Recipes from East Asia
A very short description of recipes from East Asian nations, particularly Vietnam.
Location: Vietnam
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Recipes of All Nations by Countess Morphy, 1936.
Pho is the name of an Annamese soup held in high esteem. It is made with beef, a veal bone, onions, a bayleaf, salt and pepper, and a small teaspoon of nuoc-mam, a typically Annamese condiment which is used in practically all their dishes. It is made from a kind of brine exuding from decaying fish, and in former days six years were required before it had reached full maturity. But in modern times the preparation has been put on the market, and can be made by certain chemical processes in a very short time.
To go with this soup special kinds of noodles are made with flour, egg and water. The paste is worked till quite stiff, rolled out, but not very thinly, and poached in boiling water. It is then rubbed through a coarse sieve into the soup tureen, the soup meat is cut in small pieces and put in with the noodles, and the stock is poured over the whole.
Nems is the name of Annamese rissoles, which might almost be European, so little do they differ from some of our dishes. They make a somewhat stiff rissole paste, which is cut into a large round, about the size of a pancake, and somewhat thick. On this they put a spoonful of a finely-chopped forcemeat consisting of pork, mushrooms or cepes, a little uncooked vermicelli, crab meat, eggs, all well seasoned with salt and pepper. The pancake is then rolled and fried in hot fat.
In Java a favourite soup is Saoto Babate— consisting of tripe fried in peanut oil and then simmered in water with chopped leeks, a little preserved ginger, to which a cup of milk and a spoonful of vinegar are finally added, the soup being well seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper. This is served with fried onions and flaky boiled rice.
Rijstapel is a Javanese curry, in spite of its Dutch name. It consists of a sauté chicken, cooked with numberless condiments and herbs, with a curry sauce, accompanied by innumerable small dishes containing many kinds of ingredients, all of which have been cooked separately: plain boiled rice, fried aubergines, tamarinds, the pulp of which has been made into a jam; grated coconut, some of which has been roasted, some soaked in vinegar; tomatoes, mangoes, dried fish and salt fish.
Morphy, Countess. Recipes of All Nations. H. Joseph, 1936.
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