find pieces of dry vegetables and meat, soup sauce. True, in recent years and in packaging vietnamese noodles began to add similar ingredients.
The largest producers of instant noodles in Vietnam are Vina Acecook, Asian Food, Vifon, Masan, Viet Hung. In Russia, their products are sold under the brands Rollton, Alexander and Sophia, King Lion, and others. Production for Russia and the CIS countries is located in the Moscow region.

Health problems

Instant noodles and others similar products systems fast food are often criticized for being unhealthy. This is partly true, but relatively. There are a lot of carbohydrates in such noodles, but very little. dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals. In addition, it has a lot of spices, seasonings and table salt. All this is done so that the body quickly receives maximum amount calories. But, there are no toxic or very allergenic ingredients in instant noodles.

For example, here are the ingredients listed on a plastic thermo-glass with the product “noodles with chicken curry” produced by one of the Vietnamese companies.
Noodles: wheat flour top grade, vegetable oil, potato starch, edible salt, egg powder, natural dye - beta carotene.
Seasoning broth: substitute for cream on plant-based(vegetable fat, glucose syrup, milk protein, emulsifier E 471), thickener - modified starch, table salt, flavor and aroma enhancers (glutamate, guanylate, sodium inosinate), powdered milk, flavor identical to natural (chicken), maltodextrin, cheese dried, dried chicken meat, dried vegetables (corn, green onion), turmeric, natural dye - riboflavin.

Rice noodles are translucent flat or rounded strips from a few mm to 2-3 cm wide. It is made from rice flour and used in soups and second courses, sometimes in salads.

Bún rice noodles are obtained as a result of the following technological process.
Rice is soaked for 6 hours. Then it is ground into watery flour, placed in a container and dried. naturally 2 days. After that, the semi-dry block of the resulting dough is removed and cooked for 50 minutes. Then it is passed through a press, at the exit of which a thick “rope” of dough is obtained. Then it is passed through a press, the output of which is noodles. Rinse the noodles in a colander, lowering it into cold water and taking it out. Put to dry.

Rice noodles are soaked before cooking.

Starch noodles

Starch noodles are also known as "cellophane" noodles miến, "glass" noodles, Chinese vermicelli. Probably because of the transparency, especially when cooked, it was called "cellophane". It should not be confused with instant noodles, which are often packaged in plastic bags.
Cellophane noodles are made from starch. Usually sold dried. It is also sometimes confused with rice noodles.

In Vietnam, at banquets, the treat consists of 10 obligatory dishes and a few extras. The list of mandatory includes "cellophane" noodles.

Garlic can be added to dishes made from all types of noodles. It depends on the taste preferences in the country where the noodles are produced or exported to.

Noodles in restaurants

In restaurants in China, Vietnam and other countries East Asia noodle dishes can often be found in restaurants. Many people know Pho soup, which includes rice noodles, meat and greens.

One of the Vietnamese restaurants in the United States serves noodles prepared according to own recipe. It contains garlic. It is known that this spicy vegetable very useful for keeping in good shape of cardio-vascular system. Unfortunately, due to the peculiar smell, most people find it inconvenient to consume it during most of the day. And in the composition of ingredients such as noodles or something like that is another matter.

Where should you start culinary Vietnamization, if not with the preparation of the main edible symbol countries - pho bo noodle soup? It was he who took the most honorable place in the unworthy of his perfection and despised by the Vietnamese device for cooling food.

Literally contemptible: despite the year-round heat, in Vietnam it is not customary to store food in the refrigerator. Cooking and eating here takes place according to the laws of ancient drama, requiring the unity of place, time and action.

There is another similarity with the theater - the publicity and ritual beauty of the whole process. For the Vietnamese, the kitchen is not a backstage, but the same stage as the dining table.

A classic example of dramatic unity is lau digestif soups.

Their turn comes when all the main dishes have already been eaten, and the Vietnamese or their guests are full and satisfied. It follows from this that the main function of lau is communicative.

This is a delicious occasion for a long joint pastime - the same as a samovar in Rus'.

A structure of a burner and a special pan is placed in the center of the table, causing Europeans to involuntarily associate with a fondue device. The "specialty" of the pan is manifested in the presence of wide "fields" intended for laying out chopped vegetables and sea delicacies: squid, shrimps, several types of fish, octopuses.

While this side dish laid out according to the canons of the genre returns the guests' appetite, rice noodle broth is simmering in a saucepan over low heat. The diners are fully armed: in front of them are small bowls, chopsticks and porcelain spoons. The sticks are the first to be used: the selected piece of octopus or fish is deftly taken by this ancient cutlery, immersed in a boiling broth, and then placed in a bowl.

It all ends with pouring seafood broth with noodles and adding vegetables. Acquaintance with the lau ritual reveals a couple of features of Vietnamese cuisine.

1. Firstly, her raw food diet, which is characteristic of her without five minutes: many hours of cooking or frying in Vietnam is simply impossible, all products are only slightly stewed in the broth.

2. Secondly, its extraordinary weightlessness: if such a solid dish comes to the end, you can guess how easily all the previous ones are digested. How does all of this apply to pho bo?

