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Ok, it's still Friday in California with less than 30 minutes to go. Fashionably late... or not.
Had to miss out on last Friday's hachis parmentier, because I was here:
...and a partridge in a pear treeeeee.
Ok, I know that's not how the song goes, but I did have five ah-may-zing noodle dishes during my trip to Seattle/Vancouver/Whistler. That trip seems like a lifetime ago. A lot has happened since and I've spent much of that time recapping my life in 250-word, 1900-character, or 25-line chunks.
Med school secondary apps. Yikes.
When I'm writing, yet again, about what a great doctor I hope to become, I'll start daydreaming and look back at the glorious food I ate on that trip. Five perfect noodle dishes. Let's recap, shall we?
We were watching an episode of How It's Made and the topic was hot dogs. Despite being slightly grossed out by how they were made, we knew what we were having for lunch. However, D. suggested that we head in a much higher-quality direction and pick up handmade bratwursts from Sausage King in the Mission Hills area.
Back in the day, I was a member of Tuesdays with Dorie. I loved the group, but my waistline and my schedule couldn't keep up with the weekly posting commitment. Even posting every other week was too much. It was through TwD that I "met" (that is, I became acquainted with their blogs) lots of fabulous bloggers like Rebecca. Leaving the group was tough, but I was thrilled to hear that Dorie was releasing a new cookbook and that there would be another cook-through group, French Fridays with Dorie. This time, we can cook along when we can, meaning my schedule and my waistline approve.
But wait, you say, if this new group is called French Fridays with Dorie, why are you making Vietnamese noodle soup?
Because the French colonized Vietnam for many years and one of the results is an exchange of influence in cuisine.
Dorie explains that she created a mix of phở gà and la sa gà. At first glance, the recipe looked a lot like a phở gà recipe with one extra: coconut milk. Truth be told, that didn't particularly appeal to me, so I decided to go all the way towards la sa gà, which is Vietnam's version of curry laksa and I love curry laksa. Most of the recipes have a bonne idée (good idea) sidebar with Dorie's suggestions for tweaks. Her suggestion for this recipe was to toast curry powder in hot oil before starting the soup and adding minced lemongrass.
What does one do with half a pound of ground beef, half a pound of ground chicken, a lot of extra herbs from an upcoming French Fridays with Dorie, and a stack of cookbooks from the library?