Directly.

This unpretentious dish, the name of which is subject even to our Caucasoid keyboards thanks to the grand gesture of the Vietnamese, who switched to the enemy Latin alphabet back in the 17th century, is the quintessence of Vietnamese gastronomic culture.

Easy way- go to Vietnam and visit any one-dish restaurant. As you might guess, this dish will be pho bo. Those who are not looking for easy ways can repeat my feat for the glory of Vietnamese cuisine and cook pho bo on their own. The main difficulty awaits you at the stage of buying products.

If everything is clear with raw materials for beef broth, onions and green onions, lime, hot red pepper, cilantro, basil, beef fillet, ginger and even rice noodles, then with sauces, spices and especially bean sprouts, a snag can arise. main sauce, without which not only pho bo noodles, but Vietnamese cuisine in principle, is impossible - nuoc mam, or fish sauce. More recently, it was he who was the stumbling block for Russian chefs. More precisely, its absence.

It simply wasn’t available for sale on a wide scale, and not everyone could find the Vietnamese and fraternize with them in order to obtain an exotic ingredient. Now the issue is solved by visiting a large supermarket.

Nuoc mam is anchovy extract with salt.

It is better to use it without prior olfactory contact, because it was the fish sauce that provoked the appearance famous aphorism characterizing Vietnamese cuisine as a combination great taste with a terrible smell.

With hoisin sauce, which is also required for pho, things are a little easier. It's traditional chinese sauce, and Chinese things have long been not uncommon with us. In addition, it can always be replaced with regular soy sauce.

Actually, hoisin is soy sauce, but not salty, but sweetish-sour due to spices. With spices, the main difficulty is that some inveterate Vietnamese people in their pho recipes do not list them, but simply offer to take five spice powder.

Do not try to ask for this very powder in the store: you will enter the seller into a stupor.

In fact, the powder of five spices is another Chinese hello to Vietnamese cuisine, called "wuxiangmen" in the homeland. It contains cinnamon, cloves, star anise, dill and licorice root.

As for bean sprouts, I could not find them. Perhaps you will have better luck. I had to take vegetable mix, in which these unattainable sprouts occasionally came across.

When all the components of pho are assembled, the Vietnamese show can begin.

True, before that you need to cook a cool beef broth and insist it on the available spices. Once again: onion (1 piece), ginger (1 small root), cloves (6 pieces), cinnamon (several sticks), star anise (10 stars), ground black pepper, sea ​​salt(spoon), fish sauce (3-4 tablespoons), hoisin (2 tablespoons).

Add all this for an hour that way on the third boil of the broth and 30 minutes before the actual preparation of the dish. In parallel, put chili rings, cilantro, dill and onion greens, lime cut into semicircles, bean sprouts previously scalded with boiling water and the highlight of the program - pieces of raw beef fillet, when slicing which you need to strive for paper thinness.

When the broth is ready, you need to act quickly.

Pour boiling water over rice noodles and let it brew for 15 minutes. Arrange the noodles in ceramic bowls scalded with boiling water, pour in the broth and serve. The idea is to keep the bowls, noodles and broth very hot so that the garnish, which the guests will add themselves, will come to readiness. This is especially true for raw beef.

So, the guests put meat, greens, bean sprouts, lime slices, pepper rings into a fire-breathing broth in every sense, add sauces and black pepper if desired, after which everyone together enjoy the real taste of Vietnam - under rice vodka and the film "Indochina".

Of course, Vietnamese cuisine is not just pho bo. These are one and a half thousand dishes of rice, vegetables, meat, fish, seafood, game, snakes, fruits, corn and everything that the Vietnamese land is so rich in.

Vietnamese cuisine has no class differentiation.

The same dish - and the food of the most ordinary people, and an internationally recognized landmark of the country, to which entire conferences are dedicated and for which they open specialty restaurants. Vietnamese people shamelessly borrow the traditions of their neighbors, rethinking them in their own way.

Why are there neighbors - zealously patriotic Vietnamese in relation to cooking are surprisingly open even to enemies. Almost a millennium of vassalage from China, then a whole century of the French yoke, after which - the war with the United States. But from all these countries, the Vietnamese took what stands on the other side of war and peace: gastronomic habits.

And if the Chinese influence is not surprising, then french rolls in Hanoi shops- a real cultural fusion. According to one of the many versions of the origin of pho, even this is exemplary vietnamese dish owes its appearance to the French. It was they who introduced beef into common usage: before that, cattle were used only as a worker.

Case french hands - and the appearance in Vietnam of wine, cheeses, coffee, pates, pastries, ice cream, snails and shallots. Even from their sworn enemies of the Americans, the Vietnamese adopted the custom of cooking steaks and generally frying food on the grill. The guidebooks write that the Vietnamese are one of the poorest people on earth and their famous permanent smiles are caused by the sole desire to rip off as much money from the tourist as possible.

But although the Vietnamese have a good monthly salary of only $50 and their smiles are really mysterious, I would never turn my tongue to call the poor people who invented several hundred dishes and who eat such a tasty thing as pho every day.